The game originally known as “Ozzy’s Black  Skies” has finally arrived on PS2. The original concept was based on the music of Mr. Osbourne, but either he was pulled at the last minute due to funding or there was some sort of music lawsuit involved. Either way, Ozzy’s not there … and the game has been released under the name Savage Skies. Since the gameplay and plot have remained the same, according to what I’ve read, I don’t know if even the dark lord of metal could add anything better to this title. Not that it’s not fun or a bad game, but it has some issues which will keep it out of the “must have” list for a lot of people out there.

The overall theme of the game revolves around the betrayal of a good and powerful king by one of his top advisors (Who also happens to be a necromancer … go figure). The land is notified that the king has been killed, but unbeknownst to his followers, his soul was split into three parts and sent to three different kingdoms, where it possesses a child of each realm who will be destined to rule. You play as the champion of either the Virtwyn, who are the chivalrous remains of the old kingdom and could be considered “the good guys” … the neutral Chrysalis, who were founded by the chief sorcerer of the old kingdom and now work from a collective “hive” similar to the Borg on Star Trek … or the ultra evil Paraiah, experimenting in reanimation of the dead and bent on making a hell on earth. All three factions have torn the world apart and plunged the land into war, and it’s up to you to help one side become victorious once and for all and ultimately rule. Each faction contains it’s own army of mythical and fantasy creatures, ranging from dragons and unicorns to flying manta rays, mutant eyeballs, and flying demons, and each creature has it’s own set of devastating attacks or defensive abilities to kill, destroy, or aid you throughout the game.

When you choose one of the three warring factions, you will go through a series of quests which contain a primary, secondary, and secret objective. The missions are usually either escort and protect, seek and destroy, or defend the base, and the difficulty is mostly determined by which group you choose to join … which brings me to my first major and probably most heavy complaint about Savage Skies. This game is WAY too difficult overall unless you play as Virtwyn. The creatures for all three groups handle well and are easy to control while engaged in aerial flight or combat with an enemy, but movement can feel very limited and slow at times, especially if you have to get somewhere quickly to help an ally. There is no way to pull off a 360 aerial loop to get behind a pursuer, no straight vertical climbing, and only certain creatures have the ability to barrel roll … which consists of choosing a direction first and then hitting the L3 button. While this may not sound too bad, enemies often play cheap and will appear out of nowhere hammering on your 6 o’clock. Trying basic turn left or turn right, then 45 degree angle climb and see how well it shakes them off. Secondly, having to hit a direction and then hitting L3 to roll can be fatal if you are flying through a narrow canyon as you will find your self smacking into a cliff face and becoming a permanent red decoration if you are low on health after getting bombarded from behind. There are powerups for defense and health floating around, and can be found in pretty decent amounts, but many will take you out of your way which can be a matter of successfully completing of failing your primary objective if you are working against the clock. The Virtwyn have the easiest and most “challenging without being frustrating” missions, and is where the game is really good. The Chrysalis missions start off OK, but get really difficult as you start progressing past the first couple, and the Paraiah are near next to impossible at times. So, if you lean more towards the dark side, be prepared for a long, difficult, and frustrating experience. The option menu has an easy, normal, and hard difficulty setting, but it really doesn't do any good and I found myself getting killed in the same places regardless of what I had it set to.

Each mission will put you in the driver’s seat of one of the various beasts, which you have to use until you complete the primary objective in each mission. Each creature has it’s own speed, attack, defense, agility, and health depending on which mission you are playing. Once you move on, you can go back and reply prior missions to try and complete the secondary or secret objective (Which is unlocked by finding a crystal hidden somewhere in each level) using any of the creatures from past missions you have completed. Beating these will unlock new monster skins or two player arenas, which brings me to my second issue. The two player mode contains only one arena at the beginning, and the only way I found to unlock more was to complete secret missions. Not a big deal for the single  player, but can take a lot of fun out of the overall experience when friends or family drop by to check it out. The crystals are often found in out of the way places as well, and may cause you not to complete the primary objective trying to get hold of them … then trying to do whatever you were supposed to do. 

