E3 2019 - Hands on with Journey to the Savage Planet

There is always something that draws me to a game, where I can decide what I want to do next and when Journey to the Savage Planet was a game, that when announced was going to scratch that itch quite well.

Before I was able to sit down and enjoy the game, I was given a run down what just why my character, who works for the fourth largest mining company, Kindred Aerospace, in the known galaxy, was sent to this strange planet. It turns out that the planet was on the short list for human habitation, so you are sent there, or dropped is more apt way to describe your arrival, with little resources and told to catalogue it all and see if humans could one day call it home. That was the premises and with that information, it was time to explore the world and what a world.

Stepping out of the ship and onto the planet, it is easy to begin comparing the game to something like No Man’ Sky, the game is just teaming with a sense of wonder, much like the aforementioned game was. That sense of wonder translates from the games visuals, to its mechanics and beyond, even the humour has its moments to shine, thanks to the wonderful and snarky AI. As the mission is to scan everything and look for things, it is easy to just get stuck into things, but I honestly found that just wandering around was the more productive way of doing things, because there was never any indication of what I would find afterwards.

The world, is just full of life, no matter the direction you head off into, there are sounds of unknown animals that are blanketing the calm of the planet, one such animal would not be out of place in Monsters Inc from Pixar, but its, ah unique call, would likely scare children greatly. Then there are the little round bird things, which are great for farming isotopes, by either filling them with laser from your gun or with the worlds nutritious food, purple goop. If you kill the animals, they explode in a violent and messy end, but leave behind some cool stuff for yourself to use back at the ship. Feeding them some purple goop (which has a name, I just forgot it) has them shit out way more than if you killed them, however if you wanted to be a little sadistic, you can throw some purple goop at the birds and if you happen to cover one in them, the others will descend upon them, like ravenous piranhas.

Those same little birds can also be kicked into fixed alien wall mouths, which is gross but also rewarding as it opens up new paths to wander through. The amount of discovery that is possible helps make the title feel like a metroidvania, but the sense of wonder has it elsewhere, I honestly feel that there is little like this game, anywhere. Having done some more exploring though, I soon found myself in a cavern that was brimming with lava and my handy and very snarky AI companion advised me that there was something on the other side of the lava pools, so with a quick hop and some perilous jumps, I was across and began to hunt for it and I did find it. I have no idea what it was, or what it was supposed to do, but I collected it and moved on, but when I came out, I discovered some large and angry creatures. Shooting them head on proved to be fruitless, but after they attacked, they left themselves open for a shot in the butt, which did hurt them, as I suppose it would anyone and they too exploded in delightfully gooey mess, but the reward of taking them out was the mineral that my quest was after, so a happy accident.

Thankfully, I did not have to walk all the way back to the ship, which is always indicated on your radar, I just warped there, with the warp complete, I used the new material to repair the 3d printer, which opened up a new tool for me to craft, a grappling hook. With that equipped, I warped back to a point on the map I discovered earlier and began to zip around like I was batman, minus the cool suit. Sadly though, it was at this point that my demo time was coming to a close and I had to wrap it up and I did that, in the only way I could think of, I died and I wish I could say it was intentional, but it was not. I just happened to engage the double jump, which is a little rocket pack on the back of the suit and missed the ledge I was aiming for and feel down to the ground, many, many lengths below.

Journey to the Savage Planet is not going to be a long game, the developers have stated that it is there intent to craft a game that can be completed by anyone and from what I have played, I am ok with that. It is humorous, has a touch of danger, but perhaps most importantly, it is fun and I love it for it.