How To Play Journey To The Savage Planet

[Brook Mithani]

JourneyTo The Savage Planet made a strong impression on me when it came out this past January. I was charmed by the brightly colored world densely packed with unique and silly aliens discover. It felt like a cross between a light-hearted Ratchet & Clank adventure and an exploration-centric game like Metroid Prime. It delivers a satisfying experience in about 10 hours with plenty of collectibles scattered around for completionists. Savage Planet has been at the top of my recommendation list all year.

The first DLC pack, Hot Garbage, was announced just a week ago during Microsoft's latest Inside Xbox stream. The expansion is a 2-3 hour side story that introduces a new planet, DL-C1, and a competitor to Kindred Aerospace, called Vyper Corp. Hot Garbage introduces some new ideas that fit in really well with the core game and managed to convince me that Savage Planet might have more longevity than I expected. For only $7.99, anyone who enjoyed Journey To The Savage Planet will certainly get their money's worth.

The DLC's implementation is a bit clumsy. If you've already finished the game you can log in and find a new quest in your log and a new waypoint to teleport to start Hot Garbage. If you're playing for the first time the quest will unlock as soon as you acquire the Shock Fruit Stabilizer. Once you've unlocked the upgrade, the quest and waypoint simply appear without any notification or voice line. I like a DLC that seamlessly integrates into the base game because it makes replaying the game more interesting, but the sudden appearance of Hot Garbage will confuse new players.

DL-C1 has just as many diverse biomes as the base game in an even more compact package, only this time you'll be exploring them from a much different perspective. The new traversal mechanic in Hot Garbage is a jet pack and its a real butt-clencher both in exploration and in combat.

Typhoon Studios do a great job of taking familiar concepts and really make them their own in Savage Planet, and the jetpack is no exception. Passing through floating rings fills the tank, meaning it's necessary to constantly move from ring to ring to stay airborne. Flying high above areas you've already explored on foot is a blast. The pink rings are spaced out just barely within reach of each other and, should you run out of fuel before reaching the next checkpoint, the fall will almost certainly be lethal. At the risk of exhausting my Insomniac reference quota, it reminds me of the flying levels in Spyro when you need to fly through each ring just as the timer is about to hit zero.

In combat, the battlefields are peppered with pink rings that allow you to stay afloat and take on enemies from the skies. Flying and fighting feels amazing because you really need to split your attention between enemies and pink rings, navigating around both while keeping an eye on your energy tank. I loved fighting the new robot enemy types from skies even when there was an option to stay on the ground.

Speaking of new enemies, it's a bit of a mixed bag. There are 3 new robot enemies to challenge: a Roomba that rushes to vacuum up any crafting materials on the ground, a robot that's weak to either bombs, acid, or electricity, and a murder machine that can't be dodged no matter what you do.

As much as I liked the puzzle-combat style of matching weaknesses on the smaller robots, the big robot was a real pain. You only fight two of them, but I never figured out how to effectively deal with it other than tank all the damage and wait patiently for it's panels to open and reveal it's weak spots.

There is a boss fight, but it's more of an arena that tosses waves of the new enemy types at you. At a certain point, lava rises from the floor and you're forced up into the air. While flying around shooting targets, I couldn't help but be reminded of the final boss fight from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage.

I don't know how many of these $8 DLC packs will be made for Savage Planet. If this is the only one I find it a bit odd. It's hard for me to justify reinstalling a game I've completed for just 2 more hours of content. On the other hand, if this is the first of, say, 3 similarly sized DLC expansions, it will be great to replay the game when all 3 are available and experience all the content together. If you're playing Savage Planet for the first time though, pick up Hot Garbage and consider it a side quest that opens up three quarters into the game. You'll get some great upgrades that will help you in the late game (infinite stamina is amazing) and it will remind you a lot of Spyro the Dragon.

The inter-planetary satirical sci-fi adventure Journey To The Savage Planet is one strange yet extremely enjoyable experience. Given the fact that it begs exploration and resource allocation, joining up with a friend is an absolute necessity. The developers practically beg of it, given the No Refunds 4-hour achievement.

