Savage: The Battle for Newerth review

If you're a grunt, however, it pays to have the big boss on your side, since he'll be able to reward you with ranks, and allow you to gain more weapons and is generally up there in the sky sorting out all the stuff such as building spawn-points and defences, so that you can get on with battling the enemy. Grunts collect money as they play, allowing them to access different weapons and character classes. It is, however, only with the help of the uber-boss that the best of these can be claimed and used. Of key interest to players are the enhancements that allow them to spawn as something other than the basic worker fellow. These come in a number of different forms, ranging from fast-moving assault-type troops to monstrous siege weapon fellows who batter the enemy buildings down with gleeful power.

Savage is profoundly beautiful, although hugely demanding on lesser PCs. It is, more importantly, innovative and refreshing. S2Games really have tried to do something new with the tiring multi-player types, even if they were actually beaten to it by the Half-Life mod, Natural Selection. However, this is not a game that is going to cause waves outside of a select group of online gamers. The appeal is simply not broad enough, nor the action exhilarating enough, while the lack of a tutorial is profoundly disappointing. And if you're a strategy buff, hoping to order about real people, you'll find it infuriating indeed. Everyone wants a go at being the boss, and you'll just have to wait your turn.

Savage: The Battle for Newerth is available for online play now