Latest news with #JourneytotheSavagePlanet
Irish Independent
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Revenge of the Savage Planet review: Gorgeously goofy game emerges from shadow of Google gorilla
One of the casualties of Stadia's closure was Typhoon Studios, a Canadian developer that made its mark with 2020's enjoyably wacky Metroidvania-style space adventure Journey to the Savage Planet. Google had bought Typhoon before the game's release but shut the studio down the same day a Stadia version of Savage Planet hit the shelves in 2021. Fast-forward to 2025 and a sequel has just emerged from the ashes of the sorry saga, made by former Typhoon alumni who bought the IP rights for their company, Raccoon Logic. Savage Planet was never a mega-budget AAA title despite Google's deep pockets and this follow-up echoes that approach. It's a reasonably compact mid-priced romp laden with slapstick humour and cartoonish worlds, poking fun at consumerism and rapacious corporations. Wonder where the developers got that idea? As in the original, your astronaut crash-lands on a far-flung world, leaving you to gather scattered pieces of his shattered ship in the hope of eventually escaping. Thus follows a Metroidvania loop of resource-gathering and equipment-recovering, all wrapped in a third-person platformer-shooter design. The local wildlife isn't particularly hostile, albeit with some exceptions, and progress depends mostly on exploring small areas of a handful of planets, platforming around cliffs, forests and caves in low gravity slow-mo leaps. It's an agreeable gameplay loop well worn in its concept – farming the elements to make new gear, finding key equipment and then revisiting areas that are further opened up thanks to your new tools. It supports a full co-op mode, though solo play is equally fun. Raccoon Logic ladles on the satire with some live-action video clips parodying the corporation that abandoned you on the savage planet. But the storyline functions as just a thin fig leaf for its anarchic gameplay, which puts acid, lava and electrically conductive goo at your disposal. The modest size of the team at Raccoon Logic becomes apparent sometimes – the awkward physics and occasionally funky enemy behaviour can hamper the gameplay mechanics. But this a goofy little treasure, a passion project for a small team bruised by their encounter with a corporate gorilla. They're still here and Stadia is long gone. Who's the monkey now?
Daily Mirror
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Revenge of the Savage Planet release time – here's when the colourful co-op adventure launches
If you're in the mood for a playful and pulpy sci-fi adventure with a friend, you'll want to pay close attention to when the Revenge of the Savage Planet release time arrives. Five years after the original Journey to the Savage Planet released as a surprisingly charming and comedic cult hit, this week sees its bigger, better sequel launch on PC and console. One of the biggest surprises during lockdown was the original Journey to the Savage Planet. Very much playing like a more slapstick Metroid Prime, it charged you and a friend to explore a colourful planet – full of all kinds of goo and quirky critters – in the hopes of finding your way home. Fast forward five years later and we stand on the brink of the sequel arriving, with the official Revenge of the Savage Planet release time prepping for launch later this week. It's a much bigger sequel that introduces a new perspective, new planets to explore, and even more new ways to do it. What's not to love? If you're eager to get exploring some of the zaniest planets ever crafted either alone or with a friend, you'll want to be aware of when Revenge of the Savage Planet release time is set to launch. The good news is there's not too long to wait. And even better, players with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription can rest easy knowing they can jump in on day one – at no additional cost. Obviously, this won't be the case for players on PlayStation, but there's still plenty of goo-slinging fun to be had when the Revenge of the Savage Planet release time arrives. Here's exactly when you can start playing what we called a 'bigger, better, sillier sequel' in our recent review. Revenge of the Savage Planet release time The Revenge of the Savage Planet release time will arrive on Thursday, May 8, meaning that there's only a few more days left until players on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC can jump in. Sadly, developer Raccoon Logic has yet to give us an official release time alongside this date. That said, according to a post on the game's official Twitter account, the game entered its early access period yesterday at roughly 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm BST on all platforms. Players not wanting to pony up for the early access version of Revenge of the Savage Planet will have to wait a while, then. However, this does indicate that the standard edition of the game will unlock this Thursday at the same time at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm BST too. When it does, players can look forward to scanning all five planets' indigenous wildlife, unlock crazy traversal skills, and generally be a big space goof in what is easily one of the most colourful co-op games of the year yet.
