Journey to the Savage Planet

A very fun, and often hilarious, exploration and environmental puzzle game with combat elements.

This game is primarily for people who love hard-to-find and hard-to-reach secrets coupled with creative and challenging environment traversal. Playing through the story is enjoyable in itself, but much of the game is about achieving that satisfying "100% completion", which provides many more hours of gameplay. There's an obvious comparison to be made to the Supraland games, which scratch the same itch.

There's also a cool "metroidvania" factor in that certain challenges can only be met after you acquire an ability. So you'll be revisiting many locations again and again, sometimes as part of the main story, and sometimes as part of the "100% completion" goal. You're going to get to know this intricate world very well indeed.

Combat is, at best, just OK. There are a few cool boss fights, but too many tedious encounters with lesser enemies, who keep regenerating and get in the way of exploration. I wish this aspect was dialed down a bit.

Environmental traversal can also be a bit frustrating due to imprecise controls and hit boxes. Combined with those pesky enemies you might find yourself dying quite a lot. On the bright side, the cost of death is acceptable. It won't take too long to get back to where you died and you can always retrieve your lost goods.

There are also several "trial" areas, which are designed as puzzles, but also require precise and fast movement. It's here that the imperfect controls can become really annoying. But with some practice, and perhaps some help from YouTube guides, they can be overcome.

The story takes a back seat to the gameplay, but is nicely told with many very funny and polished live-action videos. I laughed a lot in this game. There are all kinds of charming little flourishes. For example, you can choose to play as a dog, in which case you'll hear yourself barking throughout the game.

Some reviewers complain about the "Hot Garbage DLC" being too short, but I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. It adds a new area to the game and introduces new mechanics, new enemies, and many new jokes. Its well integrated into the main game and just makes it bigger. I highly recommend it.

I personally have encountered only one non-breaking bug. Otherwise, the game could use a bit more polish. For example, there is no way to pause the game! Several times while going through the UI an enemy regenerated and finished me off. Also, one of my favorite things to do in exploration games is to try to "break the game" by getting into places that you're not supposed to reach. In a few cases I hit an invisible wall that wouldn't let me go further. I understand why they do that, but wish they could have truly finished the level design.

All in all it's a wonderful title for those of us who enjoy these kinds of games.