Page 3

Just add ninjas

But a lot of amateurish game design and filler gets in the way. Over half the single player missions are played without spawners by the tired 'die and reload' rules. There are some tedious boss battles, usually against helicopters with a gazillion hit points; you'll plink away with whatever weapons have the most ammo, wearily wishing the game had a rocket launcher in its hoary arsenal. The last boss battle is an exercise in reloading and trying for the umpteenth time because your health is low and there's no healing in the little arena where you have to fight the uber-boss and his respawning henchmen. Near the end of the game, ninjas suddenly appear for no good reason. It's as if the developers yelped, "Cripes, we forgot to put in ninjas! Get me some ninjas, quick!" By the time some of the bad guys defect and join you for a bit of late game exposition, the cutscenes are too painful to watch. Time to get a sandwich rather than sit through any more of the excruciatingly bad voice acting.

Respawners in action

I am a guard with bad AI

Because pee is funny

Of course, none of this is surprising after one of the first levels where you come across a construction worker taking a leak. He's been carefully placed at an oblique angle so you can see the arc of urine streaming from his crotch (the developers use this trick in at least two more places just so you don't miss how funny it is). This is clear indication of the level of maturity you're in for. Add all this to the bad physics, the gray level design, and the dopey storyline. And cap it off with one of the worst AIs you'll ever encounter.

Artificial inanity

That's right, one of the worst AIs you'll ever encounter. I cannot stress this enough. Some AIs are bad in that they're just easy to kill. Some AIs are bad in that they're just unreliable or inconsistent. Some AI just makes no sense. But the AI in Devastation is a hard impediment to playing the game. There are some levels that are almost impossible to finish because of the AI. Let me repeat that: almost impossible to finish. Again: almost impossible.

Ba-roke

Board meeting

Does it hurt when I do this?

Here's how Devasation is supposed to work: you have up to eight team members scripted to go on missions with you. You can give them guns as you find them, allowing you to custom arm your team. Using the standard Unreal Tournament command interface, you can give orders to follow you, hold a position, defend the base, or attack the enemy. These orders can be given globally or to individual team members. This system works well in Unreal Tournament, which makes for some satisfying team games with bots. So you'd think this should be pretty nifty in Devastation, right?