Transformers is always a lovely childhood memory. In this day and age, though, you either enjoy them immensely and have sided with the Autobots or Decepticons, or you mourn how the films have “ruined” the classic franchise. I’m on the fence myself, as you don’t have to actually go see the movies, but they have spawned a pretty decent video game for once. Activision seems to be on a roll, publishing playable and enjoyable movie games. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a fun little romp through various landscapes as part of the team, whether you’re on Team Autobots or Team Decepticons. While it isn’t without its shortcoming (that’s the state of games as we know them now apparently), it’s still a fun title to pick up, even if you plan only to stomp around as Optimus Prime or Starscream.
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
Choose Your Battles
You’ll have your choice between playing as an Autobot or a Decepticon right off the bat, so if you have a particular favorite member of either team, it’s your choice to make which campaign you’ll tackle. Both teams have a different storyline and set of missions to complete, so you may want to dabble with both in order to experience all that the game has to offer. There are a good amount of different missions to tackle no matter which side you’re on, so even though most of them involve the same objectives, you can at least pick and choose the way you would like to progress through the game, earning metals along the way.
All Action, All the Time
There’s no boring story to get in the way here. Seeing as the fans who will purchase the game likely know the storyline from the movie (or just plain don’t care), all the focus has been placed solely on the action. Each mission will find you assuming the role of one Autobot or Decepticon, eliminating the members of the other side. You’ll be gallivanting all over to different cities across the world on a campaign to do so, explanations be darned. Once you arrive in a city the objectives will usually mirror each other: destroy all Decepticons/Autobots, take down a boss character, or escort character X to X location.
Each machine has an impressiv arsenal at their disposal, including missiles, machine guns, and of course the ability to turn into vehicles or planes. This is easily accomplished simply by holding down the right trigger, and the seamless transition from machine to vehicle is always impressive, especially when combined with melee attacks. When you’re not running around different cities making massive craters from where your feet have landed, you’ll take on some rather impressive flying missions. All of these different modes of play forsake a real storyline for some good, old-fashioned fun, though you’ll likely grow bored of the repetition.
RPG Elements
After beating your enemies to a pulp via flurries of melee attacks, aerial assaults, and vicious weaponry, you can collect Energon in order to level up your character of choice’s various abilities and RPG-like stats. They can also be used to unlock expansions and various options within the game. Because the game is so predictable, these RPG elements aid in turning what would otherwise be a banal experience into a less bland trek through the world with the familiar (souped-up) Transformers that we know and love.
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
Repetitive Missions
Most of the missions you’ll undertake are exactly the same kinds you will have done before in previous rounds. The game rarely changes itself up, which presents the issue of getting insanely bored with the game long before you’ll see the end of the campaign. While it’s commendable to create battles and action sequences that are entertaining to play, there needs to be more variety or else the game falls flat on its face.
Obscured Enemy Locations
Often during a fight you’ll find it quite difficult to keep your vision trained on where your enemies have gotten to. Since most of the areas you’ll be contending with your enemies in begin to blur together anyway, it becomes difficult to track which building an Autobot has skittered up or which building you’re being sniped from. While you have a radar to keep track of enemies, it isn’t often the most accurate to deal with in heavily-populated areas with carbon copies of the same buildings dotting the landscape.
Transforming Doesn’t Matter
For a game about the bots who make it their business to transform before your eyes in order to solve problems or to become stronger, transforming in this game just doesn’t matter at all. Sure, you can go from vehicle to machine in less than 3 seconds, but there’s no real reason to do so unless you just want to get around the area quicker. There are no puzzles to solve or significant advantage to switching between forms, which makes the mechanic questionable. It would have been nice to see it utilized more often and much more fully, but since the devs opted for an action-oriented title, perhaps it’s for the best.
RECOMMENDATION:
If you’re a fan of Michael Bay’s ’splosion-fest, then chances are you’ll love this game. Even if you’re a casual fan of Transformers, it’s likely a game you will enjoy despite the fact that its core game design isn’t built so solidly. It’s pretty mindless, just like its source material, but if you can get past its shortcomings it’s actually a blast to play. I suppose you can’t ask for too much more than that nowadays, can you?
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
System: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC, DS, PSP
Developer: Luxoflux (Xbox 360)
Publisher: Activision
Find: Amazon, Gamefly, Goozex
All reviews are based on final retail code unless otherwise noted.
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