Transformers Devastation

FINALLY. I’ve been dancing around this since I picked it up 2 or 3 years ago at Gamestop for 14.99. One of PlatinumGames’ licensed games, often described as a hidden gem and one hell of a hack and slash… Transformers: Devastation! That’s right, it’s time for Autobots to Roll Out! And… that is the extent of what I know about The Tranformers. Well that’s not exactly true, when I was a kid, my older brother had a bunch of the toys and by the time I was interested in them, they were already worth a bunch of money, which I find interesting because that was the 90s, they felt contemporary! I was more of a turtles guy, anyway. I think everything I know about The Transformers I learned from the commercials. Well now I’ll gleam additional information because of this kick-ass game.

After playing The Darkness I was ready for something a little faster paced and since I was already on the Series X, I decided to pull a dusty case off the shelf. So far this game really does whip ass. It’s fast paced, has multiple characters to (quickly) choose from, multiple weapon types - both ranged and melee - WHICH you can switch up fairly quick with the d-pad and the icing on the cake… TRANSFORMING! Yes, this game would actually be quite disappointing if the titular ability was omitted, and the way they’ve decided to implement it here is very cool. Your natural state is running around like the bipedal giants the Autobots are normally seen as, but because this is a PlatinumGames experience, when you hit RB your robot not only does a dodge, but if you hold it down that dodge turns into a cool transformation and you end up in your vehicle form! It’s actually pretty cool. There are some benefits between switching up between car and foot form mid combo, and there are combos that culminate with moving from foot to car. The most powerful moves are called “vehicle attacks” and they do massive damage at the end of a perfectly completed combo. I find the prompt to perform this attack comes slightly too late, and since the input needed to do the “vehicle attack” is the same as dodge/car mode - RB - I find myself just turning into a corvette or tractor engine and just sitting there. This is a small complaint because the action is very good and this really could be a me problem.

My progress so far is into the second area, the Proudstar Ship (which is often pronounced to sound like Brown Star so Catrena and I keep laughing about that). I’ve just pushed through a series of bosses that culminated in me fighting ALL THREE of these ancient Insecticons at the same time. This was a hard fight! I think it took me 15 or 20 retries to get through it, which I’m not afraid to admit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I love these games but I’m not very good at them. I’m OKAY but I’m not great. I think I may try to play this on hard when I finish here because I have a feeling this game isn’t going to be that long BUT we’ll see how I feel when I finish.

SPEAKING OF FINISHING! I managed to get through the BrownProudStar and unlocked another character… A FUCKING DINOSAUR NAMED GRIMLOCK???? TRANSFORMERS HAVE DINOSAURS! It took everything in my power to shut down and head to bed instead of seeing how this dummy controls but I’m very excited to dive into Dinobot territory! Grimlock, I’ll protect you with my life.