History of Transformers franchise:
Transformers is based on media franchise, which produced by american toy company Hasbro. When the franchise began in 1984, Transformers: Generation 1 is a first toyline series that involves toy robots that could change into an alternate form (such as cars, planes, monsters and etc.) by moving parts into other places and it was the first toyline series that becoming popular, which led the company's success shares with their comics series, animation series, feature films, novels and of course video game series.
Transformers animation series was very popular among with fans in 1984. It is best known for excellent animations, great actions, decent story and it has memorable characters like Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Ironhide and many more that made the animation series so awesome, and lets not forget Transformers the movie is one of the best feature animation films in 80's era. The live action series was started in year 2007. The first four films were directed by Michael Bay, including original 2007's Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Transformers: Age of Extinction, which the film series has received mixed reception by critics praising for visual effects, action sequences, and music, but criticised for storyplot, humor, and lengths of the films, but the original 2007's film had received better overall than the rest of the sequels. The video game series does have shares with different titles such as games based on TV series, film series, and War of Cybertron series. The War of Cybertron series had received slightly positive overall than the games based on film series and TV Series until the Transformers: devastation was released in 2015 and it received much higher praise for nostalgia, graphics and gameplay as being one of the only better game based on TV series.
Transformers: Devastation PS4 Review:
Transformers: Devastation is a action hack and slash game for PS4, PS3, XBONE, X360 and PC, which developed by Platinum Games and published by Activision.
My thoughts on Transformers series are pretty awesome because I loved the first animation series and featured animation film from the 80's era, but I felt the 2007's live-action series are pretty disappointing which didn't live up with my reputation and what does the video game titles based on the Transformers series is going to be like, well I wasn't the fan of the previous games back in the day until the Transformers: Devastation just got me so much attention and I really enjoyed it so far because I really loved the gameplay system, stunning graphics, decent storyplot, awesome characters and of course 80's nostalgia roots that just got the whole game right where it should be. I'm very glad that the game was developed by same team behind Madworld, Bayonetta and Vanquish because they know how to make a such quality hack and slash games to keep the game perfectly well balanced. Activision made a right choice of getting a decent developers to take part of the game's development which turns out really well on this game.
Without go further do, let's talk about the game's overall.
Presentation
This event takes place in New York City, it's starts off with the city has been attacked by the groups of Decepticons went to look for plasma energy until the groups of Autobots came to rescue as their goal is to save the city and stop Megatron preventing to take over the earth and creating a new Cybertron.
The story in the game are sounds quite well done as the game is also part of the Transformers: Generations line made the story quite impressive, but it may not have a proper backstory in the game would have been nice to include the background story from the original Transformers TV series, but still the rest of the storyplot in the game is quite pretty done decently. I also liked the looks of the cinematic cutscenes with fantastic visual design is just like the original Transformers TV series that brought out the nostalgia look of the game. It does have amazing heroes like Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Sidewipe and Grimlock, while it does have some awesome villains like Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream that makes the characters so memorable from the 80's era.
I'm very glad that this game sticks with the 80's nostalgia roots from the past that definitely puts Michael Bay's Transformers film series into shame.
Overall, it has great story, memorable characters, and 80's nostalgia roots that just got the game right for Transformers franchise.
Gameplay
The gameplay focuses on mixed between third person shooter and action hack and slash perspective. You take control of playable Autobots characters to complete the mission objectives and defeating most of the decepticons.
Your characters are able to use variety of ranged weapons, melee attacks and able to transform into vehicle mode at any time. The ranged weapons and melee weapons has available selection to choose from such as machineguns, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, flamethrower, sword, twin blades, hammers and etc. I finding the shooting range of each weapons are seems working well depending which weapons you're using for example; machineguns and sniper rifle are great for far distance range while flamethrower and grenade launcher are useful for higher damaging attacks. The melee attacks are very responsive and balanced which made the collision dections easier to attack the enemies for example; the sword, twin blades and fists are quite useful for fast paced close combat gameplay while hammer and other heavy melee weapons are better for higher damaging attacks which are perfect for use of combo system and fighting style techniques. You can also earn credits and gain new weapons by defeating enemies, destroying objects and clearing puzzles, so you can able to use credits to purchase new items, moves,weapons, and forge T.E.C.H. to improve stat boosts, synthesize weapons to make them stronger, or increase the stats of each Autobot from the mission options menu. Controlling the characters is pretty simple to use for character's movements and camera controls especially with controlling with the vehicle is seems working fine. The fighting controls is pretty responsive with no delays at all, it's easier for players to perform variety of fighting moves and the combo systems are pretty stunning which can increase the overall fighting performance will award you a highest rank on the each mission based. I also liked the dodging mechanics which activates focus allowing the players to slow down the enemies and performing counterattack their opponents which is quite awesome. I also liked the unique special ability and a powerful overdrive attack which allowing players to perform finishing moves if the energy bar is full.
