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Revenge of the Savage Planet review – zany sci-fi sequel is primed to tickle your funny bone

Thanks to an increased scope, new perspective, and even more planets to explore, Raccoon Logic's pulpy sci-fi sequel improves leaps and bounds on the 2020 original. When either playing alone or in co-op, Revenge of the Savage Planet is the kind of action-adventure that understands the appeal of being goofy and consistently poking fun of itself If ever there was a game that proved that space exploration is made more fun when colourful, it's 2020's Journey to the Savage Planet. A far cry from the usual cold, metallic sci-fi universes that often take themselves too seriously, Raccoon Logic's first galactic adventure was willing to poke fun at itself using satire and slapstick comedy while making traversal and investigation a pure joy. ‌ The same is very much true for this bigger (and definitely better) sequel, which ditches the first-person perspective from before, throws in a boatload more planets to discover, and even more inventive ways to do it. This follow-up journey is more confident and delightful in almost every way, always primed to surprise with whatever suit upgrade, creature, or terrain you might unearth next. ‌ In the beginning, I didn't think the switch in perspective would change things up too much, but this couldn't have been farther from the truth. Whereas before the zany brand of humour mostly relied on setting you in purposely goofy scenarios and maybe too much of an overreliance on satire-fuelled videos featuring real-life actors, actually being able to see your character allows Revenge of the Savage Planet to step up its brand of visual comedy to an unbelievable degree. The well-scripted FMVs of before are still here, of course, only now you're far more likely to laugh when not having the story thrust upon you, be it in the way your character trips along when covered in green goo or bursts out of an odd-looking animal they've just been swallowed by. Purely for comedic value alone, the switch to third-person was absolutely the right choice. It's made even more enjoyable by the fact that there is plenty more to do on the planets this time around, as well as your home base. Once again, the story sees your unnamed explorer marooned in a galaxy unknown to them, where survival means hoovering up all the useful suit gadgets and upgrades that should have landed with you after arriving from your 100-year hypersleep. Thankfully, there's a lot more to the narrative than this simple premise initially suggests, yet the truth is that I'd happily zip, boost, and skid along all five featured planets with glee without it, since getting around and continually making my character much more capable is so unbelievably enjoyable. As before, a lot of your time is spent simply scanning the environments around you. Although at first I was disappointed to see that Revenge of the Savage Planet's starting planet of Stellaris Prime shared a lot in common with the first game's ARY-26, at least stylistically, it eventually reveals itself to be this incredibly rewarding hub consisting of several layers. These layers become better known to you the more upgrades you acquire, indigenous life you scan, and resources you gain. Teleporting back to Stellaris Prime after my last excursion is one of the things I looked forward to most as part of this 10- to 12-hour adventure since it meant being able to learn more of its secrets, with whatever shiny new piece of equipment I'd just researched and promptly printed. ‌ The lost worlds This isn't to say that Revenge of the Savage Planet's other locations don't have their own appeal. In fact, quite the opposite. The environments and surroundings seen on the likes of Xephyr's sandy dunes or Zenithian Rift's surface-level icescapes all have their visual draws, true, but more impressive is the amount of variety they bring thanks to their literal depth. While exploring, you are no longer limited to traversing at ground level, as melting away a certain material using lava goo or blowing up cliff faces using Blight Bombs can often reveal hidden areas also worth plundering. Working out what's new in each planet's ecosystem and how your tools can affect it is something Raccoon Logic has clearly spent time thinking about, and it pays off to no end. Speaking of which, just when I thought I'd seen it all by way of weapons and gadgets, Revenge of the Savage Planet always found ways to make me second-guess myself. There's definitely a larger emphasis on shooting here than there was in the original game, true, yet rather than load you up with a boring and predictable arsenal of firearms, the game consistently finds ways to have you interact with its worlds more uniquely. ‌ One batch of puzzles, for instance, doesn't require any destruction at all, but for you to link up electromagnetic vines using the relevant goo extracted from a local plant. Toss in the ability to attract enemies by flinging around soda, a water hose capable of washing away mess, and a magnetic fork that lets you alter certain environmental rocks, chipping away at all five worlds in ways that don't require shooting, and exploration is made the most fulfilling. Raccoon Logic has given you plenty of reasons to invest in your habitat back at your home base on Stellaris Prime. More so than just a hub to check emails and watch videos that progress the small semblance of a story, in all worlds, you'll find vouchers that can be used to purchase a generous amount of furniture and accessories to make the site truly feel like a home away from home. ‌ Does it influence or impact gameplay in any way? Not really, but the option to make Revenge of the Savage Planet a slightly more personalised experience is nice. More interesting is the sequel's newly added creature collecting mechanic, whereby certain tools can only be created after capturing and studying select wildlife, which can be deposited, viewed, and interacted with back at base. The fact that every single aspect of Revenge of the Savage Planet's increased scope can be enjoyed in co-op, both local and online, is something to be commended too – even if what little difficulty is present doesn't scale to accommodate. In a similar manner, my only real complaint with Revenge is that not all planets are created equally. Because while unlocking the necessary cargo and then shooting yourself off to a new world is exciting at first, it doesn't take long for most other planets to reveal their gimmick, which never really lasts for very long. Stellaris Prime, much like ARY-26 from before, really is the star of the show here, easily containing the most secrets, Easter Eggs, and hidden draws that kept giving me reasons to return. Revenge of the Savage Planet is a phenomenal follow-up to a game that already had a good idea of what it wanted it to be but could never quite match it with the necessary scale or ambition. This has comfortably been resolved here, five years later, in a more confident, varied sequel that switches up the perspective to successfully enhance its brand of slapstick comedy and even more planets and tools that makes exploring a pulpy sci-fi system a blast (either alone or with a friend). This bigger, better, sillier sequel easily delivers some of the most fun I've had in an action-adventure game this year, to the extent that I'll keep on investigating savage planets for as long as Raccoon Logic continues to develop them.