Transformers: The Game - 7.5/10
I've had the game for about six days now, got it on Tuesday, 6/26. I've played through two "Chapters" on the Autobot side (out of five), and I'm only about halfway through the first Chapter on the Decepticon side.
Pros:
Giant robots blowing stuff up. 'nuff said.
Character models - While not super-high-poly or super-high-res-textured (shows some segmentation and the textures break up a bit, but only in extreme closeup), these have got to be the most complex character models I've ever seen. If you've seen pictures of the transformers in the movie, these are exactly the same. Literally, they simply dummied down the original ILM models to a level that the system could push and then dropped them in.
On-the-fly transformations - Just push a button at any time, and off you go. Vehicle mode is significantly faster to travel around in than robot mode.
Destructable environments - With only a few exceptions (highway overpasses, large trees, etc), everything you see you can destroy. While not completely leveled, any buildings will end up a charred ruin if you whale on 'em enough, or just blow the hell out of them with your weapons. You also leave crater-footprints with every step you take.
Framerate - For a port, the game runs damn smoothly. At least, I'm pretty sure it's a port. At all press events, Activision always showed the X360 version instead of the PS3 version, so I'm assuming that the X360 was it's "native" console. There are only a few instances of jittery framerate or Vsync issues, and only when there's a lot of stuff happening on-screen. And on top of that, the game runs at 1080p. Not bad at all for a port.
Robot Scale - You don't realize it right away, as the game sort of gradually builds you up from a small 'bot (Bumblebee) to a big one (Prime), but the different sizes are handled differently in terms of control. Bumblebee is slowed down by everything he hits, in both robot and vehicle form, but Prime just plows through everything like it's not even there, with the sole exception of tanks. Whether in robot or vehicle mode, everything literally flies away from him as soon as he touches it, something the other Autobots can't quite do. Prime can also jump much further than Bumblebee, due to the extra momentum (I think he's the only Autobot that can jump from one rooftop, across a 4-lane street, onto the opposite rooftop). You don't notice it until you go back and play as one of the little 'bots again and realize that everything's in your way now, and you can't make the big jumps anymore. While it seems obvious that the game would work this way, I've noticed that it's not always the case in reality, and I'm glad to see that TT paid enough attention to realize that some 'bots are bigger than others.
Did I mention giant robots blowing stuff up?
Cons:
Graphics - While the character models are stunning, the environments are a bit on the plain side. This is partially because of the destructability, since the entire "destroyed" interior of the buildings are always present, even if not seen. The environmental quality is, I think, offset by the fact that you can blow it all up.
Destructability - I know I mentioned this as a Pro, but the execution is somewhat of a Con after all the advancements we've seen in physics engines lately. TT used the "old" method of destructability by having everything broken up into pre-defined pieces, rather than using something more interactive like Lucasart's new DMM technology. In a game where the destruction plays such a big part, DMM would have been a godsend. I'm thinking it was done because the game was also ported to PS2 and Wii, which lack the processing power to accomplish anything remotely like DMM.
Combat - Here's a hint: Lock onto an enemy before you start beating the crap out of them. If you don't, and your first hit misses, you've already been mashing the "attack" button enough to send your guy off in a totally different direction, whaling away at nothing, or that poor defenseless building. You have to wait for the combo to finish before you can turn around and try to find the baddie again. Throwing objects can also be tedious, because if you just press the "throw" button and you're not facing right at your enemy, even if your targeting reticle is aimed at him (but not locked on), you'll throw it off in whatever direction you're facing. Combat is also a bit repititious. There aren't any power-ups or new combos or moves to learn. Just hit the Attack button until they go down. Sometimes they toss in a bit of "throw something at the baddie first, then beat the piss out of him", but it ends up kind of frustrating sometimes. Boss battles can be a bitch because of this.
Overall gameplay - This has been the biggest gripe by people who don't like the game, is that what I've described above is literally all there is. What we saw in the trailers and heard about in the interviews is pretty much it. I'll get into more detail below.
The Game:
When you start Campaign mode, the next option you get is what side to choose. If you pick Autobot, you start as Bumblebee trying to make his way to Sam in a suburban environment. If you pick Decepticon, you start as Blackout blowing the holy living hell out of a military base. And yes, you can save both sides on a single game-save, so you can have both Campaigns going on at the same time, and switch back and forth at your leisure.
You're placed into a large, but enclosed, free-roaming environment, where you're free to go anywhere and do anything you want. The environment is typically surrounded by the ol' "Invisible Wall", but it's large enough to keep you busy for a while. There are multiple objectives, or missions, within each level that show up on the map and with big green icons showing you where to go. When you start one of these side-missions, you're given a specific task to accomplish, and sometimes a certain amount of time to accomplish it. For example, as Bumblebee, your first mission is to investigate another landing site near where you landed. Since there are no other Autobots on Earth at the time, they're probably Decepticons, and you've got to take 'em out. On the Decepticon side, you're Blackout, and you're given.. I think three minutes to completely destroy the central part of the military base you've landed at.
