If Activision excels at one thing, it’s destroying the good things they have (and, sadly, making money). Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk were two of the biggest franchises on the planet and over-saturation killed them and their entire genres, with something similar happening to Call of Duty (name me an FPS that came out this year. Yes, a Wolfenstein expansion, that’s it). And Transformers? After High Moon Studios made two highly successful and critically lauded Transformers games they made Deadpool and Activision closed them before the game was even out the door. Consequently there haven’t been any worthwhile Transformers games and all the goodwill that Activision built up has evaporated. Now it’s up to Platinum Games to get it back.
Devastation’s big gimmick is that’s it’s pure Generation One, i.e. the Original Transformers Cartoon, complete with all the surviving voice cast, a perfect cel-shaded look, Teletraan One, a silly over-the-top cartoon story about Megatron trying to take over the Earth using something called “the Proudstar”, and all the awesomeness a videogame based on an ’80s toy franchise can bring. The player is thrown right into the action as Megatron attacks a human city and everyone who’s not a Robot In Disguise is forced to evacuate. Why he then proceeded to erect giant wind turbines all over the city is another matter. Suffice to say, if you’re an old-school fan of Transformers you’ll be in utter heaven, as the Generation One aesthetic used in Devastation is one of the best features of the game.
The gameplay itself is not quite as cool but still entertaining. If you’re a fan of Platinum Games it’s definitely closest to Bayonetta and fortunately isn’t the trainwreck that was the Legend of Korra game. Unlike the Cybertron series which are shooters Devastation is more melee combat focused. There is optional shooting but it’s pretty damn awful, only giving you a few shots and feeling hugely unsatisfying. The melee combat though is pretty fun and definitely satisfying, although like games such as Bayonetta it’s largely down to the player exactly how much enjoyment you get out of it.
If you want you can get through the game using basic attacks and dodge, maybe a simple Light Light Heavy Heavy combo to get a special vehicle attack, but there is only a little fun in that. You need to memorise combos and experiment with different types of attacks in order to get the most out of Devastation’s combat, not to mention effectively using the cool “Focus” freezing time ability whenever you dodge perfectly. Platinum do well at nudging the player towards this play style, as each big fight is ranked by how awesomely you performed and how many varieties of combos you pulled off. Nevertheless it’s totally valid to stick with the simpler style of combat although it’ll start getting repetitive over long periods of play. It’s great though that all five Autobot characters - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Sideswipe and Wheeljack - play wildly differently and you can change between them at any checkpoint.
This happens in the FIRST TEN MINUTES!
Of course we can’t talk about a Transformers game without mentioning how well the actual Transforming is implemented. In short: well, but not as well as High Moon’s Cybertron games. For starters, you have to hold the Transform button (which is also Dodge for some reason) to Transform rather than just a simple push, something that the Tutorial tells you a good hour after you needed it. It’s nice to do but it’s rarely needed, plus without the ability to attack properly you’re left pretty vulnerable. The driving is very loose, particularly playing Optimus Prime, and considering every character barring Grimlock turns into a vehicle it’s surprising how driving-unfriendly the level design is.
The levels are generally pretty narrow, and don’t leave much room for anything barring a bit of platforming. There’s occasionally a more open area that’s always filled with enemies but in general (checks if it’s out on Xbox 360 - yes it is) it feels like a last-gen game. You ostensibly have freedom of exploration but it all feels just like linear corridors you have to run down several times, and in all honesty exploring the city gets really boring just a few hours in. There are numerous secrets to find at least that unlock weapons and concept art, but why no videos, extra characters, levels, things you’d actually want to unlock?
The very worst thing about Devastation though is actually the systems in place, and no I don’t mean Teletraan One. Tutorials for example are awful, introducing me to features such as dodge, transform, block, double jump, weapons, and special moves at least an hour after I needed to know about them. Items, particularly health packs, are difficult to access and take you out of combat, and really needed a quick menu, plus loading checkpoints doesn’t get your (expensive) items back which is bulls**t. The whole Upgrades and Weapon changing system though is pointless, confusing, and very boring. It’s so hard to work out what weapons are good and often you’ll have no idea what they do. I just want to hit things dammit! It’s the opposite of War For Cybertron’s smooth, quick, gamer-and-gameplay friendly design.
Me Grimlock No Like Bad PC Ports!
And don’t even get me started on the PC version. It’s playable so we’re not quite at Batman: Arkham Knight levels, but it’s pretty close. No mouse support on menus, no optimisation for mouse/keyboard controls so I advise playing with a pad, barely any graphics settings, and what’s this? The highest resolution option is 1280x720? I hope you haven’t bought a monitor in the last ten years, because this game’ll look hideous on it.
Well, that’s not fair, because luckily for Platinum Games the cel-shaded look hides a multitude of sins. It’s still an Xbox 360 game at heart with all that graphics power that entails, but much like South Park: The Stick of Truth all Devastation needed to do was look just like the cartoon and Platinum have succeeded doing just that. Voice acting is similarly spot-on, and the original voice cast slip back into their iconic roles smoothly. It’s so good to hear Frank Welker’s Megatron again. Shame that the Starscream replacement isn’t a patch on the late Chris Latta, or even Tom Kenny or Steve Blum. Unfortunately the music is pretty poor, and the total absence of both the Transformers theme tune and Stan Bush’s ‘The Touch’ is both criminal and insane.
TRANSFORMERS: DEVASTATION VERDICT
Overall Transformers Devastation is surprisingly good. If you’re a Gen 1 Transformers fan and you’re feeling nostalgic you’ll have an absolute blast. The melee combat is excellent (although if you don’t experiment with different attacks you might have less fun), the five different Autobot characters are all unique, and it’s generally good fun overall. However the Transforming is underused, the shooting is awful, a lot of the non-combat game stuff like upgrades, items, menus and PC options are very annoying, and the supposedly open world is a bit too linear and gets repetitive to explore. Furthermore the playing time is incredibly variable, ranging from 4-8 hours if you plough through the story to around 20 hours if you want to get everything and take on the Challenge Mode. There’s lots of fun to be had in Devastation, but you need to be an old-school Transformers fan and pretty forgiving of a few major flaws. There’s no forgiving not having Stan Bush on the soundtrack, though.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Taking on Devastator and Megatron in the first hour!
Good vs Bad
- Melee combat fun, as you'd expect from the makers of _Bayonetta_, and the five characters all play different.
- Transformers Generation One fans will be in utter heaven.
- Menus are an utter mess, upgrades are a pointless time waste, and the PC options are severely lacking.
- "Open" level design is really linear and repetitive.
