Traveling to other planets and exploring them is undoubtedly one of the biggest human dreams; a dream which we have a long way to bring it into reality. However, video games help us to achieve our dreams easily. The imaginative mind of game makers is trying for years to create new and wonderful worlds. we can happily drown ourselves in these worlds for hours and enjoy. Now, it’s time for Typhoon Studios to land us on a mysterious planet full of unexpected and exciting events. Journey To The Savage Planet is certainly one of the most important adventure games of this year. A game which despite some issues can still keep us entertained for a long time.

The game happens in the future when the earth's atmosphere has been changed dramatically and it is hard to live there. A space company has started sending people to other planets in the hope of finding a better place for living. Most of these programs have failed in the past but now it is time for you to step on AR-Y 26, a new and unexplored planet. Briefly, after the landing, you realize that the story for AR-Y 26 is different and it has many small and big mysteries to uncover. You can even find signs of extraterrestrial life. So, you begin your exploration from the frozen parts of the planet and then continue towards the green part with beautiful waterfalls and the hot parts with burning magma.

The developers of Journey To The Savage Planet have put a lot of effort into the injection of comedy into the game. We can see this comedy clearly in dialogues, animals and plants design, and even colors. Fortunately, this effort has been successful and the game keeps its funny style until the end. Additionally, the injection of comedy helps the game to keep the distance from the titles like No Man’s Sky and seems completely original. We can rarely see the funny animals and the colorful world of Journey To The Savage Planet in other video games.

The biggest problem of the game is the story. Journey To The Savage Planet lacks a logical and strong story to justify the protagonist's actions. What is the goal of exploring the planet? Why does the protagonist jeopardize his life to reach the big tower? Unfortunately, you cannot find answers to these questions in the game. Although wandering around the planet is always fun you never have the feeling of progressing in the story. The game constantly asks you to go from point A to point B, but there is not a real story to motivate these tasks. It is a shame that the developers in Typhoon Studios could not use the big potential of the AR-Y 26 planet and its beautiful environment to tell a plausible story.

We mostly observe a constant pattern in the game’s progression system. First, you are given a task to for example reach a certain location, however, it is impossible to finish the task without having a special power. Thus, you should change direction and find the source of power. Then, you can return to your spacecraft and upgrade yourself. These powers include two phases jumps, hooks, and new weapons. Using this pattern has been successful in the game. Introducing new powers usually changes the gameplay and leads to some fresh experiences in the planet’s environment. The mechanisms of using these powers are usually smooth and flawless.

Not all animals in AR-Y 26 planet are friendly and sometimes you need to fight them back. Your main weapon is a gun with unlimited ammunation. The action in Journey To The Savage Planet is simple, and it is limitted to shooting to vulnerable spots of enemies. There are a few number of bosses in the game, which fighting them is not challenging and you can easily defeat them. All in all, the actions parts of the game are not the most enjoyable parts.

Journey To The Savage Planet enjoys a beautiful art design. The game environment is eye-catching, and we can clearly see the creativity of the developers in designing animals, plants, and buildings. It is rare to see such a correct use of colors in a video game. You can feel the high quality of art design when you are exploring the green parts of the planets or when you are jumping from floating rock to another one. It is possible that you see some low-quality textures in the game but the good art design covers these kinds of issues to a large extend.

There is a co-op mode in Journey To The Savage Planet, allowing you to play the game with one of your friends. Although this idea seems interesting, in practice it does not add anything to the solo experience. If the developers had changed some of the mechanisms to adjust it with the teamwork, we would have experienced better moments in the co-op mode.

Verdict:

Journey To The Savage Planet is undoubtedly one of the highlights of this year in adventure genre. It manages to create a fun and memorable experience with its superb artistic design and entertaining gameplay. If surfing the amazing planet was accompanied by a more captivating story, the final result could have been even better.