Sometimes the side-missions will have you playing as a different character. During the second Chapter of the Autobot side, you'll play as Jazz, then Ironhide, then finally Prime. During the first chapter of the Decepticon mission, you'll play as both Blackout and Scorponok depending on what missions you choose. There are typically five or six of these "main" mission points per Chapter, and the last one is the Boss fight, usually against another recognizable transformer instead of just the random "drones" you usually fight. During the first Bumblebee chapter, you fight Barricade. During the second chapter, that you finish as Prime, you fight a surprise appearance by Shockwave from the old G1 cartoon. I don't know who you fight at the end of the Blackout level, as I haven't quite gotten that far yet.
One thing to note about the free-roaming levels is that your actions do not go unnoticed by the locals. Since the humans don't know that the Autobots are the good guys, the police will start chasing you down if you spend too much time in robot form or blow up too much stuff. Luckily, civilian weapons don't do much damage, so if you're just wandering around the level, you can pretty much ignore them. Not quite so on the Decepticon side, at least not at the military base. As a bad guy, you're constantly under attack by military forces, even when not engaged in a mission, which makes the level quite the pain in the ass. I'm hoping that they'll back off a bit when I've beaten the level so I can have a better opportunity to look around for the extras.
Each level also contains five "faction" symbols to collect, that unlock various bonus features (galleries, the movie trailers, etc). When you collect them all throughout all the Chapters, you'll unlock G1 Optimus Prime and G1 Megatron. Since I haven't gotten there, I'm not sure exactly how it works. I think you turn them on in the Bonus menu, and then whenever you're playing a level as that character, it will substitute the G1 version in place of the movie version. In addition to the full G1 models of those two, the game also contains G1 skins for Jazz and Starscream. These are just "repaints", with G1 paint schemes on the movie models. There's also a fifth "G1 Character" to unlock, but I'm not sure what that one is (I think it's a repaint of movie Prime). The levels also contain one hundred small energon cubes that unlock various gallery extras. Makes a nice bonus, since it gives you a chance to wander around the level to your heart's content and actually be accomplishing something at the same time.
The transformations are overall pretty cool, fitting into both "Pro" and "Con". On the Pro side, they're often pretty complex, and get that "thousands of moving pieces" thing going on. Especially on Blackout. If you've seen that preview video of Blackout vs Ironhide, that's actually how he transforms in the game, which is pretty cool. The downside is that the transformation in-game is significantly faster than in that video, so you miss a lot of the bits moving around simply because it's happening so fast. That's my main gripe about the transformations, is that they're too fast. I can see the need for a fast transformation if you're in the middle of a fight or something, but I would have preferred a slower, more complex transformation animation if the character was just standing around. The animations also "cheat" a fair bit, especially on parts where the animators couldn't figure out where the parts were supposed to go, so they occasionally have parts appearing and disappearing into thin air. That's probably one reason for the faster transformation animation, is to hide the things that they're cheating on, so all you see is a flurry of hundreds of moving parts, and then blammo.. he's a car. Or a chopper, or whatever. I've got to say, though, transforming is just so damn cool. You'll spend a fair bit just driving around and transforming just for the hell of it.
Do I Buy It?
Well, it really depends on what you're looking for. The game has it's flaws, certainly. It's a simple game, without a deep storyline or puzzles or anything fancy. It's just giant robots blowing stuff up. I, for one, find that very entertaining. But aside from the simplicity, the game is very well made, and avoids many of the bugs and glitches that plague pretty much every other movie tie-in game, but lacks the deep, satisfying experience of a more carefully developed title. I think overall, it avoids many of the pitfalls of movie-based games, but doesn't really add much to the genre or turn it around in any way.
If you're a Transformers fan, and are drooling over the upcoming live-action movie, then you'll definitely want to pick this one up. If you're a serious hardcore gamer and want something worthwhile to spend your time on, you'll probably want to skip it. If you're somewhere in between, I'd say rent it and see how the gameplay treats you (try the first Chapter on both sides), and see if it tickles your fancy. The rest of the game is pretty much the same as those first few chapters, but with different environments and different characters from the film.
I, for one, am really enjoying the game. Yeah, I'm a bit of a TF nut from way back, but I think it's a lot of fun to be a giant robot blowing stuff up. From the reviews, I'm apparently in the minority, but there it is.
How's that for a review, Foolkiller?
