Tries to add new elements to the classic tower defence genre. Highly addictive and carnage filled experience.

User Rating: 7 | Savage Moon PS3
In Brief

The Good:
-Carnage filled screen a vast majority of the time
-User Interface is easy to use and navigate
-Towers and animations look great
-Anyone can play to completion but there is a real depth for the more 'hardcore' gamer
-Solidly built

The Bad:
-Graphics are nothing to sing about
-Infuriating having to replay a full level you have spent 20 minutes playing for a moments lapse of concentration or a mild mistake
-Slight feel of repetition in some levels
-No online modes other than high score leader boards and no offline co-op

Tower defence games have never really made it into the mainstream of video gaming. Their have been some elements of TDG's in real time strategy games but I can not recall the last time a tower game got a retail release. In my personal opinion it's due to the simplicity that is at the core of the game and how little they can dress it up with great graphics or gimmicks to try and make them stand out from the small crowd.
It is a waste of time, it never works which is a shame as they are, despite boring to look at, great fun to play,

Savage Moon isn't a story driven campaign by any stretch of the imagination. The only that can be found is that it is some time in the distant future when space exploration has really kicked off and humans with their need to consume has spread across the universe like wild fire.
The three I Moon nebula's (with four levels to guard on each) we have been tasked with overseeing comes under attack by the moons inhabitants, It makes you think that a lot of mining operations must come under similar attacks due to the technology and cost it must incur to have these defensive towers drop from an orbiting cargo ship above the system as well as the infrastructure that is in place to help us achieve our defensive goal easier.

The graphics aren't anything to shout about, the texture detail is low and the edges don't look that sharp but the way the light reflects of surfaces and illuminates all the imperfections on the canyon walls and makes it look 3D is a true saving grace.

Savage Moon is the classic tower defence title but it hasn't been afraid to try some new things along the way. The objective is to protect your mining operation from any and all attacks and it never gets more complicated than that as you campaign playing through the tribal like music that sounds like a modern day remix of alien films from the 50's and the 60's.

The alien insect like creatures vary from speedy weak infantry to the bigger more tank like ones emerge from caves on designated points on the map and we have to set up extensive kill zones with the use to towers to prevent their ever increasing numbers suicide running into the mining facility and destroying the base rendering it a useless operation. It isn't as simple as having a large number of turrets in one place, we have to divert the attacking waves through the canyons making their exposure time to attack greater.

To deploy a defensive tower simply open up the user interface and select where you wish for it to be placed and watch it get dropped from the heavens and automatically assemble in a similar fashion to a Transformer and start its duties.
The selection is fantastic and none of them feel as though they resemble another task wise. You have your choices of blistering rates of fire, widespread damage areas, towers that take large chunks out of bigger enemies, scatter mines around the area along with the utility ones like repair towers you have come to expect on games like this. You can't manually aim the towers or select which enemies they target but the AI works superbly well and seems to allows know when and how to fire, it's never a case of all towers firing at the first hostile they see.
Some towers can only be used after researching the branch of that research tree and all can potentially upgraded five levels increasing their fire power and fire range, it looks incredible when you buy an upgrade on your tower and you see it shift sections and become bigger and bulkier in appearance.

Having a block of fully upgraded Gun turrets with a fully upgraded Amp tower looks video gaming pornography and it is escalated even further when you watch the action through the towers onboard camera and see the carnage unfolding at ground level amongst the bullet rain and makes the Starship Troopers comparison this game has all the more apparent. Seeing all towers desperately unloading into a boss it equally satisfying. It would be one of my greatest game of all time if it was a load of animated smug faced Steve McLaren's came toddling out of the hole into death.

All of the towers can not be placed onto the relatively safe canyon tops (some enemies do have a projectile attack that is a utter pain in the arse to be frank) but some must be placed in harms way on the ground which is sometimes required to achieve a level completion forcing you to set up repair towers and much heavier resistance.

The camera isn't fixed and feels sort of a futuristic version of the UAV's most of the worlds superpowers employ today for reconnaissance as you can spin the camera across and around the map as well as being able to adjust your zoom to give you the best view of the combat you need.

The waves are clearly displayed showing how close you how close the next one is as well as allowing you view the next few allowing you to plot your defence with greater accuracy.

Assisting with your currency collection to purchase more towers or you need a bit of extra fire power you can select the perk from the in game interface and it takes effect immediately. You can select twice as much defensive points at the expense of a third reduction in cash and attack statistics or you could have a third extra attack and defence sacrificing two thirds less cash points. You can see how it works in threes.

The biggest compliment that can be paid to this game is that it is so solidly consistent. The AI doesn't feel as though that it's reducing to 'cheating' to destroy all your work and infuriate you and the best way to prove this (as I sadly had to chasing the trophies) is to go on YouTube and follow the videos step for step and you get the exact same outcome all the time on your pursuit to achieve the perfect clear and high score rewards for clearing a level.

Savage Moon hasn't revolutionised the genre (as it never claimed to do), it merely sits there among the others but it can hold it's head up high. Paying full price for this game from a store would of given this game such a dismal kicking but with its small price tag it practically makes purchasing this game a no brainer if you are into the genre. Thank God for X Box Live and the PlayStation Store being able to take games in minority genres like this to the masses.