Devastation Review: The 2003 FPS You’ve Never Played

There’s nothing quite like an obscure early 2000s first-person shooter and Devastation absolutely meets that description. I don’t even remember how we came across this one back in the day. Rescued from yet another bargain bin? Maybe. I have a feeling it was something a mate pushed as “oi yeah, nah, it’s actually pretty good. Trust me, bro.” I only really remembered it after seeing someone mention it on the Steam Deck subreddit and I thought it’d be an unreal trip down memory lane. Well… coming back to it now, I honestly don’t remember a single minute of it whatsoever. I swear I enjoyed it at the time, but firing it up now doesn’t feel like revisiting an old favourite, it feels more like I’ve stumbled on something completely new that just happens to be vaguely familiar.

Devastation was released by Digitalo Studios in 2003 and stands as the studio’s sole release. It’s a first-person shooter set in a dystopian 2075. The human race is barely holding on as the world is ruled by the mega corporation, Grathius Inc., who rule with an iron fist and dispatch their own private army to wipe out anyone who dare oppose them. We control Flynn Haskell, leader of a small group of resistance fighters determined to put an end to Grathius’ reign of terror. Central to the story is Grathius’ cloning nanotechnology which allows them to endlessly reproduce their forces, effectively creating a never ending, immortal army. The campaign takes us from San Francisco to Japan as we enlist more freedom fighters to destroy and capture the cloning technology in an attempt to turn the tide. So yeah, the story is certainly, uh… there and it’s definitely one of the stories of all time.

I can’t begin to talk about Devastation without mentioning the weapons. There’s a solid variety here and the weapon models look pretty decent coming from a small studio in 2003, but someone at Digitalo Studios clearly had a thing for dual-wielding and it’s been shoehorned into every pistol and SMG. I feel like akimbo shotguns and assault rifles weren’t too far off, but someone stepped in before it got out of hand. The weapon sounds are also just a little… off. The pistols are fine, but I have never heard a more unconvincing pump-action shotgun and the assault rifle sounds oddly like a toned down version of the machine gun from GTA2 combined with a wet noodle. The AI also isn’t awe-inspiring. Sometimes I was standing in plain sight with multiple enemies staring directly at me and they didn’t fire a single shot. That extends to allies and your squad. As you progress and your party grows, some missions can hinge on keeping them alive which is sometimes easier said than done. One early objective has you send a train into a group of Grathius thugs, but you’ll need to keep a close eye on your allies as they might just wander right onto the tracks and instantly fail the mission… over and over again.

Devastation is unsurprisingly pretty janky. Generally it runs smoothly and actually looks pretty great, but movement feels a bit clunky and random crashes don’t do it any favours. Some sections of the game you can cheese your way through, if you feel like breaking things a bit. That probably says more than it should about how loosely everything is held together under the hood and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of melted duct tape is doing the heavy lifting. That said, the overall design still does a solid job of selling its dystopian setting and just how bad things have become in the world. Most environments are clearly war-torn and run down, with makeshift shelters pieced together from whatever scrap could be found. It may be set in 2075, but it has this super rough, post-World War II feeling and for a 2003 release they do a pretty ripper job of presenting it. Although, when you consider other first-person shooters from 2003 like Vietcong, Postal 2 and of course Call of Duty, it’s hard to be too impressed. With Half-Life 2 just around the corner, Devastation ends up feeling less like a hidden gem and more like a game that showed up at exactly the wrong time.

While the levels themselves might be fairly linear mazes and the core gameplay usually boils down to “go here and shoot anyone in the way“, Devastation’s level design and progression is a real strength. There’s a pretty solid zone-based mission structure that fluidly moves you from one area to the next with each mission pushing the story forward. There is an effort to mix things up with the occasional shift into rescuing allies, blowing stuff up or decoding security passwords to break through Grathius’ defenses. Variety definitely helps break up the monotony a little bit but unfortunately, the variety on offer never quite goes far enough to keep things consistently engaging and the missions all end up blurring together. I can kinda see what the developer was shooting for, but it just lacks the depth to fully back it up.

I think Devastation is one of those games that’s just kinda, uh… there. I won’t deny that there’s definitely glimpses of something here. Some decent ideas, a believable setting and maybe just enough variety to keep pushing you forward. But, it’s unfortunately overshadowed by unmistakable jank, incredibly poor AI and a general lack of overall polish. It’s absolutely fun in short bursts, provided you know what you’re in for, but it just never manages to push itself beyond the realm of just somewhat-OK. That rings even more true when you put it next to everything else that released around the same time and it’s really hard not to see it as anything more than a swing and a miss. It absolutely isn’t a hidden gem, but it’s not quite a complete write-off either. It’s just one of those weird and janky early 2000s shooters that just kinda exists.

Verdict:
Devastation puts forward some decent ideas and just enough variety to keep you interested, but it’s severely hamstrung by jank, poor AI and an overall lack of polish. It’s fun in short bursts, but never manages to be more than just fine. It’s a mildly interesting relic, but it struggles to stand alongside the heavy hitters of the same era.

Deck Compatibility: 7/10
Overall Game Rating: 5/10 – Just Kinda There

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Steam Deck Specifics:

Devastation was a bit of a pain to get running on the Steam Deck. I managed to track down an ISO and installing it with Lutris was pretty straightforward. But trying to update the game caused issues, no matter what I tried. So, v1.0 it is.

I would recommend doing the following:

1. In Desktop Mode, mount the ISO and install the game using Lutris.
2. Track down a v1.0 NoCD patch and apply it.
3. Add the Devastation.exe file to Steam.
4. In Steam, Right-click the shortcut, select ‘Properties’, head to ‘Compatibility’, check ‘Force the use of specific Steam Play compatibility tool’ and select GE-Proton10-32.
5. Head back to Gaming Mode and launch Devastation.

Controls will need to be setup manually as there is no controller support. I mapped the left joystick to WASD using the directional pad option and the right joystick to mouse input and adjusted the sensitivity to my liking. From there, it’s a matter of mapping the rest of the keyboard bindings in a way that feels comfortable to you.