Transformers: Devastation review

By all accounts, Transformers: Devastation should have been a high-speed disaster. A mess of twisted steel and discarded teenage dreams, the bright, epilepsy-inducing style and recognisable cast of Autobots and Decepticons nothing but a nostalgic wail in the wind, like a siren on the seas. But Platinum Games, the industry’s leading action developer, has finally found form with licensed properties. Hollywood might have ravaged the corpse of Transformers down to its bare nuts and bolts, but don’t write off Transformers: Devastation just yet, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Huh, who’d have thought we’d have gotten that reference in there totally organically…

It’s admittedly difficult to not just crumble into a heap of nostalgic delirium upon discovering that Transformers: Devastation isn’t entirely awful. This is the Transformers that children of the Eighties have long been after a return of, only to be convinced by the Michael Bays of this world that they would never again receive. Inspired by the original Generation 1 seasons, Transformers: Devastation sees Platinum dive into its rich history in the action genre and straight-up lift some of its best mechanics and systems out to play again, though that isn’t to say there aren’t a few major shortcomings to be found.

The biggest point of contention? The length. Despite the age-old conversation, size really does matter – especially when you’re dropping £40 – and there’s little doubt many will find themselves disappointed when the credits roll after just five hours. This is clearly a game made on a tight budget; the majority of the action unfolding across two primary locations, while the variety of enemies you face is small to say the least. But what is to be found in Transformers: Devastation, for the most part at least, feels lovingly and luxuriously crafted.

The influence of Platinum’s Metal Gear Rising and Vanquish on the speed and style of combat is clear, while fans of Bayonetta will immediately connect with Devastation’s take on Witch Time. By dodging an incoming attack at the last second, Focus will initiate, slowing down time and leaving enemies incredibly vulnerable to counter attacks. Have we seen this before? Sure, but that doesn’t make it any less of a fun mechanic.

Thanks to High Moon Studios’ efforts with the franchise over the last few years, we’ve come to expect robust shooting and driving mechanics to be included in a Transformers release, though smartly Devastation sees Platinum sticking to what it knows and does best. It’s a brawler at heart, smartly weaponising the robots in disguise as you leap instantly between bipedal and vehicle positions, accompanied every time by a satisfying audio cue. Combos are completed with heavy-hitting vehicle-based assaults, while driving full speed at enemies can be chained into devastating shield-breaking and combo-starting melee assaults, so long as you can get the timing down.

There are five playable Autobots (Optimus, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Wheeljack, and Grimlock) to choose between missions, each with its own unique feel, combat style and attributes, which brings a lot of variety to the melee combat. It’ll also keep you engaged throughout the adventure, which is more than can be said about the disappointing inclusion of ranged weapons. With a criminal lack of lock-on and the crazy speed of the combat, especially when flying enemies come into play, the game would have been better off without it. Ranged combat will send you into frenzies of wild fire, desperately swinging the camera around to keep up with the highly mobile foes; compared with the stellar melee combat, it feels like an afterthought.

That’s a bit of a common theme for Devastation. Sure, Platinum has done what it does best to the core of it all, but so much of it feels like an afterthought. There’s the ability to upgrade weapons and exchange credits for XP to drop across a range of stats, but the game does a legitimately awful job of explaining any of it. While the game moves with the pace and story ambition of a Season One G1 episode – which is to say, erratically – and the return of so many familiar voices is fantastic fan service, the reusing of environments will eventually begin to feel a little lazy.

As we mentioned before, the length of the game does cause something of a problem, though this being a Platinum game the studio has done its best to increase playtime with the tease of multiple layers of difficulty and 50 short challenges. This feels like a cop-out before we even say it, but fans of the Gen1 era are going to get far more out of Devastation than anyone else. If you’re just looking for the next great action game or are a Platinum fan, you might want to steer clear. The attention to detail is staggering for fans; little audio and visual cues will succeed in plastering a smile across your face, while the combat brings the Autobots and Decepticons to life like never before.

After four deafening movies and an array of sometimes terrible videogames over the decade, Transformers has become a bit of a dirty word. Devastation moves with a kinetic energy we haven’t seen in the series since the G1 days; it’s fun, fluid and self-aware in all the right ways, but that doesn’t make it a killer videogame. Considering the state of Platinum’s last licensed title, The Legend Of Korra, not to mention the clear budget and time constraints from Activision, Transformers: Devastation could have been much worse. But then again, it could also have been much, much better.