As you may or may not be aware, Transformers: Devastation recently came out. It's made by Platinum and goes back to the roots of Transformers for inspiration, rather than relying on the cinematic vomit that are the Transformers movies. Booting up the game, it's like you've walked into a playable arc from the 80s Transformers cartoon. The graphics are cel shaded, and they look beautiful and completely appropriate for the game. As I played the PC version, I had to play with my settings a bit because my laptop is somewhat on the weak side, and I ultimately had to crank the game down to low to get a smooth framerate. But guess what? The game still looked amazing.
Going back to the idea of the 80s Transformers cartoon, you have classic character designs, voice acting that is completely on point, and even some terrible puns generally courtesy of Bumblebee. The feeling of the game is perfect, and right off the bat, it feels much better than any Transformers game that came before it.
How about that actual gameplay? Platinum nailed it. You get to brawl with light attacks, heavy attacks, effortless shift from physical attacks to shooting, and easy transforming that makes for great variance in combat. You fight plenty of Decepticons, big and small, in fun boss fights and more general grunt encounters, and as you may be used to with Platinum, everything is more skill based than anything else. I can't count the number of times I managed to win a boss fight despite being one hit away from death from about midway in. You feel great when you're dodging, landing combos, and generally kicking ass.
I had a lot of fun swinging around my huge hammer as Optimus Prime, quickly switching to a sniper rifle for some quick shots, and smoothly transitioning into vehicle form to do a charge hit that led into a combo.
Not to mention you have five different Autobots you can play as, each can be equipped with different weapons that can be upgraded, each have stats that level up (stats level individually rather than collectively), and each can be equipped with additional tech that you can make. There is a surprising amount of customizability that comes with the experience that adds depth to character management. Even then, you can take on chapters with any character you want.
For my first playthrough, I stuck with Optimus Prime, but I easily could have mixed it up with Bumblebee or one of the other playable Autobots. As is also usual with Platinum, the game isn't incredibly long. My playthrough was only about six hours, and that was with extra running around and collecting. Oh yeah, did I mention? Lots of collectables to find, and an extra challenge mode for more fun. That aside, there is a lot of replayability in the main story alone as you work to master the game with every character, working towards that SS rank for every chapter.
Do yourselves a favor and buy this game. Buy it and never look back.
I'll be typing up a full review tomorrow for one of the sites I write for, but I thought I'd share my thoughts with you all not long after completing the game since I haven't seen much about it on here.
