Gooey and Icky.
Journey to the Savage Planet was a pretty fun time, despite the lack of any real impact from its combat and story. It was a slapstick, crude, and consistently goofy version of something akin to No Man's Sky. And from an exploration angle, it succeeded far more than it stumbled. So, when a sequel was announced, Revenge of the Savage Planet, I was hopeful it would improve upon the combat and provide a story that was compelling enough to warrant all the exploration and combat. Sadly, they must not have gotten the corporate mandated memo.
Revenge of the Savage Planet trades in its first person perspective for a third person adventure, and franky, it does wonders for the personality of the game and for your lead protagonist. A hilarious running animation does wonders to elevate this, if only the stamina was drastically increased to consistently provide more of it.
This new perspective also helps with the design of the world as you are grappling around with some basic platforming, grinding floating lines of energy a la Ratchet and Clank, and far more movement and mobility that would likely be an annoyance if played in a first person perspective, especially during the swimming sections. That said, the developers are looking to add a first person mode in a future patch, likely taking the Riddick/Indiana Jones and the Great Circle approach to zooming out for those moments and then reverting back to the first person view when completed. Hopefully, they add some sort of joke to the whole thing.
Where Revenge of the Savage Planet stumbles the most is similar to what plagued the original. Combat and its narrative are severely lacking, almost feeling like afterthoughts once again. While the gun can be upgraded to be a tiny bit more useful than the default setting, it still has its issues of overheating far too often with a drastically long reload time. Because of this, shooting feels tiresome as you attempt to dodge attacks while the gun slowly reloads. Sure, you can find an upgrade to fix some of this, but shooting should feel good out of the gate, since you'll be doing lots of it.
The story also feels shoved aside in favor of implementing countless corporate jokes and crude humor without much substance to what you are actually supposed to do. Hell, when I beat the game, I was actually shocked that that was the final mission, it sort of came out of nowhere. Apart from the setup, I'm not sure even what the story was.
The humor, language, and context of what is here definitely makes this a game you likely won't want your kids playing, at least those who are very young. This is a shame since the game feels perfect for it, especially since there is some rather impressive co-op play both locally and online. In regards to the language and humor, you could technically mute the voices and they could get on with it, but muting the companion bot would remove some story context information, regardless of setting its use to minimal, via a slider in the options.
The story begins as you come out of cryogenic sleep, travelling some few hundred light years away from earth only to find out you've been fired and all support isn't coming your way. That said, your former employer is obsessed with what you're uncovering on the planet and attempts to re-fire you numerous times. Still, you have your tools that you'll need to survive, a growing series of buildings you use to make your small settlement, but the issue regarding your tools is that they are scattered across several planets, which is an improvement over the original as you explored a single location back in the day.
Eventually, you get mysterious messages from a shadowy figure. While I understand the motive and reasoning for what this shadowy figure wants and how they went about it, I never found it compelling enough to be the main story. A side quest? Absolutely, but it doesn't have the meat to hold the entire story. Personally, finding genuine dirt on Alta and having them hunt you down, would have been more compelling, especially as it would have introduced more boss battles than the few that are here.
Throughout the journey across this savage planet, you'll be tasked with collecting animals. You'll soon get a whip and use it to lasso foes into a wormhole and have them teleported to your containment facility to be dissected, butchered, and yet reassembled exactly as they were. Sure, it doesn't really make much sense, but this research can provide new abilities and more, I just wish it didn't have a real time clock counting it down. 5 minutes of waiting? Well, at least they provide you a suite to purchase furniture and appliances to mess around in the meanwhile. I have to give them props as most of the items you plunk down can be interacted with. Take that, Animal Crossing.
As you harvest, shoot, and plunder resources around the map, you'll use them to craft essential upgrades. Some upgrades need to be found across each of the five planets, so you'll find some of the more expanded ones later on and mostly unlock the ones needed to push through the story. These range from a boosted jump, a ground slam, to improving your gun, fall damage protection, increasing your scanning range, and countless more, providing you find the upgrade schematic that is.
In addition to combat, you'll have a few throwables, such as bait, which can be thrown to garner the attention of the enemy. And, like in the first game, you can throw bait onto an enemy and see its friends hunt it down. You'll also have a spray hose that can emit a toxic sludge, fire, or an infinite supply of water to wash away said substances as the other gooey reserves require refilling. These play into puzzles as you attempt to use the purple sludge which can act as a conduit between electrical nodes. Fire can burn down cobwebs, and you'll earn a tuning fork that can pull specialized crystals into the air and allow them to be thrown at walls that are initally a stop to progress. The hose has many uses, and they all work well to aid in exploring and combat. In fact, the best boss in the game has to be defeated via this purple conduit sludge. To be honest, It was the only boss I enjoyed whatsoever.
Due to the new perspective, costumes play a big role here. You can find numerous outfit pieces all across the planets, and the game provides plenty at the start with the deluxe edition adding even more. You'll have hats, gloves, boots, and your overall body look, all of which can be dyed with a ton of color palettes. Hell, you can even play as Dave the Diver. This new feature is very much welcomed. If Raccoon Logic wanted to turn a third game into a loot game, I'd be all for it.
Similar to the first game, there are countless emails, commercials, and various things that you'll be sent to the main computer in your main base. The production values are pretty decent, with one corporate video feeling like you were talking to what would have been Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg’s secretary from the Fifth Element. The Ding Dong video was likely my favorite due to the fact they are making fun of the randomness of most influencers, and let's be honest here, many deserve this. While some are required viewing, many are optional and just simply play on the monitor.
Revenge of the Savage Planet sadly lacks the photo mode of the first game, including all the cool filters that were present in it. It's a shame since this is a very good looking game, even if it doesn't really put Unreal Engine 5 to task. The individual planets have a host of areas to explore, and countless enemies, and they all look good, including the few bosses you'll encounter.
Considering the events that surrounded Typhoon Studios and having it shut down by Apple, it's a miracle that Raccoon Logic, which was created by several members of Typhoon Studios, were even able to craft this sequel, especially given the closures of countless studios across the industry. Regardless, I want to see this series evolve into something a bit more focused on combat, and crafting a story that makes me care about this world and what I am meant to do in it. The humor is fine enough, and did make me chuckle, but it rarely kept my interest since it mostly devolves into the same crude jokes that are driven into the ground a few punchlines too many. Personally, this series has the potential to be something akin to Ratchet and Clank, should it take a lot of its creativity and humor and give us an ample supply of weapons and traversal tools to really stand out. Journey to the Savage Planet still remains the better game, but only by a slime covered whisker.
Regardless of my issues with Revenge of the Savage Planet, Racoon Logic survived a studio closure to reform and return to this series. While Revenge makes some improvements over Journey, I certainly wanted more from it than what is here. The third person perspective is ideal for this series, and there is a lot of potential for a third game. All in all, Revenge of the Savage Planet can be a great time in co-op, since the story is so in the background that you could mute it and not feel like you've lost anything in the process.
Developer - Raccoon Logic. Publisher - Raccoon Logic, Maximum Games. Released - May 8th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, GeForce Now, Windows. Rated - (T) Animated Blood, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Language. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.