Journey To The Savage Planet places players in the shoes of a brave adventurer who embarks on an alien planet known as AR-Y 26. From the outset you are simply the explorer, or more specifically an employed member of Kindred Areospace, one of Earth’s leading space exploration corporations. The 4th best to be exact, according to the games humourous narrative. Your mission is to seek a habitable locale for Earth and in doing so you will progressively reports back your extensive discoveries.
Interestingly enough, upon arrival you discover you are basically stranded, as our brave adventurer was only provided enough fuel to reach this unknown destination. Upon gathering your bearings and understanding the games paces, the mysterious tower in the clouds becomes your main focal point to this colorfully fun-filled adventure.
Scouring eveything there is to discover on AR-Y 26 is at the core of this new experience. While mission objectives will vary in order to complete many of the games challenging tasks, along the way players are learning more about their surounding by scanning a myriad of planet lifeforms and creatures, as well as unique environmental objects. Due to just how vividly colorful the games playing canvas, I was compelled in attemping to reach all that the eye could see, as the game is truly beautiful. However, early on you discover that a healthy part of this journey will consist of you completing objectives, which require newer player enhancements and upgrades in order to drive the story forward.
Journey To The Savage Planet is supported by a light yet intriguing narrative take on the greed of big corporations as they penny pinch their resources in order to leverage massive profit, unfortunately at the expense of you risking your life against impossible odds. In this case, you are the guineapig for Kindred Aerospace, risking it all for a potential payoff. A payoff that only comes through if you make it back alive. In the meantime, good luck with the scrap of assets at your disposal.
Adventuring into this unknown alien planet players will rely on a straightforward UI, consisting of a Journal collection, Character collection and Kindex. Within the journal we find four sub-sections of intel; primary objectives, secondary or optional objectives, scientific experiments (consisting of side objectives such as killing 5 ground creatures while they are airborne, gather live samples from creatures, falling 50 meters and saving yourself with your thrusters, etc.), and lastly, global objectives. Global objectives while optional will have you performing duties of locating and scanning alien tablets, harvesting all of the locales orange goo, which I highly recommend as it vastly increases your character vitality and stamina, and so forth. Within the Character collection players will find Items, Gear, Backpack, and Visor Each of these sub-groups maintain enhancement layers of increasing the players formidability within the world.
For example, your Gear may start off as just your spacesuit, however eventually you will discover more gear in the form of a Live Sampler, a Proton Tether (grappling hook), an advanced Proton Tether and more. Discovering some of these items will take you far and wide. However, for some of your findings you will be required to gather some of the planets constructive elements such as aluminum, carbon, silicon and alien alloy. Once you have enough of these materials then you can take them back to your ship to construct your new and useful items. This process of unearthing your enhancements make the game a joy to play.
The more interested you are in reaching new areas and finding out more about this planet, the more you will appreciate the lengths developer Typhoon Studios has gone in realizing this ambitious effort.
While Journey To The Savage Planet is based on exploration and encountering new and bizarre discoveries, boss battles within this world are a welcome occurrence. These stand-offs rely on a heavy does of steady aiming while expressing your physical dexterity in order to avoid incoming projectiles. Each boss encounter is impressively different from the last, and quite liberating once you have figured out how to properly maneuver your limited surroundings, locate the healing flowers, utilize your planetary materials in battle and take accurate aim.
AR-Y 26 is a large playing field to unearth and locating all of the games hidden gem locations might be tough, despite the games efforts to offer hints when you are nearby such a location. Regardless, after journeying many of the games areas you are bound to forget certain locations. Thankfully, your upgradable visor can identify important objects. In this way the game does not hold your hand, forcing players to earn their keep in the world.
The more you discover the higher your explorer rank increases, allowing the world to become more transparent. If you really want to make those necessary discoveries such as finding the imperative resources to fuel your spacecraft, besting the games sometimes seamingly unfair challenges awaits.
Taking more than 25 hours to complete, Jouney To The Savage Planet offered an engrossing experience the whole way. A smooth and seamless ride, void of any technical flaws, my time on AR-Y 26 was spent laughing at the narrative antics of Kindred Areospace, learning to master all the useful planetary findings while taking all of the games amazing sights.
Journey To The Savage Planet is a great start to 2020.