Devastation (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.3 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Erik Wolpaw
• Reviewed on: 03/31/2003
• Updated on: 05/01/2003
• Released on: 03/28/2003
• Originally published on GameSpot: Devastation (PC) Review

If nothing else, Devastation is ambitious. Digitalo Studios' futuristic first-person shooter features more than 35 weapons, arcade-style and tactical modes of play, computer-controlled teammates, a detailed physics model, and single-player missions that incorporate "botmatch"-style base attack and defense objectives (that is, both you and your opponents are aided by computer-controlled "bot" characters). Unfortunately, Devastation tries to be a jack-of-all-trades, but is master of none, and it's lacking in a few key areas.

Like so many other action games, Devastation places you in the role of a rebel who must fight against an oppressive corporation that now controls most of the world. Devastation uses a bunch of clichéd events and settings to pound this familiar theme into a mush that is indistinguishable from plenty of other generic shooters. There's the subway level, the sewer level, the warehouse level, the part where you have to single-handedly fight an attack chopper, and the level where you get conked on the head, stripped of your weapons, and tossed in jail (though as it turns out, Devastation takes away your weapons and tosses you in jail not once, but twice).

Though freedom was obviously the first victim of Devastation's totalitarian corporate state, garbage collection appears to have been a close second. The game's Unreal-engine powered environments are filled with trash. It's never explicitly stated just what, exactly, the evil corporation is selling, but from the general makeup of the debris, it's probably soft drinks, Chinese food, or oil barrels. A lot of this busted-up bric-a-brac actually exists as independent objects in the world, all affected by an at least theoretically realistic physics model. For instance, you can shoot a milk crate in its upper left corner, and it'll tumble over its rear left axis.

The physics system is a neat idea, but, as implemented, it suffers from two major problems. The first is that the rules governing the physics are spotty at best. Often objects will simply get stuck--on walls, on ceilings, or even in midair. If you pick something up and toss it down at your feet, it'll either disappear completely or become half-buried in the ground. The imprecision of the bounding box around your character causes you to constantly knock things over, as if you were navigating the world while wearing a bulky and invisible costume. In fact, the physics will often make you feel that you're not playing an action-packed shooter, but rather a simulation of being the world's clumsiest action hero.

The second, and bigger, problem is that no real attempt has been made to integrate the effects of the physics model into the game. Yes, you can pick up a chair and smash it over somebody's head. But since everybody's carrying a small arsenal of high-tech weapons, holstering your gun and then stopping to grab some furniture is mostly just a good way to get shot. What's worse, the developer apparently overlooked some opportunities to actually make good use of the physics engine. For instance, when hit with a few bullets, oil barrels explode, and thanks to the physics engine, a barrel on its side will roll, which could lead to some interesting tactics such as rolling a barrel toward an enemy position, then shooting it when it gets near its target. Unfortunately, while you can pick up and toss a barrel, there's no way to adjust your grip so that it lands on its side. A thrown barrel will almost always land on its flat bottom, causing it to quickly skip to a stop. The physics system ends up being more of a somewhat goofy graphical effect than a feature that impacts the gameplay in any meaningful way. Oddly, some other standard environmental effects you might expect from a new first-person shooter are entirely missing--there's no shattering glass, for example.

The game's 21 missions start off just like most goal-oriented first-person shooters. Run here, flip this switch, and so on. In some levels, you're accompanied by as many as eight computer-controlled teammates, but the AI that controls their behaviors seems half-finished. At one point, the game stops so that a teammate can warn you about how dangerous a particular laser gate is, though that doesn't stop her from barging right into it and dying five seconds later. Often, teammates will get stuck somewhere or just stop and begin firing into walls for no apparent reason. You can give them four basic commands: stop, follow, attack, and defend. Since roughly half the missions end if any friendly character gets killed, it's often best to order them to stay back. This is especially important because once they get a whiff of enemy activity, they'll pretty much refuse to follow orders until all nearby enemies are dead.

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