Pass on this Journey
Adventure game is forgettable for so many reasons
Journey to the Savage Planet 505 Games
Available on PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Cheeky behaviour can be a cover for inadequacy. That was the main thought I had while playing Journey to the Savage Planet, a sci-fi action adventure game that left me deflated.
The game puts players in the role of an explorer who’s been dispatched to a lesser-known corner of the galaxy by corporate overlords searching for habitable planets. It’s telling that the only note I wrote down over the more than 20 hours I spent with it comes from the beginning of the game when the A.I. companion compliments the explorer for acquiring a 3D printed gun. “Now you have a weapon,” she says. “The single most important tool of any colonizer.”
Comedy is supposed to play a large part in Savage Planet. There are silly messages from corporate headquarters and ads for products like a mobile game with plenty of microtransactions. But as with the aforementioned joke, the humour in Savage Planet is tame. Yep, colonialism was bad and video games often use weapons as a crutch around which to build other gameplay mechanics, but here still is a game where you spend a good amount of time shooting hostile aliens. And yes, microtransactions are an easy straw man to poke fun of as an example of corporate greed, but this game isn’t exactly bucking conventions. Think what you will of its funny-looking creatures such as the Jellywaft (a flying jellyfish of sorts) or the Barfer (a creature whose existence is self-explanatory). Its gameplay progression is pedestrian, its combat is so-so and its boss fights seem obligatory.
As the story goes, your employer didn’t invest much thought into seeing you, in person, ever again. So, you must explore the planet — made up of floating archipelagoes — to try to resupply your ship for a homeward voyage. The company credits you for scanning flora and fauna for clues and is, of course, interested in all of the data you collect.
Travel between places is gated by obstacles requiring specific tools to overcome such as a grappling hook or pouches tailored to hold plant-based projectiles. And if you’ve played a fair number of Metroid-style games, the treadmill of upgrades available here should pass by with hardly any notice. The most memorable (if that’s the word for it) obstacle in the game is the Meat Vortex, a flesh-eating plant that requires an offering before it’ll move its tendrils from blocking a pathway.
I found a number of exploits that made the more difficult fights easier. I baited some enemies into situations where they ended, quite inadvertently, suspended harmlessly in the air above me. At another point in the game, I evaded a gauntlet of lasers by standing on a spot where I was obviously not supposed to be (on top of the electric dome projected above the lasers). I assume such exploits will be patched out, but I was certainly glad to have used them. I found little reason to wish to prolong my Journey to the Savage Planet.