The 1UP Network previews games with the philosophy that people want to hear our honest opinions on titles before they are released. If a game looks really promising, we'll pass on our excitement. But if a game needs work, we'll let you know. Here are our Savage 2 PC previews.
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| VIDEO: Head over to our videos page to check out exclusive footage of Savage 2. |
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There's a reason the phrase "garage developer" gets everyone all gooey. In the case of S2 Games, the "garage" is a dim office stuck directly over a eucalyptus-reeking massage parlor, but the spirit and the opportunities are the same. There are just some things that a half dozen guys running on their own enthusiasm can do that would never hack it in a monolithic development sweatshop.
Stuff like slamming genres together like atoms in a supercollider just to see what comes streaking out. The last time S2 Games' developers did it they combined real-time strategy games and first-person shooters, resulting in the original Savage. Think of it like Warcraft, except those goons you're sending around to build towers and slaughter each other are other players.
It was a great idea that, like a lot of others, happened to fall apart a bit when subjected to the average internet asshole. Thankfully, the developers paid really close attention to what was happening and are working on Savage 2 with all those hard lessons in mind.
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| That green shaft of light is the commander's way of telling this guy to go over there. Unlike your typical RTS game, however, guy there has a human player guiding him, and that human may be feeling more like wandering off and killing some teammates. Much of Savage 2's success will be dependent on just how well it curbs such mutinous bastardry. Click the image above to check out all Savage 2: A Tortured Soul screens. |
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To help keep the bullshit in check players are tagged throughout their career with a karma stat. Constant teamkilling or persistent jackassery will make gameruiners easy to spot. Meanwhile, visible skill ratings will make it easier to separate the skilled commanders from those who would be better off in the trenches doing the killing personally. Upkeep on buildings makes victories more decisive, rather than the hours-long wars of attrition formerly necessary to grind down a team that had already clearly lost. Finally, the tech tree has been flattened out a bit, freeing commanders to pay more attention to managing combat, and the elimination of peon lines prevents players from gaining advantages through the obviously boring task of lugging crap back and forth.
Not that Savage 2 will be the same old game with the kinks worked out; they're slinging another three letter acronym into the mix. Like a short-term RPG, players earn experience throughout a match which can be spent on special abilities. Meanwhile, commanders can use a separate pool of team XP to purchase team-wide buffs to things like health points or attack strength. An additional resource comes in the form of souls taken in combat. Win enough of these and players will be able to fling their guys into a crack in the earth, sacrificing themselves to summon a powerful, table turning, Hellborn unit.
The other thing S2 learned its last time out is that you can count on publishers to take their pound of flesh. The original Savage ended up making more from online sales than traditional retail, despite the fact that they only made up about 10 percent of the total. Which is why this time around, S2 plans on going totally digital with Savage 2. The plan is for the game to be freely downloadable with unlimited LAN play and a time-trial on S2's servers, with a full account running 30 bucks. It sounds kind of like that Shareware thing that made another garage game so big a million years ago. You know, the one with the all the demons and the shotgun.
Savage 2 Mini-Guide: Read Me
Savage 2 Mini-Guide: Version 1.0
PLEASE NOTE: If you find this guide helpful, when you are making your account PLEASE put â??Draxalonâ?? as the Savage player who referred you to the game. This gives me a nod for the effort put into this guide.
Introduction
Welcome to my mini-guide of Savage 2. The purpose of this post is to give you a run down on the game. It is my hope that this will help you decide whether to pick up the demo/full game. Please note that I am only a player of Savage 2, and a relatively new one at that, and this is my first game-guide. This guide is broken down into the following sections:
[1] OVERVIEW
[2] TROOPS
[3] GAMEPLAY
[4] LEVELING
[5] ROUND COMPELTION
[6] REPLAYS
[7] DEMO
[1] OVERVIEW
Savage 2 is a hybrid RTS, FPS, RPG. The game is broken into two teams, the humans and the beasts. Each team can have a Commander. The commander plays the game in a top down view akin to the typical RTS. Like the standard RTS, a commander can build structures and spawn builders to help build or repair. Like some RTSâ??s, the commander can cast an assortment of spells to bolster his troops.
