“Google is horrible.”
This was among the many first issues that Raccoon Logic inventive director Alex Hutchinson stated to me as I settled in to find out about his studio’s latest sport, Revenge of the Savage Planet. He adopted this up with a promise to elaborate additional because the presentation progressed. I might in the end be shocked by how a lot of the almost two-hour showcase and interview could be about this matter.
Raccoon Logic consists of a bunch of Montreal-based builders that, after working collectively on video games like Murderer’s Creed and the Batman Arkham collection, went on to kind Storm Studios within the late 2010s. In early 2020, that studio put out Journey to the Savage Planet, an action-adventure sport that was largely met with reward. Later that yr, the studio was purchased by Google to assist bolster its video-game-streaming service Stadia.
In a matter of months–and almost two years earlier than the company conglomerate would shut down Stadia entirely–Storm Studios, together with all the opposite gaming groups that Google constructed from the bottom up, was closed. Following this main blow, most of Storm regrouped to kind Raccoon Logic, and set off on a mission to create not solely the studio’s first sport, however a brand new entry of their Savage Planet collection: Revenge of the Savage Planet. And but, creating a brand new studio and brand-new title was solely a part of the problem. Based on studio head Reid Schneider, getting the Savage Planet IP again from Google took even longer than Storm’s tenure as one of many firm’s first-party studios.
Whereas studio closures are actually a comparatively frequent prevalence within the business, each the workforce and the general public at massive have been shocked by how shortly Google’s gaming prospects collapsed in on itself. The firm is infamous for killing off merchandise with swiftness and precision–there is a whole website dedicated to the long list of services it has axed over the years–but the scale and scope of Stadia made it appear that the corporate may need given it extra of an opportunity to achieve some traction. As a substitute, it was tossed within the trash as unceremoniously as Google+ or Google Reader. And all of this varieties the core of Revenge of the Savage Planet’, the workforce at Raccoon Logic pouring their expertise working for the corporate into the sport.
“We have been a bit extra upset, so it is a bit darker,” says Hutchinson. Within the Savage Planet sequel, the primary sport’s company Kindred Aerospace has been devoured up by an even-bigger conglomerate, Alta Interglobal. As a newly acquired worker, you have been despatched on an intergalactic quest to assist safe worlds on your new father or mother firm. Nevertheless, by the point you awaken from cryosleep 100 years later, you discover out you have not solely been laid off, however so has your whole workforce again house, stranding you within the deep recesses of area.
Whereas the sport’s narrative may need punches of extra satirical, even darker comedy, Revenge of the Savage Planet’s visuals are simply as colourful and vibrant as its predecessor. Nevertheless, as an alternative of exploring a single savage planet, gamers can be touring between a number of.
Whereas visually the sport is clearly extra of what the primary title supplied, Unreal Engine 5 gives a noticeable graphical improve over Journey to the Savage Planet, and the workforce is hoping that the sport’s vivid constancy will supply a pleasant distinction to the wealth of “darkish and gritty” sci-fi video games that at present dominate the medium. One other method the 2 video games differ from each other is that the upcoming launch is third-person–a enjoyable animation within the early moments of Revenge actually surprising the participant character out of first particular person into the brand new viewpoint.
The shift to third-person not solely makes the semi-open world, puzzle-filled stage design rather more manageable, however permits for the sport to have an much more distinct character as effectively. The jaunty motion animation of the participant character persistently introduced a smile to my face in the course of the sport’s hands-off demo.
This heightened stage of amusing element was constant all through the presentation of the sport, with a selected second the place the participant was swallowed by a big, orb-shaped creature after which managed to burst by means of from the within by disco dancing, inflicting me to truly chortle out loud. Evidently, if the primary Savage Planet’s humor and attraction was one thing that endeared you to the sport, Revenge is doubling, even tripling, down on that factor.
This all goes hand in hand with plenty of the sport’s new mechanics, equivalent to varied substances altering up the friction of a planet’s surface–if an alien explodes in a mound of goo, put together to slip round in the event you step in it. Aliens may also be captured through a brand new lasso instrument after which despatched again to your crash pad, a customizable base that you may set up on every planet. Captured aliens may help the participant full sure aims, and in some circumstances, unlock new cosmetics, one thing that the workforce can now function because of the sport’s third-person nature.
The sport encompasses a predominant story and two main facet quests, with one about getting Kindred out from below the clutches of Alta. Nevertheless, the workforce at Raccoon Logic needed to place a better emphasis on the participant’s story fairly than the marketing campaign that carries you all through the sport. Gamers will unlock planets in a particular order however can return to beforehand unlocked worlds anytime, particularly as they acquire new instruments that may open up as soon as inaccessible areas. Whereas the sport options 5 planets, we have been solely informed about 4, because the fifth is a secret that accommodates the true ending of the sport and can power gamers to discover the remainder of the worlds deeply in an effort to acquire entry to it.
On high of visible and gameplay enhancements, the workforce has added in varied quality-of-life enhancements. Those that performed the primary sport can be glad to listen to that Revenge encompasses a map, which was the primary criticism railed in opposition to Journey in keeping with the devs. Journey’s lack of a map was attributable to the truth that the workforce did not need gamers to “be taking part in within the map,” however this time round, they consider they’ve struck stability that can present utility, however not have gamers merely checking off factors on the atlas.
Revenge encompasses a jetpack for added mobility, one thing the workforce needed to have within the first sport however was axed by an nameless Microsoft worker, in keeping with Hutchinson, the conglomerate offering funding on Journey to the Savage Planet. Later within the sport, there can be a “Spider-Man-esque” grapple that’s apparently fairly game-breaking however the workforce thought was too enjoyable to depart out.
What’s not in Revenge of the Savage Planet is sort of as fascinating as what’s. In an effort to keep a sustainable studio that’s devoid of crunch, Raccoon Logic needed to get the sport right into a playable alpha section as shortly as attainable and iterate from there, fairly than spending an prolonged interval testing out concepts after which dashing improvement as launch approached. There have been initially some extra linear, Zelda-esque dungeons, however the workforce felt they took away from the inventive, spontaneous nature of the sport’s design, in order that they scaled these areas again. Exterior base-building was scaled again as effectively. Whereas you will get very granular in adorning the interiors of your crash pad, new constructions you add to the compound merely drop out of the sky, nearly like a “reward” for the participant denoted the devs. The workforce additionally had some concepts for automobiles within the sport, however they in the end did not make the lower. Nevertheless, Hutchinson did tease their potential inclusion in DLC down the road.
Regardless of not having the ability to go hands-on with the sport, it was clear that it is in a very stable place, with the dev workforce confirming that they are largely in a sprucing section at this level in improvement. Whereas they do not have a stable launch date exterior the primary half of 2025 window, they said that they are wanting to ship the sport and assured of their goal. The workforce additionally confirmed that the sport won’t be a full-price title, however they’re nonetheless determining the candy spot for Revenge of the Savage Planet in terms of pricing.
When the sport does launch at that decreased worth, it is going to be coming to PC through Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Sequence X|S.