Transformers

"Too Bad They Can’t Disguise Themselves as a Good Game"

The Transformers franchise has been around a long time, and as anyone who hasn't been living under a rock will know, it has received a sort of revival with the recent Michael Bay movies. As is typical for summer blockbusters, these movies have gotten their own video game spin-offs. But before all that came to be, Atari released another game bearing the Transformer name.

Transformers begins one million years ago with the war on the Autobots planet. Fans will already know the details and for fear of rousing that awesome fanboy rage, I won't try to explain it lest I, an outsider to the franchise, leave something out or explain something wrongly. But it basically comes down to two groups of robots, the Autobots (the good guys) and the Decepticons (the bad guys) who don't really get along. In the midst of all this there is another group of robots known as the Mini-Cons, who leave the planet for less hostile pastures.

The Mini-Cons eventually crash land on Earth, and their signal is immediately picked up by both the Autobots and Decepticons. Apparently the Mini-Cons are capable of wielding some impressive powers of their own, and so it becomes a robotic arms race to find them before the other side does.

Upon starting the game, players will choose from three Autobots. There's Red Alert, Hot Shot and the leader Optimus Prime. Each robot has their own statistics in areas such as power, defense and speed and each can transform into a different vehicle (an SUV, sports car and semi truck respectively). The choice isn't a big one, as players are free to switch amongst the three between missions.

There is simply no way to describe Transformers other than as a bottom of the barrel run and gun shooter. Players are dropped into a level and given some generic objective (proceed to location X), and on the way fight off dozens upon dozens of repetitive and unimaginative robot enemies. Atari has tried to make that basic formula interesting by adding some customization elements and a bit of openness, but it really doesn't do all that much to help the game. Instead it comes off as feeling like the same old half-assed tactics that so many developers resort to in order to try to make their game seem like more than it really is.

Take the Mini-Cons for instance. While traversing the levels you'll often come across these tiny spacefaring robots and they each have an attribute or weapon that they'll bestow by equipping them. For instance, one might be a secondary weapon such as homing missiles and another might be a passive ability such as increased armor or a defensive capability such as an energy shield. Aside from the basic blaster each Transformer comes with, they have three other slots which can be filled by those three types of Mini-Cons. While the idea of customizing your load-out isn't a bad one, there's really little reason to delve into it as some of the most effective things in your arsenal are found in the first level. The homing rocket Mini-Con is the first you'll find, and having fire and forget capabilities is something I found hard to part with.

However, those who want to play around with weapon load-outs just to see what the game has to offer will encounter a few underlying systems that govern the Mini-Cons. The biggest is that the Transformers have a set energy limit they can use in the equipping of Mini-Cons. Each addition takes up a certain amount of energy depending on its power, and once that energy limit is reached no more Mini-Cons can be equipped. This means you won't be able to run around with a full complement of the game's best equipment, so a bit of trial and error is required if you really want to get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. It's also to important to keep in mind that each Mini-Con has its own color and if combined with others of the same type, produces some extra effects such as more health. While that may sound tempting, it really doesn't have a drastic impact nor will it make players consider forgoing a good weapon in order to link up with another Mini-Con.

For those expecting the ability to transform into a vehicle to throw in some radical gameplay mechanic, I'm afraid you'll be sorely disappointed. In fact, the ability is really only here because it's such an integral part of Transformers (it's in the name for Pete's sake!). The game very rarely presents any reason or need to switch to vehicle mode other than to get up to speed to fly over a large chasm or some other minor obstacle. The only other use for it is to get from place to place a bit quicker, but since enemies are everywhere in the game and vehicle forms are defenseless, it's usually a better idea to just go on foot and be able to fight back.

Then there are the open levels which exist simply for the sake of existing. Each level is relatively large and usually has plenty of nooks and crannies laying off the beaten path that players can explore. However the only reason to do so is to seek out hidden Mini-Cons as well as extras such as concept art and comics that can be viewed from the main menu. In light of the fact that most of the Mini-Cons are useless, this ends up being a waste of time. None of the levels are anything special either – It almost seems as if this is Atari's master's thesis for Generic Level Design 101. To give you an idea of just how unimaginative Atari has been, the first level is a jungle, the second is the typical ice level, the third goes back to the jungle and the fourth is an atoll in the middle of the ocean. Rocks and water? Brilliant! The game also suffers visually from the size of the levels (although I might be wrong about that. It could just be laziness). Each level is a sweeping landscape of repetitious and bland textures coupled with bare bones design. In a word, ugly.

The Transformers don't look all that hot either and resemble something built out of Legos rather than a robot. If there's one bright spot it's the ragdoll physics on the Transformers when they get hit with a powerful attack. There's nothing as ridiculous as seeing a twenty foot tall behemoth made out of metal go limp and flop around like a fish out of water. As funny as it is, I'm still forced to wonder just who thought it was a good idea to use physics like that, and it manages to be one of the dumbest things I've seen in a long time.

THE VERDICT
In the end Transformers in not an imaginative, impressive or even good use of the license. There might be a few fans who are pleased with this half-assed attempt but those who aren't interested in the franchise will find nothing here to pique their interest. All in all, it just feels like a cheap attempt to cash in on fans too stupid to know any better.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/09

Game Release: Transformers (US, 05/11/04)