Savaga 2 - A Tortured Soul Game Review

[jenny]

Savage combines real time strategy and first person action in one fluid game. Instead of sending mindless computer drones into battle, imagine organizing real human players on a crusade to conquer your adversary. Choose to be a commander, and you will play an in-depth RTS game, researching technologies, mining resources, and issuing orders to your units. Choose to be a warrior, and you will play an intense game of first person combat, wielding your weapon of choice to strike down the enemy.

 

Savage is designed so that neither RTS nor Action based play are watered down in any way. RTS fans will have all the control they are used to, such as: tech tree, resource management, and tactical strategy. In turn, the action-based players will play an in-depth fighting game with a heavy emphasis on battle dynamics. Although the two sides work together their roles are very distinct.

 

 

 

Action Players Overview

 

Action players are units on the battlefield that help carry out their team’s ultimate objective of destroying the enemy’s Command Center (Legion of Man’s Stronghold or Beast Horde’s Lair). In order to do this, team work and coordination from their commander is required.

 

The action player gets to choose from classes available to them based upon the buildings and technologies the commander has researched. Each player has the following attributes:

 

Health  A player’s health represents the amount of damage the unit can take before death.

Mana Mana is used to perform special abilities and cast spells.

Stamina Allows the unit to run, jump, and attack. A unit that is drained of Stamina can no longer run or jump, and attack speed is decreased.

Armor A players Armor decreases damage, maximizing each hitpoint. Armor has a diminishing return, each armor point is less effective as the previous. Armor is most effective against ranged attacks, while all melee attacks have the ability to pierce the armor, reducing its effectiveness.

Experience The Experience gained on the battlefield allows players to spend Attribute Bonus Points increasing the units effectiveness in battle.

Player Deaths

 

When a player dies they must wait to spawn. Default spawn times are tied to the upkeep time (see Economy for more information on Upkeep). They are the remainder of the current interval plus one full interval.

 

Intervals are 10 seconds so the default spawn time is 11-19 seconds. In the event of either upkeep is not met and/or a match exceeds 60 minutes (each) will add an additional 10 seconds to the spawn time.

 

Souls

 

Souls are a crucial resource in Savage 2. They are earned when a high level NPCs or enemy unit is killed. The player dealing the final blow earns the soul. Souls are spent at Sacrificial Shrines to purchase Hellbourne Units (see Hellbourne below).

 

Combat

 

Savage 2 combat is a mixture of ranged weaponry, melee, and special abilities. Each team has a set of classes that have a set ranged and melee weapons as well as special abilities they can perform.

 

Each class has different amounts of health, mana, and stamina, allowing each class to serve a unique roll on the battlefield. For example, Siege classes are used to take down buildings much more quickly than any other class in the game.

 

Ranged  Ranged combat is very similar to that found in most FPS games on the market. Weapons include special features such as rapid-fire, splash damage, homing, and spread-fire. Simply aim and shoot!

Melee Melee is based on class with different attack speeds, damage settings, chain settings (chains are how many consecutive attacks you can make before a short pause and the chain is started again).

 

All Melee attacks can be stopped with a block, which is instantly executed and can be held for an extended period of time.

 

Melee combat is straightforward: be within attack range, click the LMB, and watch out for blocks.

 

When your oppenent is attacking, use your block to prevent them from damaging you. Successfully blocking an opponent will temporarily provide a boost to your attack speed and reduce the enemy player's attack and movement speed. Only so many attacks can be blocked at a given time - a meter will appear when blocking to indicate how much more damage you can block before you are overpowered and stunned for a short period of time. Heavier attacks and melee abilities hit harder and thus can more quickly break through your defense.

The melee system in Savage 2 is simple to understand, but it takes time to master! Click here for more information on the melee system.

Special Abilities There are 5 different types of special abilities in the game. More information regarding each type can be found below.

 

Snapcasting

These spells employ an innovate system to help you snap to nearby targets. Enter the spell state and select a highlighted target by tapping the LMB. Only targets to which the spell applies will be highlighted. Spells include healing, resurrection, and some debuffs.

 

Gadget Placement

To place gadgets such as turrets, ammo depots, and demo packs, first select the ability, and then place the ghostly image of the gadget at the desired location by tapping the LMB.

 

Instant Casts

These abilities generally are melee-based combat abilities that do extra damage or stun opponents. Simply selecting this ability will immediately execute, so make sure your desired target(s) are within range.

 

Area of Effect (AoE) Casts

When a player selects an AoE cast, like group heal, a ground reticle shows the cast placement and will also highlight the target(s) of the spell. By simply tapping the LMB the AoE ability is cast.

 

Channeling

There are abilities in the game that cause the player to channel an effect through them. These include polymorph, ethereal, and chant of restoration, among others. In many cases, channeling abilities can either be stopped with LMB, or by pressing the key that the ability is assigned to.

Siege Units

 

It is important to lay waste to enemy buildings to gain easier entry into their base (killing defensive towers), take out their technology (killing certain buildings disallows certain abilities and classes), and of course win the game (by killing the enemy’s command center). Siege units are critical for accomplishing this task. They are higher hitpoint, slower moving classes that generally need protection to successfully make it to their targets and effectively do damage.

Hellbourne

 

Hellbourne are special units available to both teams. To gain access to them you must build a Sacrificial Shrine over a Scar and earn Souls from killing enemy players. Each Hellbourne unit has a specified soul cost, more souls equals more power!

 

It is important for teams to defend their Sacrificial Shrines as well as monitor activity on Scars throughout the map and stop their foes from gaining access to these game changing units.

