YMMV / Transformers: Devastation

• Awesome Music: Per PlatinumGames standard, a majority of the hype-inducing soundtrack. Vince DiCola of The Transformers: The Movie fame contributed, too:
  • Motormaster's theme is an incredible piece that amps you up to fight the leader of the Stunticons.
  • Menasor's theme, an awesome and intimidating song backed up by the drums going hard through triple stroke rolls on each foot and a choir. A great way to show off the awesome might and scale of Menasor one of the strongest Decepticon combiners.
  • As well as the Constructicon Theme (aka "Fight Theme 3") and
  • Megatron's theme is amazing to say the least, but then the remix for the final battle is...a bit too hard to put to words.
  • Soundwave's theme is a pulse-pounding mix of rock and dubstep.
  • Shockwave's theme is a tense symphonic piece that gets mixed with an assault of metal guitars to match the stoic demeanor masking his unyielding ferocity when he begins using Plasma Energy to empower himself.
• Best Level Ever: Challenge 21 (Yes, the same that's under That One Level) is a challenge that throws almost every enemy and boss in the game at you, wave by wave.^note Devastator and Menasor don't appear during it, unfortunately. It's an excellent test of skill that usually takes around 9-12 minutes even with upgrades, all the while the awesome soundtrack blasts on the background.
• Broken Base:
  • As listed under Visual Effects of Awesome, some feel that the Cel Shaded graphics are amazing. That said, others claim that the visuals are horrible (and that they are about PS2 quality).
  • Some people aren't taking too kindly to Motormaster's inclusion also demonstrating that some characters will be using non-G1 designs, as Motormaster's model has all the proportion of the original, but is otherwise using the vehicle mode and design of his Combiner Wars figure.
  • Much like Transformers: Prime – The Game, there's the lack of a Decepticon Campaign. Some are fine with it as the game has so much as is, others wish they could play as the cons like in many of the War for Cybertron and movie games.
  • The replacement voice actors also have polarising reception, particularly those who still have living and accessible actors (such as Corey Burton, Neil Ross, Jack Angel, Alan Oppenheimer, Arthur Burghardt, Bud Davis, Clive Revill, and Hal Rayle) or were even replaced despite having contributing actors (such as Frank Welker). Depending on fan or character, some think they replicated the role well or sound like a blatantly poor imitation.
    • A few went on to state that Steve Blum should have voiced Starscream, having previously done the role in Transformers: Prime, or Sam Riegel, who played the role in the High Moon games.
  • Some were annoyed that it was yet another game centered around Generation 1, with some wishing entries like Beast Wars or Transformers: Animated could get the limelight for once.
• Complete Monster: Megatron is the ruthless leader of the Decepticons, who waged war against the Autobots for millions of years, leading to his own homeworld Cybertron becoming uninhabitable. Constantly trying to take over Earth, Megatron soon discovered the Autobot ship Proudstar, which was designed to cyberform uninhabited planets and started to cyberform New York City. Taking over that ship, Megatron creates a plan to use its Ferrotaxis supercomputer to speed up the process and cyberform the entire Earth, killing all organic life on it, which he openly considers inferior. Repeatedly thwarting the Autobots' attempt at stopping the cyberformation process, including launching unstable core of the ship outside of New York, which could have caused an extinction-level explosion, Megatron shoots Ferrotaxis into space to keep the Autobots from getting it. When Optimus Prime managed to reach it, Megatron battles him, openly announcing his intention of creating the new Cybertron and retaking the galaxy in a bloody conquest.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Grimlock, see Memetic Badass for details.
  • Given that he was largely a background character in the original series, Sideswipe's inclusion is likely because of this trope. And it appears that he's still popular today, considering that out of all the playables, he's the second character most people use to complete every chapter, only behind Optimus.
• Fan Nickname: Prime Geyser for Optimus Prime's super, since it looks like the Power Geyser.
