If you’re looking to get your melee on—or prefer to stand back and craft a winning long-term battle plan—then S2 Games new PC title Savage 2: A Tortured Soul may be right up your alley. Extending the combined action/strategy game design that made its predecessor Savage: A Battle for Newerth a successful game title and fan favorite, Savage 2 offers fast-paced multiplayer action in which two teams from five to seventeen players pit men against beasts for control of the world.
“The development of Savage 2 has been a labor of love,” said Marc DeForest, S2 Games’ co-founder and lead designer, in a statement. “The fans have been anxiously waiting and their support has kept us working tirelessly to make sure the game lives up to their and our expectations. We can’t wait for gamers to enter the battlefield and test their skills in this truly unique game.”
Savage 2 is a free download, and new players can sign up for a demonstration account with five hours of online play. The free client lets players access the single-player offline tutorial, engage in unlimited LAN play, and tap into the extensive replay database that catalogs every game. If players get hooked, they can upgrade the client though the official Web site to get unlimited online play, full clan support through the Savage Clan League, and the ability to use persistent items.
In the game, factions of beasts and humans try to destroy each other for control of the world: player can engage in a Warrior mode akin to the fast-paced action of a first-person shooter game, or play as a Commander, working to marshall resources, craft strategies, and come up with tactics to defeat the enemy. S2 Games dubs the genre a Real Time Strategy Shooter, and ups the ante in Savage 2 with squad-based features and enhanced role-playing elements.
Savage 2 is available exclusively via download and carries a one-time price of $29.99. The game is rated T for “Teen” by the ESRB.