It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good, lighthearted Transformers game and of course PlatinumGames would be the ones to do it right.
Transformers Devastation
Developer: PlatinumGames
Price: $50
Platform: PC, PS4, and Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS4 code for review
If you have any sort of familiarity with the Transformers series it wouldn’t be outrageous to assume the game is about Megatron doing some evil thing and Optimus has to stop him because that’s exactly what Transformers is. There’s a tiny bit of flavor thrown in there but for the most part every bit of exposition that comes out of Optimus’ mouth is “Hey, Megatron is doing a bad thing and we should stop him,” while Megatron says “Haha, I’m doing the bad thing,” as Starscream whines in the corner. For the most part Transformers Devastation is pretty much your basic Saturday morning cartoon story.
If you’ve played Metal Gear Rising you’ll feel right at home here because it plays pretty damn close, despite lacking the depth of Rising or Bayonetta. Things play fast and loose here and I don’t mind it too much because the Transformers fan service is so strong it makes up for it. If you’re looking for the next Bayonetta then look someplace else; if you’re looking for a Transformers game that plays like a hectic action game that focuses more on being entertaining than complex then come on over. Transformers Devastation lets you play as Optimus, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Wheeljack; they all play pretty similar besides some slight differences. Bumblebee is faster than the others and can slide underneath enemies while Optimus is slower but hits harder. All of the other differences amount to slight stat changes in speed/health/damage and each character has their own unique super. What’s easily the raddest part of the combat is how you can transform into vehicle form to incorporate it into your combos. You’ll start a basic combo, knock the enemy in the air, jump up to slam them into the ground, then transform into your vehicle form and body slam them. It’s super awesome,I just wish there was a bit more variety in the vehicle attacks. Then there’s Grimlock. Grimlock plays completely differently from the other characters in that he has various grapple moves and his dinosaur form is just as viable to play in as his robot form. Being able to suplex enemies or butt stomp them in dino form is pure stupid entertainment and it’s the exact sort of thing I want from a Transformers game. The moment I unlocked him I never touched a single other character for the rest of the game.
The game (shockingly) has an RPG system built into it with each character having a slew of stats to level and loot to acquire. Unfortunately none of this matters in the actual game itself since it doesn’t seem to have any sort of effect on anything. At one point I noticed I had so much unspent credits I decided to dump them into strength, maxing it out but my attacks didn’t seem to be significantly stronger than they were before. The loot system is just as confusing, purely because of its mere existence. It’s neat that you can collect various weapon types like axes, drills, elemental rockets, or a variety of laser weapons but I saw little to no difference between a class C level 7 drill and a class E level 1 drill. You can combine weapons together to make one stronger and transfer the abilities of one weapon to another, but by the halfway point of the game I had so many weapons that it just wasn’t worth scrolling through the cumbersome menu to combine them. It doesn’t help that the game doesn’t explain anything beyond the fact that you can combine two weapons together. I just ended up equipping what looked cool and was fun to use. You can also craft tech that gives you various buffs, like increasing your chances at finding rare loot but it’s another feature that’s incredibly unnecessary and makes me wonder why it was included.
Despite being a fairly fast paced game, it does tend to lose its momentum at times, most often during the few race segments in the game. You’ll be placed on a glorified race track with the objective of fighting a boss while racing him;a neat idea but I always ended up speeding past the boss and had to regain my bearings. Devastation is also stupidly linear despite it trying to pretend like there’s a big open space to explore. Actually doing any exploring is pointless to do since the only thing to discover is more loot that will go unused in your inventory. Having to play through the same two map locations multiple times doesn’t help matters either but being able to fight Devastator or Menasor in epic fights honestly makes the slight issues the game has a lot more tolerable.
Besides working your way through the pretty short campaign (it took me four hours), there are a few side-missions you can find while exploring the maps. They’re usually nothing more than “kill these guys in the time limit” but there are a few that do things differently like position the game in a top-down view (which isn’t fun). You’ll also unlock challenges which include even more “kill these dudes” missions. As fun as the campaign was I really wished more thought was put into the side content to offer some depth and variety.
The Final Word
What Transformers Devastation lacks in content and depth, it more than makes up for in pure entertainment with a slick presentation, wonderful fan-service, and hectic gameplay that should please any Transformers fan.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair
