Needless Complexity

I can’t believe it happened to me…

Wandering the seedier parts of the internet yesterday (*cough*gamespy*cough*) I was solicited by an ad for an indie game called Savage 2: A Tortured Soul by S2 Games.

It was my first time. I’d never let an internet ad touch me like that before.

(Yes…I’ll justify it to myself by saying it was intentional…)

Ever.

(Seriously. I’ve been doing this how long? 10 years?)

I swore I was saving myself for Puzzle Quest 2.

(But I’m into the scene, so I figured, “what’s the harm?” )

I never thought it could happen to me.

But now there’s something growing inside of me.

(Oh god…)

My first reaction?

(Not what you might expect.)

“For an indie shop? Not bad.”

My girlfriend’s reaction?

“Looks just like Warcraft…”

(Oh god…she knows…)

Me: “Naw…”

(play it cool…)

Her: “…JUST like Warcraft.”

(Make it a quick confession.)

I have to hand it to her. She knows me. Lacking 20 years of pedantic gamer nitpicking to jade her, she was pretty spot on. As a stickler for details when it comes to things like this, I won’t say I was precisely wrong for what I did, and neither was she precisely right about how she felt about it, but…

…as it turns out, we were both right! And she still loves me despite my indiscretion. Savage 2 definitely tries to pay homage to the Warcraft franchise in look (WoW) and feel (Warcraft 3), but when it comes to actual implementation…?

Well, read on…

The Big Idea
Savage 2 is touted as a hybrid RTS/FPS/MMO(RPG?). Flowery story descriptions aside, it’s one team versus the other and you’re either the Humans or the Beasts. Players are segregated into one of two roles: commander or squad member. One player is the commander and plays the game as if it were an RTS. He places buildings, doles out buffs and debuffs, pings the map, and gives orders. The other players choose what unit to be and are presented with a FPS or 3rd-person perspective of the battlefield depending on what ability is selected. Attacks and abilities are executed as in MUMORPUGER’s via hotkeys or clicking on icons.

There is no persistence to the world itself since each match is played on a specific map. Levels, statistics, and special items specific to your account accrue and persist as you take part in matches, however.

The game is $30 and has no monthly fees.
Demo users are given 5 hours of play time to check things out but are gimped in the following ways

• longer respawn time (20-30 seconds)
• cannot be the commander
• no tracking of stats and achievements
• cannot access certain units and abilities

The Gameplay
The ultimate goal is to destroy the opponent’s main stronghold.

After joining a team and selecting a squad, you choose a unit to spawn as and spend gold to outfit yourself with items. Items include the standard array of health, magic, and stamina potions as well as armor, speed, and attack buffs. As you defeat enemies you will gain experience and personal gold that can be spent on either items or to play as higher-tier units. This is different from “team gold” which is gained by controlling gold mines. Team gold is used by the commander to carry out his duties.

Speaking of which…

Herding Cats
I feel really bad for the commander. He just has no way to enforce order or compliance. The commander can ping the map, or type out an order (that you can’t see anyway because the font size and color scheme is so poor) but ground troops have no compulsion to carry out the order. Occasionally you’ll get a “move here” or “attack here” but the UI doesn’t do a good job of indicating precisely where “here” is. It would be much better if orders were enforced and rewarded or at least encouraged by game mechanics.

I suspect that a team with a good commander organizing tactics at a gross level could be quite successful, but I still wonder how interesting things would be for the players on the ground even then. Because everything is so fast-paced, there’s no opportunity to appreciate anyone pulling off an amazing counter or attack. Winning a skirmish feels mostly like chance. Whichever team has superior numbers usually seems to win. Getting the group to rally and not run back to die one-by-one is nearly impossible in a demo pick up game.

The worst part was that I never felt like I had been part of a team effort, even after winning several matches. I didn’t come away feeling like any individual’s contributions were either important or detrimental. There were no MVPs. There were no noobs. Savage 2 is the video game equivalent of mango Dole Whip. You go into the experience expecting something great but come away feeling like there was a hole in it, like a certain unnameable something was missing.

The Execution
This game reminds me so much of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, it’s like reliving a bad nightmare. It’s a huge type of game. Huge potential, huge ambitions, and lots of let downs. I wanted to enjoy this game really badly because the idea is just so great.

Under the hood, S2 uses a proprietary engine called K2 but at first I thought they must be using the same engine that Vanguard did (Unreal 2). You can take this as a compliment, since the Unreal engine is amazing; however, if Vanguard showed me anything it was that how you use your technology is just as important as what technology you choose to use. Animations are somewhat sloppy, collision detection can be frustrating, play control is unrefined, textures and shaders are a little bland and repetitive, and the UI gets in the way. Conceptually, the units are somewhat generic, but graphically there’s nothing about them or their abilities to really make them “pop” in the heat of battle.

For an RTS that expects players to control the actions of individual units in real time, the gameplay is way too fast and unrefined. There’s a rock-paper-scissor type of melee combat that the left, right, and middle mouse buttons map to. Block beats attack, interrupt beats block, and attack beats interrupt. Throw in 5 or 6 abilities per unit with poorly written descriptions, plus ranged attacks, plus items, and things get unwieldy pretty fast.

More often that not, I found myself feeling helpless, overwhelmed, and ultimately apathetic. What spells are being cast at me? What does that buff do? Which one of them is the healer? Where the hell is the rest of my team? Why the fuck isn’t anyone healing me? What the hell does this ability do? Whereas an RTS gold-standard like Warcraft 3 is instantly intuitive, Savage 2 is just the opposite. Even with your team at your back, your death usually comes so quickly from being ganked that you’ll grow frustrated at feeling like you have no real control over the outcome of encounters. One major issue is that you’re forced into mouse-look mode, so you can’t mouse over anything to figure out what the hell is happening. I found myself reminiscing…A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

The Verdict
Despite all the above, I’ll be keeping my eye on Savage 2.

It could be great. But right now it’s not.

I love indie gaming but I hate making excuses for the indie scene just because it’s the indie scene. That’s what makes it so hard about a studio having such a great idea and pulling it off so haphazardly. S2 reached for the stars and delivered an adequate beta version. Either 6 more months in the cooker, or striving for more depth and polish instead of breadth of unfinished features would have made a big difference.

Definitely give the demo a shot, but wait for a few more patches before plunking down your $30.