Gameplay
This is where I see problems, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to fix. Devastation is not strictly a first-person-shooter in the classic sense. You have a team to look after, that presumably are there to help you. This would work out well if they would actually obey your commands. Most of the time they will, but there are those frustrating few times when you'd love the option to team kill. Your sidekicks are aggressive as hell. They chase down crowds of enemies with no thought to danger... sometimes to their deaths. Trouble is, most of the levels end if one of your team dies.
I found myself, more and more, commanding my squad to "hold" position so that I could clear an area myself, which worked well until I cleared one area that awaited only my snipping off the lock on a gate. My team came charging around the corner (on their own) and began hurling themselves at the gate like rabid dogs in an effort to take on the well-armed enemy on the other side. No amount of pleading with them would get them to cease their lemming-like march. This happened all too often.
Fixing the NPC AI would turn this from a good game into a great game. There are spots in the game where having your team close by to guard a perimeter, while you hack a computer terminal, would be invaluable. You just can't trust that that is what they will do. All too often I found myself restarting a level because one of my buddies decided to do a little solo Terminating.
I began by wishing that I could use them as they were intended. It would make for such a unique style of play. After a while, I began wishing that I could just play without them. Which is what I did for much of the game, calling on them only when necessary. That seemed to work out okay, but I know that is not what Digitalo had in mind, and it would be great to see their vision fully realized.
The actual shooting part of the game is very enjoyable. The weapons, of which there are almost 50, are all fun to use. Most of them have a unique purpose and are more suitable to specific moments in the game. Movement is good, but not so realistic as to be annoying. Some surprise weapons, such as the Katana, allow you to turn to your Ninja training and hack arms, heads, and legs off of your unworthy opponent. Others, such as the Springbok Rifle, allow you to kindly remove your antagonists head from his shoulders in a rather messy display. The P*Laser is sort of a Rail Gun that shoots through your opponents, disrupting their entire molecular structure. I also must mention the very cool "mouse cam". You can remotely operate a living mouse, equiped with a camera system and a small high-powered explosive. Good fun!
If realism is what you're after, then you'll be pleased to know that there are two ways to play through the game. There is an Arcade mode with fast and furious gameplay, unlimited weapon pickups, friendly-fire off, and more of a reckless action-oriented feel. The Simulation mode requires you to select your loadout before each level, carry only a specific number of weapons of each type, turns friendly-fire on, and forces you to take a stealthier, more measured route through the game. A nice touch that will certainly cause Devastation to appeal to a wider audience. In either case, at the end of each round you will be rewarded with statistics including damage taken and dealt and what part of the body you targeted on your rival.
The enemy AI really depends on the setting you play at. If you've played many games of this sort before, you'll want to turn the difficulty to Hard to avoid having your foe stand by idly while the guy next to him is blown to bits. One annoying (or amusing, depending on your perspective) is the rather limited behaviors the AI show. From far off, an enemy noticing you're shooting at him will duck... whether or not there is anything to duck behind. Others will repeatedly duck and stand in place. Shoot them like the n00b scum that they are! hah, just kidding ;-). So, lesson learned: Set. it. on. Hard.