Game Info
GAME NAME: Transformers: Devastation
DEVELOPER(S): PlatinumGames
PUBLISHER(S): Activision
PLATFORM(S): PS4 (Reviewed), PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
GENRE(S): Action, Hack and Slash
RELEASE DATE(S): October 6, 2015
I’ve been a long time Transformers fan. As a child I used to watch the cartoon…yes from the late 80’s and now I’m dating myself. I’ve always tried playing past Transformers games but they’ve always been garbage in my eyes. The only one I thought was okay was Transformers: War for Cybertron but that even felt lacking. So when I had the chance to review Transformers: Devastation I was nervous but very excited when Activision sent me a review code.
Transformers: Devastation was developed by Platinum Games and published by Activision. The one major thing that excited me was they went back to the roots of the cartoon series with voices, animation style, fighting style, music and gameplay. I felt a major dose of nostalgia while diving into this along with a fun story. Gameplay is very fun and fighting controls are very smooth. I played this on the Playstation 4 for reference.
When you destroy an enemy Decepticon they leave pickups. The green drops are for restoring your health and the blue drops are for restoring ammo. There are chances that you can get other drops such as Repair kits (to use in boss battles), and Auto repair kits. In addition to the main story, which is pretty solid, there are side missions and puzzles scattered throughout the open world levels to unlock better weapons, which can be upgraded later. You can also customize your loadout depending on what you find on your adventure.
Let’s jump to combat. There are a total of five playable characters, which you’ll unlock as you progress through the main story campaign. Each Transformer handles weapons and itself uniquely in battle and each have a unique ultimate attack. For example, Optimus Prime can unleash a sweeping 360 attack with his trailer hitting enemies hard and he moves around at a fast pace. This has come in handy in multiple boss fights especially against Devastator, yep the Constructicons are in this game and they all look amazing.
One very cool facet is that the transformation process is very smooth and leads into battle smooth as well. You can be running around exploring and R1 it into a truck and transform back again to fight. When you want to use a vehicle attack, tapping the R1 button when the blue flash appears during a melee combo will execute an attack and look amazing while doing it. Another great fighting utility is dodging, when you dodge an attack just before it hits you it will trigger a time slow down for a few seconds so you can get some combos in and unleash a flurry of attack while the enemy is vulnerable. Overall the combat feels natural and you can jump in and out of transformation smoothly even while attacking, this is a huge plus.
As I mentioned before the graphics hold a nostalgic vibe and are very much detailed all the way down to the metal shine on each Transformer. The music and voice overs feel like all the original voices from the cartoon series, let me rephrase that the original cartoon series so it made me excited to play this and wield my favorite Transformers. I give huge thumbs up to the graphics and sound.
On top of the story mode they have a challenge mode. This Challenge Mode contains 50 additional standalone missions that can be completed on any difficulty. A lot of these are unlocked through basic progression of the main story. The best facet of the challenge mode is that it can help you level characters and gain additional loot to help progress through the main story. So if things get tough, you can go on some side missions or challenge mode missions to toughen yourself up. This adds a lot of replay-ability and more of a dynamic style of game play.
The Recommendation
If you like the original Transformers you’ll love Transformers: Devastation. The graphics and sounds will give you a large dose of nostalgia. The gameplay is very smooth and the story is pretty good too so you’ll be hooked and want to play it all the way through, its not too long of a campaign. With Challenge mode this will keep you busy and help you progress through the story so I’d say definitely give Transformers: Devastation a try if you’re in the market for a Transformer brawler.
