Savage Moon Megathread

[BlueCali]

Savage Moon is a PS3 tower defense strategy game which sees you protecting a remote off-world mining facility from a constant attack of ravenous space bugs (the Insectocytes). Armed with an array of upgradeable defensive weapons, the mission is to strategically place the weapons, which range from rapid-fire machine guns to an intimidating chaos tower destructing any bugs threatening your base. The developers describe the strategy as;

In keeping with the xeno-biological theme, the Insectocytes evolve throughout the game, with each wave becoming tougher, and the creatures mutating into new forms to meet the human threat. In response to this, the player needs to research and deploy new forms of technology to meet the escalation of bug toughness. The strategy of the game is a mix of open and directed levels — in some levels the player can place towers to herd the Insectocytes into their cross-fire.[1]

The game was released for download from European PSN on December 24, 2008 and in North America on January 29, 2009

 

[BlueCali]

The game is divided into nebula, each of which has 4 levels (Imoons). The game uses names in an alphabetical order rather than numbers to indicate the levels. Each nebula and Imoon is named after a mythical creatures, deity or figures from ancient history;

* Nebula: Xipe - Full name Xipe Totec was, in Aztec mythology, a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, vegetation, the east, disease, spring, goldsmiths, silversmiths and the seasons.
o Agamemnon - Agamemnon was the commander of the Achaeans (Greeks) during the Trojan War.
o Baxajuan - In Basque mythology, the basajaun (plural: baxajaunak) are a race of large hairy wild men who were megalith builders.
o Cerberus - Three headed-dog that guards the gates to Hades in Greek mythology.
o Duergar - are a race of ugly dwarfs, particularly associated with the Simonside Hills of Northumberland, in northern England.
* Nebula: Ymir - was the founder of the race of frost giants and an important figure in Norse cosmology.
o Einherjar - The Norse name for 'lone fighters' are those that have died in battle and are brought to Valhalla by valkyries.
o Fenrir - A monstrous wolf from Norse mythology.
o Ghede - Full name Ghede Nibo, is a spirit or Lwa in the Haitian Vodou religion.
o Hyperion - Is the Titan son of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky) in Greek mythology.
* Nebula: Zeus - The father of the Gods in Greek mythology.
o Incubus - A demon in male form supposed to lie upon sleepers and seduce them.
o Jikininki - In Japanese Buddhism these are the spirits of greedy, selfish or impious individuals who are cursed after death to seek out and eat human corpses.
o Kitsune - Intelligent fox-like spirits that possessing magical abilities from Japanese folklore.
o Lotan - The seven-headed sea serpent or dragon of Ugaritic myths.

 

[BlueCali]

PixelJunk Monsters got there first in bringing the classic tower-defense genre to the PSN, yet Savage Moon just about edges out in front to take the lead with its utterly bleak setting and screeching, scuttling creepy crawlies. The aim of the game is really incredibly simple: players must prevent waves of bugs from destroying their vulnerable moon base by building automatic weapons defenses around the map. How you stop them is much less straightforward thanks to a really steep learning curve and layers of strategic depth. It’s not just a case of setting up a few defense towers in front, behind and to the sides of your moon base while holding down fire.

For each attack wave you have a set number of ‘drop-pods’ that determine how many new weapons you can build, plus a limited amount of cash to spend on upgrading weapons and researching new ones. When your weapons annihilate the bugs, you get more cash. You’re always told which enemy types will attack in the next wave, so you constantly need to replace weapons and move them around depending on what’s the most effective method.

But there’s even more to it. You can force the next, more advanced wave of critters to appear early to earn bonus cash. Changeable Command Skills let you earn extra money for every kill, increase your current level of armor or beef up your firepower while preserving a balance between all three. And placing Blockers will divert enemies, or at least hold them up, so more powerful weapons can be trained on them for longer.

As early as the fourth level, Savage Moon gets extremely punishing and frantic, which makes it a real bargain given there are 12 levels in total. Even the crappy presentation and lack of multiplayer don’t detract from what turns out to be a surprisingly cerebral and addictive gem. Like PixelJunk Monsters? You’ll love this.

 

[DaMexiRican]

Yeah, it does get harder at the 4th. LOL It's like, eh this is easy to WTF? How did I die so quick? LOL