Revenge of the Savage Planet Review

If you’re a fan of games that manage to combine chaotic and hilarious gameplay with a delightfully cozy (albeit very strange) atmosphere, then finding games that you’ll love is likely a bit of a challenge. Thankfully, Raccoon Logic Studios has managed this impressive feat with Revenge of the Savage Planet. 

Journey to the Savage Planet, to which Revenge is a sequel, was released back in 2020. It quickly gained a bit of a cult following among Metroidvania fans, and Revenge brings back that feeling with a third-person perspective and a whole new galaxy of planets to explore. It’s taken everything that was beloved from the first game, added a ton of side quests and hidden secrets, and essentially improved upon the formula. 

Alta is a relatable enemy

Revenge of the Savage Planet Review

7.0Good

PlatformPC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Release DateMay 8, 2025

DeveloperRaccoon Logic Studios Inc

PublisherRaccoon Logic Studios Inc

Everything begins with Alta, an overlord corporation that seems hellbent on dominating the universe. The corporation sends you off into space, cryogenically frozen, and in charge of finding new planets to populate with humans in a base that you set up over time. Except, before you can even reach your destination, Alta leaves a lovely personal message stating that you’ve been fired and need to move on with your life. 

Lovely. 

So now, you’re stranded on an alien planet where 90% of the native wildlife (and some of the fauna) wants to kill you, and your gear is scattered not only around this planet, but several others within the galaxy as well. And the only company you have is a sarcastic and sharp-tongued floating robot.

And I thought I had it rough when I lost my last job. Jeez, I wouldn’t want to be this guy. 

You start with nothing. No weapon, and you need to craft everything you need to survive using various resources discovered around the planets. And how do you do that without a weapon? Well, you slap things. Literally. Just give ‘em the old back-hander and hope for the best. You’re surprisingly strong, too. You can slap elements directly out of rocks, which is mildly impressive and leaves me questioning just how armored my space suit is. 

Admittedly, I haven’t made my way through the entire story yet, so I can’t tell you how it ends (I get distracted easily by side quests and optional puzzles, it’s a problem, and there are plenty of them to pick from in Revenge), but from my limited interactions with someone who hates Alta just as much as I do, it seems that the main aim is to get back at them, and possibly return to Earth in the process. So far, I’ve landed on the second planet and discovered that I’m very easy to kill, which was a bit of a shock to the system after feeling like I mastered the formula on Nu Florida. 

A collector’s dream

As you explore the worlds that you end up on, either Nu Florida or further additional worlds that you reach via the Planet Cannon (it’s exactly what it sounds like), you’ll need to scan everything around you to fill out the Kindex. You’ll also need to capture the various aliens, some of which need to be stunned in various ways, which will quickly lead to gaining the achievement “It’s Needlessly Complex”, which might be the most accurate achievement name I’ve ever heard. At least Raccoon Logic is self-aware, I suppose.

My first encounter with the native wildlife filled me with horror, if I’m honest. I found an adorable, albeit very nervous, mushroom-like creature. It puffed up in fear as I approached, and then I accidentally slapped it. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it then exploded into green goo. Cue the types of horror that can only be accompanied by shame. 

My second encounter was somehow worse. I found some frankly adorable little pink slugs that I could pick up. I thought I had a new friend to come with me on my adventures, but maybe that was just the loneliness getting me. Either way, they were cute, and I felt horrible feeding them to a tree in return for safe passage through a tunnel. Almost stopped playing there and then so I could keep my new little buddies alive.

Once you’ve captured the creatures, they are transported via a portal back to holding pens in Nu Florida, allowing you to research them and unlock new blueprints or color schemes for your various costumes. It’s like Pokémon, except more deadly, and with more riding on actually filling out your Dex of alien critters. 

There’s plenty to love

If this all sounds incredibly chaotic, that’s because it absolutely is. Taking all of these different features, planets, enemies, and secrets, and throwing them into one big blender to come up with something cohesive is an impressive feat, and Raccoon Logic once again pulls the cat out of the bag with Revenge of the Savage Planet. It’s just fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and you definitely shouldn’t either. 

By this point, I’m convinced that it’s all supposed to end up as a massive comedy of errors. Just try not to die, because you’ll need to trek back to wherever you were to get your stuff back, which is an even bigger issue if you die on a different planet, because you get sent directly back to Nu Florida every time. 

Circling back to Eko, there is a delightful option to simply… Switch her off, although it’s not recommended if you’re playing through the story for the first time. She’s your guide, after all, and you’re going to lose all of the context you need to understand what you’re doing. With that said, you can absolutely tone her down a bit (she does get a bit much), change her voice so that she’s more of a condescending male presence (why would you want that?), or just switch her off entirely. She’ll still follow you around the place, but she’ll remain blissfully silent.

With all that said, some things could be improved, and I’m not going to gloss over them for the sake of improving the score, because we don’t do that here. 

Settings could use some tweaking

The settings are pretty basic, with zero options for changing the default keybindings and very few options for how the game appears. There’s no FOV slider, so you’re stuck with the view you have, whether you like it or not. For some mind-boggling reason, there is no way to bring up the map without opening up the Journal first and manually navigating to it. Playing on PC, I’ve grown very used to the M key opening the map, and it’s kind of infuriating having to go through three interactions rather than just one. 

I know, in the grand scheme of things, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but this is an exploration game. You’re going to be opening up your map a lot, and over time, those needless additional interactions add up and get really annoying. 

If you’re playing on PC, you shouldn’t have too many problems performance-wise. There are some interesting bugs, including the random duplication of creatures within the research pens. This does double up on the creature noises, which are disgustingly loud if you’re within a mile of them, but you can at least turn that down in the limited settings options. But outside of that, nothing is game-breaking or so annoying that you’ll end up switching off. 

The graphics are stunning, even on lower settings, and maybe I’m simple-minded, but the animation has so much goofy charm that I can’t help wanting to sprint everywhere despite the limited stamina. Everything is kind of… Floppy, from the creatures to the world around you, and vibrant enough that you’ll get distracted by everything, even if you don’t have ADHD like me.

With that said, Revenge of the Savage Planet is an endless source of amusement, with tongue-in-cheek item descriptions, the endless sass of Eko as she (or he, depending on your choice there) belittles you in the nicest way possible, and ads sent from Earth that are enough to make you feel slightly queasy. I’m willing to deal with the minor inconsequential annoyances for those laugh-out-loud moments alone, and the cute little aliens and base customization options definitely help as well.