Transformers: War for Cybertron review(360)

[Gamerforlife]

This is a brief review of Transformers:War for Cybertron, a game which I said "sucked" in another thread. That's not true. However, the game has its flaws which made me quite frustrated. Plus, I generally don't like shooters. Hence, the post saying that it sucks. I thought I'd go ahead and do a proper review of the game to rectify that comment. I played the game on the Xbox 360 by the way. So without further ado....

So basically, the story is a prequel to the G1(generation one) Transformers cartoon. This is the classic original cartoon that introduced everyone to the Transformers franchise for the first time back in the eighties. It answers some important questions that the cartoon didn't really address. There aren't any major plot twists or turns, but there's enough exciting stuff going on at all times to keep your attention. Plus, the cutscenes can only be described as "badass".

So let's talk about graphics. The character designs are excellent. Since the story takes place before the transformers ended up on earth and had their transformations modified to look like earth vehicles, the designs are slightly different from the cartoon. However, every character is close enough to their cartoon counterparts to be easily recognizable. Cybertron itself looks great, though many of the environments look similar since the whole planet is made of metal. Overall, the game looks like a big budget title and doesn't really dissapoint in any way graphically. There's a lot of action happening on screen at all times, which really creates the sense of you being part of an epic, alien war. Everything in the game will invoke memories of the cartoon and the animated movie that followed it. The people who worked on the visual design were clearly very familiar with the source material

The game sounds great. The music is epic, driving along the action quite nicely. The sounds are fantastic. The classic transforming sound is spot on and every weapon and explosion sounds exactly like it should. The voice acting is excellent. There is constant back and forth dialogue between the characters in every stage. Characters comment on EVERYTHING, including the player's actions. Also, any time you grab a weapon, grab a power up, kill an enemy or come close to death there is a fair chance your character will say something. This really helps the game come alive and unlike many other video games, your character doesn't tend to constantly repeat himself and your allies' comments are always timely and appopriate to the situation. Top notch work. The voice acting is over the top and cheesy, but that's in keeping with the tone of the cartoon. Many characters are not voiced by their original voice actors, but the new ones do a good job and the most important character in the game keeps his original voice actor. Peter Cullen sounds as excellent as ever as Optimus Prime and gives the action in the autobot campaign a dramatic weight that only he can deliver.

Dialogue is also cheesy and over the top. However, there are a number of memorable exchanges. During one section of the game Megatron and his minions must race through a dangerous area avoiding obstacles and enemies in what amounts to an exciting chase sequence. Once they reach the end, Breakdown squeals with excitement and says, "We did it! I can't believe we made it!". To which Megatron responds, "Yes Breakdown, your constant whining saw us through". Very funny, memorable line. The writers also steal a number of quotable lines from the Transformers animated movie throughout the game. It's really cheesy and forced how they insert these lines into the game sometimes, but it's hard not to appreciate the fan service.

The gameplay is basically your standard fare third person shooter. However, there are a few nice twists to the formula. Every playable transformer has two different abilities they can use on the battlefield if they have enough energy. This makes you put some thought into which character you choose to play as before you start a stage. Some of these abilities are quite fun like Air Raid's cloaking ability and Soundwave's ability to summon a turret to gun down enemies.

There are also a large variety of weapons to use, many of which are just variations on standard shooter fare like grenades, shotguns and assault rifles. These weapons seem out of place given that these characters only ever seemed to have lasers and energy based weaponry in the cartoon, but they give the game variety. Some of the more interesting weapons at your disposal include a healing repair ray(which seems to be in the game as a way for players to heal eachother in co-op)as well as some healing grenades which create a dome, healing every player within it. Speaking of healing, there are sentries in some parts of the game that will heal players or enemies if they are nearby. These become important in some parts of the game. The most fun weapons are the rocket turrets and machine gun turrets, which you can mount and use against the enemy. Nothing out of the ordinary there. However, you can also rip a turret off its base and carry it around with you. This limits your ammo but allows you to move around slowly to try and avoid enemy fire while you unload on them with what amounts to the most powerful weapons in the game.

One can't do a review of this game without mentioning its coolest feature. With a simple click of the left analogue stick, you can transform into a vehicle. This is, of course, the defining element of the Transformers franchise. Transforming is well implemented into the gameplay. It occurs quickly and fluidly, not interrupting the action in any way. In fact, you can transform at ANY time, even if you're in the middle of a jump. What the developers did here is smart. Transforming offers a number of advantages. First of all, it increases your mobility. This is good for escaping enemies or quickly getting to a health item or power up. This is also critical for avoiding certain attacks from bosses. It also is necessary for certain parts of the game where players will need to travel through an area much faster than they can on foot, whether its blasting down a highway in your automobile form, or zooming through tunnels while avoiding obstacles in jet form. These make up some of the game's most adrenaline fueled moments.

