Constant killing in a grey and grim dystopia.
QUEST LOG #33: DEVASTATION: RESISTANCE BREEDS REVOLUTION (PART 1)
Devastation was one of those games I think I just didn’t quite gel with when I first picked it up. I acquired it in a used game haul - after school trips to town to hunt through the shelves of dirt cheap PC games was a pastime of mine (read more on that here). I picked this one up because I was intrigued by the box art and description on the back, and as I read the promised features, I became very eager to try it. At the time however, I think that perhaps I was just a bit shit at it, or I was preoccupied by another game. Whatever the reason was, I never got much further than the first couple of levels. Despite this, it obviously made an impression because I have often thought about it over the years… never quite enough to actually play it, but I often wondered what I was missing. This recurring through got the better of me eventually, and, after digging out the game, I installed it with the determination of a real game-finisher.
If you haven’t heard of Devastation, I’m not particularly surprised. I don’t recall there being much fuss about it at the time (although I could be wrong), and other than spotting it that one time in the used games shop, I never saw it anywhere else, not even in passing. This in part is what kept me curious about the game. It was developed by Digitalo Studios in 2003, and that same year, the company shut down - which says a lot. It was published jointly by ARUSH Entertainment, Groove Games, and NovaLogic, which are apparently still going, although none seem to have published anything decent in recent years, so perhaps Devastation really was devastation for these ill-fated companies. Anyway, the game itself… it’s a first-person shooter set on Earth in the near-ish future. It’s 2075, and a corporation called Grathius Inc is in charge (they’re evil, obviously). You play as Flynn Haskell, the leader of a small resistance force, and the destruction of Grathius is his raison d'être. Unfortunately for him, the bad guys are in possession of advanced cloning technologies, so bringing about their ruination is made somewhat more difficult.
The game opens with the main man, Flynn, giving you a context dump, with a voiceover and gloomy cinematic detailing how terrible the world is. After that, you see a Grathius genetic research lab, and inside, one of the resistance members, a bloke called Baxter, acquiring (stealing) some data. His technological meddling is noticed however, and he has to make a quick getaway before a group of soldiers gun him down. He gives what data he has stolen to his colleague and tells her to get it safely to the address provided. As he does this, he sets off a bomb in the lab, using it to cover his escape. Unfortunately, he is shot (a bit of Matrix style directing here), but as the bomb goes off, the soldiers are caught in it too, and his colleague manages to get out alive. The next scene you see this woman (Eve) sitting on a chair in a darkened room being questioned by Flynn, who Eve eventually hands the data disk to. The Grathius solders attack then, and start killing everyone in the building, which you get to see via the security cameras. This, of course, angers Flynn, and he starts questioning Eve again about where he can decode the disk - turns out it can only be read by a Grathius mainframe, so it’s back to the lab!
It’s here that the game finally begins, and as you gain control of Flynn, you’ll find that the world within which Devastation is set is a pretty grim one. Grey is the game’s tone of choice, and a myriad of browns make up the colour palette. This is understandable with the dystopian setting, but bloody hell, it’s miserable. That being said, the environments are, at least for the time, incredibly well detailed, and represent the urban and industrial setting remarkably well, and you certainly feel as though you’re exploring well realised environments. There are some science-fiction aspect to some of the levels too, and overall, at least architecturally, the game is very much based in reality, and it’s impressively (albeit depressingly) rendered.
As you get underway with the first mission, what might crop up in your mind at first is fuck me, I’ve got to escort a shitting NPC… A relatable thought, no doubt, but don’t worry, you’ll be the one following, and only briefly. For the first few minutes, nothing happens, there are no enemies, and this ratchets up the tension rather well and you’re expecting them at any moment. The half-ruined structure you’re exploring is somewhat unsettling, and as you make your way through the derelict corridors with Eve, you’ll be treated to the eerie atmosphere. Fire crackles, pipes leak, bodies and debris lay scattered about… a real mess. Eventually Eve will lead you to the computer you need, and as you enter, she’ll lock you in and make her escape, leaving you alone - you can’t trust anyone! More of the building explodes then, and as you make your way out you’ll eventually meet your first enemy, these being Grathius hazmat. These guys only carry pistols and are pretty easy to kill. Once you’ve dealt with them, head on through you’ll find an open elevator shaft, and with it a standard game mechanic - the falling platform. If you’ve played a game before, you’ll know to get yourself onto the nearby ladder. Once the lift has fallen, dart out of the bottom before being crushed, and it’s on through the rest of the complex. The numbers of enemies increased here, and you’ll be treated to the introduction of environmental hazards too (poison gas and laser grids). As you explore this section, and move through the various parts of the Grathius labs, you’ll get small clues as to what they are working on.
