Games that hybridize the statistical experience of role-playing with the base building and strategic command of strategy games rarely come along. Savage 2: Tortured Soul promises to not only involve role-playing and strategy elements, at its heart it will be a fast-paced online action-shooter. Think Unreal Tournament 2004 with swords, spells and fantasy creatures. Designed to combine all three major genres into one mega-game, Savage 2 could be the biggest genre-breaker of all time.

As the online game lobby fills with new and adventurous players, a quick election names two as commanders. Then players on each of the two teams must work together to capture resource points, kill computer-controlled neutral units and begin building a base. The commander leads the efforts, constructing buildings from a top-down, real-time strategy inspired interface.

After completing a base with resources maintained, scouts should search for the enemy's base. When players have gained enough equipment and their commander has researched enough improvements, the full-scale combat begins. The commander switches to a support role, buffing and de-buffing combatants as they coordinate attack teams. These teams of players work together to take on the opposition head-on, in a fast-paced first-person shooter style war.

Savage 2: Tortured Soul seems very complex at first, but S2 Games plans to create an intuitive interface and tutorial that brings players into the world with a relatively low learning curve. Those players with experience in all three gaming genres will have it easiest, because the individual elements of the game will feel familiar.

Each character gains experience points for assisting in setting up a base, defending that base, scouting the enemy, finding and seizing resource nodes, healing allies and killing the enemy. This experience helps gain levels, and with each level, players increase their character's abilities in small ways. Things like health, armor, damage and mana can be increased upon leveling, making the character more powerful. Leveling may also allow characters to access new equipment and abilities.

The strategy part comes in when constructing a base. In Savage 2, teams will have a command center, armory and other buildings that would be similar to any major strategy game. Either the commander or a unit called the builder can order construction of buildings in the base. These buildings perform many important strategic tasks, like researching new abilities and forging new gear for other players. Upon entering combat, strategy elements will remain very active, since there will still be improvements and buffs to be researched and applied to the combatants, as well as defenses to maintain. After all, if the command center goes down, the team loses the war.

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