Once you have read our review, be sure that you scroll down and check out S2 Games' rebuttal from Marc DeForest, Lead Designer of Savage 2.

Getting smacked in the face with a tree branch, chopped to bits by a huge flaming sword, being mauled by a possessed bear are all things that can happen while playing Savage 2: A Tortured Soul, a follow up to 2003’s Savage: The Battle for Newerth. While the original game gained a decent following, the game was criticized for being too difficult for the casual player to simply jump right into. In Savage 2, the game takes some strides to make the experience easier to newbies who are unfamiliar with the game.

Let’s make this clear, if you haven’t had a lot of experience with this type of RTS battle game before (think Natural Selection meets Planetside), then you are going to want to go through the tutorial. The battle system here is slightly complex for the casual hack-and-slasher, and it takes some getting used to if you want to truly shred through your opponents in combat. The premise of the action is simple enough for any PC gamer to understand. The commands are controlled by either a press of an assigned number or just by scrolling the wheel you should have on your mouse (it’s 2008, there shouldn’t be any mice out there that don’t have one).

By scrolling through these commands the view may shift from 3rd-person to 1st-person depending on the weapon or ability that is selected. What’s nice is that it makes this shift seamlessly, not adding any special flair to the transition. Some characters come equipped with a machine gun or possibly the ability to throw fireballs. Whatever the ability, you can be assured that the complexity has been left out when trying to execute simple battle commands to your character. In battle though, you’ll find that if you are faced with an enemy with little to no backup from your squad, it is best to stay in 3rd-person and rain down hell with your melee weapon, as the 1st-person projectiles do little to stop a rampaging enemy unless someone else is hacking away at them as well.

In battle you have the choice to be part of the human race or of the beast variety. These two different races bring with them each a different set of advantages. While the humans have building destroying weapons such as a trebuchet or a battering ram, the beasts have a Behemoth who wields a torn out tree trunk with which to smack around people and buildings with. In addition to the basic units that each race offers, there are also the Hellbourne units that each group can attain and use in battle. There are two of these units, one which is a cobbled together amount of knight armor and bones, and the other which is a giant flaming winged beast that will call up memories of the Balrog, only this one carries a big sword and not a whip.

Once you’ve made your decision as to what race you will be in battle, you then have the option of actually commanding your troops in battle if the other people in your group see fit to let you lead. This introduces the RTS element of the game, in which you can dole out commands for the other people in your team to carry out. Actions such as building up your base with structures or attacking a specific unit can all be carried out here, but it is up to your units whether they will actually follow. It becomes really easy to simply piss someone off by becoming a builder and screwing with your team bank account by building random structures in the middle of nowhere, or right in the heart of a battleground. There is a certain sense of glee you can attain by setting a massive structure that should only be at your base, and then getting the frustrated typing and screams of a commander who has absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. For the sake of team unity I wouldn’t recommend this (unless you just feel like screwing everyone over before you have to turn off the game).

Be careful though, because actions like that can come back and bite you, especially if you decide that you want to legitimately play the game. Why is that? Because every game played is saved on S2games website which can be reviewed at a later time. These replays are surprisingly well captured, as you can rewind, fast forward, and pause any of the action on screen. This could be used to scope out your activities before you are admitted to a clan, or by a pissed off player who wants to register a complaint. Also another good use would be for studying purposes, as you can check the leader boards and scope out a few of the top player’s matches to see what strategies they use in battle.