How does the latest PSN title stack up? Armando Rodriguez checks in with his full review of the RTS for the PlayStation Network.
Title: Savage Moon
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: FluffyLogic
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Number of Players: 1
Rated T
Without a doubt, one of the best games in the Playstation Network is PixelJunk Monsters, a tower defense game with charming graphics, a strong dose of challenge and tons of replay value. Savage Moon is also a tower defense game, so comparisons with PixelJunk Monsters are inevitable. The two games have little in common outside of the gameplay concept and if you thought PixelJunk Monsters was hard, boy, you have not seen anything yet!
Like all tower defense games the concept is the same: Build towers with different offensive and defensive capabilities to stop waves of enemies. The story has you protecting mining operations in several moons across the galaxy. If any enemies reach the mining operations, they will start to sustain damage and if the mining operation’s health reaches 0, it’s game over.
Savage Moon introduces several key differences from PixelJunk Monsters. First of all, the enemies are not cute little monsters, they are giant insects and gruesome things that look ripped out of Starship Troopers. They fit the typical archetypes of enemies in this type of game: Some of them can fly, some move really fast, others are slow but take a lot of punishment before going down and others deal massive damage to your towers. Yes, unlike PixelJunk Monsters, the enemies can (and will) attack your towers and eventually destroy them. This makes tower placement even more important than before. You need to find places where enemies won’t reach your towers, or make sure that you have enough repair towers placed close to your offensive towers. Secondly, there is no such thing as collecting coins or dancing on towers to upgrade them. The game’s currency, called credits, is earned automatically from destroying enemies. You can buy upgrades from the research screen and initiate them from the towers themselves. Another key difference is that you cannot build as many towers as you want. To build towers you need pods, which are also assigned automatically and are also in short supply. This means that the trial and error nature of this game is through the roof: you need to memorize where enemies come from, what types of enemies they are, which towers are the most effective (since there is a limit to how many you can make) and where to place them so that they deal the most damage possible and don’t go to waste. Expect to play the levels several times in order to memorize patterns and plan that perfect strategy.
There are two other elements that become an integral plan of any strategy. First of all, you can actually rush waves. You see, at the top of the screen you will see a meter that is slowly draining, representing when the next wave will come out. When it drains completely, the enemies come out of their holes. In your command screen, you can rush the next wave (make it come out before the meter drains) and you get bonus credits for using this feature and being successful. The other feature is Command Skills. There are three such skills: Credits, Damage and Bonus. You can select one of them for a big boost or more than one for small boosts. For example, you can select Credits, which will earn you a lot more money from disposing of the next wave, but at the expense of damage your towers deal, which will be decreased. Or maybe you want to select Damage, so that you can take down those armored bugs faster, but you will earn less money as a result. It is a nice risk and reward system that adds another layer of strategic depth.
Another thing that I like is that the game supports Trophies and that it actually rewards you for beating the levels. In PixelJunk Monsters it felt like the story modes and trophy levels where two separate games and you didn’t need to beat all of the game to get all of the trophies. Savage Moon rewards you with trophies for completing levels and there is even an insane trophy for beating every level without suffering any damage!
However, like I said, this game is insanely hard, bordering on frustrating. The great majority of the difficulty comes from the trial and error nature of the game, but there is also a degree of difficulty induced by the shoddy camera-work and some stupid A.I. decisions. The game is fully done in 3-D using polygons, which means that you need to control the camera manually. You can zoom in the camera for an up-close look at exploding bugs, or zoom it out for a full plane view. Actually, scratch that, because as far away as you can zoom out the camera, it is still not far enough, so you never have a view of the entire map. This leads to frustrating situations in which you loose a tower or two because they where out of view and it took forever to scroll to their location. It also leads to mining operations damage when the enemy decides to take a back-route or something unexpected like that and you did not see them because it was off-camera. Another frustrating thing with the camera is that sometimes you know you can place a tower in a specific spot, but the game won’t let you and you end up trying to position the camera into that “perfect” spot where the game recognizes that you can build the tower there. That takes away precious seconds and in a game of this nature, every second counts. The A.I. problems I mentioned above are mainly associated with some wonky targeting. Sometimes towers will not target an enemy even if he is in range and even worse, sometimes towers will shoot at the enemy and just before he dies, they will switch to another enemy! Even when the first bug is almost dead! This leads to situations in which an enemy with barely any health whatsoever gets to your mining operations because the tower switched targets before finishing the job.
The game’s graphics are a mixed bag. Towers and bugs are very well detailed, but the environments are drab and repetitive. Every level looks almost the same, just maybe different colored ground and different enemy spawn point locations. The effects for explosions and such are nothing spectacular either. Music is decent and fits the theme of the game, while the sound effects are well done. Overall, the sound of the game won’t turn any heads, but is serviceable.
The 411:
Savage Moon has a lot of good things going for it. When it works well and when you master a specific level, the thrill of blasting mutant bugs and watching a perfect plan unfold is fantastic. But the game is very challenging and frustrating. It requires a level of commitment and lots of trial and error to get it right. Camera and targeting issues are also very frustrating and detrimental to the game. If you are a fan of the genre, pick up Savage Moon and prepare yourself for a real challenge. But if you can only afford one Tower Defense game for your Playstation 3, make sure it is PixelJunk Monsters. It is by far a more balanced and polished product than Savage Moon.
Graphics
7.4
Towers and enemies are very detailed and animate well. The low point comes from the maps, which are drab and repetitive.
Gameplay
7.1
Trial and error nature is frustrating, the camera gets in your way more than it should and towers seem to have targeting issues.
Sound
6.5
Music and sound effects are average at best, but they do their job.
Lasting Appeal
8.0
The entire game takes about 4 hours to beat the first time around. It will take longer than that if you aim for perfect scores and the trophies. Not bad for a $10 game!
Fun Factor
7.5
In-spite of the game’s issues, watching as alien bugs are blown apart is still deeply satisfying. The game is also very addictive and will have you retrying levels just to get a better score.
