Devastation Hands-On

The gaming market isn't exactly blooming with single-player FPS games these days. Most of the time us shooter fans at ActionTrip.com get to twiddle our fat thumbs at the office and do absolutely nothing but sleep, bitch, and moan all the time. (I could comment on what others do at the office, but I won't. - Ed) And on those rare occasions when we're awake we spend (waste - Ed) our time making smart remarks about how utterly boring it is to play RTS games in multiplayer. So, as you would imagine, me and a few other AT chums (like SixShooter and Moesha) were pleasantly surprised and excited to learn that our press beta of Devastation was on its way to the dank, dark lair of love and junk food leftovers, more commonly known as THE OFFICE. Digitalo Studios is getting ready to hit crunch time and release their upcoming shooter by March 25th.

An inconspicuous thug, holding a gun...

Torching your foe can be fun.

We've already covered the game to some extent in our recent interview with the members of the design crew, but it doesn't hurt to go over the basics one more time. Here's how Digitalo's Vic DeLeon explains the game:

"The game takes place on a future Earth (72 years from now) where technology is outlawed, food and fuel are precious commodities, and the only law is Martial Law. You assume the role of Flynn, a very cynical twenty-five year-old who's nothing more than a streetwise punk with a criminal history and a penchant for rebellion. Aside from his implied honorable intentions of exposing an evil global conspiracy, he is the classical anti-hero, which makes for some new and unique scenarios to propel the game.

From the first moments of the game you are thrust into the dark and compelling plot with an NPC guide and guns blazing. Aside from surviving the baddies, you've got a lot of additional challenges to overcome. You will be given task lists made up of multiple unlocking objectives and sub-objectives via pre-game mission briefings, in-game action cutscenes, and HUD-based checklists. Your main goals are simple: survival, and conquest, but as the story progresses you are given more and more clues as to the nature of your upcoming missions. As you progress through Devastation's world, you will have more and more objectives to complete and challenges to overcome, as the game dynamic quickly adapts allowing for incredible variation from the standard shooter fare. In the end, you'll have teamed up with eight computer-controlled teammates all at once (you can issue them commands), fight alongside an entire army, and uncover and expose the mystery behind the evil mega-corporations that have been lying and manipulating the public, while they ruin what's left of mankind. Lot's of fun!"

The press build we received contains four levels of the single player game, and one transition cinematic. The first two levels, Chinatown and South Urbia, are indicative of the first half of the game, which is more linear. Then there is the cinematic to kind of tie the story together, and lastly, two more playable levels; Zangai and Transit; which are good examples of the final half of the game with destructible spawn points. These single player levels will also set the player up for the team-style MP game type that will ship with Devastation called Territories.

As you may (or may not) know, Devastation utilizes a modified version of the Unreal Tournament 2003 engine, and much of its gameplay novelties are derived from the fantastic potential of the game's physics engine and the rag doll physics model, which truly take the level of interaction with the environment to a whole new level.

In fact, lifelike and highly interactive environments are the first thing you'll notice when you start playing the game. Destructible objects and real-world physics really give you a lot of room to maneuver and even introduce a non-linear facet to what are seemingly linear game levels (well, the first two levels anyhow). There is an obstacle in your way and it's blocking your path? Hey, no problem! Kick a few boxes around and you'll be able to jump over it with easy. This will in turn help you to jump your entrenched enemies from behind and catch them off guard. Almost any object in the streets can be interacted with. You can kick cans, shoot fuel barrels to knock over bad guys... I've spent a day or so with the game, and I'm pretty sure I haven't yet discovered all the little details that the developers have put in the environment.

Get a load of the rat-cam... Now I know how Stuart Little felt.

Hey, if I give her this rat as a present, maybe she will...

Rag doll physics apply quite nicely to the models as well, and the physics engine is also responsible for the highly realistic recoil properties of the weapons. I got to use various handguns and rifles in the game, but what impressed me the most were the frag grenades. When a frag grenade detonates, it not only hurts the bad guys, it also does damage to the nearby surroundings. Very cool effect, I must say.

My favorite weapon in the game at this point is the M16 rifle, although a particle weapon, P*Laser comes in at close second. The M16 rifle behaves and fires in a highly realistic fashion, with a proper kick and highly reduced accuracy while jumping and running, and the P*Laser is just devastating and quite fun to use - it literally incinerates your opponents in a split second; kind of like the old fashioned railgun. As far as the game's arsenal goes, it consists mostly of a nuts and bolts type of weapons, which perfectly suits the overall style of gameplay. The damage model and weapon properties are highly dependant of the style of gameplay you choose at the beginning of the game. Devastation is one of the rare shooters (in fact, I think it's the only one) to offer players a chance to choose between an arcade and a simulation style of combat.

Besides the excellent physics, the modified version of the UT2003 engine does an excellent job at delivering high-poly models, rich particle effects, and some highly detailed environments, all of which are an intricate part of the game world in Devastation. The settings look gritty and with a realistic feel to them. This works well in the game, as it goes in line with its story and general mood.

Finally, the two areas where Devastation still needs more work are the AI, and the sound effects (need more variety and better tunes). Neither of these is quite there yet, as the enemy models will mostly run for cover and crouch while sporadically (and quite accurately) taking potshots at ya. Consequently, they can become quite predictable and easy to deal with. The team AI on the other hand is quite good. In fact, it's highly believable and it's a good indication of what the polished up version of enemy AI might look like. The team at Digitalo ensured us that: "AI Continues to be tweaked and improved," so let's hope things will come together for them code-wise before the game ships.

Overall, Devastation is certainly worthy of your attention, as it brings its own, unique gameplay elements to the shooter market. Hopefully, the team at Digitalo will be given enough time to put the finishing touches on the code, and release the game once they feel comfortable with it. It just might turn out that Devastation will eventually breathe some fresh air into a rather stale single-player FPS genre.