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| Savage: The Battle for Newerth PC review | |
| developer | S2 Games |
| publisher | iGames Publishing |
| author | Marcin |
| date | Oct. 22, 2003 |
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| sound | |
| gameplay | |
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| reviewer's toast | |
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Chromehounds
NA Review by Marcin
Oblivion-The First 3 Hours
PC Quicktake by walTer
Comic Quick Takes January 25, 2006
Feature by Mike
Those of you who have read my Quicktake of this game will know that I was very pleased with the demo. The full version adds a large chunk of maps (the demo has only two), a lot of retail servers and of course, a second playable race, The Horde.
What is Savage?
For those who haven't read it, Savage is a hybrid RTS/FPS game, where the usual nameless peons from Warcraft (used for building, gathering or fighting) that you try to control as you build up your power base and try to destroy the other army - are actually other human (well, I hope) players. Alternately, you can think of it as a team-based shooter, where you have to not only shoot and dodge well, but also defend your structures, help build new structures, gather resources and follow orders from above. The more you help your team, the more access you get to cool toys - with which you can shoot, build, defend or run away better. You can play as either commander (only one per team though), or a grunt.
That's Savage in a nutshell - now specifics
From the commander's point of view, Savage looks a bit like Warcraft. You have very simplistic resource gathering in the form of gold and red stone. There are the standard stronghold, tower, weapon workshop, research and barracks buildings, found in just about any other RTS you can think of. Each weapon workshop enables a new weapon for your troops, each barracks gives you a new spawn point and resource dropoff, each tower defends the area, each research workshop gives you new items or powers and of course the stronghold is your home base, which you must defend if you want to win the scenario.
The interface is the usual lasso and click deal, where the right-click is contextual. Depending on what you click, you can attack an enemy, defend a friendly, build or repair a structure, or attack an enemy structure. Clicking anywhere else will request that the unit move to that location. Once again, the controls are easy and classic - anyone who has ever touched an RTS should have no problems getting to grips with those of Savage.
But this is where it gets interesting. Unlike regular RTS games, in this case the units have minds of their own (except the resource-gathering and building peons, which have a simple "go here and mine/build/repair" AI). So when you request that your troops go build something, or defend a particular spot, you might have to deal with the fact that they refuse. In fact, if they really do not like how you're doing, they might try to impeach you and throw you out of office (done through a simple voting pop-up on your screen). Knowledge of this, along with the knowledge that the other side's units are also intelligent, makes Savage a mite tougher to command to victory.
Savage the FPS
You start off as a low level grunt, fairly agile but lightly armed (for both sides). These basic units are free, so you can spawn as many times as you like. You are also given a basic extra weapon to start with (a bow for the humans, poison fangs for the horde) - everything else you and your commander have to earn.
Each side gets four weapon tracks, each track associated with a specialized workshop the commander has to build - anyone can pitch in and help build just by "attacking" the friendly structure. Once built, the commander has to research the advances desired. The players can help this effort by mining (attacking the gold pile or red stone pile) and carrying the loot back into the nearest garrison, or just the stronghold. If the commander wants the players to help in a particular way, simply lassoeing and right-clicking the object will give the players a glowing waypoint from the sky, and a booming voice: "BUILD HERE!" or "MINE HERE!" - a great, obvious way to manage things. If the commander wants you to attack a unit, the glowing waypoint will be red, and will track the enemy - again, an excellent, transparent way to communicate to the troops.
The commander can reward the troops that are being the most effective several ways. Not only can he make them into officers (giving them the ability to heal other units just by being near them), he can also cast spells that will boost their stamina, give them protection from weapons, or improve their fighting effectiveness. So you usually want to do what's requested.
Each player gains experience and funds through fighting or building. These funds can be used to purchase better units and equipment (when available), and experience gradually improves your unit, giving it better armor, better weapon and an improvement in stamina or building ability. You lose your weapons each time you die, but you maintain your current experience level, which means that at the end of the game there will be a lot of well-armed, well-armored units duking it out. If you run out of cash to equip yourself, you can ask the commander to spot you some - but they can deny your request as well. Once again, it's good to follow orders.
Humans vs. Beasts
The balancing act that some games have a hard time with is also a source of some contention amongst players of Savage. While the two races aren't too dissimilar (both have 3 increasingly tough fighter classes, and two siege classes, as well as a similar complement of short, medium and long range weaponry), there are enough differences to keep things interesting. The human's ability to block is offset by the beast ability to leap-dodge; the human's defenseless but powerful catapult is offset by the beast's mighty behemoths that are tough to kill, but have to get close to their target to do damage (swinging a huge tree trunk); finally the beasts' ability to recharge mana (used for projectiles and powers) is offset by the humans' ease of obtaining long range weaponry. It's hard to say whether either side is stronger than the other, but personal skill in choosing your loadout wisely and a good commander on your side can offset any disadvantages, perceived or otherwise.
For the legion!
In closing, I want to state three things that can make or break this game for some players (including me). First of all, this is not a game for either hardcore RTS players or FPS players - both can be defined as lite versions, as hit detection is iffy (especially in melee), ping is palpable, and the weapons are bland; on the RTS side, you won't get much past mine - build - hold the center. Second, the game is optimized very well, both sounds and graphics are excellent even on my aging rig - the environments are very pleasant to look at, especially as dynamic as they are, buildings rising and falling constantly. Finally, you can obtain the game online from S2 directly - no tax, no shipping, just download and install - you can even download the ISO image and burn it to CD for the future. It's obvious S2 gave thought to some important aspects like convenience, casual teamplay (for people who want to teamplay but don't have time for clans) and fun gameplay, and an optimized presentation.
For a spot of light, good looking fun, Savage is an excellent bet. I hope that it's a start of a trend where all games allow you to take any role - defender, commander, siege unit, attacker, aerial surveillance - and can't wait to see what S2 has up its sleeve next; check clans.s2games.com for a hint!
You can download the demo straight from S2.