This is the biggest waste of money that I've ever had. My brother and I decided to get this because it was a mix between Minecraft and Castleminer Z. It's as if you took a low budget Castleminer Z, got rid of the good monsters and then threw in a few good pictures to make it sell. Terrible game, waste of money. If it were a dollar I'd prefer to get Castleminer Z and to save my money.

EDIT: I see that 4 of 5 people downvoted this review. Let me tell you why this game is bad rather than just saying it's terrible. For the price I paid, I would much rather buy another indie game. I felt like the game really didn't play well, and it was buggy. There were numerous bugs when my brother and I were playing that interfered with our experience. The hunger and water mechanics were interesting but I don't want to worry about those when I want to build and kill dragons. I came with the expectation that I'd be able to build, but rather you have to chop trees down and you have a set schematic for the house.

I felt like the ingame experience didn't feel as fluid as it seemed in the trailer/pictures which was another con. I suppose I should have looked at gameplay videos before I bought it, but oh well.

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Combat
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Another issue I found annoying was the reach of the weapons. When I wanted to kill a rabid dog or monster that was attacking me, I couldn't kite them and use weapon range to my advantage, which is a downside. In almost every game that I've played that's good you are able to outsmart the enemies and to mess with their pathing or just use range to your advantage rather than just to cross your fingers and hope to out melee them. This was much to my dismay, as it makes for a much less interesting game that is very simplistic in nature.

Having the playability that it does, which is glitchy, and the fact that you can't outsmart enemies is really unfortunate, and it really takes away the satisfaction of killing an AI or exploiting their weakness. Tactics like these make for an interesting game, for example Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. In Chivalry you can stand in a way that your opponent will have to face the sun, and they will be unable to respond to your attacks as quick as they would without light in their eyes.

Another thing in games that I like is when they have a hill advantage, or when your positioning matters in combat. For example when you're on a hill, you can get a hitbox advantage or a bonus to attack. Or maybe being downhill is better because there is more of the opponent's hitbox available to hit as opposed to being up top. Mechanics such as these make for interesting and dynamic combat, and I saw none of these.

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Building & Crafting
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When I launched Savage Lands, I came in with the expectation that I would be able to craft and build like a sandbox game. I was excited because it looked like an improved version of the game CastleMiner Z because of the graphics and the fact that it was in development. Only seeing room for improvement, I bought it. The building and crafting system they had implemented was actually the first thing I was upset by.

You start off in a world by a boat, and you have to leave the shore and go find rocks and materials to make tools. Eventually in a little while you'll have enough materials to make a house. When I had materials, I was excited and I had this grand design planned; only to find out that you had to craft a house by using a schematic, rather than to build it by hand.

This was frustrating to me because it removed numerous planes of possibility, and it leaves for a lot less customization which essentially devalues any world that you will ever create.

One of the draws to minecraft for me was the fact that the crafting was so easy, and that each world could be customized to your liking. Once I transferred over to Xbox 360 to play minecraft (I still played on the computer) I immediately despised it. The reason why is because the crafting system was horrible. I mean, it was all right in front of you but you had to sift through categories and categories to actually find what you needed. The crafting found in the PC port of minecraft has a very easy-to-deal-with crafting system that needs some instruction but once you get the hang of it you can effortlessly craft multiple items in less than 5 seconds.

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Final Note
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I may not have enough hours on this game, but I don't need as many hours as the next guy to tell you that this game is a waste of your money and a waste of your time. If you found this game fun, that's great! I would not, however, personally recommend this game to any of my friends. The lack of personalization is disturbing, as well as the lack of interesting mechanics. Not having any mechanics to master leaves you with no incentive to keep playing the game. With no skill required, it's just artificial difficulty. Having to run and find food in a randomly generated world isn't a very fun experience when you have limited features to keep the game interesting. 15 years ago this game would have been a hit but let's face it... We're a little beyond that.

All in all I would give this game a 2/10. You saw my reasoning, which led me to write this review. Guys and girls don't waste your money on this indie game. Don't be fooled by their good marketing, this game is not nearly worth anything more than $1. Charging $7 for this game? I would rather recommend someone save up for minecraft (or get mods if you already have it!) or to get Ark: Survival Evolved. I don't have that game because it requires Kernel mode access to your PC but if you're OK with that then that's fine, it's much more quality than this. Even CastleMiner Z is a better game than Savage Lands because it's a fun game to screw around in and there are many new concepts added in the game that make it a fun game. It's a ghetto version of minecraft with neat mobs such as dragons, and they have laser guns etc.

If you try to market an idea, you either have to A. Undercut other producers in the market B. Add a unique idea that would make buyers more inclined to buy your product C. Have better marketing than your competitors.

Savage Lands, unfortunately, is only using C which is to have good marketing. You're paying for a game that is inferior to others in its genre and I don't even think it's very enjoyable irrespective of the price.


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TLDR (Too long didn't read)
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With the lack of personalization with each world, each world that you create lacks any sort of color to a bleak and empty game which is one of the major turnoffs to this game. No combat mechanics such as range or kiting, or using hills/obstacles doesn't make room for outsmarting the AI, and it leaves you with no incentive to get better at the game by playing more. The crafting is dry and boring and you don't feel like you're in an immersive world.

They marketed this game well, but they failed to deliver for its price. If I had my money back and they were charging only $2 for this game I would not choose to make the purchase. There are just too many other games in the same genre that are superior on all aspects such as playability, crafting, building, personalization, skill and PvP.

If I had to rate this game based on the experience that I had playing (Less than 3 hours is enough to judge this game because you're doing the same thing over and over) with the artificial difficulty and dry gameplay I rate this game 2/10.

