Savage: The Battle For Newerth

Savage: The Battle for Newerth is a fantasy/science fiction computer game that combines aspects of Real-time strategy and First-person shooter into one game. The producers of the game define it as a 'Real Time Strategy Shooter', or 'RTSS'. It takes place in the far future when man has (after an apocalypse) rebuilt society, but is threatened by intelligent beasts. On September 1, 2006, S2Games made the game free to download on its website.

Gameplay

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The goal of Savage is to destroy your opponents' Stronghold/Lair, as this is the main point at which the Soldiers spawn (they can also spawn from garrisons/sublairs (which can be built) and spawnflags (which can not)).

Savage is played completely online with other human players. The game has two or more teams (usually Humans vs. Beasts, but other configurations, like Human vs. Human, are possible). Each team has one commander, who plays the game like a Real-Time Strategy game. They research weapons, place buildings to be built, and—of course—command everyone. Whom ever clicks on the command button first gets to be the commander, which can, of course, lead to some problems with bad commanders and the like. To counter this, the team can call an impeachment vote (ejecting the current commander) or they can vote to elect a new commander. It is also easy for new players to go and learn to command on empty servers.

The other 1 to 63 players on the team are the soldiers, and they play it like a First-Person Shooter, although most of the fighting is done in a Third-Person Melee style combat. Most of their job involves killing the enemies, but they can also help build buildings and gather resources. Some Soldiers can be promoted to the rank of Officer by their commander. Officers can help the coordinate the other soldiers, and can work with the commander to coordinate attacks that the commander could not do on their own. These officers slowly regenerate their own health as well as that of any other team-mates close to them.

There are also up to ten workers on either team, but they are directly controlled by the commander, and are used mostly for construction and resource gathering, although they can be ordered to attack (but do little damage).

The soldiers fight using a melee weapon, which is unique to their unit, and a selectable ranged weapon, which have no unit restrictions (The Beasts may choose to upgrade their melee weapon as an alternative to using a ranged weapon). They also have three slots to hold items. For the humans, these items are Med Packs, Ammo Packs, Land Mines, Demolition Packs, Immobilizers, Sensors, Disrupters, and Relocaters. The beasts can choose between Mana Crystals, "Frenzy" crystal, Sixth Sense, Snare, Fire Wards, Sacrifice, Storm Shields, and Mist Shrouds.

Each race has unique strengths and weaknesses. The Beasts are proficient at melee attacks, as emphasized by their ability to leap towards their enemies and by the fact that their first weapon line is completely melee based. Humans, on the other hand, focus on ranged attacks more, which is demonstrated through their lack of special melee weapons, and with their ability to block anything in front of them.

Game Modifications

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Savage Full Enhancement

The Savage Full Enhancement is a community expansion package that improves netcode, improves the GUI, and adds other features such as 3 or 4 team gameplay, duel maps, capture the flag and approximately twice as many configurable options. It also prevents many exploits and cheats. The mod was formerly known as the Savage Enhancement Project before its final version in January, 2007. It adds many game improving changes, including lag compensation, weather effects, as well as many other features. On June 27th, 2007, the Newerth community site announced that it would be responsible for maintaining the project, as well as adding additional features.

Savage: XR

After announcing the acquisition of the Savage Full Enhancement SDK in July, the Newerth community released the first preview of Savage: XR on September 30th. This release now supports new enhancements to the Silverback engine, which attempt to bring current generation graphics to Savage. The announcement video demonstrates some new graphical upgrades. The developers have announced new features such as a simpler installer, an automatic game updater, and an improved statistics system. No release date was specified.

Critical reception

Eurogamer awarded Savage 8 out of 10, criticizing the lack of any introductory tutorials and technical glitches, but highlighting the RTS-style gameplay aspects, accommadation for a wide range of player styles and good looking graphics.

See also

• Savage 2: A Tortured Soul
• S2 Games

References

External links

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

• Australian Fan Site
• Official site
• newerth.com - A Savage 1 & 2 community site
• Savage: The Battle for Newerth at MobyGames
• http://fragtopia.com/articles/savage-interview/savage-interview.shtml - Interview with Jesse Hayes (COO S2 Games)
• SavageIsr.co.il - Israel community site