• Game-Breaker: Still Safe is a dodge move that protects the player even if they're hit just as the enemy attacks. It's only 30,000 credits and can be bought early in the game. Combined with a Sniper Rifle range weapon (which can be either found or bought for 30,000) that can be upgraded, this provides a fairly helpful advantage over enemies (especially bosses on higher difficulty settings that spam attacks like no tomorrow). What makes this move so broken is that the dodging window for this is so generous that timing isn't even a problem.
  • As noted in this video, Devastator's drills, once earned, given the right upgrades and leveled up, sends Decepticons into the scrap heap.
  • Soundwave's Loudspeaker. As this video points out, it stuns enemies and bosses very easily, even on Magnus and Prime difficulty. If the loudspeaker is at least at Rank B, the gun dazes them so easily. The weapon has short range and a relatively slow projectile, but you can combo into it and do a chain stun very easily, meaning it will be hard to go back to any other ranged weapons in the game. As an added bonus, every time you successfully stun an enemy you earn points that improve your mission rating, meaning that you can get a high score just by shooting enemies repeatedly with it (this is important when trying to unlock the best gear).
• Goddamned Bats: Insecticons. They come in large numbers, can modify the arena in certain locations, and have attacks that are either hard to dodge or cover a lot of space. It's common to first get hit by a Kill Sat style attack, only to fly to a bunch of goo that prevents you from moving, and getting hit by the Kill Sat while you are struggling to get the goo off you. The aforementioned arena modifying means that there will be many times they'll form a wall between them and you just when you think you've got a few hits in. Oh, and they can fly, making them hard to reach.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The epilogue of Rise of the Dark Spark features a shot of G1 Optimus, hinting at a classic-series continuation. While there's almost no connection to Dark Spark's story, this game does, in fact, bring players into the Generation 1 universe.
  • If equipped with the Nemesis Prime skin (Which is just a new paintjob In-Universe) Optimus sometimes comments "Feels odd". In Transformers: The Last Knight, Nemesis was made into Optimus's Brainwashed and Crazy alter ego.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: The most common complaint by far, with many saying the game's length ^note The story mode is roughly six hours long (and if you know what you're doing, it can be beat in an hour), and there is a section of challenge missions afterward, even with the five unique characters to play as, doesn't warrant its $50 price tag.
• Memetic Badass: Me Grimlock beat the shit out of you. They knew what they were doing giving the special grapple commands and alt mode functions to him specifically. Everyone wants to watch Grimlock annihilate.
• Moral Event Horizon: See here.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Most fans and most critics agree that Devastation is an awesome Transformers game.
• Narm: In the cutscene before Starscream's first fight, it ends with Starscreaming puckering his lips like a duck for no particular reason, looking quite silly and unmenacing, even for someone like him. The fact that the cutscene stays on this scene for a couple seconds before cutting to the battle itself is even more hilarious.
• Scrappy Mechanic: There's no way to sell several items at the same time, so once your inventory gets full, you'll be tapping that sell button a lot.
• Special Effect Failure: It's a bit too easy to see when a character model loads after transforming. The character's details just pop into existence between 2 frames near the end of the transformation sequence.
  • Combiners are hit with this pretty hard as well; Devastator in particular has a point where one can see the un-rendered inside of his shoulder joints as he's assembling, and Menasor suffers from what seems to be his model's textures being finished before the individual Stunticons, resulting in paint detail from the cars making up his arms spontaneously vanishing whenever he breaks apart and reassembles.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is considered the worst modern Transformers game, for a multitude of reasons. Devastation, on the other hand, is considered one of the best games the franchise has, and makes up for the flak the previous game got.
  • Developer-wise, it's also this to The Legend of Korra, which got mixed criticism due to its frustrating early game, short length, and unexciting story.
• That One Attack: Shockwave is pretty fine for a boss fight.....unless you get hit by his laser attack which not only stuns you, but inflicts major damage on you. Even worse if facing another boss at the same time in Challenge Mode of higher difficulties. Timing is key on dodging that move even with Still Safe.