Daily Mirror
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
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.
Digital Trends
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Revenge of the Savage Planet review: corporate incompetence becomes slapstick sci-fi
Revenge of the Savage Planet MSRP $50.00 Score Details 'Revenge of the Savage Planet plays its open-world formula safe, but it shows its teeth where it matters.' Pros Sharp satire Enjoyable exploration Clever environmental puzzling Co-op play is a plus Cons Story peters out by the end By the books structure Dull combat Table of Contents Table of Contents Sound familiar? Colonialist mayhem To make it in today's cutthroat world, sometimes it feels like you have to be a taker to survive. It's a ruthless mentality that makes the rich richer, crooked politicians more powerful, and countries more bloodthirsty. They take, take, and take until there's nothing left for the rest of us, hoarding money, eliminating jobs, and destroying homes in the name of self preservation. Perhaps that's what makes your typical video game so appealing. In something like Red Dead Redemption 2, players get to live out a true power fantasy: one where a world is theirs to take. Animals exist to be skinned, plants to be plucked, and corpses to be looted. Even in games where we're meant to be the 'good guy,' we're often embodying the world of the worst. We become natural disasters that ravage worlds until we choose to stop playing. Recommended Videos Revenge of the Savage Planet takes that subtext and mines it for satirical gold, just as its hero smashes every rock in sight in search of precious metals. Building on the sci-fi comedy of 2020's Journey to the Savage Planet, developer Raccoon Logic only gets more explicit about its targets while moving the series from a Metroid Prime homage to a third-person adventure game that hides righteous anger behind irreverence. When you don't have the power to be a true taker, you can at least take no prisoners. Though its story ultimately feels unfocused and its one-note action leaves it lacking in identity, Revenge of the Savage Planet succeeds as a sci-fi romp. It lets players loose into a series of interplanetary playgrounds designed to be sucked dry by a corporate drone tasked with becoming a bully. It's a charming slice of dark comedy that's perhaps not mean enough to totally land its point. Sound familiar? It doesn't take long for Revenge of the Savage Planet to show its teeth. Upon starting my adventure, I'm greeted by a corporate orientation video. A peppy vice president tells me that I am now a member of Alta Interglobal, a holdings company that has acquired my previous employer, Kindred Aerospace. As part of the new family, my job is to be part of an intergalactic colonization mission. Once I unfreeze from my cryopod after a century of sleep, I'll be dropped on a planet with a habitat and tasked with creating a livable community that Alta can later fill with inhabitants. That's followed immediately by a second video informing me that I've been fired while asleep, as Alta has axed the entirety of the Kindred staff post-acquisition. Revenge of the Savage Planet ultimately aims for the irreverence of an Adult Swim show. That setup will likely sound familiar to you in any number of contexts. Most recently, it's the story of media holdings company Valnet acquiring gaming website Polygon, only to immediately gut the majority of its staff. If you know anything about the Savage Planet series' developer, though, you'll recognize a more personal target for Racoon Logic. Following the release of Journey to the Savage Planet, the studio was bought by Google as part of its short-lived Stadia initiative. Google would shut down Racoon Logic (then known as Typhoon Studios) just a few years later before it could even produce a game. That trauma is very clearly at the center of this sequel, with Alta standing in as the face of corporate incompetence. The story is at its best when it tugs on that thread. One running sidequest has me uncovering Alta's dirty laundry, taking what I imagine are thinly veiled shots at Google's own issues behind the scenes. Less successful is where the narrative ultimately ends up. The stretch up to the final battle takes a left-turn into a meta-commentary about game design that feels entirely disconnected from the Alta story. It's an underwhelming conclusion that leaves me wondering if all the corporate satire before it is there primarily as an inside joke for the developers (I can't fully blame them; I'd jump at the opportunity to get my just desserts against my worst bosses too). Don't take any of it too seriously. Revenge of the Savage Planet ultimately aims for the irreverence of an Adult Swim show. ultimately aims for the irreverence of an Adult Swim show. There's a world called Nuflorida. My habitat is filled with over the top commercials that feel like they were pulled out of a Tim and Eric episode. It features