A commander can also assign officers, which are akin to squad leaders in BF2. Squad leaders give a passive buff to all their squad members within a close proximity to them. They can also request the commander to build structures at specific locations and create spawn portals. Spawn portals allow players to be â??builtâ?? (respawn) at that location, rather than at a home base.
As to the other players, they are the troops/units of the RTS game. When they spawn in (are built), they can select which class they want to play. Each team has six classes, which will be described subsequently. During the spawn-in wait time (generally 6-12 seconds for official owners and 12-20 seconds for demo account), players can buy an assortment of items: potions, armor, larger ammo packs, buffs, etc. This wait timer occurs at the very start of the game and after each playerâ??s death. Death triggers the following events: (1) you have to sit through the wait (respawn) time; (2) you have to respawn (be built) at a friendly base or a spawn portal, and (3) you loose any gear you had bought.
Below is a brief summary of each class, separated by team. It will be updated as I correct it.
[2] TROOPS
HUMAN
Builder: can repair structures, siege engines, and build structures if there is no commander. He has an alright melee weapon and long ranged rifle. He can also spawn temporary ammo caches, where players can re-supply, and create temporary shields that blocks all projectiles over about a 20â?? diameter hemisphere (a dome). When an armory structure is built, he gains access to a scattergun (shotgun) and temporary Gatling gun turret.
Marksman: a mix between a rogue and archer. He has access to an alright melee weapon, a decently ranged cross-bow, and a back-stab melee attack. He also can spawn rods that dispel the fog of war in the mini-map. With access to the armory (or some other structure), he gains access to stealth, a sniper-bow, and explosives to use against buildings. The sniper bow has great range, can zoom in, but deals rather poor damage currently.
Savage: a barbarian class of sorts. He has good melee attacks, a double swing attack, an area of effect buff, a berserker-ish mode (increases damage and may stop you from being stunned by melee attacks). He also has a semi-machine gun with short range. With the upgraded structure he gains a longer ranged assault rifle and â?¦ possibly a new attack.
Legionnaire: this class is only available once a specific structure is built. Essentially, he is a much stronger version of the savage. Fully upgraded, he has a grenade launcher and rocket launcher. He has several special attacks (AoE swing, stun, and deflect attack). He also has a temporary hitpoint regeneration skill and may have a melee buff.
Chaplin: this class is only available once a specific structure is built. He is a mix between a mage and priest. He has an AoE heal that you cast on a specific spot on the ground, a single target heal, a resurrect, a debuff, and a magic bolt attack.
Battering Ram: the name seys it all. Aside from a very strong but slow ram attack, it has an AoE fire attack to attack a foe within melee range. It also has a temporary speed boost. This is an anti-structure building. It attacks horribly slow.
Steambuchet: a mobile trebuchet (catapult). It has an anti-structure boulder throw attack, and an AoE fire throw attack. Like the ram, it has a temporary speed boost. It also has a special move that destroys the steambuchet and turns you into a builder. All his ranged attacks have a minimum distance which is about 20 feet in front of you. If enemies get inside that range you cannot throw boulders or fireballs at them.
BEASTS
Conjurer: the builder of the beasts. Like the human counterpart, he can build and repair structures. He has a long range spore attack that works like a shot-gun with a tight shot pattern. He also has an AoE root spell (stick people to the ground). Lastly, he can build a temporary mana pool. Once the upgrade is built, he has access to a temporary turret that spits poison at foes. Generally, this is a better melee unit than the human counterpart thanks to root and the size of the spore attack (itâ??s easier to hit something with a shotgun than a single metal slug).