Graphically, this game hits some high spots, but hits some serious lows as well. Most creatures are pretty detailed and neat to look at, but others are pretty blocky and dull overall. The same can also be said about the environments. While each area is really expansive providing a lot of flying room and ranges from jungles to deserts and northern ice to volcanic lava, some are very blocky and feel really rushed. For example, one level will have you soaring through a desert sky while forks of lightning pummel the ground in the distance … which really sets a creepy atmosphere and does it well since you are attempting to stop Pariah death barges from reaching their volcanic lair and also trying to find the crypts of long dead Virtwyn warriors which may have been the target of your enemies. On comes a different mission, where you fly over an empty grass plan to defend a castle which looks like a big, blurry cardboard cutout with no lighting detail and feels more like a PS1 game. Collision detection problems are a pretty common bug in here as well, and landing your big and powerful dragon will often result in most of his wings, his whole tail, and his feet completely vanishing into the ground. Don’t touch the ground either, since many times your mount will get stuck and you will have to hit the liftoff button again even though you didn’t technically land in the first place. The background fog found in many levels also doesn't do a good job of hiding some bad popup off in the distance. The sound unfortunately is bad also, which consists of generic 3 and 4 chord repetitive metal riffs which play over and over and a couple of blatant Led Zeppelin rip offs for background music sprinkled with some explosions and screeching of monsters here and there. As for sound effects, when an enemy is killed, it just makes a “splat” sound like a tomato being dropped off a three story ledge. When your monster is killed, it makes the same noise. In addition, whenever you pick up a powerup, this voice which sounds like an overexcited and evil Ray Romano screams whatever it was you picked up like “ENERGY BOOST!!!!!!”, and is pretty funny rather than being exciting or whatever they were trying to do with it.

OK … all of that being said, part of what I was put here to do is to uncover all of the “bad” things about a video game to help you decide whether or not you want to buy it. To give credit where credit is due, let me end with these few things. First off, this is a very creative concept and puts a different twist to two often done and sometimes often repetitive game styles out there, and can prove to be a breath of fresh air for someone who loves either fantasy creature games and / or aerial combat. Secondly, even with some problematic graphics, bad sound, and extremely hard difficulty, I had a rough time putting it down. I found myself re-playing missions over and over, sometimes with different monsters, because I just had to try it again or see what I would unlock next. Finally, while the enemy creatures would often cause frustration by just showing up behind me, the aerial dogfights are pretty intense at times and it can be a blast to zip under bridges and over towers chasing an enemy and ripping at it with fireballs or laser blasts. Overall, I still enjoy and have fun playing this game even with the problems, but I would recommend a rental prior to making a purchase decision. Hopefully BAM! Entertainment will release a sequel with similar gameplay style but without the above issues … and leave the evil Ray Romano at home next time please. 

Gameplay: 6.5
Control overall is pretty smooth, but the lack of many aerial defensive or offensive maneuvers found in other flight combat games tends to make dogfighting a frustrating experience for the gamer. Secondary missions which are off track from the primary objective can be hard and also frustrating to obtain at times, and the three difficulty levels of “challenging”, “too hard”, and “forget it, I’ll play something else” will make many people just not play anymore after playing the Virtwyn campaign.

Graphics: 6.3
Sometimes bad, sometimes good. Unfortunately most of the backgrounds are blocky, bland, blurry, or just feel rushed, but some have nice weather effects or additions like lightning in the distance or a bed of steam on the jungle floor. Most of the monsters look pretty good, until they land, where collision detection problems will take their legs, tails, and most of their wings away. The walking animations are pretty choppy also, and FMV cutscenes vary from good to lame. 

Sound: 5.0

Super generic and repetitve heavy metal tunes will be easily forgotten and probably pretty annoying while playing the game. The explosions, breath weapons, and animal screeching isn’t too bad, but that’s pretty much the only other thing there other than the splat noise of a killed opponent here and there. The voice – overs are lame and sometimes funny rather than setting the tone they were probably supposed to do. Also what the heck is the deal with the Ray Romano powerup voice guy?!?!

Difficulty: 5.8
The first group, the Virtwyn, isn’t too bad and is definitely the high point of the game. Playing as the Chrysalis or Pariah teams will prove extremely difficult and will probably just be forgotten after X amount of times trying to beat the same mission over and over again. Also, the difficulty settings found in the options menu don’t really do anything to make the missions any easier or more challenging, so they more than likely won’t get used at all.  

Concept: 8.9
A really great idea and creative spin on fantasy worlds and flight combat games. There’s really nothing else out there like it. If it had some better graphics, sound, and the difficulty could truly be adjusted for each of the three factions, this game probably would have wound up with a similar score overall.

Multiplayer: 6.0
This will probably provide some fun for two people to run head to head on a rainy afternoon. Since you have to unlock all but one of the multiplayer arenas and different play modes by completing objectives in an overly difficult game, it may be soon forgotten or put up for something else.  

Overall: 6.5
A really great idea and it can be fun for a while. Since each of the three sects have different and varying missions, and different creatures, there’s not a lot of repetition and each warring faction really stands apart from the other two. Unfortunately, sometimes less than average graphics overall + bad sound + two faction’s missions being too difficult = probably skipped over in the retail game store. I personally thought that this game had a lot of fun to be found, and I will still play it going forward, but I still have to give it a rental recommendation overall prior to making the final decision to spend your hard earned cash on it.