Developer
iROCK

Released: March 28, 2002
Genre: Action
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

8
8
5
9
8.1

Supported Features:

Well, a year has passed, and Ozzy has since dropped out of this project and moved on to opening his home to MTV viewers. But even without a famous celebrity to star in or endorse this title, Savage Skies explodes onto the PS2 with stunning visuals, music, and complex gameplay that rivals games like Jedi Starfighter.

Savage Skies puts you on the back of several mythical flying creatures including various dragons, a Pegasus, a Roc, and even a unicorn (who knew they could fly). Those of you familiar with the recent PS2 game, Drakan: The Ancients’ Gates will be a bit more familiar with the concept of dragon-based combat, but Savage Skies takes the concept to entirely new heights.

This game features loads of content. You can pick from three unique races that not only changes the difficulty level, but the also the missions and the creatures you will face off against. Speaking of creatures, how does 24 detailed creatures, each with their own attacks, breath weapons, and performance characteristics sound? Sure it sounds good reading about it, but what about playing it.

You are eased into the flight dynamics with a nice tutorial that teaches you takeoffs and landings, and then moves into combat and special attacks. You finish off the training by defeating several waves of enemies inside a giant netted arena that resembles a circus big top.

Once you pick your faction, you being a 9-mission campaign and that’s when things get really cool and challenging. I am almost positive that it would be impossible to complete all mission objectives on your first pass through any given mission. This guarantees you will be replaying many of these missions at least two or three times if you strive for perfection.

Many missions have time limits that don’t allow you the freedom you might like to explore the fantastic landscapes in this game. Power-ups are plentiful and are used to create paths through 3D-space taking you on a wild ride through giant skeletons half-buried in the sand, over mountains, through twisting canyons, or narrow caves.

One of these power-ups is the Shard, which will reveal that mission’s secret objective. If you don’t find the Shard you won’t even know what that objective is when you replay the mission. Of course, searching for the Shard takes time and you must weigh the chances of finding the Shard versus completing the mission within the time limit.

Combat can be challenging with several enemies coming at you at once from all directions. You will also battle giant sky ships that look very much like Jabba’s sail barge, plus ground-based objects like buildings and gun turrets. Some mission objectives require you to defeat all enemies in a level within a preset amount of time.

Controlling your mount is quite easy with the Dual Shock controller. You press X to flap your wings and the Square to slow and hover. A double tap of either button gives you a speed burst or lands your mount. The Circle launches any special attacks you may have picked up like mines and the Triangle launches your lock-on attack. The front buttons handle your target lock and firing. It’s all very intuitive and totally configurable if you don’t like the default setup.

Your mount generally has two attacks; a primary long-range attack, plus a breath weapon that works at close range for as long as you hold the secondary fire button. You may also have a lock-on weapon that does minimal damage, but is great for weakening an enemy before you move in for the kill.

Other levels are just as inspiring including dismal swamps, barren deserts, and freezing snowcapped mountains. Each level also features dynamic weather effects and realistic time of day lighting with real-time shadows. Everything about this game has a fantasy style that is very reminiscent of the Heavy Metal magazines and movies.

The special visual effects are spectacular with fiery explosions, particle effects, and detailed textures on just about every object and creature in the game. Breath weapons all have a distinctive look and react with realistic physics.

There really aren’t any cutscenes in Savage Skies, but the opening movie is created using game engine graphics and offers an adrenalin pumping cinematic experience that will have you grabbing from the controller.

Sound effects are great with thunderous explosions when the larger ships and structures explode into large chunks, the screech of the various creatures, or the almost comical “splat” when you finally kill another creature and it blows apart.

The only speech is the narration during the opening movie, the mission briefings and a few audible cues during the action. I swear they got the guy from Gauntlet to do the voice. It has that same signature deep bass booming quality to it that really makes you take notice.

There are also plenty of secrets to unlock, which always add to the longevity of a game. You can unlock 24 creatures, secret levels, and even gameplay modes. Unlocking these items is no easy task and will require substantial gameplay.

And when you tire of the single player missions you can always challenge a friend to a head-to-head battle in any of the 7 multiplayer levels. Choose from any of the mounts you have previously unlocked in the campaign and see who rules the Savage Skies.

Savage Skies delivers that great gameplay wrapped up in a full-featured package stuffed with more extras than any two other games and sealed with some amazing visuals that all combine to make this one of the most addictive flight combat games I have played in a long time.