Digitalo busily finishing work on Devastation, an Unreal Warfare and Math Engine powered (Unreal Tournament 2003) action game for the PC for publishers ARUSH Entertainment, Groove Games and Nova Logic (UK). ARUSH recently sent us a press build of the game containing a four single player levels and one transition cinematic from the final version of Devastation, so here are my first impressions.

For those who never heard about this upcoming game, Devastation is a dark and moody, realistically styled post-apocalyptic first person shooter that focuses on team combat. It throws you into this really messed up version of Earth seventy-two years from now, where you and your NPC teammates go up against the menacing forces of an evil empire and mega-corporations. The main objectives are simple, expand your team and get more people on your side, divert the enemy in any way you can and with all your tools and weapons, and uncover the nature of the shadow government's dark agenda and try to expose the conspiracy to anyone who will listen.

Graphically, the game is very strong. It moves quickly, yet there's plenty of detail and special effects like enhanced particle effects for water, smoke, and fire. Textures on most objects are well done as well. The dirty, gritty, post-apocalyptic urban warfare feel is unique and exciting. I must admit that Digitalo's designers really deserve commendation for their attention to detail. For example, most of Devastation's environmental objects have real mass and weight, so even the cans on the ground have mass and inertia and make noise when they're moved. It's really pretty strange feel to see so many weird personal belongings, and little bits of somebody's life - look at screenshot #42, the pink thing on the picture...In Devastation is many places like that.

Barrels, bottles, boxes, gas cans, oil drums, and other items can be kicked, knocked over, dropped on, pushed into, picked up, carried, moved and even shot at and they will respond accordingly and realistically. The game has also many realistic effects, the entire limbs go flying- arms and legs, feet, hands etc, you can even decapitate your enemies with melee weapons like the Katana sword. That's really sweet! :)

The game also has two very different game settings- arcade and simulation, and they let you experience the game in two very different ways. While the arcade mode allows you to play the game as a typical first person shooter (similar to UT2K3 but not at quite the frenetic pace), simulation mode makes the game more realistic: you select weapons at the beginning of each mission, you're not as fast, there's friendly fire, etc. Needless to say that this option adds some replay value.

The AI of both the enemy and your teammate bots are surprisingly good (though I bet they're still working on it). A couple of teammates will always prefer to cover you, some will hang back and make sure to defend your base camp, while others have aggressive personalities and tend to head out on their own. In some cases you can even walk up to a teammate and press your "interact" key and see if they have any suggestions to offer up, you can also trade weapons with them. I should mention here, that the game's user interface, HUD and controls are also familiar from other FPS games and should be easy to use and understand for both veteran and new FPS players.

Devastation offers you many different weapons, there's everything from melee weapons like knives and swords to pistols, two shotguns, rifles, three types of sniper rifles, SMG's, heavy weapons, futuristic weapon prototypes, several types of grenades (smoke, fragmentation, gas) ,explosives, mounted weapons, drones, etc. Sadly there's no flamethrower :( But I very liked Rat Drone (screenshot #4), which is real device that lets you control a real rat via a brain implant in the rat's head. You assume the view (screenshots #7, #49, #73) and vantage point of the rat and see through its eyes, as you control the rat's movement though the world. You can use it as a spying or scouting weapon, and check your routes for your teammates before you take them. It also works well to pre-plan an attack if you are not sure of the terrain ahead, or if you suspect an ambush. The best part about this weapon is the explosive charge. You can remote-detonate the charge that is equivalent to a small fragmentation grenade.

As I mentioned the build I played included four levels. While the first two levels, Chinatown and South Urbia, were more linear, the last two levels, Zangai and Transit with destructible spawn points were much more interesting. These "spawners" are small prototype machines that can instantly create a new clone the second an existing one dies. That's mean you'll need to neutralize your enemies and destroy their "spawner" before they can respawn and attack you again. According to developers, these singleplayer levels will also set the player up for the team-style MP gametype that will ship with Devastation called Territories.

Mod makers will be happy to know that this partial build also contained a version of the game's modified Unreal level editor (called "DEd"). Those with any experience with building levels for Unreal and UT will able crank out some incredible looking maps in a short time. I bet we will see many MODs after the game's release.

The build I got to play was an internal beta version so a few problems did present themselves such as a couple of crashes to the desktop and really poor - yet unfinished sound effects, but Digitalo has plenty of time to go bug hunting, polishing and fixing before its scheduled release date. Devastation feels really post-apocalyptic and pretty depressive, that's what I expected and what I like. The game is targeted to hit US shelves in mid-March, and will have a MSRP of $39.95.