Devastation

Nice establishment, but it’s not exactly rocking Logan Booker.

Relax. All those anarchists in the outer suburbs won’t be defacing in excitement, mugging in delight, or smashing windows in joy. What they will be doing is veraciously harassing their monitors with their shoes, and arguing in youthful futility. Why? Simple really, as Devastation has a way of making the sane insane without even trying.

Right off the 2x4, Devastation needs to be patched out of the box. The bugs are really blatant, and we have no idea how they fought past QA. Tempted as we were to play sans patch, we decided it was best to give the game a fair go.

Coming from this, Devastation is not a bad game. It has no problems building atmosphere, thanks to the gorgeous maps where detail is refined on the microscopic level.

Submerging into the story isn’t hard, with Flynn, the main character, lucky enough to get some decent voice acting. Through his rhetoric, we learn that Grathius Corporation is in charge of the planet after a global catastrophe, where ‘pacification squads’ are the local law enforcement that doesn’t take ‘rebel’ for an answer.

While the game is heavy on the clichés -- references to disloyalists, characters spitting out old diatribes on fairness and equality, etc -- you can adjust to the story without too much wincing.

What will make you cringe is the AI, and here’s where we take a long, deep breath.
Devastation’s claim to gamehood is its ‘enhanced’ and ‘life-like’ artificial intelligence.

Now, while at times it shines like a sparkling, perfectly cut diamond, it’s just as easily thrown to the ground and crushed under the foot of glaring stupidity. For every time an opponent will duck behind an upturned table, wrecked car or open door, they will also stand dumbfounded as you fire rounds into their skull, or line them up in the open for a headshot. Your teammates will alternate between equally amazing extremes -- Gus, or Eve, or one of your other averagely-modelled followers will sit on the spot, staring gaily as you desperately dodge -- Van Damme-style -- past bullets, rolling barrels and the occasional piece of furniture. At other moments, they’ll expertly shoot combatants through walls and other obstructions.

Equipping your teammates with weapons is a game in itself. Prepare to play ‘We’d The Gun Go?’ as your buddies occasionally rid themselves of the armaments you so generously provide. They occasionally disappear without a trace, be it the second you hand them over or between levels. It’s painful to watch, especially after the trouble you’ll sometimes go to so your guys have decent weaponry.

It all sounds nasty, yes, but Devastation does have its diamonds. Without question, this game has some of the most detailed and artfully worked environments in an FPS. It makes awesome use of the Unreal Warfare engine. Every conceivable detail is attended to, from the cables attached to drink machines, to the usable scientific equipment in the Grathius laboratory. Most objects in the game world are malleable and wieldable, so you can throw trashcans, chairs and milk cartons at enemies (or out windows, at walls -- whatever). However, even during the times your weapons are absent, you’ll get your hands on a pistol before the need arises to resort to suburban cricket.

Later on in the game you’ll scab a ‘ReGen’ device, which is just a mobile respawn point and basically makes you immortal. The impact it has on gameplay is huge, and the game loses a lot of appeal once it’s in your grubby revolutionist hands. The need for survival evaporates like arse steam, and it becomes easier to just throw yourself and your buddies with suicidal abandon at gun emplacements than load a save game.

Talking of killing teammates with no remorse, Devastation does have multiplayer. It’s not a requirement, but for an FPS these days it is expected. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and CTF are available, along with an original mode called ‘Territories’. Each side is given a set of objectives, like hacking a computer or destroying the enemy’s respawn device, and you receive cash for completing these tasks. You can then spend your hard-earned terrorist dollars on weapons and equipment. The only thing that restricts how much you can buy is a weight limit, and of course, the amount of cash you have to spend.

Despite the sweet goodness that lies beneath the bone thick AI, it’s hard to ignore Devastation’s numerous nibbling faults. With some polish on the intelligence and character models, the game would have been a considerably more engrossing experience. Unfortunately for all, Devastation only manages to scrape in as average.