Revenge of the Savage Planet review

It’s a real wonder that Revenge of the Savage Planet actually exists. It’s a sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet, a game developed by Typhoon Studios. If you keep up with video game business news, you might remember that Google bought up Typhoon to work on Stadia games and, some time after Journey to the Savage Planet was released, Google closed them down (along with everyone else working on Stadia). Great work, Google. Excellent form as ever.

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. Following that closure, most of the team at Typhoon Games reformed to create the independent studio Raccoon Logic. It’s under this new moniker that Revenge of the Savage Planet has been released, and we absolutely love seeing companies thrive despite being screwed over by Google. We’re right there with you, Raccoon. *fist bump*

Anyway. In Revenge of the Savage Planet, you’ve been sent out on a space-faring expedition, but a series of corporate shenanigans means that the program has been closed down and you’re essentially stranded on a random planet. Not a great situation to be in, and so you set about exploring your surroundings for anything that might help you get home.

There’s been a shift in viewpoints: while Journey to the Savage Planet was played from a first-person perspective, for some reason, Revenge is third-person. It doesn’t have a profound effect on the gameplay, but it is nice to be able to see your character this time around. There’s some comedy in their over-the-top movements, and you can spend some time dressing them up in weird and wonderful costumes — dress as a giant raccoon if you want, or as Dave the Diver. Yeah, that’s a thing.

Unfortunately, comedy in the rest of the game doesn’t hit quite as well as it did in Journey to the Savage Planet. Journey had us guffawing constantly, particularly at the random commercials that would play back at the ship. You’ll find the same thing here, but most of them fell flat and we couldn’t shake the feeling that they felt a little more try-hard this time around. There’s also the possibility we’ve just lost some of our sense of humour since 2020, of course, and who could blame us?

Revenge of the Savage Planet very much feels like a three-dimensional Metroidvania. You’ll make your way through environments, constantly chasing down new skills and upgrades which will allow you to access new areas of the world, rinse and repeat. Unlike the first game, you’re not confined to the titular Savage Planet, either: you’ll eventually find yourself exploring new planets over the course of your adventure, providing a bit of variety in your surroundings.

Along the way, there are plenty of entertaining encounters, and the creatures you’ll find yourself up against — whether you’re fighting them or capturing them — are once again brilliantly designed. It’s a colourful, fantastically-realised game, visually speaking, and the world is a joy to explore. For the most part, we’ve had a great time spending our time in Revenge of the Savage Planet’s world, which generally feels like an upgrade over its predecessor — but there are a few elements that have caused a bit of frustration.

The first comes with catching creatures. You’ll spend quite a lot of time hunting down particular creatures for research purposes, where you need to capture them rather than kill them. Larger enemies need to be stunned first, which is sometimes easier said than done — we found we’d occasionally end up accidentally killing them, which meant we’d then have to wait around for another one to respawn so we could start the process all over again.

There’s also the fact that once you have successfully caught a creature, you’ll need to return to your hub with them to start the research process. Like an annoying mobile game, this forced us to wait around for several minutes while a countdown reached zero. We could have gone out to get on with something else, but when the research is what we need to progress through the story, it feels like a waste of time.

Combat in general isn’t the most enjoyable experience, actually. While shooting down foes can sometimes be enjoyable when you get into a groove of jumping and dodging to avoid enemy attacks and strike at weak spots, on the whole it feels rather one-note and perfunctory. You only have one main gun, so there’s not much in the way of nuance, and if you find yourself up against multiple enemies at once, it can all feel a little too chaotic.

That isn’t helped by the fact that the user interface is a little fiddly. As you move through the game you’ll unlock a ton of different tools, and making effective use of them means going through numerous menus. Having to hold a direction on the d-pad to access them is less than ideal, especially in the heat of the battle.

It sounds like we’re being quite harsh on Revenge of the Savage Planet, but ultimately, it’s still an enjoyable space-faring romp. Sure, the odd quirk might annoy you, but if you enjoyed the first game, you’ll find much of the same to enjoy here, too. We’re just a little disappointed that it didn’t go above and beyond its predecessor — but given the upheaval that Raccoon Studios has been through, it’s not at all surprising.

This review of Revenge of the Savage Planet is based on the PS5 version of the game, with a code provided by the publisher. It’s available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.