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Savage Eden: The Battle for Laghaim
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by 4thborne
January 7, 2004
The year is 2357 and Humans have left Earth to settle on a distant planet. This planet is Laghaim and it has three other races - the Bulkan, Kailipton and Aidia. These races are not the best of neighbors...that is until the Progmare, a powerful alien race bent on domination and destruction, shows its face. The four races sign an agreement to work together to survive and protect Laghaim from the Progmare. I have yet to see these Progmare, so they must be plotting something sinister. But still, there is much more to explore in Laghaim and an assortment of mobs to battle.
Regardless of which race you pick you will start off in the Laghaim Square where you will have a selection of vendors to spend your limes on. Here you can purchase items such as weapons, armor, and potions. There are other towns you can travel to, where the vendors sell more advanced wares. Oh yes, those limes. Limes are the means of currency in Laghaim. You will start off with a small denomination of limes, but can accumulate more by killing the various monsters, which drop them, and by selling off treasure, which are also dropped by the mobs. The treasure can vary from weapons, armor, potions, and your lovely accessorizing purple cape -- the Wisdom Mantle. When starting out it is wise to stay close to Laghaim Square until you get a few levels under your belt. Thereafter you should be safe in venturing to other towns and zones, which you can do by using a warp gate.
Human, Bulkan, Kailipton, Aidia - oh my! Each race has unique skills to build on. To best optimize you race's skills and abilities to create a powerful character, a player will want to concentrate on putting their leveling points into the stats best suited for their race. Humans will want to concentrate on building up their dexterity to tote around the powerful guns. Kailiptons and Aidias are the magic users, but an Aidia's magic is more of a nature-based, so they will want to concentrate on wisdom/intelligence. Bulkans are the "tanks" and true warriors in the games, and will want to concentrate on their strength and vitality. Now you can stray away from your primary area of building your character - after all it is your character - but if you put too much emphasis on a particular stat that is not best used by your race, you will find yourself with a gimped character and will struggle in the tough battles -- and there are a lot of tough battles.
 Now about those leveling points. Each time you level up you will be showered (from the ground up) by a beam of light signifying that you have reached a new level, and you will receive three leveling points to use. These points can be used to increase your character stats -- strength, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, leadership -- or you can also put some of the points towards acquiring new skills, such as overhead attack, whirlwind slash or exploding rage, which are available to the Bulkans. Use these leveling points wisely, as mentioned above you can end up with a game character that will have a tough time succeeding in using the race's special abilities.
Monsters, aka mobs, are all over these lands -- they even wander unusually close into the skirts of the towns sniffing about the merchant stands! In the world of Laghaim you will find yourself confronted with various types of beasts that attack you with their claws, punch and kick you, or shoot you with their laser guns or machine guns. Wolves, crabs, scorpions, ladas (which look like dragonflies), cyborgs, chmeros, drakions, and more. Each type of monster comes in a "flavor" of regular, mutated, or cursed. The mutated and cursed are naturally 2x and 3x tougher than the their regular kin, and are guaranteed to drop a level two or level three chipped gem. If you collect five level three gems, you can get them exchanged for a one level two chipped in the market square. Likewise, when you collect five level two gems, you can exchange it for one level one chipped gem. Five level-one chipped gems can be exchanged for one stone, and with this stone you can upgrade your weapon and armor. Now I'm sure you're thinking -- because I sure was! -- that is a hell of a lot of chipped gems to collect and exchange just to get one stone. But once you start battling the stronger mobs and the chmeros -- which drop them nearly 50% of the time -- the collection time goes by fast, and that one stone is worth it to get that +2 or +3 weapon with special abilities.
While there's no fun in fighting alone, for the most part you can easily travel solo and survive until you reach approximately level 90. Currently the reviewed version of the game does not any incentive for fighting in a group, such as shared or extra experience pints. After level 90, however, you're more likely to succeed in slaying the nasty beasts while partied with a few friends.
Some of the less than level 50 quests are easy to accomplish, and generally consist of fighting a certain number of monsters, or taking on a single cursed beast. I haven't reached a higher level than 70, but so far the awards for completing a quests tend to be experience points and a good amount of lime. In talking with some other travelers, I hear that some of the higher-level quests are much more difficult to complete. I guess I'll have to wait and see for myself.
The graphics are not your cutting edge computer graphic imaging, and some obvious flaws can be seen in the terrain such as transparent rocks or blocky trees. While the graphics can be simplistic when compared to other roleplaying games currently on the market, there are some splendid spell effects from the use of magical weapons or other magical items. Additionally, the effects of the sky showing day, night, rain, or stormy weather is well done -- and there are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of graphical items to feast your eyes on, and most have been well designed. These include a number of weapon and armor types available to specific races and classes, magical items, food, and oh yes those chipped gems and stones -- can't forget those!
The storyline is hard to follow, and I'm left wondering is there a storyline? Or is there just a background of your character's reason for existing. Remember, I have yet to see Progmare who is the all and powerful race that is to destroy all the other races. So, basically you will spend most of your time doing one of two things: (1) Standing around and chatting with friends via the in game chat interface (2) Fighting monsters to gain experience, complete a quest, or to find treasure that you can use or sell for some limes. From what I've seen this is a power-leveling game where the goal is to gain experience, and get better weapons and armor. This is a good thing only if that's what you like in your roleplaying games. But if you're a die-hard roleplayer, Savage Eden - The Battle for Laghaim will leave you saying, "Huh?". Now, don't get me wrong, I have seen some roleplayers in the game and we have exchanged some good conversation with your "Hail and well met" to kick things off, but roleplaying is not enforced by the game masters, and the occasional "Did you see the ballgame last night?" can be overheard in the market square.
 Still the game is enjoyable as you plow your way through the countless number of monsters and hope they drop some good treasure. Gaining levels has more incentive than being able to wear improved armor or wield a powerful weapon, once you reach level 90 you are also able to raise a pet, which you can train to fight for you. You can also become the leader of a guild, provided you have enough leadership skills, and recruit members to join your guild. Overall, while Savage Eden - The Battle for Laghaim will probably not cause any uproars in the roleplaying genre, it is an addictive and fun game to play and the futuristic abilities of some of the monsters and items in the game add a nice twist to the game. |
| Rating |
| Gameplay: | 8 |
| Graphics: | 7 |
| Sound: | 7 |
| Replay Value: | 6 |
| Overall: 7 |
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