Based
on the hit summer film, Activision's Transformers for PS3 brings explosive
action to the console audience. Players can choose to play as either the
Autobots or the evil Decepticons as they struggle against each other.
Transformers also lets players change forms instantly from one to another,
play as different robots and battle through a series of open-ended and
fully destructible environments. The game looks good, and it's
straightforward mission structure makes it instantly accessible, but the
question is whether there's enough under the hood to keep you playing
beyond the first few levels. Read our review and find out.
Activision's Transformers: The Game is a
decent attempt at bringing the movie's action sequences to life in an
interactive form and does a good job in recreating the action sequences of
its cinematic counterpart. Before you begin your first mission, you can
choose which side you want to play as, the good Autobots led by Optimus
Prime who are battling the evil Decepticons in search of the AllSpark, a
mysterious force that keeps them alive. Transformers' gameplay is
relatively simple and mostly involve destroying any rival robots or
objects you encounter. Most of the missions are fairly straightforward in
terms of objectives, usually requiring you to defeat foes or reach a
certain point before the allotted time runs out. The map and HUD are
fairly easy to understand and most players should have little trouble
getting the hang of things quickly. You can usually locate and battle foes
easily, since most of the level layouts are quite simple and easy to
traverse. This makes the game accessible to a broad audience, though this
dumbing-down comes at a price - it makes things a bit too easy at points,
and lessens the challenge. Along the way, you'll see humans and their
environments as well. It seems like an intimidating task to battle all
these little beings from your vantage point, but these humans pose little
threat for the most part since they don't really cause damage to your
indestructible armor. They are basically obstacles that slow you down and
get in your way, which is kind of fun initially but becomes annoying as
you play through the game. However, you can do a lot of damage to the
levels. These fully destructible environments are decently rendered and
there are some cool explosions during the game. However, things begin to
lose their impact after awhile since it's so easy to destroy things, it
becomes less satisfying.
One
of the coolest aspects about Transformers is the ability of you to change
forms with the press of a single button - you can switch between robot and
vehicle form instantly. This lets you fight the robots head to head for
maximum efficiency or use a standard vehicle to blend in. When you are in
a standard vehicle form, you have some weapons, but they aren't as
effective. However, the robots generally move much slower and draw the
attention of foes much faster. The enemies usually attack in waves and
their numbers makes them more dangerous. When you are battling them
one-on-one, they don't pose as much of a threat. The exception to this are
the boss battles which can be quite intense. You can choose either a
standard or strong fire weapon when in robot form and can also choose to
battle them at close range using melee combat moves. Players can also
target specific enemies using the Lock on button, which is helpful when
battling multiple opponents simultaneously. The standard controls are
fairly decent and effective, but Transformers also includes support for
Sixaxis functionality. Sadly, this doesn't add much to the game and feels
more like a hastily added feature than something integral to the game,
which is disappointing. When you have finished them off, they'll drop
power-ups and health items which can help you replenish your energy bar.
Transformers' control system is very simple to use and understand and the
robots are fairly easy to control. Taking them through each level doesn't
require much effort and each is surprisingly responsive and simple to use.
Each of the Transformers you encounter in the game has a different vehicle
attached to it, which range from cars, to tanks, helicopters and more.
This adds some variety to the game and makes things a little bit less
predictable than they might have been otherwise. It's also cool that each
side in Transformers has a completely different set of missions to
complete, which means there are two entirely different tracks in the game.
While the standard missions and characters are decent, players can also
unlock a few extras such as movies and artwork and can even unlock some of
the classic "Generation One" characters if they get deeper into
the game. This gives you some motivation to keep playing, but your
endurance will probably be sorely tested by Transformers' disappointing
level designs.
The single player experience is decent
for a short time, but quickly becomes predictable and tedious. You'd think
that the developers would have added online play, but this isn't included.
This represents a huge missed opportunity and makes the title feel less
like a game and more like an interactive commercial for the movie. You get
a few tastes of the film here and there, but these teases aren't really
satisfying. The gameplay itself is entertaining, but doesn't offer much in
the way of challenge or innovation, it feels like a paint by numbers
experience. Visually, Transformers is a decent-looking title but doesn't
really offer much more than you'd expect. The robots themselves look
decent and animate nicely and the game's levels are decent, though lack in
imagination in terms of layout. There are some impressive lighting effects
such as reflections and weather, but the game chugs along at a slower
frame rate than you'd expect it to. The developers added some film
sequences between levels to make things feel more like the movie, and the
cinematic soundtrack is nice as well, but this only emphasizes the
problems with this title's pedantic design. Unfortunately, like many movie
cross-overs before it, Transformers is limited by its need to recreate the
source material and doesn't expand or elaborate on the movie to any
significant degree. While it's fun to control the morphing robots for a
short time, the game's predictable mission structure and simplistic combat
makes things become repetitive all too quickly. While it's cool that you
can play on either the good or bad side, the missions themselves lack
imagination and suffer from a sense of déjà vu. Transformers: The Game
lacks significant depth or replay value but does a good job of recreating
the feel of a summer blockbuster move. It's shiny, there are huge
explosions and nice special effects but the end result is ultimately
shallow and forgettable.
Grade:
C-
