While not on par with BF or other tactical shooters, savage provides an interesting diversion with a few unique items.
Two sides are present in Savage: the Humans and the Beasts. Humans are primarily range/technology based, and their weapons are far more effective from afar, while beasts tend to excel at melee combat. Still, both races can dabble in melee or ranged engagements, and the melee combat is surprisingly slick. The sword swinging, axe slicing never gets old.
Though greatly touted in the game's promotions, the commander plays a much more subtle (but vitally important) role during the course of the game. Human players can easily choose to ignore orders for their commander, and often will, so the commander's tactical contribution is usually limited to building towers and defenses. At the same time, his ability to research new weapons which are used by the warriors on the ground is invaluable, and usually the team whose commander is able to build up faster (think boom in AoE) will win.
Savage's graphics are nothing to write about, and there are a few graphical errors that create downright imbalances in gameplay. For example, there are large rocks that aren't clipped, so snipers can hide within the rocks after brining down someone from afar. Most of these are being fixed in successive patches, but there are a lot of them, and could be hard to sort out.
One other note, the game's melee combat, while addictively fun, is difficult for newbies to pick up, especially those accustomed to the run-n-gun of traditional shooters. This could easily cause frustration, however, there are dueling servers (bound by tradition and player agreement, not game modes), where players can hone their melee skills without detrimentally a team.
So if you're looking for something a little different, look not further than Savage. And don't forget; a US $20.00 price tag is hard to beat for a game this enjoyable.