by Igor - October 7, 2003

Savage, in my opinion is the invention of a new genre. Take a little bit of strategic tactics from the commander point of view, add some intense first person action from the frontline soldiers� point of view, and then even throw in a few role playing elements. The result is a Real Time Strategy Shooter. Sound interesting? You�d be best off downloading the demo right now instead, but for the lesser believers read on�

The gist of it

One of the first things that I noticed when I first launched Savage is that instead of going to the menu right away it made a little stop at the Savage Updater program to check for new patches. As luck may have it, there were two new patches at the time I got the game, and what was even luckier is that they were only a couple of megabytes large. A minute later, the patches were downloaded (interestingly enough they were merely balancing patches adding more to the game flavor) � and I was in the game. Interesting, considering most other games release patches such that nobody knows about them until they try to connect to a server and it boots them.

Once you are in the game, you are presented with a movie describing the setting of Savage. The game turns out to be set millions of years after some unknown event shook the Earth (I assume a nuclear war). In this forsaken future, the beasts have evolved far past their current state to a level of intelligence bordering that of the humans�. So the story unfolds: a war is being waged between the technology of the Human Legion and the magics of the Beast Horde.

After finishing the movie, you�re presented with a numerous amounts of servers with very good ping. I also found it interesting that you could play with those (less fortunate than me) with a demo version. I found it unsettling playing on the demo servers, however, as �owning� newbies (no matter how fun it was) was not a very honorific task.

So, on one of my usual days, I connect to a server (and it actually loads in under a minute, and if I get disconnected I don�t have to reload everything yet again). Once I�m connected, if the game�s already started chances are I won�t get to be a commander (the person who plays Savage like an RTS). I choose my team (which depending on the server is usually Beast, with the opposing Human) and go to the loadout screen.

The loadout screen is something similar to that of the Counter-Strike buy menu, or many other popular FPS� loadout screens, but as most other things in Savage, it�s well put together and refined. On the screen you have a choice of buying a new player class (light, medium, heavy, or a choice of two siege units), several weapons/spells (unique from each other may I add, with 12 weapons per side), and several items. But of course if you are playing as the commander, you�ll have to research all of those before the players can buy them.

The buying itself is done with gold (the researching with �stone�-like crystals). You can request gold from the commander (and he might even give it to you!) or you can kill other players (who drop money bags if you�re as fortunate as to get a frag). Alternatively, if you have a soft spot for MMORPGs you can hunt NPCs (be especially aware of the ferocious chiprels).

Getting gold is actually not a problem if you and your commander know what they are doing (some do, and some don�t) � if you are always participating in battles you will either fill your coffers with gold from slain opponents, loot from demolishing the enemy buildings, or get rewarded with gold by your commander for following his orders. In a good game, it�s rarely a problem.

Speaking of the gold, the commander actually takes part of all the gold that you earn, and this isn�t just to give it out to other teammates. The commander actually needs gold to build defensive towers (and/or upgrade them), and towers are an important strategic element in the game. How so you may ask? Towers are used for defending those important locations, be it your stronghold/lair (the headquarters of your base) or your garrison (a mobile respawn/refuel/reload point your commander can build anywhere on the map). You might be able to build a garrison next to an enemy base, but without towers, it�s not going to last very long against incoming crowds of enemy players.

So the commander builds towers, and you help his NPC workers build them (a group of 10 players can get almost any building up in under a minute), or repair them. Once the enemies come you will be happy that you helped your commander build the tower there, especially once you can run behind it for cover. Or maybe the commander will give you a power-up and you will successfully fend off your opponent. Or he will give you a waypoint to the enemy and you will be able to successfully ambush him (as you can see waypoints behind buildings).

The towers aren�t invincible, however; that�s what siege weapons are for. Humans get ballistas and catapults (self-explainable), whilst Beasts gets a Summoner (who summons a large mana bolt that deals massive building damage), and a Behemoth (a big HULK type who walks around with a large tree and smashes everything to little bits). In turn the enemy will try to shoot down the siege weapons (and a few newbies will even try to melee them). It�s actually very easy to kill a siege unit with the proper weapons as long as they don�t kill you first (which they might if you stand in one spot). If you�re brave enough (or stupid enough) you could even try meleeing the siege unit (but trust me, it doesn�t work too well).

