We live in strange times. The death of Google Stadia is a surprising starting point for a gem to continue to live another day. Journey to the Savage Planet, a first-person action space adventure game where doses of humor and satire run off the charts. The fall of its developer, Typhoon Studios, in 2021 led to its developers establishing Raccoon Logic and immediately acquiring the IP.
The game hit Game Pass in early 2020, and I was immediately drawn to its quirkiness. To my surprise, not only was the game silly in every conceivable manner, but it was also such a joy to play. It was the first game I played on my Xbox Series X after picking it up way back in November 2020. When I heard that the game was getting a sequel in the form of Revenge of the Savage, I was sold immediately. Though now, the game is set in a third-person perspective and cranks everything up to 11.
Developer & Publisher // Raccoon Logic
Platforms // Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, Game Pass
MSRP & Release Date // $39.99, May 8, 2025 (May 5, 2025 Early Access)
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X
A Corporate Drama for the Ages
Revenge of the Savage Planet follows a faceless explorer who is fired by the ruthless Kindred Technologies. Soon after, your character gets a second chance to prove himself. Tasked with scanning, capturing, and documenting strange extraterrestrial life on dangerous alien worlds, he embarks on a daring mission that quickly turns into a personal quest against corporate greed.
As the story unfolds, the game blends high-stakes adventure with sharp satire. The explorer faces perilous landscapes, quirky yet menacing creatures, and the dark secrets of a profit-driven corporation that exploits nature, ultimately transforming a routine mission into a personal vendetta.
Much of the story beats come through live-action video messages and emails found at your base. They are funny and poke fun at faceless corporations. In particular, I enjoyed the corporate surveys found within the emails that required giving the “towing the company line” answers to get rewarded. It’s these touches that add to the satire and humor that Revenge of the Savage Planet is clearly going for. The game has a decent payoff, but don’t expect to get emotionally invested in its story like other games. However, where it shines the most is its wacky gameplay.
Revenge of the Savage Planet Gameplay
Revenge of the Savage Planet takes its predecessor and cranks it up to 11. It builds on all the action, exploration, and platforming elements that made Journey so good to play. Revenge now features five planets for players to explore, each with unique biomes. For example, the planet Xephyr is a vast canyonous desert world with a solitary oasis. While Zenithian Rift is an icy planet with high peaks and cavernous underground caves. Each planet feels unique and is a joy to explore.
There’s always something within your vicinity to unearth. It could be orange goo you literally gobble down to increase your health and stamina bars, new cosmetics, or printer filament to upgrade your gear. Revenge of the Savage Planet does a great job of incentivizing you to explore the world. You can even capture the different wildlife by stunning them via their own unique weak spots. Moreover, researching them also provides upgrades and cosmetic goodies. My favorite world was Quasadron IX, it’s clear African savannah inspiration created for some unique backdrops.
Similar to its predecessor, Revenge excels in its progression with its gear. The 3D printer at your home base is where you’ll go to upgrade your suit and gear. With each subsequent planet, creatures will become tougher, so it is best to go in well-equipped. Players can upgrade their pistol, goo launcher, jetpack, and suit to survive.
Metroidvania Influence is Evident in Revenge of the Savage Planet
Make no mistake, there are some clear Metroidvania inspirations here in Revenge. Every major upgrade for your suit and tools opens up new areas to access. In some instances, upgrades also add verticality to the planet zones. Best of all is that your handy map will let you know which point of interest is accessible or not based on your gear. So you don’t have to waste your time trying to get somewhere when you physically can’t.
Boss Fights
Every planet features a boss fight that uses the latest ability you unlocked. For example, the jet pack stomp ability comes in clutch against the Clawbarella boss fight on the Zenithian Rift planet.
But by far my favorite boss fight was Wormzilla. The way the boss was introduced with a decoy smaller worm gave my 4-year-old son and me a great chuckle, only to be left with our jaws on the floor when we saw the real mammoth Wormzilla. It was a fun fight, relying on reflecting projectiles to bring down the clearly Dune-inspired giant worm.
Shooting the Stars, and Missing
Undoubtedly, the one area where Revenge of the Savage Planet is a downgrade from Journey is its shooting mechanics. Shooting feels floaty and inconsistent. It does become particularly frustrating when targeting flying creatures. Also, it wouldn’t have hurt to add more weapon types besides the default pistol.
Yes, the multi-use goo launcher that opens up combat a bit. Especially when you use water to take out gooey enemies that cause them to pop like a volcano zit. In addition, there are grenades that you can use by holding down the right trigger. That prompts a trajectory marker, which works well. Sadly, melee attacks like smacks, kicks, and the whip feel slow and unresponsive.
