Journey to the Savage Planet: Explore a Vibrant Planet in this Comedic Adventure Game

Journey to the Savage Planet is a vibrant and comedic first-person exploration-adventure game set on an uncharted alien world. As an employee of the fourth-best interstellar exploration company, players are tasked with determining whether the planet AR-Y 26 is fit for human habitation. The game blends light survival mechanics, platforming, and environmental puzzles with a heavy dose of humour and colourful sci-fi worldbuilding.

Plot and Setting

You play as a newly hired explorer for Kindred Aerospace, dropped onto an unknown planet with minimal equipment and even less information. With only an AI companion and a mission brief that reads more like a corporate brochure, your goal is to document alien life, uncover the planet’s secrets, and maybe make it back home.

Though marketed as a peaceful survey mission, AR-Y 26 holds surreal alien ecosystems, ancient technology, and unexpected threats. As you dig deeper, you uncover evidence of a forgotten alien civilisation while dealing with the absurd mandates of a barely functioning megacorp.

The world is divided into distinct biomes, each filled with bizarre flora and fauna, including bouncing jellyfish, explosive puffballs, and acid-spitting creatures. Despite its whimsical appearance, danger lurks beneath every colourful rock.

Gameplay Mechanics

Exploration and Platforming:

Players explore large, semi-open environments filled with verticality, requiring double jumps, grappling hooks, and jetpacks to traverse.
Progression is Metroidvania-style. New tools and upgrades allow access to previously unreachable areas.

Resource Gathering and Crafting:

Collect alien materials to craft upgrades, like better weapons, movement tools, or scan equipment.
Inventory and health are minimal, encouraging smart exploration over combat dominance.

Scanning and Discovery:

A major gameplay element involves scanning creatures and objects to build a database.
Knowledge often reveals how to exploit, avoid, or interact with the planet’s odd life forms.

Combat:

Basic first-person shooting with an upgradable pistol.
Emphasises environmental manipulation over heavy firepower. Lure enemies into traps, use bait, or knock them into hazards.

Co-op Mode:

Optional two-player online co-op allows shared exploration and shenanigans.
The game’s quirky tone makes it a fun, often hilarious multiplayer experience.

Themes

Corporate Absurdity: The game is a satire of space colonisation as a capitalist enterprise, mocking underfunded tech startups and risk-averse mega-corporations.

Discovery and Curiosity: Core gameplay encourages methodical observation and experimentation over brute force.

Isolation vs. Humour: Though you’re alone on an alien world, the game offsets loneliness with irreverent humour and a whimsical tone.

Environmental Consequence: Some puzzles and interactions subtly explore the impact of exploiting alien ecosystems.

Visuals and Audio

The game’s visual style is bright, saturated, and whimsical, blending classic pulp sci-fi aesthetics with modern rendering. Alien creatures are often grotesque and hilarious in equal measure, and environments range from lush jungles to crystalline caves.

Audio plays a significant role in tone. Witty AI commentary, bizarre creature noises, and constant sarcastic reminders from Kindred Aerospace’s marketing team continue throughout the game. The game also features in-universe commercials parodying consumerism, corporate culture, and sci-fi tropes.

Have you played Journey to the Savage Planet? What’s your favourite part of it? We’d love to hear from you.

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