Once you make your way out, you’ll run into Eve again, and she’s being held up by a solider. Flynn shoots him in the head, and Eve comes to the realisation that she should have trusted him… Onto the next mission, moving through the city streets in search of weapons. Eve accompanies you here, and as you explore the next section, you’ll find a greater variety of guns, as well as more enemies. Eventually you meet up with a bloke called Gus, and he offers to hook you up with some other members of the resistance, keeping you and Eve company as you go. You’ll be transported then to Gus’ place, and there you acquire a GPS device, as well as a few more weapons. As you head out from there, you’ll be encouraged to back track a little through the level to acquire a pair of wire cutters, which are needed in order to proceed to the next section… could have shot the lock with the large variety of weapons you have, but no. After that, it’s merely a matter gunning your way through the streets until you reach Gus’ hideout - there Eve will get herself a change of clothes, and basically become unrecognisable, turning from lab worker to 90s cyberpunk cliché (with regular glasses, not shades… nice to have a bit of representation for us poor sighted folk).
Some rooftop fighting takes place after leaving the hideout, and here the level design advances a little, becoming a bit more interesting to navigate. Enemies get a little tougher too, with snipers and turrets dotted about the place, with the latter becoming a bit of a fixture throughout from now on. After crossing the map and avoiding a run-in with a helicopter, you break into another Grathius structure by blowing up a generator. This has you separated from the others momentarily and Flynn gets almost immediately captured… Good job Flynn. He gets dragged through the complex and there you catch a glimpse of the cloning technology in action, seeing a Grathius soldier materialise - infinitely respawning bad guys seems like a troublesome development, but you can’t worry about that just yet as in the next scene Flynn wakes up in a prison cell on Alcatraz Island.
Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage are nowhere to be found, unfortunately, but escape seems rather straightforward. A tremor shakes the whole building, opening a crack in the wall just big enough for you to escape - phew! After exploring a bit you’ll find another prisoner - Duffy, and as luck would have it she’s also part of the resistance. Once you’ve liberated her from her cell, it’s a big old firefight through the prison, and sometimes it’s quite a struggle to manage your health. Throughout the game, you can pick up medical kits and protein packs, both of which can top up your health bar, but they aren’t all that abundant, so a generous use of quick saves is recommended. After killing everyone in your path, you eventually find a radio and use it to make contact with your comrades - after this you further explore the rest of the compound, finally coming to an opening in the tunnels leading to the waters of San Francisco Bay. Flynn and Duffy steal the boat moored there and make their hard won escape.
The pair eventually reach the Embarcadero, and after fighting through more tunnels, they emerge on the streets amongst the warehouses that populate the docks. After a bit of exploring you meet up with Eve and Gus - now there are four of you - and this is where the game really starts to lean into what makes it unique. If you press V during gameplay, you can bring up your party commands, and while they are pretty basic, consisting of hold, follow, attack, and defend, they do add some depth to your strategy in the ongoing urban war you’re enacting. Pushing on with your reunited team, you find your first robot (basically a minigun on wheels) and you have the opportunity to kill a bunch of soldiers using a tram car - very San Fran. Lots of shooting and killing here - all of which is made easier with the introduction of the assault rifle. You and your team end the mission by stealing a bus, and from there it’s onwards to the depths of the city streets - which appear to have been ravaged by war.