Of course, you can upgrade your pistol to have a higher heat sink and unlock the ability to active reload for faster reload and your goo launcher. I’ve learned to live with it, but the floaty shooting mechanics are a clear weakness.
Home Improvement
In Revenge of the Savage Planet, the explorer can customize their living quarters in their base. This includes unique beds, home appliances, exercise machines, and other miscellaneous accessories. I loved the fact that the names of the beds are quite hilarious. For example, the pimped out single bed is called the “Lonely Boy” while the queen-sized bed is aptly named the “First Relationship” bed. These are purely cosmetic and help make your home base truly feel like your own.
Revenge of the Savage Planet Co-Op Offerings
Revenge of the Savage Planet features both online and local coop options. More specifically, online coop operates across multiple platforms. However, signing up for Epic Games servers is required to activate cross-platform coop. Because the game utilizes a zone design for its planets, it works well, naturally tethering players together in the same zone without extreme rubber banding based on proximity.
Graphics
To put it plainly, Revenge of the Savage Planet is a gorgeous game. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the title continues its colorful, high-vibrant, and cartoony art style from its predecessor, wrapped with UE5’s high-fidelity goodness. It easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other action platformers such as Ratchet and Clank.
Many creatures have unique designs, but it’s clear there is some repetition as well. For example, the Puffer creature is found across multiple planets and features those trademark massive, cutesy, and googly eyes. It’s not a negative per se, but worth mentioning.
Performance
On the performance side, the game ran at 30 FPS on Xbox Series X. Initially, I was taken aback by the low FPS count, but as I adjusted, the game performed admirably with few technical hiccups. The game ran smoothly with hardly any frame drops. There were some staple Unreal Engine texture pop-ins.
However, pop-in usually occurred with bigger creatures, like some boss fights. Creatures in the draw distance were slow to animate and looked pixelated, and I did experience a couple of crashes to the dashboard during my 15-hour playthrough. Truthfully, these minor hiccups and 30 FPS did not detract from my enjoyment of the game.
Animations
Similar to Revenge’s other wacky presentation, the animations are also quite funny. When sprinting, the explorer pulls off this hilarious stiff palm sprint that looks straight out of Charlie Brown. Moreover, when the explorer dunks his head into an orange goo always prompted a chuckle out of me.
However, there are some inconsistencies in the animation department as well. Strangely, hitting the sluggator’s weak point when he’s reeling you in with his massive tongue doesn’t prompt the stunned animation but does cue the sound effect. All in all, the animations are well aligned with the humor the game is going for.
UI of Revenge of the Savage Planet
Revenge of the Savage Planet does feature an intuitive UI. It has a lot of clean and satirical corporate design with bold colors. However, there are minor annoyances when it comes to the map. For example, the teleporter icon appears identical to the printer filament icon.
Also, when I was first playing the game, I couldn’t for the life of me select the home base when fast traveling. That is because the area of the home base is absolutely cluttered with icons.
My forehead-smacking moment was when I realized you had to press Y to fast travel to your base. Though it wasn’t as embarrassing as the infamous Cuphead tutorial debacle, I felt myself blushing a little bit.
Audio Design
The audio department is solid in Revenge of the Savage Planet. Jetpacking, shooting, and bloody explosions all sound fantastic. The soundtrack mainly consists of Rock/pop tracks with an indie and slightly humorous undertone to the game’s music.
Especially the tracks used for the live-action adverts for the wacky products found on your home base’s massive screen. Immediately, the Squirting Burger advert comes to mind as it is as gross as it looks, with a track that does it justice. Overall, it felt consistent with the game’s themes.
Lack of Accessibility Options
When it comes to the accessibility options in Revenge of the Savage Planet, the offerings are quite slim. There’s only the option to remove vibration and motion blur. I always remove motion blur (except for racing games) because it makes games look worse. I even removed the vibration option because it was too intense, and there’s no option to tune it down.
Final Thoughts on Revenge of the Savage Planet
Revenge of the Savage Planet takes everything from its predecessor and cranks it up to 11. Despite some technical rough edges here and there, the game is an absolute blast to play. Who knew that revenge is a dish best served weird.
Final Score: 8.0 / 10
Note – a key was provided for the purpose of this review.
Pros
- Vibrant and Cartoony Graphics/Art Style
- Fun to Explore Each Planet Zone
- Boss Fights are Fun
- Great Implementation of Coop
- Humorous Presentation and Story
- Great Implementation of Metroidvania Game Design
Cons
- Floaty Shooting Mechanics
- Locked at 30 FPS
- Minor Graphical Glitches
- Additional Weapons Would be Nice
- Upgrade Questline Can be Easily Overlooked
- Some Map Icons Look Too Similar
- Lack of Accessibility Options
