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The
weapon console is intuitive and easy to use. Weapons
appear on the right side in numbered order. Using
the secondary fire button allows to have to weapons
in your hand at once in some cases. The gun interface
is reminiscent of Max Payne and many other FPS. Actual
firefights between you and the enemy are usually quite
entertaining. Enemies tend to duck for cover, and
when they fire back at you, are usually very accurate
with their shots. Enemies you by silly things like
running right past you and then taking shots at you.
Devastation
shows off some nice weapon effects, most notably its
sniper and assault rifles. They're not particularly
flashy, but they show off some of the better placement
damage effects in the game. Also, Devastation is certainly
not stingy when it comes to its choice of weapons.
Throughout the game, you have your pick of around
30 weapons, including assault rifles, knives, sniper
rifles, and grenades.
 Unfortunantely,
the A.I. in Devastation takes away from the fun its
single player game offers. Generally speaking, when
someone chucks a frag grenade at your feet, you might
think about a.) Getting the hell out of the way, b.)
Hurling it back at your foe and ducking for cover,
or c.) Standing still as the frag bounces near your
foot, then remaining motionless as it blows you and
you're buddies' limbs off.
Sadly,
Devastation's A.I. chose option c. Maybe not the best
of choices. A.I. is Devastation's Achilles heel. If
an enemy in a room spots you coming near the doorway,
he might shoot at the wall between the two of you
before coming out. When enemies eventually come out
of the room, they might run right by you and trot
back and forth in front of you, until they finally
settle down for a shot. At one point, Gus, a character
you meet and control early in the game, got stuck
trying to climb a ladder. His arms were moving, but
the poor guy wasn't really getting anywhere. The game
has several bugs like this, but it's the A.I. that
really tends to grate on the nerves after a while.
After a while, enemies also become a little too predictable.
Sound:
Sound
in Devastation is generally pretty average, though
many environmental sounds succeed in further accentuating
the realism of the environment. Gunfire generally
sounds realistic and crisp. Weapon sounds usually
resonate well and carry a realistic echo. Some of
the larger guns like the Klum rifle are some of the
best sounding in the game. Explosions sound especially
impressive in Devastation. Other sounds, such as the
atmospheric drone of pipes and distant sound of gunfire
blend with the environments to authenticate the urban
wasteland setting of the game.
Voice-over sounds, however, are a different story
all together. Even during the opening video, the voice
acting is flat, uninspiring, and unconvincing. Throughout
gameplay, it doesn't get much better. NPC's like Gus
lack real emotion and believability in their voices,
making these characters nothing more than bullet-shields
after a while! Then again, this is an FPS, and character
development is (sadly) hardly a priority these days.
Multiplayer:
A
word of warning to you gamers still cruising the Web
with a 56K modem: you will not be pleased the first
time you try to play a multiplayer game. Almost all
the multiplayer servers now running Devastation require
that you patch to the latest version. Ok, just a patch.
No problem, right? No, it's an enormous 66 megabyte
problem for anyone without a fast connection. Even
after patching the game, you will be disapointed at
the small number of servers available at a given time.
When you can actually get into a multiplayer game,
Devastation is hit and miss at best.
Devastation
offers four modes of multiplayer play: Deathmatch,
Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Territories.
Team Deathmatch pits Conformists vs. the Resistance.
CTF involves two flags with typical CTF rules. Of
the four, "Territories" is by far the most
original mode of play. In this mode, it's your team's
job to obtain the code to the other team's base, use
it, and then destroy their nanotechnology regeneration
console. This makes it impossible for the other team
to respawn; after you do this, you win by finishing
off the remaining members of your opponent's team.
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