Now, Raccoon Logic is back with a sequel to that wonderfully odd experience. Revenge of the Savage Planet picks up where the first game left off. Published by 505 Games, Revenge of the Savage Planet (maybe we’ll call it Revenge for short) takes the capitalist dystopia a couple of steps further with a corporate takeover of the original company, funding slashes, and more making things even tougher than they were last time around.
While there is a story in Revenge, it’s pieced together over the course of the game with video messages, emails, and input by your trusty robotic sidekick, rather than a traditional narrative. The focus here is on gameplay, exploration, and weirdly, social media, but we’ll get to that later. What you’ve probably already noticed is that there’s been a fundamental change to the gameplay in Revenge of the Savage Planet and that’s the perspective.
The entire first game took place in first person. Racoon Logic has chosen to ditch that perspective in favor of a 3rd person approach and it’s a bold choice to say the least. A shift to third person was certainly unexpected, but the comical character animations are a welcome addition and add additional comedy that was missing from the first game. Everything has been amped up a little from the prior game and it’s almost overwhelming at times. The advertisements in the habitat module and the constant commentary from the Shama Lama (an interstellar influencer) definitely overpower you at times but they also fit with the overall enjoyably ridiculous vibe of the game.
With the story taking a backseat, let’s focus on the gameplay instead. Revenge of the Savage Planet takes the basic approach from the first game and makes it surprisingly approachable with the perspective shift. It’s easier to jump to small platforms and climb various areas in third person than it was in first, and the enemies are noticeably easier to fight as well. Dodging becomes simple once you’ve got a booster that propels you into the air and a high-speed dodge skill, and it’s much easier to see how close you are to enemies, noticeably lowering the number of hits you take. Scanning is fast as well, as is checking for resources and you’ll rarely lack for the needed elements for 3D printing tools and add-ons as you find them.
Basic gameplay is a series of open world quests that unlock as you explore. You can approach your quests in any way you wish but some items and surprises are locked behind areas that are inaccessible until you’ve upgraded a fair bit. It’s a pretty standard recipe, but the environments are surprisingly varied, with high cliffs, swamps, deep jungles, mushroom forests, ice and laval fields, poison gas deposits and more. There are four main planets to explore in Revenge of the Savage Planet and each one has new surprises for you. Jumping and swinging from things is back and now you can grind on an electromagnetic rail system, soaring high through the air up mountains, cliffs, and floating islands as you zip about. Magnetic devices allow you to attack with metal protrusions and a power washing device can even be modified to spill goo, electromagnetic sludge, and even lava. All of it will be used to solve various puzzles, fight weird and often hilarious enemies, and access hidden areas.
Progress is steady and you never feel like you’re stuck in Revenge. There’s always something to do and things are hidden almost everywhere. From corporate servers hiding malfeasance to hidden items that can only be accessed through a series of trials, you’ll always be doing something in the game and it’s that sense of engagement that really makes Revenge of the Savage Planet fun. After 6 or 7 hours when you’ve scanned and interacted with the vast majority of things, the game slows down a bit, but it’s still such gorgeous, silly fun that it’s hard to say anything negative about it.
There’s an optional aspect of Animal Crossing-like design in Revenge as well. You can design several rooms in your habitat with a bunch of gear that you can buy with money you find all over the planets. There’s no real purpose to it other than just having fun and unlocking optional hidden rewards, but it’s neat to have some variety available. The same goes for some of the optional side quests, one of which requires you to interact with complex environmental puzzles to earn some extras. All of it is fun but you can skip it entirely depending on your free time and skill level.
Bosses are interesting in Revenge of the Savage Planet, huge intimidating things that look absolutely terrifying. Fortunately, each one has a discernible pattern that makes them challenging but relatively approachable. You feel like you’ve accomplished something when you beat each one and the variety involved is excellent as you never know what to expect from the weird life forms populating the planets of the game.
Just like the first game, Revenge of the Savage Planet is an absolute smorgasbord for the eyes. The entirety of the game is wildly colorful and even smoother than the previous game, with unique flora and fauna, bizarre monsters, and technology that is strangely neutral and pleasant to look at. Monsters are often disproportionate with large eyeballs and strangely round and kickable bodies and exploring the land, waters, and skies of the solar system is remarkably enjoyable. There’s never a part of Revenge that isn’t fun to look at and that’s one hell of a complement to the design team at Raccoon. Not only are the graphics excellent across the board but the GUI interface is well-designed and easy to use. Menus are easy to navigate and the maps are clear and easy to read. It would have been nice to be able to zoom in a smidge more and have slightly better directions to key points considering how complex the environments in Revenge are, but that’s definitely a minor issue.