Shape Shifter: a hybrid melee/ranged class. It has a short range beam attack, a speed boost form, and a blinding attack. Fully upgraded, he can shape-shift into an enemyâ??s form where nothing changes but your appearanceâ??you become much harder to ID as an enemy. With the proper structure, he has a long range lightning attack and a self-detonation that does strong damage to buildings.
Summoner: as the name states, this is the typical summoner. He can create a melee or ranged pet. He has a magic-missile attack, pet heal, and can drop items that dispel the fog of war on the mini-map until destroyed. Pets, at the moment, are rather hard to use. To make it attack, you must first activate the pet command prompt (â??Gâ??), select attack from that prompt (â??1), then click an enemy. Mess up the order and you have to repeat it. The pet strictly follows its master and that masterâ??s specific orders. It has not auto-attack or guard option. Of note, when the pet takes damage, its master takes a percentage of it (so constantly monitoring you pet is important).
Predator: an upgraded shapeshifter, essentially. This bad boy does strong melee damage and has an assortment of ranged and melee attacks. Fully upgraded he can throw medium ranged magic missiles that are flame based and toss short range AoE explosive fireballs. His special attack is a damage over time poison attack. Other skills include a temporary damage buff and a temporary life-leech, where you gain health by damaging others.
Shaman: a priest mixed with, well, a shaman (druid). He has a single target heal, an AoE healing aura that follows him, and an AoE mana regeneration aura that follows him. He has an armor buff that protects single targets from ranged attacks, and a resurrection.
Behemoth: a large troll with a big stick. This is the beast version of the battering ram. What he lacks in speed and maneuverability he makes up in brute force. He has two melee attack special attacks and one AoE stomp attack. While this unit is primarily anti-vehicle, he can essentially one-shot most foes with a single swing. The catch is that the swing takes 3-4 seconds to hit the spot on the ground you were aiming at. Moreover, due to the height of this unit, he cannot see troops that are in close melee range to it.
Tempest: a squat (fat) caster that is akin to the steambuchet. This class has one ranged fire-ball attack that is equally effective against troops and structures. It also has a skill that may temporarily makes it invulnerable (or invisible?) to enemy attacks, but roots it to the ground and makes it unable to attack. Lastly, it has a cone-shaped breath attack that damages and flings units hit by it backwards. Otherwise, it is defenseless against melee attacks.
SPECIAL SUMMONS
The game also includes two special units. These can be summoned at a specific structure, build on a specific portion of each map (a terrain feature called a scar). These special units loose health over time (about one hit point per two seconds), but can health when they kill an enemy unit.
Once a person has killed 5 enemy troops, he may use this structure to turn into a powerful mage-type class. The mage has powerful magic missiles, an AoE attack that hits where you aim, and a few other skills I have yet to understand. He has approximately 500-650 hit points.
The second summon is a giant fire-demon. When one of these is summoned the map is bathed in an eerie black mist with falling bits of hell-fire. These monsters deal massive damage to both troops and structures. He has an AoE fire-based attack that heavily damages the troops standing on the ground it is cast on. He also has a cone-shaped breath attack that I have yet to hit anything with. I am assuming it deals fire-damage and pushes units back. He can typically take down any unit struck with his wide horizontal attacks in three to four hits, and swings relatively fast.
[3] GAME PLAY
Melee
On the ground, the game plays like a first person shooter. Combat is fast paced and often unpredictable. Of note is that ranged attacks deal about 30% less damage than melee attacks, due to how armor works. Melee is also frantic. Unlike the typical RPG, you do not watch your character attackâ?¦ YOU attack.
Aside from special attacks, melee boils down to a system of combat akin to rock-paper-scissors. Left mouse attacks. Center mouse blocks. Right mouse interrupts. Generally, this only comes into play during one on one combat. Otherwise, in a mob, itâ??s usually just a ball of attacks.
Attack deals melee damage to any troop or unit in your weaponâ??s attack path.
If you are blocking when someone uses attack on you, they will be stunned for 2-3 seconds.
