Devastator Review

There’s never been a laid back twin-stick shooter, has there? They’re consistently frantic affairs, requiring you to have fantastic reflexes and to be able to keep an eye on many things at once. Devastator continues that trend by being impressively difficult but really rather well made, too. Those of us who are prone to throwing things when we screw up might feel a little despondent after a time, however.

Learning Devastator is very simple. Your left side is used for changing direction while your right side affects the trajectory of the constantly firing weaponry. There’s a virtual button for activating a special attack too, something that you should only ever do when you’re in dire need. The button isn’t far from the right stick so it’s relatively easily activated.

It’s the waves of attack that will truly challenge you. There are 50 in all, although you’ll do well to actually see many of those waves. There’s a practice mode to ease you in gently by offering unlimited lives, but the real meat comes from the main part of the game.

Different abilities gradually unlock too, through your acquisition of achievements. You can unlock drones, warp moves, and an all important slowdown ability, but these all require you to be pretty good in the first place, in order to unlock them. Practice will get you there though. Like a 1980s arcade game, pattern recognition is a big part of improving your survival chances. Each of the 12 enemy types offer something a little different for you to learn.

So Devastator is a tough experience then, but it’s a satisfying one. Perhaps you won’t see as much of its endgame as you’d like, but it’s fun to dip into and work towards anyhow. The way in which its abilities tie into achievements is a particularly sweet move and is sure to further entice you.