an original song about pissing on the company dime. As light as its jabs may feel at times, it still lands plenty of little hits that got some consistent chuckles out of me. Colonialist mayhem If you're still looking for more depth, Revenge of the Savage Planet is most functional as a broad satire on the world's worst C-words: colonialism and consumerism. As a stranded Kindred employee trained to suck planets dry, each open-world area I visit is a candy shop that's mine for the taking. The premise isn't anything new: Each planet is filled with resources to mine, map activities to check off my list until there are none left, and animals to research — or kick until they explode into a green mist. Everything I gather can be brought back to the computer at my habitat and run through a 3D printer to get new upgrades for my gun, jump pack, and more. The more of a jerk I am, the more efficiently I can bully the local wildlife and hoard resources. If the first Savage Planet game was a spoof of Metroid Prime, imagining Samus Aran as a total dick out to disrupt Tallon IV's peace, the sequel is more of a riff on Subnautica. It's not a survival game, but it does play with some similar ideas. I need to gather up resources and safely return them to my base to 3D print new gear, craft outfits, or make furniture to decorate my habitat. If I die before I get home, I'll need to go back out and pick it all up again. Is it right to shoot an adorable little alien racoon just so I can have a pool table? That's what Revenge of the Savage Planet asks through its gleeful cartoon mischief. My little space man sure doesn't seem too upset about it, as he joyfully wobbles around and punts critters like soccer balls. A a delightful sequel that perhaps could have benefitted from being a little meaner. Naturally, Raccoon Logic gets to have its cake and eat it too. Even if it's classifiable as parody, it still plays its open-world exploration straight much of the time. I get new gizmos that allow me to grapple up to cliffs, grind on rails, swim underwater, and more. I eventually gain the power to melt amber blockades with goo bombs so I can get chow down on an egg and get a health upgrade. It's a serviceable, if a little boilerplate, Metroid-adjacent hook, but it still ultimately aims to be a slice of lighthearted fun that can be enjoyed or with a friend in co-op play. Maybe that's why the story stops short of really pulling the big guns out: Raccoon Logic is still interested in making the kind of game it's poking fun at. I don't mean that as much of a knock here; that's just the language of this type of genre video game. If anything, the power fantasy isn't strong enough to intoxicate and poison me. Combat is particularly weak, as my primary weapon is a dinky pea shooter laser. Most enemies just need to be taken down by peppering them with dinky shots, and upgrades like dodge rolls barely charge that. I can scan critters to find their weak spots and attack for extra stun damage, but even its by the books boss battles never feel all too exciting. If you're going to make me feel like a power hungry prick, at least dial up the absurdity to tempt me down the path of violence. Sometimes Raccoon Logic's heart feels like its more in crafting fun little environmental puzzles than colonialist destruction. My favorite gameplay moments have me using conductive goo to carry an electrified mushroom's charge to a closed door, or navigating an invisible maze by spraying green goop to reveal where the walls are. There's a sincere joy in figuring out how the handful of alien planets work, from a worm-filled desert to a multi-level mountain. Journey to the Savage Planet's Metroid Prime-inspired scan visor returns too and remains a highlight, allowing me to catalogue every plant and critter I find. I'm torn between being a researcher and a menace; the former is more enticing, but the latter drives the satire. I'm left with a delightful sequel that perhaps could have benefitted from being a little meaner. In both Savage Planet games, I find myself wishing that Raccoon Logic would really let me have it. Allow me to really screw these alien worlds up and punt me into the stratosphere once I've crossed too many lines. But then, I'd be a scapegoat, wouldn't I? It's like when The Last of Us scolds players for carrying out acts of scripted violence that they can't avoid. I'm no taker; I'm just trying to survive in the kill or be killed environment that the developers have placed me in. I can empathize with my little spaceman through that lens. He's just a jester in Alta's corporate circus, just as Raccoon Logic was a cute plaything to Google. Perhaps we're all a little blameless for playing into a world that's designed as a slapstick colosseum that we're forced to compete in. And if we're all clowns to the world's most powerful forces, maybe it's time to change which butts we're punting into the sun. Revenge of the Savage Planet was tested on PC and Steam Deck OLED.