• That One Boss:
  • Devastator and Menasor ...at the same time... Dodging their attacks is manageable enough when you fight them apart, but at the same time you have to worry about the huge area covered by both their attacks. And Menasor starts out with his sword electrified instead of waiting for half his health to be depleted.
  • Before that there's Starscream. His air-to-ground jet attack are difficult to dodge which inflicts decent amount of damage if you don't shoot him down fast enough and his attacks are ridiculously quick on harder difficulties. He is particularly frustrating to fight in the Space Bridge, where gravity gets screwy.
  • Blitzwing. Good lord, Blitzwing. His attacks are not only uninterruptible by regular moves, but they are very hard to dodge on time up close even with Still Safe. Plus, unlike other boss fights prior to him, his attacks do inflict major damage and they're very quick especially on higher difficulties. Not helping is that he has very high health, too.
  • Skywarp and Thundercracker on the final level are mostly a joke since your team are badass on their own merits (and they handle themselves pretty well too) and they could be taken down in mere seconds. In challenge mode however, facing them and Starscream (at the same time) on your own will test your skills quite harshly since they all have quick attack moves that will damage you greatly if you don't dodge or parry on time.
• That One Level: Challenge Mode has some fairly decent and challenging missions which most of them are manageable in a short amount of time. Mission 21, on the other hand, is a different story on difficulties higher than Commander. Why? If the player didn't fully (or at least upgraded near maximum) upgrade their weapons or have proper and helpful T.E.C.H installed, prepare to endure a long, painful, nigh-unforgiving 30-45 minutes of fighting waves of Decepticons (including different variations of them, Autobot clones, and BOSSES) and sometimes fighting several mini-bosses at the same time. If you don't have enough auto-repair kits/repair kits/energy kits with you, good luck not dying in less than 4 hits. Skills over the course of the game are very important here.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Despite the entire game being a love letter to the G1 cartoon, there's a portion of the fanbase furious that Megatron transforms into a tank (a la his more recent appearances as well as his newest toy in the Combiner Wars toyline) rather than his old Walther P38 gun mode. There's another faction of fans who aren't happy, but understand that it was done for a more entertaining boss fight.
  • There's also the fact that Megatron's transformation is there to promote his Combiner Wars toy.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Stunticons barring Motormaster aren't fought, speak nor even seen out of their vehicle forms. Granted, even the Constructicons didn't get much in the way of characterisation, but considering the Stunticons include the hilariously despondent Dead End, the paranoid Breakdown and the Jerk Jock Drag Strip, it's a shame there wasn't room to give them something.
  • As mentioned above, plenty of players and reviewers even on launch were disappointed at the lack of a Decepticon campaign, or at the very least some unlockable cons playable for the Challenge mode. Characters like Megatron, Starscream and Shockwave could have had very interesting tool-kits and abilities for players to mess around with.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • There are two sections where you'll man a turret and use it to gun down hordes of mooks who attack the platform you're on.
  • There is also a section that plays like a top-down game (ala the original Grand Theft Auto) that can be extremely jarring. And also frustrating, as enemies can (and will) attack from off-screen.
  • Despite primarily being a beat'em up, there are also a couple of platforming sections that can get frustrating for people not good at them.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The game's Cel Shading looks absolutely amazing. This is on top of the game running at a smooth 60 FPS on consoles in a day where most would run at 30.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • After the lukewarm reception to the previous game in the franchise, this game seems like an attempt at going in a whole new direction, with new hack-and-slash gameplay as opposed to the franchise-standard third-person shooter gameplay, a beloved developer, as well as dropping the newer adaptations for a Generation 1 setting (This is the first G1 game since 2003, and the first one released in America since 1986).
  • It could also be seen as a WBTC moment for Platinum as a whole, after the lukewarm reception to their Legend of Korra game.

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