Journey to the Savage Planet takes place in the far-distant future. Your character, a lone colonist sent to a random planet, discovers that the planet isn't so deserted. The ruins of an alien civilization dot the planet, and it's up to you to explore it to earn your keep. There's more to the strange planet than meets the eye, and surviving might not be as easy as it seems.

Journey to the Savage Planet is the latest in a line of games that basically tells a tongue-in-cheek tale of endgame capitalist satire using space travel. Much of the game is pretty much a comedy, with the joke being that you're a poor wage slave (or unlucky dog, depending on character choice) who is at the mercy of an unfeeling corporation. Think Borderlands or The Outer Worlds to get a feeling for the tone. The jokes hit pretty often, and it makes exploring the planet an enjoyable experience.

Journey to the Savage Planet is most reminiscent of games like Metroid Prime. You start with nothing to your name, but you quickly gain new powers, starting with simple boosts and eventually shifting to grappling hooks and temporary flight. While there are one or two combat upgrades in the game, the majority of your upgrades are to mobility. The challenge isn't in killing enemies but in navigating the strange world.

One nice feature is that you're not limited to permanent upgrades when it comes to exploration. You can find consumable items that create a squishy mass that launches you into the air or makes a grappling hook spot where none previously exists. Most of these are optional and aren't necessary to progress, but they add a sense of control to your exploration. With some clever movement, you can get upgrades long before you're expected to. The game even has some nice dialogue recognizing this. Worse comes to worst, you die.

Thankfully, death is almost a non-issue in the game. Once you die, you're instantly cloned by your spaceship. Any items you had on you when you died are on your body (or somewhere close) and can be recovered with a quick trip back, Dark Souls style. However, since Journey to the Savage Planet is no Dark Souls in difficulty, this is more like a relaxing return than anything particularly punishing. It makes taking risks feel a lot more reasonable because even if you leap off a cliff and die, well, that isn't the new clone's problem.

Exploring is a lot of fun. There's enough flexibility in the gameplay, so you don't feel like you're locked into one specific way of getting somewhere. The fact that you can do things like create jump pads on a whim mean that with a bit of creativity, you can reach areas long before you're intended to or solve puzzles in unexpected ways. This makes the mere act of getting around feel satisfying, especially since the game is good about giving you new upgrades and abilities, so you rarely feel like you're repeating things that you've already done.

It's also very rewarding. The game hides a number of neat bonuses throughout, including health-improving orange globs and mysterious alien artifacts that you use to further upgrade your skills and abilities. A lot of these are out in the open, but some are hidden and require you to use your head. Thankfully, gathering these collectibles is more fun than tedious. You don't need many of them to finish the game, and almost none are hidden in extremely out-of-the-way locations.

There is some basic combat. Most of the time, you'll either shoot enemies in their glowing weak points or solve simple puzzles to defeat boss creatures. The combat is clearly secondary to the actual exploration the game is built around. You can avoid fighting most enemies or use your upgrades without too much trouble.

The game also supports two-player co-op, but it doesn't add too much to the game. It can be fun to adventure with (or antagonize) a friend, especially since this game rewards splitting up. The second player shares all the upgrades and powers of the first player, so it's mostly for fun and doesn't carry over to your own game. It's a neat bonus, but I preferred to play alone. Getting an upgrade because someone across the map found a bonus is a lot less fun than earning it yourself.

Journey to the Savage Planet is a lower-budget game, but it makes up for that with some really nice visuals. The planet has multiple biomes, each with its own visuals, and that makes exploring a lot of fun. Going from the icy caves to green fields to floating islands to lava caves to ancient ruins gives the planet a real sense of size. The voice acting and sound also do their job very well. The voice of your ship's built-in AI frequently has amusing and varied dialogue, which helps make things feel less lonely. If you prefer that sense of solitude, you can adjust the frequency of the quotes.

Journey to the Savage Planet does exactly what it sets out to do, and the end result is a perfectly enjoyable exploration game. It doesn't break new ground, but it executed what it does well, and I found it extremely relaxing to run around and search every nook and cranny for secrets aplenty. If you're looking for something to scratch the 3D Metroid itch, Journey to the Savage Planet does a wonderful job. The $30 price tag might seem a touch high, but if you're a fan of this game style, Journey to the Savage Planet is genuinely worth the money.

Score: 8.0/10