While you’re exploring, you’re treated to a vast alien soundscape as well, squeaks, grunts, whistles, and other strange sounds assail you from all sides during your travels and there’s a noticeable focus on squishy noises that are particularly well-executed. The soundtrack is also solid, jumping in at the right times to add dramatic effect and adding some particularly hilarious tracks as well. There was a lot of love put into the soundtrack of Revenge and it’s one that would be worth buying on CD if it’s available due to the unique songs worthy of Weird Al or a Dr. Demento feature. An absolute ton of voicework is also featured in Revenge and it is fantastic how seriously the actors took their ridiculously over-the-top roles. You’re constantly being messaged by various characters, hearing wild ads in your habitat, and getting video requests from shady people with glowing eyes. While none of it is really interactive, the level of dedication and immersion is drastically increased by the voice work in the game and it’s a shame we don’t see voice work this impressive more often.
There are some fun additions to Revenge of the Savage Planet as well. Built into the game is a series of costume skins that you can unlock by finding pieces of the costumes strewn about the planets. Research also nets you new color schemes so if you’re tired of the defaults, there are a lot of options. There’s even a Dave The Diver skin if that’s your thing, especially entertaining once you start exploring underwater. We were provided with the Cosmic Hoarder edition of Revenge of the Savage Planet for this review and it comes with additional DLC as well, an HR Enforcer costume, and a special Shama Lama suit that you’ll have to earn by completing some additional DLC missions. They’re all silly fun too, even if they don’t add a ton to the main story. The Cosmic Hoarded edition also comes with a digital artbook and soundtrack, playable on an in-game jukebox and you’re going to want to play those tunes. All in all, costumes and DLC make an excellent addition to an already enjoyable game.
There are a few flaws in Revenge of the Savage Planet however. Almost no game does everything perfectly of course, but several times we found ourselves stuck in a wall or corner when trying to jump up a particularly steep incline or reach an out of the way spot. When you get stuck, the vibration on the Xbox controller kicks to full as well and you’re forced to reload the game and start back at the habitat to continue. You don’t lose your save or anything, but it’s definitely an irritation when it happens. Speaking of reloading your game, fast travel being locked to transporter points is also particularly irritating as you’re often required to return from a remote spot to the habitat to continue the main story of the game. Because of that, it actually becomes much quicker to quit to the main menu and reload your save as you automatically pop back up in bed at the habitat on the main planet no matter where you are. Simply putting in a return function or allowing transport from anywhere would have solved this bypass, but at least you can zip back anyway. Finally, it’s remarkably hard to orient yourself on the map and figure out where to go sometimes. Hitting the right stick to search for nearby items helps, as does reducing visual clutter with scanning, but then you can’t run and have to travel slowly. A bigger arrow icon for which way you’re facing and some better HUD displays for markers might have helped a bit but as it is, you’re occasionally floundering for an item you know is definitely nearby and you simply can’t find.
Revenge of the Savage Planet is an incredibly fun game with an impressive design aesthetic and a clearly dedicated team that has injected a lot of love, fun, and silliness into it. It’s wacky, challenging, and irreverent in just the right ways and if you’re focused on the perspective shift, let it go because the new third person camera grows on you really fast, especially for challenging precision jumps. At $40, Revenge of the Savage Planet is going to reward you with long hours of entertaining gameplay and less frustration than the previous game. The Cosmic Hoarder edition adds just the right amount of content for the extra ten bucks it costs too, so there’s plenty of value whether you’re buying the game or playing it on Game Pass. If you’re a fan if sci-fi and comedy, this is definitely a must-have game and you owe it to yourself to play it for a few snorts, a hearty chuckle, or a few full-fledged belly laughs.
This review is based on a digital copy of Revenge of the Savage Planet: Cosmic Hoarder Edition provided by the publisher. It was played on an Xbox Series X using a 55” 1080p Sony TV. Revenge of the Savage Planet is available on PS5 and on PC on GOG, Steam, and Epic Games. A standard edition of the game is also available for all platforms.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.