If you interrupt a person who is blocking, they will be stunned for 2-3 seconds.
If you attack a person who is trying to interrupt, they will be stunned for 2-3 seconds.
Block > Attack
Interrupt > Block
Attack > Interrupt
Gold
Gold is split between team gold and personal gold. Team gold is used to construct and repair structures. Team gold can be obtained by gold mines and killing opponents.
When you kill an opponent, you collect their soul (essence), which is used for the aforementioned special summons. You also obtain gold for yourself and your team. Personal gold can be used to allow you to play one of the three classes unlocked by technology (buildings). It can also be used to buy equipment, potions, and other buffs.
[4] Leveling
Killing players, repairing buildings, constructing buildings, healing players, and various other activities net you experience. In each game players start at level 1. As they gain experience they level up, which allows them to increase their health pool, mana pool, stamina pool, and attack damage. Aside from the self-explanatory increases, stamina is used to sprint and attack.
At the end of the game the experience you netted is added to your persistent account, to level it up. Your persistent level is an overall gauge of how much actual game experience you have. It is used to help put players into matches against categories of players near or close to their level (servers have persistent level restrictions).
To get around the set level caps on a server, you need to have a friend playing on that server, who is on your buddy list. By right clicking on their name in the server menu, you have the option to join the server they are playing. This can be used to move into a higher level server, but I am uncertain whether it can be used to get into a lower level server. Essentially, it is a function to allow you to play with friends who are of different persistent levels than you.
Each battle scores you on a multitude of things, like BF2: damage done, kills, deaths, buildings destroyed, etc. This is largely for you own use, but you can view other playerâ??s statistics.
[5] ROUND COMPLETION
At the end of the round you are taken to a screen where you can rate your commander, give or subtract karma, and view the â??best ofâ?? awards. Commander rating allows you to rate them from one to five starts, as well as type why you did so. It is used, basically, so players can ID who is a good or bad commander. Karma is akin to commander ratings. However, at the end of each round you can only give one point or subtract one point from a single player and type an explanation for doing so.
[6] REPLAYS
Each round is recorded. You can download and watch rounds. You can view the game from any playerâ??s own perspective as well as control the speed and other settings of the replay.
[7] DEMO
The demo is a free install. It is restricted to five hours on ONLINE play. That means you can do the tutorial and poke around offline for as long as you want. It can be obtained from:
http://savage2.s2games.com/download.php
You will need to create a free account to login to the ONLINE play.
PLEASE NOTE: If you found this guide helpful, when you are making your account PLEASE put â??Draxalonâ?? as the Savage player who referred you to the game. This gives me a nod for the effort put into this guide.
joemix86, fyi, Only people who wouldnt like Savage 1 are Newbs. Sorry you couldnt handle it.
As for Savage 2, Its come along VERY nicely.
Author:
chris , 01/24/2007
savage was just fantastic, the community is great.
the community really makes what savage is all about
by community i mean the awesome people on the forums,that take part in discussions and also play.
savage 2 will prosper especially by eliminating the asshole players. do you Tk alot? shout and yell or get angry and curse every other word? do you disrespect others?
INSTA BAD KARMA'D good luck on other servers :P
are you tired of being bad at online play cuz you die alot?
spend time on the savage 2 tutorials or vs AI to highten your skills
you hate walking all over maps do ya?
hop in a battering ram and mount its repeater defence(mounted machine gun) and take a ride
each unit in savage 2 will have a unique playing style and tactic too it
for instance:
i like to reign supreme by keeping other teamates alive=Chaplain
my friend likes to sneak around and
harass things=scout
BETA starts soon.....cant..wait
Savage was fantastic if you got a good team together and a good commander. There were some great battles to be had and it's still fun now. If 2 has all the kinks worked out and more stuff added, it's just going to make it even better. I already pre-ordered :P
Never got into Natural Selection as much as I did Savage.
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