➤ Platinum Autobot 🎮

Transformers: Devastation was released in America last week, and a few days ago also in Europe, and practically nobody noticed. At the beginning we did not understand why Activision had advertised it so little, publishing trailers on trailers only in the last days before the release and above all through social networks, without even sending review codes to newsrooms like ours, almost as if to want to hide it. , almost as if he were ashamed of it. Yes, it's short, very short: we completed the campaign in about four hours. Yes, graphically it is very Spartan: forget the complex and super detailed models of War for Cybertron or the Michael Bay films, God forbid. Yes, the combat system is amazing: a rosewater Bayonetta, with the most loved robots in the world instead of witches. The debacle on Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 could explain this attitude if only Transformers: Devastation was a bad game ... which it absolutely isn't. Indeed, for a Generation 1 fan, it is like a dream come true, and a photo is enough to awaken that sleeping child even in the oldest of the thirty-year-olds, reminding him of his past births to transform and retransform the robots found under the tree .. .

Transformers: Devastation is the gaming dream of all Generation 1 fans

Autobot... in marcia!

While the third person shooters of High Moon Studios (The Battle for Cybertron and The Fall of Cybertron) aimed to tell a real space opera that remained unfinished, Transformers: Devastation is narratively much less ambitious, but manages to recall in a much more convincing way the atmosphere of the animated series produced in the 80s.

The Japanese developer has chosen the so-called Generation 1 for a whole series of reasons also related to graphics and gameplay, probably, and in doing so he skillfully touched the heartstrings of the oldest, telling a story that is all in all simple but no less captivating, just like it was a slightly longer episode of the cartoon. The Decepticons led by Megatron have attacked the city, and an Autobot team consisting of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Sideswipe and Grimlock intervenes to stop them. Whoever lives there, in this city, is never seen; what is its name, this city, we do not know, although at some point we will have to fight on a bridge very similar to the Golden Gate. The localization in Spanish is of excellent quality: it takes up the local adaptation, but keeps the original names of the various Cybertronians. No Commander or Tyran, then, but then many new fans don't even know that Bumblebee called him Beetle, so better this way. What leaps to the ear of a true fan, however, is the dubbing: it is again Peter Cullen and Frank Welker who lend their historical voices to Optimus and Megatron, transforming their every joke into a dip in the sea of nostalgia, especially for what concerns the leader of the Autobots, as Cullen manages to make even a sneeze epic. Of cutscenes, Transformers: Devastation is full of them, and the story it wants to tell is certainly not taken for granted since there are some twists, especially at the end, and a wink "post credits" to a possible sequel. The fact remains that, especially in the latest missions, we begin to realize that something is not working, and that perhaps Platinum Games would have needed more time to dilute the plot better: the last stages last a breath, offering only a few fights and various bosses interspersed with confused cinematics, as if at that point the story became a kind of mosaic in which the developer wanted to give a very personal touch to an after all traditional episode of the cartoon . The result is still satisfied, thanks also and above all to the stylistic choice of cel shading, which makes the game essentially an interactive cartoon, and to a truly creepy soundtrack, which accompanies every battle to rock time.

Robots or witches?

If in the last video games dedicated to the Transformers we had spent most of the time shooting, in Devastation the emphasis is on melee combat, and those who have played at least Bayonetta or Metal Gear Revengeance already know what to expect. Indeed, it would not be wrong to consider Devastation as a "rose water" Bayonetta 2: less spectacular, perhaps, and less profound, too, but just as intuitive, fun and technical.

Every fight in Devastation is music to the ears and a joy to the eyes; on our configuration the Platinum Games title ran smoothly without ever losing a single frame, thanks also to the graphic sector which at first glance may appear spartan but, fidelity aside, allowed the developer to engage in gameplay without giving too much weight to details, textures and polygons. If the Transformers of High Moon Studios and the Michael Bay films were a riot of rotating gears and self-propelled mechanical plates, those of Platinum Games rely on a simple and linear character design, which allows enormous elasticity in terms of animations. Consequently, the clashes are real ballets in which the huge robots beat each other with kicks, punches and wheels. In fact, it is enough to press a simple button when the appropriate indicator appears on the screen to transform yourself in the middle of a combo and literally hit the opponent, and outside the combos the same button allows you to assume the vehicular form and maybe distance yourself or move quickly from one point of the battlefield to another. The clashes are extremely frenetic, yet we never lose sight of our character or his targets: the scene is always very clear despite the explosions and effects that follow one another with each interaction, and the camera follows it without uncertainty. In this sense, the game is certainly not flawed in terms of communication.