 

Hellbourne are extremely powerful units which are exceptionally valuable for a mix of high player damage and above-average building damage. Unlike the other classes, Hellbourne units have very little in the way of recovering health, being unable to be healed or use items during their stay on Newerth. Hellbourne units can only recover health by consuming the souls of fallen enemies, and in the case of the Devourer, also consuming the very corpses the enemy leaves behind. In fact, with the exception of the Devourer, hellbourne units slowly degenerate health, requiring constant maintenance to remain on the battlefield. Despite their frightening power, hellbourne units do have a weakness - shamans and chaplains deal bonus damage to hellbourne units.

Items

 

Using items is crucial to the success of an Action Player in battle. There are two different types of items:

Purchasable Items  Both Beasts and Humans have their own set of items that can be purchased with the gold earned while playing the game.

Persistent Items Persistent Items can be earned through achievements, won as prizes from occasional contests, bought via the rune builder or the collector's edition, and awarded to players who have referred new players to Savage 2 through the referral system. Persistent items are stored in your vault, which has 5 item slots and you can bring 2 into a match.

 

There are four types of persistent items, each providing a different bonus modifier. The item types are Rings, Amulets, Jewels, and Runes. Persistent items may have up to three benefits, which are passive regeneration, passive increases, and active replenishment.

 

 

Experience / Match Leveling

 

As a match is played, players earn experience from doing many things, including player damage, kills, building damage, healing, casting spells, and repairing structures. This experience allows characters to become more powerful. Each level gained gives the character four Attribute Bonus Points that can be used to increase the following attributes:

 

Endurance  Increases your health and health regeneration rate.

Intelligence Increases max mana and mana regeneratin rate.

Agility Increases your stamina and stamina regeneration rate.

Strength Improves melee damage.

 

All experience and levels gained are reset at the end of each match. However, if you join a match in progress you will be given experience based upon the current match time.

 

The experience you gain during games is not lost forever: it is added to your persistent stats, allowing you to climb the player ladder .

 

Commander Overview

 

Unlike the Action Players on the ground playing a fast paced FPS/Action RPG style game, the commander gets a traditional RTS interface and top-down view of the battlefield. Their elevated status and control scheme allows them to better plan and communicate that strategy to their team, much like the general of a traditional army.

 

Commanders also control the economy of the team. They are responsible for bringing in resources to the team as well as building and repairing structures. They can power-build or repair damaged structures through the use of "Repair NPCs" they can spawn and control.

Building & Technology  New abilities, items, and classes become available as structures are built. While the tech tree in Savage 2 is fairly linear there are choices in offensively placed forward Garrison/Sub Lairs, main base defensive schemes, and Mine defense that can determine how much fortification & defense, offensive prowess, and unit /ability mixture a team has.

Battlefield Management & Communication  It is crucial that the commander also spend time communicating with their players. This includes buffing allies, debuffing enemies, giving direct orders (selecting and right clicking ground, buildings, allies, enemies) as well as general communication via map pings, voice chat, and text chat.

 

Buffs & Debuffs The commander can cast several buffs to his allies including healing, armor, and resurrection spells among others. They may also hamper the enemy by degenerating their health, armor, and movement speeds.

 

 

 

Economy & Upkeep

 

 

The main staple of the Savage 2 economy is gold. The slow way to earn gold is by killing NPCs amd other players, and destroying enemy structures. However, it is mainly gathered for team use from mines sprinkled throughout maps. To extract gold from mines a team must build an extractor on the mine. (Legion of Man’s Steam Mine or Beast Horde’s Mine Grove).

 

Gold Mines are the main source of income for teams. Controlling Mines and defending your extractors is crucial to your team success.

Meeting Upkeep

 

Upkeep is Savage 2’s unique economy system that prevents long stalemates in gameplay. As long as you have a gold mine that is being harvested, your team will have met upkeep.

 

When upkeep is not met building armor is significantly reduced and you are vulnerable to attacks by the enemy. Conversely, when the enemy has not met upkeep, the time is right to attack their buildings.

 

If you are in the Commander’s seat this should always be something you’re aware of. Make sure to direct your troops on the ground to strike when the enemy fails to meet upkeep, and make sure to cover your own upkeep by protecting at least one mine.

 

Persistent Stats & Replay Network

 

Each player account has statistics that are generated throughout each match they play. At the end of each match those statistics are transmitted to the S2 Statistic Servers and tabulated into that players overall persistent stats.

 

Source : http://www.savage2.com

 

One of the best games in my list and its for free.

 

[MACRO]

thx for review.

Seems too much colorfull, childish :P

[JavuS]

Good review but to be honest it looks a lot like starcraft with some little differences xD

[jenny]

Good review but to be honest it looks a lot like starcraft with some little differences xD

 

As you see the view becomes like in starcraft only at commander panel .Beast and humans only can have 1 commander each.And this game is similar to dota in some kinda way ~_~

[shass]

yea from screens its a mix of wow in the first person camera while from 3rd view seems a little starcraft

[jenny]

yea from screens its a mix of wow in the first person camera while from 3rd view seems a little starcraft

 

The best thing about this game that all ppl are equal and it depends on your personal skills will pwn some1 or will you not ~_~

[N-line]

doesn't look to attractive, but i love that kind of games, so i think i will give a try

[JavuS]

The best thing about this game that all ppl are equal and it depends on your personal skills will pwn some1 or will you not ~_~

 

In almost all games thats the same :P starcraft, etc etc

[drogata]

good review im not sure but i thing i see this game abd befor ...

[jenny]

In almost all games thats the same :P starcraft, etc etc

 

Dude im telling you again its not like startcraft ~_~ only 2 persons in the whole game are seeing the view like this "The beast commander and human commander" all other 38 players do see the view like in the first screen.