02-08-2009, 06:51 PM
The game.
Savage 2 is an online first-person shooter / RTS hybrid, similar in concept to Command and Conquer: Renegade, but pulled off immeasurably better. Savage 2's world is rooted in a strange kind of high-tech medieval fantasy and a war between the Humans and Beasts.
There are two roles for you: Commander (of which there is only one per side per game) or soldier. Commanders view the battlefield from overhead like a standard RTS, watching as the players below scramble and fight for control. They are responsible for placing buildings, giving orders, collecting gold from gold mines, and bestowing "buffs" to players far below. Didn't want xsaiyajinx to die in that rush? You can Res him every minute or so.
The soldier game is where I've spent a lot of my time, and I (personally) think it's the most fun. Your character "levels up" within each match, starting at level 1 and growing gradually upward (I've hit level 15, but it can go higher). As you level, you get to spend points in either Agility (increases stamina and stamina regen), Endurance (increases health and health regen), Intelligence (increases mana and mana regen), and Strength (increases melee damage). As you spend more points in a stat, it starts to cost more per point, so invest wisely.
As a soldier, you earn levels and gold by killing enemy players with your chosen unit. Both sides start out with three basic units to start, which cost nothing to purchase. As the Commander works his way up the tech tree, more classes, abilities, and items are unlocked, including some very tough, very big heavy hitters that cost a player some of their own gold to buy. An example of one of these units is a Beast siege where you essentially take control of a monstrously huge giant wielding a tree, and lumber him up to enemy buildings to smash them. This unit costs 750 of your own gold, which is not a small amount, and they're also relatively vulnerable to normal ground units, as they attack very, very slowly.
Combat is extremely dynamic and fast paced, with room for a healthy amount of skill. Most combat in Savage 2 is melee, and for that, there are three things to pay attention to:
1) Normal attacks: Performed by pressing the left mouse button. Your character swings, doing the listed amount of damage on their character sheet. Most characters have a 3-hit combo that they can perform (shifters and marksmen do 4) the last hit doing bonus damage. Attacking drains your stamina.
2) Blocking: Performed by pressing and holding the middle mouse button or C on the keyboard. Neutralizes oncoming melee hits, but drains your Block Gauge (a white bar that pops up over your head when you start blocking) with every hit. Effective against single opponents, not so much against three. If your block shatters, you'll be thrown off balance and not able to do anything for a second or so. With a little over a single combo being most units' base life, this can be fatal.
3) The Charge Meter: Drained by holding the right mouse button. Allows you to move extremely quickly for a short period of time in a straight line. Can also be used to perform rolling maneuvers.
Skillfully managing yourself in battle can make a huge difference. If you and your opponent just start wailing on each other at the same time and see who drops first, it might be entirely random who ends up dead, and whoever survives will have taken a ton of damage. In a fight between a skilled player and one that just spams attack, however, the skilled player may win the fight taking very little damage, if any at all.
Getting the killing blow on players earns you Soul... Essence. I can't remember the exact name. You can spend these soul essences at special locations on the battlefield called Scars. These locations are gateways to the fiery depths of Hell, and if your side has claimed and build a Hellshrine on one of these scars, you can use your Soul Essence to summon and control special Hellborne units. These are extremely capable fighters that do a ton of damage and cannot be Blocked in any way. The two lesser of the three are a mage and an Abomination-esque unit that eats corpses to power itself up.
For 20 Soul Essence, you can summon and control a fucking Balrog. The sky in the entire map goes dark when this unit is deployed, and sulfurous ash starts to rain down on the battlefield. These guys will mow through units. In fact, somewhat like a Tank from Left4Dead, their health gradually decreases over time, and can only be filled up -by killing-.
I downloaded this game early yesterday, and it pretty much consumed me. I've only really scratched the surface of the game in this post; it really has to be played to fully understand. It's one of those games where you wonder "Why hasn't anyone ever done this before?" It's like what I wish PvP in WoW and Warhammer was, but can't be.
It's a pretty significant time investment per match, though. Depending on your side and the map, matches can last as little as fifteen minutes, or stretch on for a brutal, hour long killfest.