Enemy attacks, for example, are telegraphed by a short flash that anticipates their impact, and if the player presses the dodge / transformation button at the right moment he can trigger the so-called Focus, practically the Bayonetta Temporal Sabbat, that is a window of a few moments during which time passes in slow motion and it is possible to hit the enemy with impunity. As the fights become more complicated, deploying stronger enemies and increasingly tough bosses, the use of Focus becomes absolutely essential, and so is the knowledge of the many combos and special moves available from the beginning or that can be purchased in the Ark of the Autobot. This does not mean, however, that the fighting takes place only at close range, as each Autobot can also equip long-range weapons such as pistols or cannons.: since there is no lock-on, you have to rely on a really weak targeting system, which makes melee shots much more effective and engaging, although firearms must still be used to destroy certain mines at a safe distance or shoot down Seeker of the Decepticons bombarding us from above.

No Decepticons around here

The Transformers: Devastation campaign is divided into seven chapters, in turn divided into various missions which, to tell the truth, are nothing more than the fights that must be faced while exploring the area in question.

As we said earlier, the last two or three missions last very little and are set in very small areas, but the first chapters take place in the city, at different times of the day, and offer a glimpse of free roaming, allowing the player to wander around the map freely and fight random enemies, solve some simple environmental puzzles, open chests and collect collectibles at profusion. Once again, there is a clear feeling that the game is, so to speak, "incomplete": the map, for example, has a disarming lay-out, made up of buildings, alleys and platforms all the same, and the sense of repetitiveness takes over from arrogance especially when Platinum Games forces you to travel the streets at full speed to chase a runaway target, mimicking racing games without really succeeding. At the beginning, in short, it seems that Transformers: Devastation wants to be something more than a simple "brawler", and later it is as if Platinum Games has lost the determination (or the funds, do vobis) in pursuing the same goal in ' span of four or five hours. It is also questionable, in fact, that you can only play as the Autobots. If the titles of High Moon Studios allowed to face the campaign both from the point of view of the heroes and from that of their antagonists, the title of Platinum Games in this sense is ironclad: the player is with the good guys, and beats the bad guys. End. And this, despite the "bad guys" have combos and special moves that would have made them perfectly playable. Maybe not all: Needless to say, the flagship of Devastation are the boss fights, and not so much with historical villains like Starscream, Soundwave or Shockwave, who have all their historical skills, but with gigantic gestalts like Devastator or Menasor. Taking on the Constructicons over and over, and then seeing them combine into one of the most iconic robots in entertainment history, is nothing short of thrilling, as is dodging his every shot, riddling him with blows and making him fall to his knees before delivering one. deadly hammered on the head. From the point of view of weapons, in fact, Transformers: Devastation plays a game with the promise of a "loot system" that practically recalls Diablo III but which fails to express itself fully. As well as the campaign structure or the script, this part of the game also seems to have been developed in a bit of haste.

Basically, by defeating the enemies and opening the chests there are dozens and dozens of weapons, classified by level and rarity: each of them alters not only the appearance of the Autobot, but also the animations and the execution of its attacks. Devastator's drills, for example, allow you to unleash lightning-fast combos and can be charged and thrown from afar, while the two-handed hammers are much slower, but also much more damaging with each hit. Among swords, axes, fist weapons and so on and so forth, the variety is certainly not lacking, but the frequency with which these loot is collected soon makes its usefulness superfluous, also because each weapon can be upgraded by consuming the other weapons: by doing so, the base weapon becomes stronger, and eventually acquires the bonus abilities related to the weapons consumed. The system is not very clear, and the tutorial is rather superficial, leaving the player at the mercy of a real "trial and error" process, but in essence, once we have found the weapon we like, especially if rare and good quality, it is difficult to switch to anything else. The same goes for the "chips" that you can craft through a fairly awkward minigame and equip to enjoy various bonuses. All, of course, in the name of replayability: Devastation does not last long, we want to repeat it, and perhaps this explains its budget price, but the Platinum Games titles are aimed at an audience that loves to play and replay the same missions at different levels of difficulty, in search of the best score and perfect execution. That's why it is possible to choose which Autobot to face each mission or challenge with, as their abilities, combos and ultimate techniques change drastically, forcing a completely different approach from character to character.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processore: Intel Core i7-2600k @ 3,4 GHz
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 10 64 bit

Minimum requirements

Processor: Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz
Video card: GeForce 8800 GT
Memory: 2 GB of RAM
Operating system: Win Vista 32

Recommended Requirements

Processore: Core i3-3240 3.4GHz
Scheda video: GeForce GT 640 v3
Memory: 4 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 7 64 bit

Comment

Tested version PlayStation 4 Resources4Gaming.com

7.9

Readers (31)

7.3

Your vote

Transformers: Devastation is short, it allows you to control only the Autobots and at times it gives the feeling of also being an incomplete hair, but for a fan of Generation 1 and of Hasbro's transformable toys it is simply a pearl, the dream game that was waiting for a vita, an interactive episode of the cartoon based on an absolutely sensational, satisfying and dynamic combat system. If it was meant to be an experiment, we can say that it has succeeded and hope that Platinum Games will take more care of every single aspect in a possible sequel.