Journey to the Savage Planet it’s a title that’s been circulating for some time now; the first edition, in fact, dates back to January of 2020. With the February 2023 edition, which we see in this technical review, Journey to the Savage Planet lands on the latest generation consoles: PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. With this version we are given the original game with the DLC di Hot Garbage e a variety of additional content.
So let’s see what this revised and expanded edition of Journey to the Savage Planet has to offer us.
La Recensione di Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition
Journey to the Savage Planet, for those who have never played it, is the comedic story of a space explorer. This explorer is catapulted to the planet ARY-26 aboard a second hand spaceship (and therefore falling apart on first landing) e without sufficient fuel to return (for budget reasons). The premises alone make the tenor of the game very clear. To us, personally, it reminded us a lot a parody of No Man’s Sky without procedural generation for maps and planets
The story evolves with the pilot (ie us) who, having got off the spacecraft, must explore the planet in search of resources. Resources that will allow him to progress through the game, upgrade the equipment, repair the ship and fill the tank to change planet and then, eventually, go home too.
Travel companion (so to speak) is Martin Tweed: CEO of Kindred Aerospace, and our employer. Tweed communicates with us through spam-like emails and video messages that are very reminiscent of the VHS of the 80s. It will give us indications on how to proceed with the story and clues to understand what is actually cooking with our exploration.
It is not an action game but an exploration one
In our opinion, one very important aspect to clarify, especially for those who discover the game now, is that despite the similarity to other more action-oriented games, Journey to the Savage Planet is a title very focused on exploration. And this, if we pay attention, we are also told during the gamerepeatedly, especially in the early stages.
It is true, fights exist and we find ourselves having a gun in hand almost immediately. However, at no point does combat become the primary mechanic with which we progress in history. Every now and again there are some bosses that we have to kill, but not those phases do not last long; and the movement and attack pattern of enemies it becomes obvious pretty quickly.
Much more important to us will be look around every corner to collect all possible resources. Not by chance, one of the more strategic power-ups is the double jump. Furthermore, the upgrades are very often hidden behind environmental puzzles or in particularly difficult places to reach.
In our opinion, and we are convinced of it, stopping to look at Journey to the Savage Planet as an FPS set in a Rick and Morty-esque world means taking the game from the wrong side.
A next-gen edition
What we have noticed during this review is that the adaptation to the new console generation of Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition has been an essentially technical process. In fact, we have to admit, this edition puts a new skin on something that already worked very well. Even if the game isn’t perfect, in the sense that there are points where you feel the need for a little more variety, the final result was very enjoyable and well balanced right from the first edition. Therefore, the choice not to intervene on the gameplay and on the story was, in our opinion, quite right in this specific case.
But what exactly has been added compared to previous versions?
Native 4K resolution and advanced optimization
The game now supports a native resolution of 4K. On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X 4K is rendered a 60 fps while the Xbox Series S is forced to stop at 30 fps. On all consoles though, the game was completely re-optimized for new architectures and includes the “Performance vs. Graphics”. That is, we can choose whether to direct the attention of the graphics card more on the number of frames per second or on the sharpness of the image.
New missions and content
Moving on to the game, the designers, while not deciding not to revise the gameplay, they just have a few side missions. It could also be, but this is our speculation, that they are non-core missions to be left out of the original game due to development times or budget.
Not strictly related to the game, but still contributing to the unique setting, there are some new fake ads inside the starship and the additional options for chatting with Martin TweedIf you’re the type of gamer that skips all the cutscenes and optional videos, then know that you’ve been missing out on something really fun.
New photo mode
Finally, the developers have taken the ball for the leap extend photo mode. Considering that we are faced with a world filled with bizarre shapes and bursting with brilliant colorthis will certainly be a very welcome novelty for all panorama hunters.
Just two small warnings
If we really want to criticize this game, the next-gen edition could also be a good opportunity to extend regionalisation also to other languages. We understand very well that from a budget point of view it would have been very demanding, but in our opinion it would have also contributed a lot to the popularity of the title. In Italian we can count on subtitlesbut sometimes they distract from the images and puns aren’t as fun when reading them.
Finally, we close with a note of a technical nature. Due to heavily optimized for the latest consoles, this edition is not an update but a completely new software. In fact, you need to re-download everything from the various stores. Nothing serious, but there is a small price to pay: because of the different structure previous saves are not compatible and, if we want the new features, we’ll have to start the adventure all over again. For those who have already finished the game, given the good re-playability, this will not be a problem. All those who are still halfway through the adventure, however, will be forced to make a rather drastic decision.
Did someone say free update?
For those who bought the console game for the previous generation there is good news: the next-gen upgrade is free! If you bought from the online store, the new version will be made available for you to download automatically. If you have a physical copy, things change slightly: with the PlayStation 5 it will be enough to start the game with the disc in the console, while with an Xbox X / S (the only exception) you have to contact the customer support of 505 Games.
Be warned though, if you have bought the basic version of the game in any form, then the upgrade is not included. For any doubt, we suggest you read the FAQ the 505 Games.
La recensione di Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition per next-gen in sintesi
Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition has already been around for a while. With this latest generation console edition, it refreshes the skin of a formula that already worked very well. I 4K native eh even smoother movements they are excellent excuses to go back to playing, but we objectively didn’t need to. THE additional content and moviesin our opinion, are an equally valid reason, if not even more so.
The game, we all know, It’s a blast and still is after two years. For those who had already taken it, this is an opportunity to play it again and discover all the additional content. For those who have never tried it, it becomes an opportunity to jump on board and embark on an adventure like few others.