Lastly, transforming allows players access to additional weapons. So in addition to the two weapons you carry around in robot form, you gain one more in automobile form that has its own, seperate ammunition. This effectively gives you three weapons. The flying transformers gain access to machine guns and homing rockets when they transform into a jet. This give them FOUR weapons total, and they have unlimited ammo when in jet form. Sometimes using whatever weapon you have when you transform into a vehicle is more useful than what you carry around in robot form.

Another nice feature of the game is the three player co-op. Should you die in co-op, a player can revive you. Unfortunately, this makes the campaign easy compared to playing it solo and feels like cheating. Video games should really do away with this feature in co-op campaigns. However, one cool thing about this is that while a player is waiting to be revived, he can still fire at enemies. There's something cool about seeing a nearly destroyed, crippled transformer lying on the ground and yet still fighting. If you can manage three kills while in this critical state, you score an achievement that is a clever nod to a well known line in the Transformers movie(I still function!). In fact, most of the achievements are winks at fans of the cartoon and the movie

There are some other cool aspects of the gameplay. Your allies are invincible. You never have to worry about them dying. They also do a very good job of distracting enemies for you and will even score an occasional kill. In fact, if you run out of ammo in some situations, you can go hide somewhere and wait for your squad to finish off whoever you are fighting. They'll go about it much more slowly than you would and won't succeed if there are too many enemies or if they are too tough, but I finished off a sub boss this way at one part of the game when my ammo ran out and my health was almost gone. It's also fun to watch your pals transform whenever there's a long stretch between where you are and your next destination. Racing around in auto form with your allies never gets old

The health system is nice too. Your health consists of a certain number of blocks of energy. Each block will regenerate if you avoid fire for a while. However, if a block is completely drained, it dissapears. If you lose your last block you die. There are energon cubes you can pick up to get all your blocks back and the game provides shield powerups in certain areas to make you harder to kill

Some excellent, epic boss fights in this game too. Let's just say that both the autobots and the decepticons really pull out their biggest weapons in their respective campaigns and I must emphasize the word BIG. Hardcore fans of the cartoon will have an idea of what I'm talking about

All in all, this seems like a great game, but it has its flaws. For one thing, the controls in jet form are clunky and slow. This makes aerial battles and sections of the game where you are expected to quickly fly through an area while avoiding obstacles frustrating until you get the hang of it. Also, many sections of the game are just lazily, sloppily or outright cheaply designed. Some of that cheapness is inherent to the genre and may not bother those who enjoy shooters more than me. However, the game's worst offender is an inexcusable and HORRIBLE defense/escort scenario where you have to protect an autobot from wave after wave of increasingly more difficult enemy attacks. The autobot in question is standing out in the open and pretty much dies if you even so much as sneeze on him. He can be revived, but the game doesn't give you much time to get to him. Once you do, you have to stand in place for a few seconds getting ripped to shreds by enemy fire while you try and revive him. Essentially, everything that gamers hate about defend missions and escort missions in video games is present and accounted for here. It was at this part of the game that I openly proclaimed, "these designers are total douchebags".

All in all though, the game is everything a Transformers fan could want. I've give it an 8 out 10. Bump that up to a 9 if you're a very hardcore fan, or just enjoy shooters a lot more than I do.

[Dakinggamer87]

Nice review!! I'm a big fan of Transformers and I really enjoyed this game.

[Gamerforlife]

Nice review!! I'm a big fan of Transformers and I really enjoyed this game.

Well, I'm glad someone replied LOL. Yeah, it was pretty good. If a few sections had been designed better(like that awful defend ratchet stage)and if they had made controlling the jets a bit smoother and faster(why does it take forever to ascend and descend and I would have liked a quick 180 turn ability, which to my knowledge was not possible), I would have been inclined to give it a perfect score. Well, that and having ALL of the original voice actors, but I know that isn't possible

I also liked that cheesy vocal track during the end credits as well as the narrated prologues for each stage. That prologues reeeeallly brought the nostalgia factor I have to say. It felt like you were about to watch an episode of the old cartoon

[Dakinggamer87]

Nice review!! I'm a big fan of Transformers and I really enjoyed this game.

Well, I'm glad someone replied LOL. Yeah, it was pretty good. If a few sections had been designed better(like that awful defend ratchet stage)and if they had made controlling the jets a bit smoother and faster(why does it take forever to ascend and descend and I would have liked a quick 180 turn ability, which to my knowledge was not possible), I would have been inclined to give it a perfect score. Well, that and having ALL of the original voice actors, but I know that isn't possible

I also liked that cheesy vocal track during the end credits as well as the narrated prologues for each stage. That prologues reeeeallly brought the nostalgia factor I have to say. It felt like you were about to watch an episode of the old cartoon

I also got nostalgia from the prologues and it brought back great memories from my childhood.