Despite having impressive combat gameplay and movement controls, the mission can be quite repetitive because it uses the similar mission objectives as the previous chapters which didn't add up enough with the variation of levels and enemies, but still it's plays very decent and has excellent battles in the game. I finding the game is quite too short because the game only takes about 3 or 4 hours to complete and it's a shame that there are no online or offline co-op mode would have been sounds awesome, but the single-player campaign are still quite enjoyable to play.
Overall, it has impressive combat weapons, great fighting style, responsive controls and upgrading systems.
Graphics
I got to say the graphics is just like the original TV series, but contains nicely made visuals and fluid animations is just look so good on this game. The visuals are looking very colourful and detailed to make the game look closer to the 80's cartoon's styles that gives a game nostalgia feel. The use of the animations looks quite impressive for the character's design and level environments are fairly well designed and of course it has really has great use of the special effects in the game.
The levels design are slightly in the right shape without making the level look too small and narrow for bigger character's, so they did a good job of how they able to manage by keeping the design of the level balanced as possible. The actual game runs on much cleaner look of 1080p resolution for the PS4, XBONE and PC version, while the PS3 and X360 runs on 720p resolution is not as polished as the next gen consoles version, but the game runs on 60fps on whole pc and console platforms making the game more stable and playable, but I heard the XBONE version does have some frame rate drops on the performances compared with PS4 and PC version, but still it's plays fine.
Overall, it has nice visuals, colourful animation, great level environments and 80's cartoon style design.
Music and Sounds
The whole soundtrack are absolutely sounds frigging epic on the title screen, cutscenes and in-game stages. It was composed by Vince DiCola, who are best known for his work on Transformers: The Movie and Rocky IV soundtracks, did a brilliant job of making stunning original score that really fits the game's presentations, while Tetsuya Shibata did a amazing job for making badass heavy metal score which increases the game's overall atmospheres that fits perfectly on fighting battle scenes.
I really loved the sound effects of the classic 80's cartoons is because of the robotic sounds when they transformed into their different forms and the sound quality of the cutscenes, in-game and musics are very good with the home cinema speakers equipment and it has a original voice cast from the original Transformers TV series such as Peter Cullen, Dan Gilvezan, Michael Bell, Gregg Berger and Frank Welker did a fantastic job of voicing their characters in the game.
Overall it has epic soundtrack, superb sound effects and outstanding voice acting.
Special Features
This game has trophy achievements, downloadable content, unlockable galleries and challenge mode are the nice features to have it in the game.
Advantages
Focuses on 80's nostagla roots
Great story
Memorable characters
Decent combat gameplay
Very good graphics
Epic soundtrack
Outstanding voice actors
Disadvantages
Repetitive mission
Short-length campaign
Lack of online or offline co-op
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - Great story, memorable characters, and 80's nostalgia roots.
Gameplay 7.5/10 - Impressive combat weapons, great fighting style, responsive controls and upgrading systems.
Graphics 8/10 - Nice visuals, colourful animation, great level environments and 80's cartoon style design.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - Epic soundtrack, superb sound effects and outstanding voice acting.
Special Features 7/10 - Trophy achievements, downloadable content, unlockable galleries and challenge mode.
Overall 7.5/10 - This is definitely one of the better Transformers games in the series. The developers team did a great job of making the game quite stunning with decent gameplay, nice graphics, great storyplot and it focuses on original 80's roots is just gets the game right for the Transformers series, but it would have been nice if the game should have more chapters, better missions and adding co-op mode would have been sounds awesome, but still it is the enjoyable fast-paced action hack and slash game for the multiplatform consoles.
If you're the fan of the Transformers series and Platinum Games's titles then go buy this game for cheaper price of less than £15.
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