Hope this helps! (You probably read the TLDR and then read the review ;) I do that a lot)

This is the biggest waste of money that I've ever had. My brother and I decided to get this because it was a mix between Minecraft and Castleminer Z. It's as if you took a low budget Castleminer Z, got rid of the good monsters and then threw in a few good pictures to make it sell. Terrible game, waste of money. If it were a dollar I'd prefer to get Castleminer Z and to save my money. EDIT: I see that 4 of 5 people downvoted this review. Let me tell you why this game is bad rather than just saying it's terrible. For the price I paid, I would much rather buy another indie game. I felt like the game really didn't play well, and it was buggy. There were numerous bugs when my brother and I were playing that interfered with our experience. The hunger and water mechanics were interesting but I don't want to worry about those when I want to build and kill dragons. I came with the expectation that I'd be able to build, but rather you have to chop trees down and you have a set schematic for the house. I felt like the ingame experience didn't feel as fluid as it seemed in the trailer/pictures which was another con. I suppose I should have looked at gameplay videos before I bought it, but oh well. ------------------------------------- Combat ------------------------------------- Another issue I found annoying was the reach of the weapons. When I wanted to kill a rabid dog or monster that was attacking me, I couldn't kite them and use weapon range to my advantage, which is a downside. In almost every game that I've played that's good you are able to outsmart the enemies and to mess with their pathing or just use range to your advantage rather than just to cross your fingers and hope to out melee them. This was much to my dismay, as it makes for a much less interesting game that is very simplistic in nature. Having the playability that it does, which is glitchy, and the fact that you can't outsmart enemies is really unfortunate, and it really takes away the satisfaction of killing an AI or exploiting their weakness. Tactics like these make for an interesting game, for example Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. In Chivalry you can stand in a way that your opponent will have to face the sun, and they will be unable to respond to your attacks as quick as they would without light in their eyes. Another thing in games that I like is when they have a hill advantage, or when your positioning matters in combat. For example when you're on a hill, you can get a hitbox advantage or a bonus to attack. Or maybe being downhill is better because there is more of the opponent's hitbox available to hit as opposed to being up top. Mechanics such as these make for interesting and dynamic combat, and I saw none of these. ------------------------------------- Building & Crafting ------------------------------------- When I launched Savage Lands, I came in with the expectation that I would be able to craft and build like a sandbox game. I was excited because it looked like an improved version of the game CastleMiner Z because of the graphics and the fact that it was in development. Only seeing room for improvement, I bought it. The building and crafting system they had implemented was actually the first thing I was upset by. You start off in a world by a boat, and you have to leave the shore and go find rocks and materials to make tools. Eventually in a little while you'll have enough materials to make a house. When I had materials, I was excited and I had this grand design planned; only to find out that you had to craft a house by using a schematic, rather than to build it by hand. This was frustrating to me because it removed numerous planes of possibility, and it leaves for a lot less customization which essentially devalues any world that you will ever create. One of the draws to minecraft for me was the fact that the crafting was so easy, and that each world could be customized to your liking. Once I transferred over to Xbox 360 to play minecraft (I still played on the computer) I immediately despised it. The reason why is because the crafting system was horrible. I mean, it was all right in front of you but you had to sift through categories and categories to actually find what you needed. The crafting found in the PC port of minecraft has a very easy-to-deal-with crafting system that needs some instruction but once you get the hang of it you can effortlessly craft multiple items in less than 5 seconds. ------------------------------------- Final Note ------------------------------------- I may not have enough hours on this game, but I don't need as many hours as the next guy to tell you that this game is a waste of your money and a waste of your time. If you found this game fun, that's great! I would not, however, personally recommend this game to any of my friends. The lack of personalization is disturbing, as well as the lack of interesting mechanics. Not having any mechanics to master leaves you with no incentive to keep playing the game. With no skill required, it's just artificial difficulty. Having to run and find food in a randomly generated world isn't a very fun experience when you have limited features to keep the game interesting. 15 years ago this game would have been a hit but let's face it... We're a little beyond that. All in all I would give this game a 2/10. You saw my reasoning, which led me to write this review. Guys and girls don't waste your money on this indie game. Don't be fooled by their good marketing, this game is not nearly worth anything more than $1. Charging $7 for this game? I would rather recommend someone save up for minecraft (or get mods if you already have it!) or to get Ark: Survival Evolved. I don't have that game because it requires Kernel mode access to your PC but if you're OK with that then that's fine, it's much more quality than this. Even CastleMiner Z is a better game than Savage Lands because it's a fun game to screw around in and there are many new concepts added in the game that make it a fun game. It's a ghetto version of minecraft with neat mobs such as dragons, and they have laser guns etc. If you try to market an idea, you either have to A. Undercut other producers in the market B. Add a unique idea that would make buyers more inclined to buy your product C. Have better marketing than your competitors. Savage Lands, unfortunately, is only using C which is to have good marketing. You're paying for a game that is inferior to others in its genre and I don't even think it's very enjoyable irrespective of the price. i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i TLDR (Too long didn't read) i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i!i With the lack of personalization with each world, each world that you create lacks any sort of color to a bleak and empty game which is one of the major turnoffs to this game. No combat mechanics such as range or kiting, or using hills/obstacles doesn't make room for outsmarting the AI, and it leaves you with no incentive to get better at the game by playing more. The crafting is dry and boring and you don't feel like you're in an immersive world. They marketed this game well, but they failed to deliver for its price. If I had my money back and they were charging only $2 for this game I would not choose to make the purchase. There are just too many other games in the same genre that are superior on all aspects such as playability, crafting, building, personalization, skill and PvP. If I had to rate this game based on the experience that I had playing (Less than 3 hours is enough to judge this game because you're doing the same thing over and over) with the artificial difficulty and dry gameplay I rate this game 2/10. Hope this helps! (You probably read the TLDR and then read the review ;) I do that a lot)