Savage 2 is an online first-person shooter / RTS hybrid, similar in concept to Command and Conquer: Renegade, but pulled off immeasurably better. Savage 2's world is rooted in a strange kind of high-tech medieval fantasy and a war between the Humans and Beasts.
There are two roles for you: Commander (of which there is only one per side per game) or soldier. Commanders view the battlefield from overhead like a standard RTS, watching as the players below scramble and fight for control. They are responsible for placing buildings, giving orders, collecting gold from gold mines, and bestowing "buffs" to players far below. Didn't want xsaiyajinx to die in that rush? You can Res him every minute or so.
The soldier game is where I've spent a lot of my time, and I (personally) think it's the most fun. Your character "levels up" within each match, starting at level 1 and growing gradually upward (I've hit level 15, but it can go higher). As you level, you get to spend points in either Agility (increases stamina and stamina regen), Endurance (increases health and health regen), Intelligence (increases mana and mana regen), and Strength (increases melee damage). As you spend more points in a stat, it starts to cost more per point, so invest wisely.
As a soldier, you earn levels and gold by killing enemy players with your chosen unit. Both sides start out with three basic units to start, which cost nothing to purchase. As the Commander works his way up the tech tree, more classes, abilities, and items are unlocked, including some very tough, very big heavy hitters that cost a player some of their own gold to buy. An example of one of these units is a Beast siege where you essentially take control of a monstrously huge giant wielding a tree, and lumber him up to enemy buildings to smash them. This unit costs 750 of your own gold, which is not a small amount, and they're also relatively vulnerable to normal ground units, as they attack very, very slowly.
Combat is extremely dynamic and fast paced, with room for a healthy amount of skill. Most combat in Savage 2 is melee, and for that, there are three things to pay attention to:
1) Normal attacks: Performed by pressing the left mouse button. Your character swings, doing the listed amount of damage on their character sheet. Most characters have a 3-hit combo that they can perform (shifters and marksmen do 4) the last hit doing bonus damage. Attacking drains your stamina.
2) Blocking: Performed by pressing and holding the middle mouse button or C on the keyboard. Neutralizes oncoming melee hits, but drains your Block Gauge (a white bar that pops up over your head when you start blocking) with every hit. Effective against single opponents, not so much against three. If your block shatters, you'll be thrown off balance and not able to do anything for a second or so. With a little over a single combo being most units' base life, this can be fatal.
3) The Charge Meter: Drained by holding the right mouse button. Allows you to move extremely quickly for a short period of time in a straight line. Can also be used to perform rolling maneuvers.
Skillfully managing yourself in battle can make a huge difference. If you and your opponent just start wailing on each other at the same time and see who drops first, it might be entirely random who ends up dead, and whoever survives will have taken a ton of damage. In a fight between a skilled player and one that just spams attack, however, the skilled player may win the fight taking very little damage, if any at all.
Getting the killing blow on players earns you Soul... Essence. I can't remember the exact name. You can spend these soul essences at special locations on the battlefield called Scars. These locations are gateways to the fiery depths of Hell, and if your side has claimed and build a Hellshrine on one of these scars, you can use your Soul Essence to summon and control special Hellborne units. These are extremely capable fighters that do a ton of damage and cannot be Blocked in any way. The two lesser of the three are a mage and an Abomination-esque unit that eats corpses to power itself up.
For 20 Soul Essence, you can summon and control a fucking Balrog. The sky in the entire map goes dark when this unit is deployed, and sulfurous ash starts to rain down on the battlefield. These guys will mow through units. In fact, somewhat like a Tank from Left4Dead, their health gradually decreases over time, and can only be filled up -by killing-.
I downloaded this game early yesterday, and it pretty much consumed me. I've only really scratched the surface of the game in this post; it really has to be played to fully understand. It's one of those games where you wonder "Why hasn't anyone ever done this before?" It's like what I wish PvP in WoW and Warhammer was, but can't be.
It's a pretty significant time investment per match, though. Depending on your side and the map, matches can last as little as fifteen minutes, or stretch on for a brutal, hour long killfest.
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