Transformers

"Finaly A Transformers Game Worthy Of Attention"

*** INTRO: ***
Its no Peter Built Optimus Prime, VW Beetle Bumble Bee or Porsche Jazz. Instead it's an Optimus that looks like a rig from the 31st century, Hot Shot thats a techno covered street racer and Red Alert as an SUV... which is still pretty sweet ;)
On with the review!

*** OVERVIEW: ***
Transformers (Armada) follows it's anime counterpart by including Mini-Con's - small (nearly human size) robot's that when joined with their bigger Autobot/Decepticon brothers, enhance and/or add too their abilities, weapons and armor. The goal? Get to the Mini-Con's before Megatron - at any cost.

One million years ago: The race of Mini-Con's were fed up with the war between the Decepticon's and Autobot's that had no end in sight. They borded an Arc and left the war behind. Most of the Mini-Con's were put in stasis platforms wile a hand full were left too monitor the Arc's systems and flight path. But some where, something went horribly wrong. Their Arc was struck by a rogue comet and was critically damaged. With loss of power to most systems, the Arc became a run-away train. The ship bounced off a small moon and became trapped in the pull of the planet below.

Now: Cybertron is in the midst of its most horrifying war to date. The Autobot's are hopelessly out numbered and near total annihilation. Then out of nowhere, an SOS transmission catches both sides off guard - after the passing of one million years, they now know that Mini-Con's are still alive. Megatron traced the transmission too Earth. If Megatron was able to have the Mini-Con's in his control, the Autobot's fate would be sealed. They have no choice but to get to them first...

*** GRAPHICS: 10 ***
Outstanding! Wait, is there anything better then 'outstanding'? The graphics in Transformers (Armada) are insane. Very high detail, great colors. Walking/driving around each enviroment, there is just so much too look at. Mass forests in the Amazon's, the bizzard and snow drifts in the Ant-Artic, the rain and wind in the Mid-Pacific, the glistening snow and mass mountains in Alaska... I could go on forever. As for the Transformers them selves? Hot damn!

*** GAMEPLAY: 10 ***
Playing Area?
Each enviroment is bloody massive. By 'massive' I mean nealy endless. The best part is that you have free rain over where you want too go in each enviroment any time you want (excluding certain 'peaks' or high cliff faces that require a Mini-Con to reach). Once you 'finish' a level, you can always go back at any time. This is great for if you missed some Mini-Con's or Data-Con's your first time through, or just like that enviroment and want to kick some ass there.

Frame Rate?
Even in the Amazon with it's rich forest's, enemies, water falls, ruin's ect there is very little slow down. I mean a solid 60 FPS 99% of the time. One of the only occasions where you'll see and FPS loss is when you get too close to the edge of a map... assuming you can find it. I have no idea how they could cram all that eye-candy into the map's and still keep that frame rate, unbelievable.

Weapons/Armor/Abilities?
Hell yes you can transform! It would be pretty stupid to make a TF game and not have the ability to transform. You can also transform at will. Anytime, anywhere. With the mass amount of Mini-Con's you can get over the course of the game, you'll have access to an incredible weapon's, defence and ability arsenal. But you have to find them first. By equiping certain group combos of Mini-Con's, you can get a bonus. Like extra health, faster weapon/ability recharge rate ect. However, each Autobot has its own supply of resurve energon that it can use on Mini-Con's. Be careful not too cause an overload.

Controls?
The controls are alot like Socom and most other First Person Shooters (FPS) for the PS2. Both analog sticks are used for movement and the sholder buttons are used for jumping, firing, Mini-Con usage ect. So Socom vet's should be able to pickup and go right off the bat. If you've never played Socom or any other FPS for the PS2 in your life, it WILL take you some time to get used to it.The Autobot's are very easy to control. Not too sensitive and not too sluggesh. However, each of the three playable Autobot's have their own speeds. Optimus
being the slowest in both humanoid and vehicle mode - Hot Shot being the fastest in both modes. Their vehicle modes also have enviroment dependant abilities. An example is that Hot Shot's sports car mode would suck in the snow, wile Red Alert's SUV mode would have no trouble moving around.

Extras?
Whoa yeah. This game's amount and variety of extras put most DVD movies too shame...
From concept toy design, game story boards, CG art, game and extra music, original Transformers 'Public Service Announcements', in game movies and more! These can be unlocked by finding and collecting 'Data-Con's'throughout the game. Ingame CG movies are unlocked as you progress.

*** SOUND: 9 ***
They have the basic meat and potato's. Lasers, missiles, stomping (they're 20+ feet tall machines after all) ect. I especialy like the added touch of the slight sound of hydraulics when you walk. In a nut shell, they pretty much got all the sounds you could ever want for the 'Bots and combat, but the enviromental sounds just seem to lack something special for me. Like more bird's and wild life in the Amazon or louder wind in the arctic, more thunder and crashing waves in the Mid-Pacific. But they got most of it down. Waterfalls, walking through grass, crunching through snow ect. I just wish there was more ambient sounds.

*** OVERALL: 10 ***
In my opinion, this has been one of the best games I've seen in a long time. Great graphics, great gameplay, great extras and great replay value.

*** BUY OR RENT ***
Most reviews either say 'buy' or 'rent'. I don't do things like that...
Reviewer's, well, reviews are biased too them selves and their tastes - not your's. They should always be viewed with unattachment. I've known alot of people that have blindly bought a game based on reviews and regreted it later. You should ALWAYS view screen shots/video captures of a game untill your eye's bleed before you even think of slapping down hard earned money on a game. If you like what you see, then rent it just to make sure that you'll like it. Still like it after renting? THEN buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/04