Woe betide the game that tries to cover too many genres at once. As is the case in many other disciplines, the way to find success is typically in specialization. Trying to do too much at once tends to result in doing nothing particularly well. That’s partly the case here with Savage 2: A Tortured Soul, a game that covers the MMO, FPS, and RTS genres all at once. Individually none of those aspects compare to the best standalone games in the chosen genres. On the whole, the game is playable and entertaining … if a bit buggy.

Storyline Not Required

The game may try to include tastes of many genres, but one thing it does not include is any sort of notion of a storyline. Here we have a faction called Man and another called Beasts and the two seem to really hate each other. That’s about it. The game eschews the RTS standard of delivering three factions, but the two here are reasonably comprehensive by delivering warriors, healers, mages, and bigger fare like siege weapons and fiery demons.

While the total number of units here pales to what’s on offer in your typical RTS, since every unit is playable that shortcoming is forgivable. When you enter a game you choose a team. If you’re suitably experienced, you can make yourself eligible to be the commander. Your teammates will vote and, if you’re elected or were the only candidate, you play in RTS mode while everyone else on your side will experience the game in a sort of hybrid FPS/MMO style.

As commander, you get the typical overhead view. You can scroll across the entire map, but anywhere you don’t have units near will be obscured with a fog of war. You can highlight units and assign them tasks. Since most of those units will be real people, they may or may not actually obey them. Given that you have the power to dole out health and armor bonuses to anyone you like, however, the people on the ground will typically want to stay on your good side.

By climbing through the build tree here, you’ll unlock new tech, mainly unit types that your team can choose to re-spawn as after death. Each faction has a few beginning units to choose from who are flexible but not exactly powerful. As the tech tree expands, those units become far more powerful and, often, far more specialized. This works well in theory where you’d have coordinated groups of specific unit types. Since the commander can’t directly control what type of units his team spawns as, it can be difficult to keep a balanced force. With only 10 or so people on a team, there’s really not that much to command compared to your typical RTS, something that can make things a bit boring at times.

On the Battlefield

It’s a very different game for those who want to fight on the ground. Here you’re typically playing with an MMO-style third-person perspective, hacking and slashing away at opponents. Pick a ranged weapon, though, and your perspective pops to first-person. You will be primarily attacking the opposing team, but scattered throughout each level are a handful of NPC characters, wild critters and the like you can use to boost experience points for increasing attributes like strength and endurance.

There’s more experience at stake for killing your opponents, and combat with them has a rock-paper-scissors angle. You can attack, block, and interrupt, with blocks beating attacks, interrupts beating blocks, and attacks beating interrupts. Get caught using the wrong thing and you’ll get stunned, leaving you open for more damage. This mechanic could have jazzed up what’s mainly a hack and slash game, but the problem is the incessant lag. It too often throws off any attempts at timing.

Lag ranges from the frequently seen stutter-step, where everything freezes for a just a moment, to rather more painful instances of your character suddenly ignoring your control for upwards of 30 seconds and continuing to walk around on his own while you get a disconnect warning flashing on screen. It’s not unusual to join back into the game and find yourself a little closer to death than you were before.

Plenty of other problems were noticed as well, the most irritating one being a bug that prevented the completion of the tutorial. Despite multiple attempts we were unable to get through the learning stages of the game, sharply increasing the difficulty of getting started in this title which already has a rather steep learning curve.

The game never crashed on us, though, which is something. Overall, it runs well, delivering reasonably good graphics at solid frame rates without putting huge demands on system hardware. The audio side too is good, with a selection of appropriate effects and a music score that accompanies everything quite nicely.

Fun, But Not Perfect

Savage 2 is an entertaining game to pick up and play, and offers different sorts of challenges for different people. Commanders can get their strategy on, while those looking to bust some heads can just dive in and start hacking, getting a little guidance from above when needed. At just $30, the game is a bargain. The glitches and lag, however, are quite annoying, and the individual aspects of the title – FPS and RTS – just don’t compare to other standalone games. Thankfully, there is a free trial available, so you can get a taste and see if you prefer breadth over depth.

Review by: Tim Stevens