Ruining immortality for all.
QUEST LOG #34: DEVASTATION: RESISTANCE BREEDS REVOLUTION (PART 2)
Welcome back - if you missed the first part, click the link below!
After disembarking at the docks of Taipei, the game properly shifts. There were hints of what it was turning into throughout the first half, but with the acquisition of the spawner technology, the game changes from your run of the mill first person shooter to a first person shooter - by that I mean that it becomes akin to multiplayer (but single-player) FPS in terms of mechanics, and either by design or by some quirk of the enemies artificial intelligence, the NPCs even act like unhinged players, running about all over the place, constantly jumping around corners to avoid gunfire. The first part of the game is a little slower paced, but after Taipei, it become much quicker and much more hectic, and, like I say, more akin to something like Counter Strike. Missions become objective based, with elements of base defence - you can order your small army to defend or to attack, and you’ll all keep respawning (along with the enemy) until you get your job done. As before, you can destroy enemy spawners, and more often than not this is the main objective, but if you get killed, your other objectives, be it acquiring codes, or some other trifle, will be reset, balancing the system a little.
Anyway, in this first mission of territory three, you’ll be gunning your way through the darkened warehouses and canals of the market district - the warren-like level design and lines of sight make for a challenge, allowing for fun in combatting the respawning enemies and the snipers peppered throughout. The objective here is to destroy a bunch of generators and to rescue the resistance hostages. After the last generator is down, you must acquire the codes to the base and there you’ll find another addition to the team - Lina, and she mentions that some of her comrades are in the process of mounting an attack on a spawner manufacturing facility in the next town over.
The next scene depicts your arrival in said zone, and there Lina finds Kyle, another resistance fighter - yes, there are fucking loads of characters in this game - and quite amazingly, they are all rather unique. Kyle approves of the aid, seeming quite miserable about the fact that the troopers stormed the area and killed all the refugees a week prior, and that they have lost over twelve of their fighters, essentially wiping out their pocket of resistance. Luckily for for them, the team has a ReGen platform of of their own, so no more dying. After setting up shop there, the mission starts, and this one has a timer too. Just over 16 minutes to prevent a weapons cache from being shipped. This mission ups the FPS feel with narrow streets and an abundance of enemies. Overall it’s pretty frantic, but in a good way as you really feel as though you’re enacting urban warfare. After gaining access to the weapons, you must blow them up, while also defending your base.
Once you’ve done that, it’s on to the next mission, which involves destroying the aforementioned manufacturing plant. This level is a bit more linear than the rest, although still quite large. From your starting base you must open and move through a series of floodgates, clearing enemy bases and destroying spawners along the way. At each base, you must collect the missing fuses for the generators in your base, and once you’ve reinstalled them and having opened all the flood gates, you unleash a torrent of water which eventually destroys the factory. Another job well done.
After this, it’s on to a former fish breeding facility, which is now used to produce mimetic fluid (used in the spawners), and it’s here that you need to destroy their means of production as well as the shipments that are waiting to depart. First things first is to establish a foothold, and that means taking over an enemy spawner. After that, it’s time to acquire the access codes for the facility and to start placing bombs next to the storage vats. Pretty straightforward stuff. Three zones, and two det-packs in each. Once you’re all set, proceed through the nearby tunnel and watch as the explosives bring down the building. The next mission is a continuation, and it’s here that you must bring down the rest of the facility, destroying six tankers, hacking the computer systems, and interfering with the flow of the memetic fluid. After wroughting your destruction, escape the area using the helicopter on the roof. Unfortunately, another gunship arrives just then and starts pelting you and your team with bullets, along with occasional rocket salvos. The attacking helicopter is pretty tough, but there are lots of hiding places on the map that provide decent cover, and eventually, after expending a lot of ammunition, the chopper will start smoking and eventually crash. I didn’t try running for it immediately in my playthrough, so I don’t know if you can just skip this fight, but it might be worth a try…
The next mission starts in the last of the four territories, and the team have managed to escape to Japan to take the fight to the NakoNaki Corporation, who are apparently in cahoots with Grathius. First job though is to find more like-minded resistance fighters. Here you’re introduced to Kurtis and Glen who appear to have been ripped out of Predator or Aliens or something. They initially view you as enemies, but after Duffy steps in, she irons things out, and it becomes apparent that they used to run ops together - small world. After showing off the ReGen device, and after Kurtis and Glen have a quiet word together (in ear shot of the whole group), they decide to team up with Flynn and the others. You then get a long bit of exposition from Kurtis who explains that Grathius and NakoNaki are developing something called a super device and a rogue Commander from the Pacification Squads has stolen a prototype of it. He and those under his command have gone underground (literally) and in order to find him, you must locate and liberate the leader of the local resistance, who just so happens to be held prisoner in a building nearby. After all the chatting, the game resumes, and first things first is to defend the new base (for two and a half minutes). This is a bit of a challenge, as the enemies here have much better weapons, and are numerous. After the timer expires though, it’s just a matter of clearing up the dregs before the mission can properly start. After the last of the attackers falls, it’s time to head out into the streets, to acquire security codes, and to infiltrate the enemy base (destroying their spawner in the process). A bit of a challenge this one, as the spawner is situated in a very defendable location, but as soon as it’s destroyed, the mission ends, so if you can focus your fire on it, a kamikaze charge might do the trick.
The next mission has the team wading through muck and navigating the tunnels and pipes of the cities sewers to reach their destination. Not much complexity to this one, as you just have to reach your destination, but it’s a fun enough jaunt… for a sewer level at least - including some environmental challenges such as clearing your way of toxic gas, as well as needing to destroy an enemy spawner (as is tradition).
