Savage 2: A Tortured Soul

I’ve been a big fan of real-time strategy/action hybrids since Natural Selection, and have been following up on almost every game since then that steered in that direction. Unfortunately, I didn’t play too much of the Savage: Battle for Newerth; now that I’ve played its sequel, I can imagine why so many people raved about the original. Savage 2: A Tortured Soul strikes a perfect balance between real-time melee combat and strategy, truly bringing to life the term ‘strategic warfare’ in a way that the Battlefield series could never accomplish.

The reason I make this comparison is due to the uncanny similarity in the strategic values of Savage and Battlefield. Both games require you to gain control of nodes to control the map and win the game; and both have a commander watching over the game and commanding troops. Savage 2 stands out because it actually compels you (not against your will however!) to coordinate with your team, capture bases, earn resources, and do so much more with your team in order to achieve victory.

Now before I confuse those of you that aren’t familiar with the game, let me lay down the basics. There are two sides in Savage 2 – the Legion of Man and the Beast Horde. To achieve victory, your objective is to destroy the other team’s command structure. To persevere through the skirmishes, each team requires resources so they can build and rebuild structures, spawn as special units, or buy items such as healing or mana potions. To ensure that the cash keeps flowing in, both teams have to fight for control of the various resource nodes scattered around the map, so that’s where all the action takes place.