About the melee: I can�t think of any other game where melee is actually useful for everyday use (in most other FPS, it�s just a shameful way to kill your opponent) � in Savage you melee everything and everyone. The whole point of the light, medium, and heavy classes is actually that they will respectively get more health and a better melee weapon. That�s not to say weapons are worthless (they are very good), but if you�re in a melee range � you will actually use melee instead of trying to shoot rockets at each other at point blank� range.

I should also add that when in melee, your view switches to third person by default (and it really is easier to fight like this). Some might not like this, and use it as another reason for claiming melee in Savage is bad. It�s really not; there is no lucky button mashing as some may think. Melee takes careful precision in timing (if you don�t believe me, ask yourself why the experts will usually only swing once before you end up dying) and understanding of the mechanics. When the animation of the sword/axe/claws looks like the respective weapon connects with the enemy player, the weapon actually does. When your avatar swings his weapon towards the right direction, and then swings it back towards the left direction he�s actually swinging in that motion (it�s not just for show � you can easily attack someone who is to the side of you). Once I realized this, it only took me a few days to master melee. Hopefully you will be afraid if you ever see me on a Savage server!

OpenGL is not as obsolete as some would like to think

There isn�t much to say about graphics in Savage. What can I say that hasn�t been said about other games? The grass moves about in the wind, the clouds move about in the skies, the time of day changes as time goes by. You may connect to a server during the �morning� and end up winning the game at �night.� Just look at the screenshots for a glimpse!

Something important that Savage did in the graphics arena though is choosing OpenGL over DirectX. Simply put, OpenGL lets you easily port the games over to any platform (and I�m not talking about console games here). That is why you might have heard rumors that Savage runs on Linux. It�s because Savage does run on Linux, flawlessly with the same patches as the Windows counterpart might I add.

Soothing (albeit somewhat disappointing)

Sound is about the only aspect of Savage that is lacking. Although I find the music that S2Games chose to play in the background very soothing, calm, and simply fitting my taste, I was disappointed that the music doesn�t transform as you enter a heated battle or perhaps a different area of the map.

On the other hand, Savage does support Creative�s EAX. Those with a 4.1+ speaker setup will definitely like it; once I played Savage with my Cambridge Soundworks speakers I couldn�t stop being amazed at the noise that was coming out. If you are attentive enough you can literally hear the grass rustling as one of the enemies tries to sneak up behind you!

Most definitely a fun game

I found Savage to be fun, especially if you were in a game where both your teammates and the commander knew what he or she was doing. It�s exhilarating watching your team cooperate and pull off maneuvers like destroying a critical enemy fortress, or building a garrison in the enemy�s backyard.

Since I�m supposed to talk about multiplayer in this section, I should also mention that Savage�s network code seems to be very well written. Even the S2Games servers on the west coast of the United States would give me a ping of less than 100. So losing a game because I was �lagging out� simply never happened with Savage.

It gets better

Savage comes with a map editor. That�s right; you can make your own maps with their own NPCs, buildings, textures, whatever! It�s quite easy to learn, but it might be a little bit harder to at first than most map editors (as it is 3d unlike most of its counterparts!).

The developers also managed to get a demo of Savage out less than a month after the game was released (try it if you�re still not sure whether I�m serious about this game!), and last I heard they were hard on working to get an SDK out for the modders. If it took them a month to make the demo, I can foresee the SDK being released before Christmas (and that�s quite fast; no hyped games will even managed to be released by then). What will see once the mods start? Savage 1942? Savage Helicopter? I�m intrigued.

Last but not least, the developers have made yet another tactical decision with the game. So long as Savage remains popular, the developers will slowly release free content upgrades with the new patches. For those in doubt, the forums definitely indicate that they are already planning to add a medic-type class to the game.

In a nutshell

Savage is a pioneer in this brave and exciting genre. The developers did their jobs right, and I was amazed at such a small company producing such a high-quality game. For only a one time fee of $39.99 at most stores, Savage is a great buy. If you are a fan of first person shooters, real time strategy games, or looking towards becoming a fan of either of the latter, then Savage is definitely for you! But don�t take my word for it, try the demo before rushing out to the store and buying it!