Robots and tears

This past summer, Activision sent us Transformers:The Game. I wrote a review for it, but it was not published due to fact that it did take place in the summer when we do not print. The release of the Transformers movie on DVD gave me the idea to post that review here. Below is the review in its entirety.

Transformers:The Game

The hype behind the recently released Transformers movie has taken the nation by storm. Transformers fans both young and old have flocked to theaters to see the newest big screen rendition of the popular series. A game based off of the movie was also created to coincide with the release of the motion picture. The game adaptation of Michael Bay's box office hit, however, is most certainly not more than meets the eye.

The initial challenge that gamers are presented with is choosing between controlling the Autobots or the Decepticons. The Autobot side features such Transformers staples as Optimus Prime and Bumblebee while the Decepticon story puts you behind the reigns of evil classics like Megatron, Barricade and Starscream. Both campaigns feature the robots fighting to recover the AllSpark artifact. Each choice leads you down a different storyline path complete with different levels, objectives and characters.

Unfortunately that is where the main differences between the two ends.

Each campaign is split into four main chapters that are followed by a final confrontation battle. Each level has four missions that must be completed in order to move on to the next area. These missions range from hi-speed chases to assisting other Transformers and of course the good ole fashioned robot brawl. The downside is that each mission is extremely short. In fact most gamers will be able to cruise through each mission in a matter of minutes.

Gameplay elements are shared and stay consistent throughout the game, no matter what type of Transformer you are controlling. The game features the ability to transform, which makes for one of the more interesting aspects of the game. You can use these transformations to get around the map quickly and complete missions. Each Transformer has a light and heavy ranged weapon, but these pale in comparison to the standard melee attack and become useless in later levels, as enemies will simply shrug off your fire. The melee function is almost too powerful, as you can simply pummel most foes into submission with little effort. The rest of the game controls pretty well. Locking on to enemies, maneuvering around, and jumping through the levels is spot on.

The main problem with Transformers: The Game lies in the difficulty, or lack there of. Running out of health is literally the biggest challenge in the game as each level has a staggering amount of health icons placed at every turn. Most enemies will drop health packs when defeated as well so it becomes almost impossible to run out of them. An integral part of every game is the challenge, and Transformers: The Game simply does not offer much to keep players guessing.

The game does very little to hook players visually, aside from the well constructed Transformer models. The framerate runs very smoothly in the early levels, but can stutter quite frequently later in the game when a good deal of action is taking place. Building damage and destruction is represented nicely, but can be random at times. Sometimes an entire building will fall to the ground without the character even making contact with it. Collision detection issues are not rampant though, but a little more Q and A could have prevented this entirely.

The music is nothing special and is quickly forgotten. Several voice actors from the movie such as Shia LaBeouf reprise their characters role during the games cutscenes. Most of the dialog during actual gameplay is repetitive, and ends up being more of a nuisance than a help.

Most gamers will finish both campaigns very quickly, but there are four sub missions to complete as well as five icons and 100 hidden cubes in each level. The sub missions, however, do nothing to power up your Transformers and really offer no incentive to complete. The icons and cubes do nothing to power you up either, but perfectionists will want to collect every single thing the game offers. These items do unlock special bonus content that you can view from the main menu.

Transformers: The Game falls short in almost every category, and is hard to recommend to even the most diehard fan. The mindless bashing of enemies, the lack of quality missions, and the overall short experience are all reasons to avoid the game. The bonus content is something that may appeal to fans, but it's not worth buying and playing through the game to unlock. That money and time would be better spent at the theater watching the movie.

D-