It’s Got a Great Sense of Humor
Journey to the Savage Planet may be a sci-fi exploration game at its core, but that hasn’t stopped the developers from dousing it in satirical comedy that oozes out of every one of its pores like we imagine the #4 sustenance resource in the universe, Grob, would if it were real.
It’s not just in the general cutscenes and dialog you can’t avoid, such as your friendly AI companion’s constant chunnering about you basically being nothing more than a number to Kindred Aerospace — your employer and the fourth best interstellar exploration company around.
Scanned object descriptions, collectibles, a bunch more video clips, correspondence with Kindred Aerospace, it’s all riddled with hilarious jibes at capitalism, corporations, and general modern-day life.
To talk about the satire in Journey to the Savage Planet as such a positive may seem bold, but it really does help to carry the game and keep you paying attention to what’s going on in the larger story and context during the later stages where your attention may otherwise begin to wain a little.
It’s a Natural Beauty
Journey to the Savage Planet isn’t an uber-realistic venture across an uncharted planet’s dusty surface. It’s a vibrantly-colored world filled with red and pink-leafed trees, floating turquoise and red squid-like creatures, epic particle explosions, and caverns soaked in colorful lighting.
Remember that meme of No Man’s Sky on launch date? You know the one I’m talking about – the expectations vs. reality one. Journey to the Savage Planet is about as far away from that as you can possibly get.
It’s also worth mentioning the game ran incredibly well on PS4 Pro, and looked stunning throughout. A combination of eye candy and technical excellence is a big ol’ tick from us.
Excellent Sense of Discovery
If you see a floating island with a dead tree sticking out the top of it and what looks like some treasure behind a proximity door nestled inside… you’re definitely going to want to check it out. I mean come on, how could you not want to?
Journey to the Savage Planet is filled with things to see and do, but it’s the way in which it leads you down a breadcrumb trail of subtle environmental clues or tells that you’re working towards something. Something you’ve yet to discover. A big orange goo? Possibly. Fuel for your ship? Hopefully. Or maybe one of the in-game collectibles that help to flesh out the context.
Whatever random thread you start pulling on as you explore planet AR Y-26, you’re always sure to be rewarded for your efforts. It only further encourages you to take a quick peak in that cave in the other direction, or the staircase of plants that leads to a set of floating mushrooms leading you to another hidden treasure in the sky.
It’s Short & Sweet
While there are all these threads to pull on if you want to venture off the beaten path, it is also possible to complete a very streamlined run of Journey to the Savage Planet.
You’ll still have to go and grab a few upgrades to actually progress through the main story, but you can forget about exploring for all of those collectibles. You don’t even have to find the five fuel pods to get yourself home if you’d had your fill after beating the final boss.
By the time we’d finished the main story, doing a bit of exploring along the way, we’d clocked in at just under nine hours.
As a result, Journey to the Savage Planet is the kind of game you can wrap up over a quiet weekend, or by playing a couple hours each night of the week. It’s not a long-term commitment, freeing you up for the big hitters later in the year and meaning it doesn’t feel like you’re committing to anything huge when you start it.
There’s More for Those That Want It
Just because you can wrap up the main story quests in under ten hours, doesn’t mean that’s all there is to see in the game.
There will still likely be creatures, flora, and fauna on AR Y-26 you’ve yet to scan and collect data on for Kindred Aerospace.
There’s also 100 of the Orange Goos that increase your health and stamina, 32 Alien Alloy if you want to upgrade all of your equipment, 20 Fuel Locations for those that want to go above and beyond the five needed to get home, and two lots of collectibles that flesh out the story.
This is more than enough to keep you scratching your head as you try and figure out how to reach that darn Orange Goo in the unreachable distance for hours on end. Plus, once you’ve got five of the Fuel Pods to get back home, you can more or less finish up whenever you want and call it a day.
Journey to the Savage Planet certainly has its flaws. Its aiming feels floaty, the final boss is a tad underwhelming, and the lack of any sort of map can make getting those final collectibles a real tedious process for those that want to 100% the game.
But then we’ve given you five whole other great reasons that outweigh these negatives enough to make it a game we’d recommend you pick up.
It especially doesn’t hurt that there’s very little else releasing for these first couple of months, so a short but sweet, humorous indie not only won’t hit your wallet too hard, but is a great distraction during these cold, winter months.
About the author