You emerge from the sewers in the Zengai building, and it’s there that the local resistance leader is being held. It’s a nice change to have a more vertical map to explore. The mission itself is pretty straight forward, and the primary objective is to rescue Mika. It includes some areas that are only accessible by using the remote control rat bombs to blow up some generators, which is a fun little mechanic, and there is also a little bit of platforming in navigating some of ruined parts of the building. Eventually Mika is liberated, and once she’s back in control you find out that the latest technology that Grathius and NakoNaki have been working on is called Alpha Omega… and apparently, according to Mika, what’s left of free society will never make it if this thing isn’t destroyed. Better destroy it then, I suppose.
The next mission has the team fighting their way through the underground transit system in order to locate the new device. Once you regain control of Flynn, your objective is to reunite with the rest of the team, battling ninjas (these appear at the end of the previous level too - the latter levels are set in Japan, so why not throw some in…) and turrets as you go. The level design here is pretty cool, and definitely evocative, although rather linear - but what can you expect for a train tunnel? After a while, the team is faced with a precarious crossing over a half collapsed bridge, and upon reaching the other side, the stranded carriages plummet into the murky depths. This unfortunately causes a tremor which results in your spawner being destroyed… This seems rather ominous, but in the very next scene, you find yourself not only reunited with the rest of the team, but also with a fresh six-pad spawner, so there was no peril involved… Perhaps a section of the game was left unfinished or was removed at some point during development? Whatever the reason, it results in a scene that feels pointless.
Ignoring that though, it’s on with the task at hand, and that is to disable the enemy spawner and to acquire security codes (surprise surprise). It’s quite a tough battle through these long tunnels, but eventually through relentless pushing ahead, you reach the spawner. Tara fixes it up after that, and your next foothold is established. On then to destroy the super spawner, fighting through more tunnels and a station. This spawner requires a det-charge to destroy. After blowing the thing up, Lina tells you that the base is under heavy attack, and in the very next scene you see Tara shot dead. The Commander catches you off guard then too, and after a slow zoom in, he orders those under his command to kill you… Just then rat drone blows up amongst them, and a team of rebel troopers crash in through the nearby skylight, killing the stragglers. These guys fix up the spawner and bring everyone on your side back to life - hurray. After that, the leader of the rebel troopers tells you that Alpha Omega is nothing compared to what NakoNaki are brewing up in their labs, and it’s so bad that it made the troopers rebel. What is it? Well, apparently they’ve developed a miniaturised self-contained spawner that can be taken like pills, allowing for, as Flynn puts it - true immortality. Oooh!
The gang devise a plan to tell the whole world about Alpha Omega, and with the help of the rebelling troopers, they take the fight directly to the NakoNaki Complex, but not before a continuation of the urban warfare. The next level has the group fighting through the streets of Bukko - and it’s the usual fare of spawner destruction and repair. This section is pretty dense with troopers, and there are sightlines for snipers - so be aware. It’s a pretty short march to the NakoNaki building entrance, and there you’ll find hordes of soldiers, as well as a good few robots. After breaching the defences, you’ll need to destroy a big spawner, destroy a bunch of turrets, and move on through to the parking garage at the back of the structure, killing as you ascend. After reaching the roof, your team gets to work prepping the files for transmitting while you deal with the rogue Commander. The objective here is to activate the antennas, kill the Commander’s support, and, destroy the man himself. This can be a bit tricky, as he makes use of Alpha Omega, respawning after death. The best way to deal with him is to treat him like the shark you met in San Francisco - shoot him with the harpoon gun. Once he goes down, unload all you can into the respawning blob, repeating this until the bastard is proper dead.
With the shithead finally downed, the team broadcast the data you’ve acquired, and you see scenes across the world, indicating that the tide has turned, and that the resistance has won. You return to street level after that, and you see the entire team assemble atop the rubble of the toppled statue of the NakoNaki insignia, ready to mould the world in their image… or whatever. The End. There is a little scene at the end that hints at a sequel, but that’ll never happen.
Overall, Devastation is a solid shooter, with some good ideas bolted on. Not everything about it is perfect, but, in the context of it’s release, it does a lot to push the boundaries of the genre, and because of this, it still holds up today, in terms of gameplay and level design at least. It incorporates physics, albeit in a rather rudimentary way, and this is before Half Life 2 was released. The levels, as I have mentioned are densely detailed, and many have multiple routes for advancement - something more modern games are lauded for when they do. The sheer number of NPCs on screen at any one time is pretty impressive too, and this is pushed to the extreme towards the latter stages of the game as you build the resistance and grow your force. You’ll be accompanied by your gathered comrades during the missions and the further in you get, the game shifts quite dramatically with the introduction of the cloning device, bringing the team management aspect of the game to life rather spectacularly. In many similar games, you’re often a one-person army, often for no good or logical reason. Having a bit of backup along the way does a lot to add to the realism and life to the world, and is very much appreciated, and often necessary, especially when the game unleashes a torrent of enemies upon you - as well as this, it adds depth to the game, which otherwise would be pretty standard. Because of what Devastation does differently, it’s a fun and challenging experience, and although the story is a little worn, the narrative is engaging enough to last the duration. There is multiplayer too, but I can’t comment of the quality of it, having not had the chance to play online. The mechanics of the game are so reminiscent of something like Quake however, that I can only assume a fun time would be had - the environments certainly seem as though they would suit a competitive arena style experience.
There we go, it took me years, but I finally finished this one. Have you played Devastation? If so, what did you think? Did you like the team management aspect? And did you ever get to experience the multiplayer? If so, let me know how it was!
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