While snagging that trophy might be a tad too difficult, it's luckily relatively simple to start up a co-op game. There are just a few key elements and caveats players need to know before crash landing into their buddy's world.

Keep in mind that whatever progress you may make within a friend's world won't directly impact your own playthrough. Your buddy, however, will be walking away with the most benefit, seeing that all of those accrued resources and completed missions will be saved in the host's session. It's also important to note that Journey to the Savage Planet does not offer cross-play, so if your buddy is on console while you're working from the Epic Games launcher, you both, unfortunately, won't be able to play together.

While Journey to the Savage Planet is still an awesome single-player experience filled with humor and emotion of its very own style, it's simply not the same exploring its vast and beautiful world all alone. Emulating the collaborative feel of something like GTFO, Savage Planet is one of those few games that comes along necessitating a bud to enjoy the many wonders the title can provide in full. There's just nothing like taking out a Sproutlook or Kapyena all alone. The enjoyment comes from sharing the experience, both its comedic high points and the mundane resource-gathering.

In Journey To The Savage Planet, you are an employee of Kindred Aerospace, a space travel corporation that is tasked with finding a new home for humanity. Travelling on your own, you are sent to planet AR-Y 26, the titular Savage Planet, alongside a robot computer on your spaceship, called E.K.O.

The story is never the driving force behind your adventure here, but it does develop slightly, highlighting corporate power over us as humans. The bulk of the interesting narrative beats come through the world-building done through emails and videos.

Typhoon Studios have done a great job at bringing a lot of personality to the game through the creatures. Each one has a memorable look and their colours and design are a perfect match with the varied environments and cartooney landscapes of planet AR-Y 26.

Small and cute Pufferbirds, floating Jellywafts (which are a mix between an octopus and a jellyfish), large hulking toads called Slamphibians that spring into the air and crash down onto you, each enemy feels distinct and memorable and discovering them was one of my favourite things to do.

The actual combat of the game, when fighting some of the more deadly creatures, holds up surprisingly well and is a good deal of fun. It takes an arcadey approach with you being able to dodge sideways, jump around, and not have to worry about running out of ammo (only having to reload).

To add some meat to the bones of the gameplay loop, Journey To The Savage Planet is also filled with side objectives, collectibles, and even optional story secrets that give some more weight to the backstory of the game.

But, if like me, you love collectibles and reaching 100% in a game then Journey To The Savage Planet has you covered with more than enough optional objectives and things to find that your playtime will be extended significantly if you choose to hunt them down.

If you want to kick back and have some fun with a friend, Journey To The Savage Planet allows that through online co-op. Unfortunately, the game does not feature local split-screen co-op, which is a huge bummer as the game is a perfect for it. It would also make a great parent and child experience due to the cartoony nature of the game.

Journey To The Savage Planet surprised me with how enjoyable its gameplay loop is. The comedic tone and well-written characters also stood out and elevated the experience as a whole. I enjoyed every second of my time with Journey To The Savage Planet. My multiple playthroughs and 30 plus hours with the game were a great way to kickoff 2020.

Journey To The Savage Planet is a fun, arcadey ride with its comedic characters, cartoony art style and unique blend of game genres. Secrets and secondary objectives galore, creative creature design, and a rewarding gameplay loop only add to that ride. Although the co-op disappoints, you shouldn't overlook Typhoon Studios' great first game.

For those that have played Far Cry 4, Journey to the Savage Planet might feel strangely familiar. The game is largely comprised of the same components, complete with vibrant, seemingly endless landscapes, an engaging loot and craft system, and a story that is somewhat tongue-in-cheek to bring it all together. This wacky sci-fi adventure puts players in a brand new world as a member of the Pioneer Program.

While equipment and loot may be limited in some areas of the game, players with the right knowledge can summon a friend to help them out on their adventure. Getting a co-op game started in Journey to the Savage Planet, however, has been frustrating for some players.

To the dismay of some, Journey to the Savage Planet doesn't offer any options when it comes to local multiplayer. For the couch co-op types, this puts the experience at a disadvantage. It does not, however, rule out the chance at multiplayer for fans of the game. It just means both players that want to experience the Journey to the Savage Planet must own their own copy of it.

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