Savage is an action platform adventure game developed by Probe Software and published by Firebird Software in 1988 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, Atari ST and MS-DOS. In 1989 Firebird published a version for the Amiga. The game has great visuals and sound along with 3 different types of games each with its unique gameplay.
Review
STORY / GAMEPLAY
You play Savage, a muscular warrior who was imprisoned inside an evil castle. In level 1, a labyrinth of dark and gloomy dungeons hides a myriad of demons and ghouls, all ready to put a bloody end to his attempts to escape. Savage is attacked by a number of deadly mutant monsters. Once killed, they will yield a piece of weaponry that will enable Savage to continue his fight. He is able to collect items that increase his energy, shield himself from the enemy attacks or even increase his energy level. At the end of each level Savage comes across the Guardian of the dungeon. Upon defeating the defenders of the dungeon, Savage escapes from the Castle and is now free to enter Death Valley in level 2. In this level the gameplay changes to a first person perspective into a pseudo 3D environment, in which Savage must escape from the area by seeking ways to shoot down the attackers (ghosts and lurking skulls) and avoid monoliths that rise. But halfway through the attacks in the valley, Savage discovers that his escape from the castle is just a trick to keep his Maiden love imprisoned forever! He then returns to the Castle to rescue her but now he is unable to enter it so he calls upon his trusty eagle to fly into the Labyrinths. The game now is in level 3 in which the perspective changes to a multi-directional action shooter where you fly the eagle through the corridors of the Labyrinth, searching for specific items and battling the last of the demons and monsters that now fight for the final victory. The corridors are swarmed by deadly traps like pitfalls with spikes, dropping stones and others. This game is one of the 8bit home-computers' finest! The gameplay is addictive, the visuals and sounds are superb but the difficulty level is rather high due to the huge sprites and the increased, non-stop number of enemy hordes that occupy half the screen!
GRAPHICS / SOUND The C64 version has beautiful graphics with nicely drawn backgrounds and detailed sprites, though the colors are somewhat darker and "washed-out" compared to the CPC (the Amstrad has more accurate colors). Both foreground and background scroll smoothly in contrast to the CPC and ZX versions that suffer from framerate drops at times. As far as the sound, the 8bit Commodore includes a great introductory sampled music and either music or sound effects during gameplay.
GAMEPLAY SAMPLE VIDEO
On our video below you may watch the Sinclair ZX spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Amiga OCS versions of the game.