Savage review

Long range weapons are often the best.

As the online gaming market grows ever more popular, games designers need to be more original in their titles. There’s only so many massively multiplayer online RPGs that the market can support, so you need to be brave to attempt that. The online first person shooter market is cornered by the big players like Counter-Strike. This leaves the growing and attractive online market as a difficult one to break. Developers S2Games have taken a spin on the real-time strategy (RTS) genre to take it online in a new way.

Traditionally, online RTS games pit two or more commanders against each other, each one in total control of their army. Savage takes this and still pits two commanders against each other. The twist is, however, that the army is made up of other humans. This limits the control you have on them but being capable of supporting sixty-four players at once Savage boasts large scale multiplayer warfare.

Story time

Lead your slower team mates out to protect their path

Savage is set in Newerth, where relations between the humans and the beasts have reached an all time low. The humans have united under a leader and have begun to discriminate against the beasts. The sister of the humans’ leader has the ability to communicate with the beasts and runs away to live with them. She unites them and leads them in battle against the humans to get back their rights. If this back story sounds convoluted then it really doesn’t matter because the game can simply be viewed as one map battles between a human team and a beast team.

Each side handles slightly differently and has different weapons available. They are pretty evenly matched however and the skill of the gamer is really what will decide the outcome of each battle.

Choose your destiny

Building and resource management is important as a commander

There are two main roles available in Savage. The role of commander is available to just two players per server, one per team. This role will be familiar to RTS fans. The top down view with fog of war gives a familiar perspective on proceedings. You take control of building structures and directing the workers (non-player characters) to resource mining. You can also direct the warriors (player controlled characters) although there is no guarantee that they will follow orders.

This brings us to the second player role, that of the warrior. This game is viewed in third or first person mode depending on the weapon and gamer preferences. You are presented with pre-spawn selections allowing you to choose from available units and weapons. As the commander researches new weapons and units these become available. Anything above the most basic weapons and characters cost you money. When you kill an enemy they drop some of their gold which you can collect. You, naturally, stand a better chance of surviving in battle with the better weapons but when you die you have to re-equip your unit.

Let battle commence

Attacking the enemy stronghold from a safe distance

As a warrior you have the choice to follow the orders of your commander or to go it alone. When you obey you may be rewarded with upgrades in armour or in weapons. If you disobey too much you may find yourself getting kicked from the server - this is a team based game after all. When you meet the enemy the first problem with Savage becomes evident.

There is a steep learning curve to the fighting: The game allows you to carry two weapons, one for close combat and a ranged weapon. Ranged fighting seems to be the more effective and this puts you into first person mode to try and pick off enemies. This fighting style allows for more finesse over the battle as hand-to-hand combat is severely basic. The left mouse button attacks and repeated presses will generate a brief flurry of hits after which your character will pause before being able to start fighting again. The right mouse button moves you out of the way or blocks depending on which side you fight for. This means that close quarters combat is rather messy and lacking in finesse. A better fighting engine which allows for more complex fighting styles would definitely help this aspect of the game.

No time to practice

Standing too close to these lumbering giant beasts is a bad idea

Savage is trying to push online gaming in the same way that a MMORPG does. This is an online or LAN only title. There is no single player mode and no tutorial. This means that your first exposure to Savage is going to be in battle with more experienced gamers. This inevitably means that the learning curve is very steep. The commander game will have an air of familiarity to it to for any RTS gamers but the unpredictability of only having human units will require a bit of practice to get the hang of.

In the same way that disobedient ground troops can get the boot, poor commanders can face a mutiny. If you’re going to command then you need to be able to inspire confidence in your troops. You can do this by ensuring that your research is fast moving so that the more advanced units and weapons become available. The ground troops can request that if they don’t have enough gold for a troop class or a weapon that the commander buys it. This is at the expense of your own gold stash so these requests need to be managed carefully.

Looks the business

Commanding the beasts of Newerth

The graphical presentation on Savage is excellent. The commander mode has the typical, bland and functional presentation but the real magic happens in the warrior mode. The landscapes look good and so do the characters. The animation is well handled with the character movements spot on and the ranged weapons in particular having realistic trajectories. The combat looks good although the lack of finesse means that the animations get overused a bit. The sound is less inspiring with sound effects being the main aural component. The sound effects are non intrusive and work for the game and you also get a bit of chatter from other characters.

When you type into the chat box certain phrases seem to trigger little bits of speech such as “good game”. Controlling either game mode is nicely handled. The controls for the commander mode are typical RTS controls with multi selection, click to move and so on. For the warrior mode the controls are typical third person ones with mouse look, cursor keys to move and mouse click to attack.

Jack of all trades

The humans and beasts set to

Savage is a brave attempt to push the experience of online gaming. By attempting to merge two genres to add a twist to the online RTS game the developers have managed to create a new genre: the real-time strategy shooter. While there are drawbacks to this game with the steep learning curve, no offline gaming and basic fighting engine the novelty makes it recommendable. Savage can get pretty frantic with a full server and this helps to add excitement to the battles.

If you’re after a team based online shooter then this will disappoint. If you’re after an online RTS then this will disappoint. If you’re keen to try something new and a bit different then this definitely won’t disappoint.