There are games that come out of nowhere, without being anticipated by a substantial marketing campaign or by who knows what proclamations from the specialized press. Journey To The Savage Planet it is just one of them. developed by those good guys of Typhoon studios and published by 505 Games, JTTSP is a colorful, vibrant shooter full of curious and slightly crazy ideas, which likes not to take itself too seriously but is not incapable of offering a truly surprising experience.
In a galaxy far away… too far away
The plot (if we can define it that way) puts us in the shoes of an astronaut aboard a spacecraft called Javelin. Traveling to unknown destinations, we will soon end up landing on a bizarre planet called ARY-26. Once there, our task will be to repair our space vehicle and at the same time investigate the flora and fauna present on the planet. This is because space colonization has become a fundamental piece for mankind, given that the good old Earth is now at the gas barrel. On the new planet we will therefore be called upon to catalog a large number of living beings and plants, then reporting to Kindred Aerospace, the terrestrial multinational that is somewhat the cause of all our troubles. If living conditions on ARY-26 are similar to those on Earth, it will be up to us to understand. In the meantime, however, we will have to pay close attention to a good number of pitfalls that the unexplored planet hides.
Upon a cursory glance, Journey to the Savage Planet can seem like some kind of weird mix between Metroid Prime and No Man's Sky, all with a not-too-veiled splash of ideas from the Borderlands series. Although ultimately it is really a kind of "Frankenstein game" (in a good way, fortunately), the game developed by Typhoon Studios pushes the accelerator as regards the demented humor background, whether it is a dialogue, a rediscovered document or a particularly funny alien animal. In this regard, it is impossible not to mention the Grobs, the first animal we will meet during our adventure with a similar appearance in all respects to that of a jumping ball-bird, used to living in caves.
Space, latest dementia
The four worlds of the title are full of primary and secondary missions to be completed by shooting (almost) everything that moves on the screen, as we gradually add fundamental parts to our equipment, such as the jetpack or a very useful magnetic grapple. Also interesting is the possibility of exploring the levels vertically, which will give us the opportunity to tackle a whole series of simplistic environmental puzzles, designed to break up the game action.
Well done also the bosses that will emerge from time to time on our path, really crazy from the point of view of size and particularly hard to knock out. Everything perfect, then? Unfortunately not. Journey to the Savage Planet betrays its being a "minor" title when we analyze the longevity of the Typhoon Studios title, fixed on 10 scarce hours, to which is added a certain repetitiveness (and haste) in the final stages of our space odyssey on the planet ARY-26. The feeling is that programmers, having reached a certain point in development, have run out of ideas, aiming straight for the final goal. In doing so, the space mission is only half successful.
