One of the surprises among those accustomed to follow the good work of Japanese companies that succeed in an increasingly westernized industry came with the announcement of Transformers Devastation. A license that had had good raids recently and that fell into the hands of Platinum Games, geniuses of action without rest and creators of breathtaking titles like Bayonetta,
Vanquish or Metal Gear Rising. But the doubts quickly assailed the most distrustful: is this a game of first law like the ones mentioned or in a low budget product like Legend of Korra? The answer is, plain and simple, that we are facing the Transformers that anyone would imagine would come out of the hands of Platinum Games.
Since Michael Bay presented the ‘viejunismo’ of the Transformers – they were born in the 80s as a good product of his time – to a new generation giving them a facelift, an intensive ‘tunning’ session to adapt to what they like in this era and leave the squared eighties designs, the franchise has grown in these 8 years in a spectacular way. And that includes a good
number of games between titles licensed from the 4 films and others based on the universe of which few are saved from burning – the usual evil of the licensed game made in haste to reach the premiere of the film of the same name. The games of the Cybertron sub-series were a good exception.
Fast, intense and direct, Devastation has in its base code a mixture between the DNA of Generation 1 of Transformers, the original of the 80, and the DNA of the games made in Platinum, so the Brawler component and of action in third person of fights is palpable from the beginning, that starts a pure plot G1 nothing else press Start. The story begins with the
first cinematic, and it tells us that Megatron-leader of the Decepticons-has found something buried in a city with which to do much damage to its
citizens and try again to conquer the Earth and ride a Cybertron 2 , motive that forces Optimus Prime, Bumblebee – at last the little beetle and not the luxury Camaro in which Bay had turned it – Wheeljack, Sideswipe and Grimlock (the five buses we manage) to mobilize to protect human beings.
With a classic structure, here the ingame parts are for playing and the videos to advance the story, lightly but with enough interest to keep you stuck in a duration that some will see as a handicap, since it is true that it moves around 7-8 hours (one hour per chapter,
depending on the ability of each), but like other Platinum like Vanquish its playable intensity makes us press the buttons more than in other hack ‘n slash that last twice. And it is already 10 minutes to start and we are currando with the huge Devastator …
And from there to the end everything is a parade of the best of the Transformers Gen 1 written by the editor / writer of the comics of the franchise , Andy Schmidt.
Hit, dodge, learn, start over
The combat system of Transformers Devastation is a house brand and easily recognizable to Platinum lovers from the start. We have two attack buttons, one faster and one stronger, which can be combined with different combos sequences. We are not facing a cast of hits worth Bayonetta, but we are not facing a Musou with 4 sequences to crush enemies.
We will have combinations of 3-4 strokes, some longer, the classic sequences that demand a pause to continue with the attacks, blows that allow the
opponent to rise from the ground and continue in the air and blows of charge, among others. Added to this as the main defensive element is an evasive movement that does turn us, in a certain way, into the Bayonetta witch even though we are a lot of talking junk.
