E3 2015 - Transformers Devastation Hands On

Whenever E3 comes around, there are people coming up with all sorts of crazy rumours and stories, for what end I don’t know, but then there are also leaks, which can be really cool or spoil something a publisher wanted to show off. Transformers Devastation falls into the group of both, it was awesome to see a new game coming, but took the wind out of Activision’s sails a little, but with the game as good as it is now, that wind is picking up again.

The game is being created by Platinum Games, who seem to be everywhere of late and it plays like a Platinum Game should, it is actually being worked on by the same core team who did Metal Gear Revengence, so if you have played that you might understand a little of what you are getting into here. Transformers Devastation is a fast paced brawler game where the Transformers move like you have never seen them before, but while that may be shocking, they sound like the should.

Peter Cullen and Frank Welker are returning to voice Optimus and Megatron respectively, as well as Frank voicing Soundwave, but for the first time in a long time, Dan Gilvezan and Gergg Berger are returning as Bumblebee and Grimlock, meaning this is going to be as close as you get to a sequel to the original series. But while the cast returning, the sounds are right as well, meaning that classic and famous transformation sound returns, so fans of the old classics can rest easy.

But looks and sound can only go so far, the gameplay is what is important here, with it being as solid as you would expect, but while fighting in robot form is fun, you can also change into vehicle form, allowing you to move around faster both in getting around the world, but also in combat. As changing between robot and vehicle forms is crucial for doing as much damage as possible as well as racking up the combos.

Optimus and Bumblebee were the two characters that I was able to play as and as awesome as they both are, they both play very different. Optimus is very large and he deals quite a lot of damage with his attacks, if you time it right, he will change into vehicle form as well and ram the enemy he is fighting, but he is also slow. His size works against him when it comes to movement, but Bumblebee is the opposite, this size allows him to move around his foes with ease, sliding under them and dealing out damage from behind, but because of this size, his attacks don’t do anywhere near the level of damage that Optimus does, so there is a level of strategy to be considered, depending on the fight.

Of course, there is plenty of fighting, even in the demo for E3 I was able to take on a variety of low level decepticons, from cars to fighter jets, all the way up to large tank link creatures. Of course the fun was taking down Devastator, even as Optimus, he towers above and can dish out massive amounts of damage if he hits you. What you need to do is dodge and if you do it at the right moment, time slows down and you can rush in and get some quick attacks in. Of course with a foe as large as Devastator, you can’t do a whole lot against his shins, but hurt him enough and he will drop to his knees, bringing his head in for the right level and allows you to deal a lot of damage.

While I was able to defeat him with ease, thanks to Optimus being levelled up passed what he normally would at that point, the dev watch me play, decided I needed more of a challenge and moved me to a new stage on a bridge that was falling apart, upped the difficulty and placed me at the lowest level for that stage and oh yeah, swapped me to Bumblebee. Turns out, I may not be as awesome as I first thought as I was struggling to beat the first two enemies of the stage, but I kept at it and with more and more deaths and attempts I was finally able to get up to the fifth enemy. It was at that point I had to stop playing as I had to head over to another appointment, but I will get past it in future.

While I did not play a lot of the game, only two sections, I enjoyed both so much, which is nothing something I thought I would. I have never been a real fan of these types of games, but Platinum know what they are doing and I can’t wait to see what fun I can have with it and where the games story leads, when it releases later this year.