Building upon the story from the original, Savage 2: A Tortured Soul relies heavily on multiplayer action with only a single-player tutorial and practice mode for solo play. Each side in a single game is allowed up to 62 players, and gamers select a commander, game parameters, wait for a minimum amount of players, designate officers, set up battle squads, and then begin the game.
The commander begins by constructing buildings needed to access higher-ranking troops, weapons, buildings, and technology while scouts and hunting parties explore the map searching for resources and enemy bases, and gaining experience from small skirmishes. Gold is a high priority and games can be won or lost depending on who controls the most mines. An enemy can be effectively weakened if players take control of the currency that funds an opponent's building upkeep and technology research.
Teams can select one of two factions -- the Legion of Man, and the Beast Horde -- and can also unlock another race that is playable by both factions: the Hellbourne. The Legion of Man features such units as the legionnaire, the savage warrior, the scout, the builder, and the chaplain. Beast Horde members include the shapshifter, the summoner, the conjurer, the predator, the shaman, the tempest, and the behemoth.
Each soldier is equipped with special abilities and can gain experience by killing NPCs, enemies, building and repairing structures, and healing and resurrecting comrades. As each unit gains experience and "levels up," they are awarded three percentage points to upgrade such attributes as health, regeneration, mana, damage, and armor. A unit's maximum level is ten, but team commanders can add up to 20 percent more bonus points for each category to players. However, the total amount of points that can be awarded cannot exceed 30. An overall account experience and account level tracker records a single player's length and quality of game time. The original release of the game is through digital distribution only.