Has it got the touch and the power or is it more offensive than Mudflap and Skids?
Format: XBox 360, PS3, PC (Other versions available on Wii and Nintendo DS)
Release: Out Now
Players: 1, 2-3 Co-op (2-4 Escalation mode), 2-10 online multiplayer
Developer: High Moon Studios
Publisher(s): Activision
Forget Micky “Explosion” Bay and his complicated movie designs. Forget Armada, Energon and Cybertron with their annoying kids and Mini-bots, although that Armada game was amazing. Transformers: War for Cybertron begins before the beloved robots crashed on earth in the Generation One era. The story, which owes a lot of its look and feel to the War Within comic series from Dreamwave Comics, shows Megatron’s rise to power over the planet Cybertron before a brave Autobot, named Optimus, decides to fight back for his home planet’s survival.
This is the beginning of what the fans have been asking for. Generation One based games have been made before, but usually with horrendous results. The only exception to the rule being G1: Awakening, which was released on mobile devices. War for Cybertron is the first real, genuine attempt to establish Transformers as a long running, high quality video game series. The good news is, that it is a good start. Not perfect, but it is good with plenty of promise for the future.
It owes a lot of its gameplay, ideas and structure to existing and well-established games such as Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though as it gives the game a base to build from. The first outing for this new series is hit and miss in its execution. First and foremost it is an all-out shooting game. Small gaps between fire fights allow you to replenish your ammo and health while giving the characters a chance to advance the story and show off their personality. Occasionally you will be required to flick a switch to open door or trigger an event to open the next section of a level. It’s pretty brainless.
Split over two linking single player campaigns, you play as both Decepticon and Autobot. Some of the biggest and most loved characters are available, including Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream for the ‘cons while Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jetfire and Ratchet are present for the Autobots. For each level you play as one of three characters, while the other two members of the team can be controlled by computer or fellow human players. That’s the co-operative play box ticked.
While the story works and is a decent chapter in Transformers lore, the campaign is short and a little lazy in terms of its structure. The Autobot and Decepticon campaigns are essentially the same; three ground-based shooting levels across Cybertron, one flight level and a huge boss fight ending the campaign for both forces. The good news is that levels haven’t simply been rehashed and reused for each campaign. Each level is completely different from the previous, but throughout you will find a very generic crop of enemies moving from machine gun wielding grunts, through missile firing bots, snipers, stealth bots before having to deal with bigger, tougher enemies who’s attacks cause more damage. There are a couple of boss fights throughout both campaigns, the most notable being the fight with Soundwave, who uses the minions he ejects from his chest to fight you. There are a number of excellent little nods to the series’ of old.
Graphically this game is purple… and red. You will see those two colours alot throughout the game. The character models are dark in colour, gritty, detailed and war torn. The levels are the same. It’s hard to complain about how Cybertron looks given that it is a planet made entirely of metal. Any version of the planet that was ever shown had this appearance no matter the continuity. This is true for the game too, but that is what we wanted and also what we expected. We finally get to explore the famed robot planet. I can’t help looking forward to a game in this series that is set on earth and expands what has been developed so far. I feel that this will add a greater range of level design to the game.
The multiplayer aspect of War for Cybertron apes its influences offering a co-op option for the game’s story mode and a Horde-like mode named, Escalation, in which players must stave off wave after wave of enemies. The multiplayer vs modes use a leveling up system, much like that seen in Call of Duty, giving players experience for kills which eventually unlock other abillities and perks to use. The standard multiplayer modes have been included in what is a watered down version of better multiplayer games. It is still enjoyable and solid in what it does. It could be seen, again, as laying ground-work for future games.
The worst element of War for Cybertron is the lack of originality. The ability to transform is the one thing that isn’t available anywhere else. The range of character classes is generic, covering medics, leaders, scouts and soldiers, but the characters that are on offer are instantly familiar. The license will sell this game more than anything else. Characters have special abilities such as placing a gun turret, providing a shield or using a special melee attack etc. This is an area which I feel could do with improving. You could easily get by in this game without making use of the abilities at all. Another area in which this game needs improving is hand-to-hand combat. One melee attack isn’t enough. We have seen these robots scrap it out with their crunching, metal fists as often as we have witnessed them in fire fights. These are small improvement for the future games that could really see this series take off.
If you have any love for Transformers, you will get goose-bumps everytime you hear Peter Cullens famed Optimus voice bellowing out to his comrades. You will love playing as these characters while transforming, driving, flying and fighting through Cybertron. War for Cybertron is a solid, if unoriginal shooter, and I feel that this is the first step in establishing something special. If sequels are made, I hope that the developers expand upon this game, adding more unique elements and really running with ideas that they may not have wanted to risk implementing first time out. As it stands, this is a very enjoyable game which leads to me utter those immortal words, “Autobots. Roll out!”
[rating:4]
The Nintendo 3DS was officially announced today at the E3 press conference and is set to blow the minds of Nintendo fanboys throughout the world.
