Review | Transformers: War for Cybertron
Robots Without Disguise…
Format: Xbox 360, PC, PS3 | Genre: Third Person Shooter | Publisher: Activision | Developer: High Moon Studios | Release date: 25/06/2010 | Price: £49.99
Mike Hirst witnesses how the fight began between the Autobots and Decepticons in TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON.
BEFORE I begin there is one piece of information you must know about me before you continue reading. Transformers was – and still is – a large part of my life, not only while I was growing up but also well into my adolescence, and while I was too young to see the rise of the actual series on TV back in the mid eighties, when I did finally get hold of it a few years later it became the physical embodiment of my hopes and dreams. As I grew older, I watched my beloved childhood TV series degrade into various reboots and I turned my attention towards videogames. Now I
finally have a game which appeals to my childhood, a game which might not be shit.
Transformers: War for Cybertron takes place before the Generation One TV series, and unlike the previous Transformers games, is considered a cannon story. The story is split into two arcs, starting off with The Decepticon campaign, your group of characters forcing their way onto a space station held by the then Sky Commander, Starscream. You select one of three characters for every chapter, each with their own unique weapons, vehicle mode, and a different set of abilities, which allows you to pick a character best suited to your play style and for the job at hand. Once you have done that you are free to proceed through the chapter.
One shall stand
From the opening cinematic to the end credits, your eyeballs are serenaded with a stark aesthetic which is unique to the Transformers universe and new to both those who followed the original and – obviously – those who haven’t. The designs for the Transformers are not as farfetched as to obliterate the nostalgic memories gamers may have from when they were young, the characters managing to remain more or less identifiable, avoiding one of the key criticisms of the Michael Bay Transformers films. All the characters you remember as a child are there; Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Rachet, Omega Supreme, Megatron, Soundwave, and new characters such as Barricade and Warpath, all of them with distinctly different personalities which come across not only in the set pieces but also through dialog spoken during the levels, with some of it directly in homage to the 1986 animated film, including a section in a prison level that made me smile from ear to ear, along with the use of the universal greeting upon meeting your first Space Slug later in the game.
The environments are varied and from the outset it becomes a real experience. With combat being the main focus of this title the environments shouldn’t be too beautiful as to distract from life and death situations, and thankfully they don’t. During highly hectic situations in which you are dodging bullets, staffing cannon fire and transforming at will, the environmental visuals fall into the background. The game guides you into a
setting and situation, introduces you to a dozen Autobots or Decepticons that needed holes in them, and then once everything has calmed down it just taps you on the shoulder and subtly says “have you looked around yet?”, before taking you to the next area to do it all again, and occasionally, if you happen to look up, you might just have your breath taken away.
One shall fall
The game itself, at its core, is a basic third person shooter which has been built on and lovingly moulded into a simple yet visually beautiful and functional single-player and multiplayer experience. During the single-player campaign you are joined by two teammates, controller either by humans through online coop or the A.I. The draw back with the A.I is how often it sits back, making the player do most of the work. On the Easy and Normal difficulty settings things aren’t too taxing and the A.I issues are mostly forgivable, in fact, during my first playthrough I could swear my teammates never actually took damage, removing the need to drop everything I’m doing to revive them during chaotic situations, and in one section where you have to jump from rotating platform to rotating platform, my companions just stood there as if they were afraid of heights and just looked at me with hope that I’d make it across without their help. While I could dwell on the lethargic A.I I must admit that potentially watching them jump from platform to platform while under fire, dying at every leap, would probably leave me screaming at my television, quite possibly just as much as during my playthrough of Resident Evil 5.
Continues…
Pages: 1 2
