Journey To The Savage Planet

Developer Typhoon Studios Publisher 505 Games Format PC (tested), PS4, Xbox One Release Out now

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We’ve been unsure about 505 Games for a while, to be honest. The Italian publisher has a fine eye, no doubt, but after the deal has been signed its games have always seemed a little underpromoted. At E3 last year, Control was one of the big hits among the assembled press, but it was quietly tucked away in a meeting room upstairs; the eventual torrent of end-of-year awards that rained down on Remedy’s game had little to do with how much it was, or rather wasn’t, promoted. Yet the messaging around Journey To The Savage Planet has been pitch perfect. When we first touch down in Typhoon Studios’ debut, we know exactly what to expect – and the game is all the better for it.

Quite how much of that is down to 505 is open to question, admittedly. After all, Typhoon co-founder and creative director Alex Hutchinson has spent the past couple of years detailing Savage Planet’s creation in these very pages in his column, Hold To Reset. Perhaps, therefore, we come to the game better informed about his intentions for the project than the wider gameplaying public. But out on the press circuit Hutchinson has been measured and consistent in explaining what the game both is, and isn’t, proving that game development isn’t just about what you make, but how you talk about it too.

Landing on a planet that looks like it’s been generated by the No Man’s Sky algorithm naturally invites a certain set of comparisons; likewise the knowledge that this game was directed by a developer who, at Ubisoft, was at the helm of Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4.