This week I am reviewing Transformers: War for Cybertron. Without a Michael Bay movie in sight, is the game making up for it or is it something better? "Autobots, roll out!"
Story
Transformers: War for Cybertron is set in the time before the movies, even before the original cartoons. It is an origin story told in two parts. The first five chapters follows Megatron's quest for power to become the ruler of Cybertron. How he gained the power of "dark energon" and his eventual corruption of the core of Cybertron to become the supreme ruler. The last five chapters follows Optimus' rise from a battlefield soldier to becoming the Autobots leader, Optimus Prime, and keeper of a piece of the uncorrupted core of Cybertron.
The story is told very well and players have the option of either starting with the Decepticon's story or the Autobots story.
Controls
The controls in the game were good. They layout for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 pretty much used everything without any big problems. The only thing I ran into that was even a bit of a problem was transforming was done by depressing the left thumbstick. A couple times in the heat of battle as I would be moving to avoid incoming trouble I would suddenly find myself transforming and then taking a full on blast. Overall it wasn't much of a problem and the few times it happened did not result in death, just a large chunk of health taken off.
Gameplay
The gameplay is a third-person action shooter. As you play through the single player campaign (or the optional co-op) you will get your choice of one of three characters to play, each having specific classes. There are four classes that you can play: soldier, leader, scout, or scientist. Soldier is pretty much your standard fighter class, leaders have buffs that help allies, scouts are fast, and scientists are basically medics. The co-op is drop in/drop out, but only over online. There is no split-screen option.
In multiplayer you have besides the aforementioned co-op mode, "Escalation," Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, "Conquest," "Power Struggle," and "Code of Power." Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are your standard last man standing style game modes. Escalation is were you fight of ever increasing waves of enemies until you are defeated. Conquest you are capturing and defending a position from the other team. Power Struggle you are attempting to place a bomb in the other team's base. Lastly in Code of Power teams battle for control of a very powerful weapon.
In the multiplayer modes other than co-op, you do not choose from the main characters (though you can unlock them). You start off by creating your own transformer and choosing it's class.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically the game looked pretty good. The backgrounds kind of got to looking the same after a bit, but then again this is Cybertron, a machine world. One thing I did really like was the designs of the Transformers themselves. Developer High Noon Studios took their cues from the original cartoons instead of the more recent live action movies, something fans of the Transformers should love.
Sound was really good too. The music was that classic high-energy rock guitar based music that we've come to love from the series. The voice acting was really good too, highlighted by the fact they had Peter Cullen. Peter Cullen has been the voice for Optimus Prime for pretty much anything and everything done with the Transformers, cartoons, movies, games, everything.
Overall
This was a great game to play though. You could tell that High Noon are fans of Transformers. Everything was done well and with a nod to everything that came before it. This game was like a love letter to all the Transformers fans who've had to deal with less than good Transformers games in the past. And with no movie release date looming over their heads, they were able to take their time and get it right.
As good as the game was, it did have its faults. Besides the accidental transforming problem I had, the game completely froze on me at one point and there was also one battle were an enemy fell through the floor and all you could see was his head and shoulders as he fought back. That made for an interesting battle. Also the boss fights became kind of predictable fights. Dodge all incoming fire, then target the weak point, rinse, repeat.
Overall I did have fun and I really liked the game. Transformers fans will have a blast, espcially those that like the cartoon series more than the Michael Bay movies. So for Transformers: War for Cybertron, I can easily recommend the game and give it a 4.5 out of 5.
Transformers: War For Cybertron is rated T for Teen for violence. It is available now for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