As the camera does some cinematic sweeping shots, you’re introduced to the next member of the team - Tara, who is apparently chums with Duffy - she too looks like an extra from the Matrix. This mission is called Urbia, and as you might gather from the name, it involves a lot more urban warfare, navigating ruined structures and tight streets. Here you’ll also be introduced to the hacking mechanic, which involves acquiring codes from a terminal and using a decoding device on the keypad for whatever laser gate or door you wish to proceed through. Very basic, but it’s better than an awkward hacking minigame, I suppose. After wading through enemies and trudging through what is essentially a section of Fallout 3, you’ll come to the trooper spawner (the cloning machine you caught a glimpse of previously), and after blowing the thing to pieces the mission ends. Once that’s done, it’s on to the Asylum to find Baxter (the bloke who stole the data at the start), and, unfortunately, bloody Tara suggests you get in by having Flynn surrender himself… Great idea Tara. Flynn, having no backbone whatsoever, obliges immediately, and in the next scene Flynn is a prisoner again… His incarceration doesn’t last too long however, as within seconds of gaining control, the cell door is opened by an apparently disgruntled physician. He’ll try and poison you, so punch his lights out.
I had misgivings about this mission when it cropped up, as I thought I was about to be forced to endure some sort of ill conceived stealth section or something. Luckily this proved not to be the case, and while not attracting too much attention is advisable here, if the alarms are set off, you can just switch them back off after you’ve punched out whoever spawns, you’re no worse off (save for perhaps a lack of hit points). Eventually as you explore you’ll find Baxter and as you set him free, he happily takes up a plank of wood, and together you can go about battering the asylum staff with impunity. Your goal while there, other than liberating Baxter, is to acquire the GPS device and the data disk. Once you have these, it’s time to escape, and it’s here that the staff are replaced by guards (with guns). You can acquire you own weapon from the security room however, and from then on it’s just the standard fare of gunning blokes down. After all that, you steal a vehicle from the garage, and roll on out, crashing through the gates and security checkpoint as you go.
More urban decay for the next level, and after Baxter takes a look at what’s on the disk, he is reunited over the radio with Gus. Tara butts in with some troubling news that Eve and Duffy have been captured, and are strapped to a bomb… this got me worried in the same way as the Asylum. I can’t stand insta-fail stealth, and after dodging that bullet I was certain a stingy timer was about to ruin this level and result in blown-up comrades. Well, I was half right. But I didn’t actually notice the first time around, so the four or so minutes you’re given are certainly generous enough. Lots of snipers to deal with in this section, and they prove to be the main challenge, but once Eve and Duffy are safe, and your team is back to strength, the rest of the level is pretty smooth sailing, ending with a bit of a fight around the next trooper spawner. Once that is dealt with, what happens next is quite odd. You need to cross a drydock in order to reach the end of the level, but it’s been flooded. Baxter is the first to jump in the water to cross, but it transpires that there is a shark in the water, and he dies… You then see his disembodied leg sinking in the gloomy water, and once you regain control of Flynn, you have to acquire a harpoon gun from the nearby warehouse and use it to kill the shark. This mechanic is never used again, and is quite at odds with the tone of the game, seeming rather silly. Still, the shark dies pretty quick, and once you’ve cleared the way, you and your team can get the fuck out of there sans-Baxter. RIP.
After escaping, you’ll find yourself and your team in the docks proper, and your task in this mission is to acquire the parts to create your own spawner - a tantalising proposition! Lots more shooting as you scavenge for the parts, but none of the bits and pieces are too difficult to find (the GPS system offers very accurate waypoints). Lots of variations in level design here with some large open spaces, and some tighter combat as well. After all that, you’re tasked with boarding a cargo ship and investigating the hold, but as you enter, you hear gunshots - back on deck you go, and it’s there that you find that Eve has been shot… As Duffy does what she can to tend to the wound, you head off to exact revenge on whoever was responsible, Eve dies, and as you return to the ship you are treated to a sombre cutscene as the cargo ship sets sail.
After that, the next scene shows Tara explaining to the rest of the crew how the spawners work and with a bit of hacking and tapping, she manages to get the thing working. First task - resurrect Eve! Her skeleton materialises on the pad, and a few seconds later she’s rambling with confusion at suddenly being alive again - quite understandable. With the spawner in their possession, the team decide that it’s their duty to deprive Grathius of the technology, and as they sail to Taiwan to continue their rebellion, you get to watch as they toss Eve’s old body into the sea in the most nonchalant way imaginable. Eve waves it goodbye. It’s strange. They never even consider attempting to bring Baxter back…
We’ll continue Devastation in the next post, in the mean time, check out some more QUEST LOG posts in the Videogame section of the blog.
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