Savage Preview

PC game fans have been enjoying multiplayer games for years, especially multiplayer first-person shooters and multiplayer real-time strategy games. But other than a few exceptions, like the remarkable 1998 hybrid game Battlezone, not many game developers have tried to combine the two. But S2 Games' multiplayer game Savage will attempt to combine both kinds of game without compromising any of the fast-paced action of a first-person shooter and without sacrificing any of the strategic depth of a traditional real-time strategy game. This is certainly an ambitious goal, but Savage is being designed with some very sound ideas, and even though the game isn't scheduled for release until the middle of the year, from what we've seen so far, this unusual game might just make good on its potential.

Unlike many real-time strategy games and unlike nearly all first-person shooters to date, Savage will take place in a fantasy setting, rather than in a futuristic one. The game will take place in a world not unlike our own, in which the human race has nearly destroyed itself with its own advanced technology. As a result, the surviving humans have more or less abandoned computers, cars, and plasma rifles in favor of living a tribal lifestyle, where hunters procure food for their clans with bows and arrows. Yet because of humankind's own folly, the inhuman creatures of the world, known collectively as the Beast Horde, have organized themselves into their own army--one whose intent is to rid the world of the scourge of man so that nature can rule uncontested. The last surviving groups of humans, known as the Legion of Man, have been forced to rediscover the technology of their forefathers, though because of their generally primitive lifestyle, they understand only a fraction of it and have begun to fashion crude firearms to complement their hatchets and arrows.

Savage's story seems interesting enough, though it's really more of an excuse to set up huge team-based multiplayer games with more than 60 players at once. Like with other multiplayer first-person shooters, you'll be able to jump into a game, check for an open server, and join one of the teams. Games of Savage will pit teams (siding with either man or beast) against each other, and if all you're after is a fantasy-themed multiplayer shooter, you'll be able to hop in and play as normal. However, Savage's gameplay is also structured like a real-time strategy game, so one player on each opposing team will play as a commander, rather than a regular character.

Commanders don't take to the battlefield like other players; instead, they view Savage from a zoomed-out isometric overhead view, much like that of any conventional real-time strategy game. From this view, commanders can order computer-controlled worker units to mine the game's two major resources, stone and gold. However, they can also issue orders to their teammates--other players who are playing Savage as a first-person shooter will be the actual units in the game. As we saw from a firsthand demonstration, they'll do this simply by clicking on a player on the map and issuing an order, just like in a standard real-time strategy game. For instance, if you want your teammates to advance to a nearby gold mine, you issue the order as you would to units in a regular real-time strategy game by clicking and selecting them, then clicking on their destination; the players will receive both audio and visual clues and will also get a flashing compass arrow at the top of their screen that will point out where they've been ordered to go.

Commanders and Soldiers

Just like in most real-time strategy games, commanders will want to harvest resources quickly in order to quickly build basic buildings and unlock more-advanced technology and stronger units, weapons, and defense structures for their bases. As a commander, you'll get resources by ordering your worker units to mine them, though you can also gain gold whenever your teammates score kills on enemy players or destroy enemy buildings. In the meantime, you'll want to build up buildings like armories and laboratories, at which you can spend additional funds to research better weapons and armor for your units, as well as stronger, upgraded units that your teammates can choose to play.

If you happen to be playing as a soldier, you'll start out as a grunt armed with a simple melee weapon that will let you attack your enemies at close range and block some incoming attacks. At the beginning of a game of Savage, you may very well want to go looking for trouble--the game will have computer-controlled monsters that will guard resource mines and choke points on the map, much like the "creep" neutral monsters in Blizzard's popular Warcraft III. And just like in Warcraft III, fighting enough of these monsters, as well as fighting enemy characters and destroying enemy buildings, will earn you experience points and eventually let you gain levels, which will give you more health and let you sustain more damage before you die. In addition, all successful kills you make as a soldier will net gold for both you and your commander--gold you can use to buy whatever weapons or upgrades your commander researches, including better weapons and stronger characters. Though we were able to see only the human side in action, at this point in time, the developer plans to implement at least three kinds of human soldier: light, medium, and heavy, which can all carry the same weapons but will have different movement speeds, deal different amounts of damage, and will cost different amounts of gold to select. Each will have the ability to briefly break into a sprint, though they'll quickly run out of endurance if they do so.

Of course by now you're probably wondering exactly how commanders can get their soldiers to follow orders--after all, in many online games, especially in first-person shooters, some players prefer to goof off and even cause trouble by killing off members of their own teams. Though the S2 team is still working out the details, it's clear that basic elements of Savage's design will promote efficient, skilled teamplay. For starters, since you'll be able to play in matches in which you'll face up to 30 enemy soldiers, you won't survive very long if you ignore your orders and attempt to go it alone. The more successful you and your teammates are, the more gold both you and your commander will have, which will let you buy better weapons and items and let your commander research better weapons and items for you. If you run out of gold to buy the longbow or crossbow you want, attempting to buy it from a nearby workshop will automatically send a quick and easy "yes or no" gold request to your commander. And of course, if you're not playing smart, or if you're being disruptive, your commander isn't going to send any extra gold your way. And S2 plans to implement server voting anyway, so that highly disruptive players can get kicked off the server by majority vote. Server votes will also let you elect commanders, though if you happen to be running your own Savage server, you'll get the first crack at the commander's position.

Savage's unusual hybrid gameplay is clearly very ambitious, and it seems that in order to really enjoy a good game of it, you may need to find a server where your teammates are skilled and work well in teams. But if the game does turn out the way S2 Games plans it to be, Savage could prove to be at once a uniquely enjoyable team-based first-person action game with multiple objectives and the very first real-time strategy game with perfect pathfinding--provided each commander's teammates follow orders. We'll find out when Savage is released this May.