Journey to the Savage Planet’s gameplay could have benefitted from Hot Garbage’s additions if it wasn’t made to be a separate experience. Mechanics like boosted Jetpacks and Underwater Boots would have been great to use on the planet of AR-Y 26. Instead, planet DL-C1 is a self-contained add-on that provides new equipment along with new ways to use old abilities. With its low cost of entry, the value of extending some good gameplay is always a solid choice.
Hot Garbage is a nice add-on to a great game but I would have liked to see it improve on the base game rather than double down on its faults. The humor, visuals, and exploration are still just as funny, beautiful and engaging as they are in the main game. I originally reviewed the game on PS4, and in order to review the DLC on Xbox One I had to replay most of the game again. And I still had a great time doing it. While it’s brought down by an increased focus on combat, some control issues, and a lackluster antagonist, Hot Garbage is simply a lot of fun. If you enjoyed Journey to the Savage Planet, Hot Garbage is more of the same brand of journeying and savagery.
Journey to the Savage Planet: Hot Garbage is a DLC add-on that features new places to explore, new tools and the same comedic humour that we loved from the base game with a new quirky storyline. Hot Garbage is however only a small addon, while it is a nice addition to the game the overall experience is short. Also it doesn't seem to capture the same feel as the base game did upon release but it does bring a new feel to the game and that's not a bad thing. Graphically Hot Garbage stays true with great looking enviroment and character design and exploring is still fun and not a chore. Overall: If you happen to Journey to the Savage Planet then adding this to your game is a must do. This extends your gaming experience within this stunning and crazy universe just that little bit longer. My only gripe is I wish it took lancer to complete.
If the eponymous Savage Planet is your Kindred explorer's residence, the space rock called DL-C1 is a timeshare. It's a decent little getaway -- probably worth the investment, a change of pace, and the vacation is over quicker than you'd like. But, despite what the name suggests, Hot Garbage is far from a dump.
Hot Garbage was assumed to be aimed at players who have seen the whole game by now, but it ends up playing best for those still scanning the alien world.
I wouldn’t go as far as calling Hot Garbage, well, hot garbage. But it’s certainly not great, and it’s somewhat tarnished my otherwise excellent experience with Journey to the Savage Planet. By all means, give it a go if you’re desperate for a new area to explore – you can’t really go wrong with its £6/$8 asking price – but don’t expect too much. And be prepared to get very frustrated.
One of the worst DLCs I've ever played. It completely ruined JTTSP for me such that I didn't even complete it. And it all comes down to the worst implemented device in the entire game and one of the worst I've seen in a while - the jetpack. Read all the critic reviews and they say the same thing. This is a nightmare and it is shocking it got in the game.
Let's start with the story and overall DLC - pretty solid. Once you've played the main game this is more of the same in a new area. Some minor new creatures and a couple of upgrades but that is about it. They should have left it there. Instead they added a completely useless jetpack. Here's how the jetpack works. For whatever reason this game allows teleportation, traveling to distance stars and advanced AI but the technology for a jetpack that is in every sci-fi universe and even in real world does not exist. Instead you have this junk that requires you first fly through a purple ring (for what I don't know). Then you have to press jump to use the jet pack. As you use the jetpack it uses up fuel. To get more fuel you have to fly through other rings. Given the already poor POV when jumping you better know where you're going. The issue is that almost all the fuel rings are in the air so to hit them you have to jump. Once you're in the air you start to fall so you use fuel to stay in the air. But the fuel drains so fast you can only stay in the air ~5 seconds so you have to find the next fuel ring or fall. You can conserve fuel by not jumping but then you start a free fall. The longer you fall the more fuel it takes to get back up so, in most cases, you go through a fuel ring and press jump to get some altitude toward your next higher ring and let go periodically so you start to fall and then hit jump again to try to get attitude. If you mess up in any way you fall or at least drop so far you cannot recover. Of course you could go back to a lower ring but the POV is awful so you probably aren't going to find one fast enough. So in this universe jetpacks are so broken to be useless.
I can see where jetpacks could be ocassionally useful if you didn't have advanced jumping so adding it makes sense. But, like the charged shot gun, it punishes you for using it.
By far the worst part of this DLC is that, like the batmobile in Arkham Knight, you are forced to use it in a couple of places. You have no choice. The worst is the final boss. You have to continually go through rings while shooting the boss while avoiding missiles and ensuring you don't run out of fuel. If you fail you fall into lava and die because you cannot get out of lava and back into ring to gain any altitude. It is like they really didn't want you to enjoy this boss fight. Given the stellar other bosses in the main game this is both an insult and just plain (hot) garbage. Please don't let whoever designed the jetpack or final boss be allowed to do future designs for this game without somebody with some experience fixing their design first.
The DLC, like the main game itself, is an interesting game. It is bipolar in that the concept and core game are solid and unique but marred in some design decisions that baffle people on how that could have come from the same team. This DLC is properly named in that it is hot garbage. It is frustrating to have done everything in the DLC just to find this very bad boss design that prevents anyone but experts from completing it.
JTTSP so far is batting 0 for its DLCs. I have no desire to play any more DLCs for this game given the current crop that was given. How could a company that produced a solid game go so horribly wrong with DLCs??
SummaryThe Hot Garbage expansion includes new tools, including a jetpack, toxic deshocker, and underwater boots. The jetpack and boots, in particular, will impact how you explore the world, and it looks like this new area will have portals that the player can jump through.