Sometimes I think many Transformer fans' ill will towards the Bay movies sours their opinion unfairly on any thing that has to do with them. For example, many fans will say that the movie toys uniformly "suck" despite many of them having amazing engineering and accuracy. I
feel many of the negative opinions towards this "cash-in" are also unjustified.
The core gameplay is borrowed almost wholly from the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron series, and keeps those two game's solid gaming and gunplay. The bulk of the campaign is played in that universe as well, and though the graphics are a step down from WfC/FoC,
they still aren't bad (unless you're waiting the first few seconds for all the textures to load, as this verison of the Unreal Engine is wont to do). There are a few nifty new additions such as "hacks", which make the game harder in some respects but easier in others-- though these
can be ignored if you're not going after all the trophies. There's also "grab bag" bonuses you get every time you complete an in-game challenge (and there are a TON of them, giving you ample incentive to play through the campaign multiple times). Although the items in the
grab bag are randomly generated, duplicates will automatically convert into useful items-- although as GI's review states, you do have to "sit through" all of the items that the grab bag gives you, this is hardly a time-consuming event.
As far as multiplayer, Escalation returns, re-using some maps from FoC while putting in a few of their own. Escalation mostly runs the same as in FoC, but now the whole level is open to you from the start, and you use your money acquired to upgrade defenses throughout
the level to help you deal damage to the increasingly numerous waves of enemies. It's not a positive or a negative change overall, but it is a change, and it's nice that Edge of Reality tried something a bit new here to stave off simply "more FoC Escalation". Yes, PvP
multiplayer has been eliminated, but given the time constraints for a movie game I understand it-- better to get the core stuff right than waste resources on what, in my opinion, was the least enjoyable mode of the previous High Moon TF games.
Besides the gameplay, this game's biggest plus is its huge roster-- nearly every character you've played as in WfC and FoC is available here (including those only available in DLC in those previous games), as well as 6 movie characters (Optimus Prime, Bumblebee,
Grimlock, Drift, and Lockdown). Most of these are only available in Escalation, but you still play through several on them in the main campaign, including such "new" characters as FoC Sharpshot. I certainly wish there were more movie characters, but given the time
constraints for most movie games I thought it was a great idea to bring in so many of the WfC/FoC assets and set up a mini-crossover story.
That said, the story is very straightforward and rather weak, with most of it being a game of "hot potato" of the Dark Spark passing hands between the Autobots and Decepticons. However, the WfC/FoC universe is completely separate from the Movie universe, and the
"clashing of two worlds" here is not simply the present and past-- so for those of you who are WfC/FoC fans, no, those characters do not eventually become the movieverse characters here. There are also few really awe-inspiring setpiece moments (a few bits in Jetfire's level
being the rare exception), something that WfC and FoC definitely had more of. There are a few positive bits in the story, though, such as a bit more backstory on Shockwave and the Insecticons' relationship in FoC, and the very end of the game should leave a smile on any
G1 fan's face. The whole campaign is also surprisingly long for a shooter-based movie game, clocking in at around 10 hours total for my first playthrough, and that was on easy-- if you want a harder challenge, obviously it will take you longer than that.
The glitches also cannot be denied, though they're mostly limited to an enemy every now and then refusing to move-- only once have I encountered a game-breaking bug, and I've played for about 12+ hours so far. I honestly have no idea why GI's review talks about odd
sound bugs or bad AI-- I experienced no such sound bugs in my game (on the PS3), and the AI seems the same here as in the previous highly-praised WfC and FoC games.
Thus, overall the glitches and overly vanilla story can drag it down a bit-- and I'm not sure why the visuals received a bit of a downgrade-- but if you're a fan of the WfC/FoC gameplay, this should be a pick-up, particularly if you like the movieverse or are just a general
Transformers fan. It's flawed here and there, yes, but it's still definitely a fun, enjoyable game.
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Not perfect, but definitely under-rated
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