Transformers: The Game

"I thought that this was going to be the time of my life...not so much..."

Released a mere week before the movie, Transformers: the game has finally hit the shelves. The movie was great fun, and the game stacks up to that fun exceptionally well. That's not to say that it does have its flaws and is a little too easy, but with the editors saying that it sucks…not so much.

The story follows the same storyline as the movie. The Autobots and Decepticons come to earth searching for the AllSpark, the Autobots to restore their home world of Cybertron, and the Decepticons to destroy the universe. Problem is, they don't know where it is. However, this average teenager named Sam Witwicky unknowingly holds the key to the AllSpark. From there on, it's a race to find Sam and the AllSpark.

Graphics- 8/10
The graphics are pretty good, but not the best out there. The real element that makes the visuals shine are of course, the Transformers themselves, which look every bit and detailed as their silver-screen counterparts. The city itself also looks great, with really good lighting, although the cars and citizens are painfully average looking. Furthermore, the building blow up really good, and so do the enemy robots. When a building blows, debris go flying everywhere, so it's not uncommon to see a part of the city torn up after an intense fight. The cars however, don't blow up, there merely start smoking and the people start running out from them. Probably something to do with the autobots strict policy of not wanting to harm any humans. Still, the cars seem to magically fire at you, with no indication of people firing out of them. Overall though, the graphics fit the game well, the city looks great, and the Transformers have been faithfully re-created.

Sound- 8/10
The sound is also impressive. What really shines out in the audio aspect is the voice acting, which is really solid. Every character is voiced by their corresponding actor (Optimus Prime voiced by Peter Cullen, etc.) It sounds really good, and was very well done. The sound effect are no slouch either. When a building blows up, it sounds like a building is blowing up. When a Transformers walk, you can feel the gravity of them walking just by the sounds. The weapons sounds great as well. The only qualm that I have with the sounds is the music. It's very lackluster consisting of only a few tracks, and at times, it's almost impossible to hear with all the action going on screen. It's also annoying to hear another Transformer constantly tell you what to do when you don't do it right away, and I haven't found a way to kill the voices.

Gameplay- 6/10
The gameplay is fairly solid enough, but with a couple extra coats of paint, it could have been a whole lot more.

The good: Giants robots + a huge city to fight in = FUN!!! It's a lot of fun at first to be playing as a Transformer smashing up a city while fighting other giant robots. You can pick up virtually anything in the environment and use it as a weapon. Including to your arsenal are gigantic blaster, and simple punch combo, and the ability to throw enemies into buildings. You can also transform, and even get an achievement for transforming once. The driving mechanics are solid enough, and there's also a nitro boost that recharges quickly enough. There are two campaigns, where you play as both the Autobots and the Decepticons, but the story pretty much remains the same. There's also plenty of sides missions, which help unlock numerous bonus content.

The bad: After a while, the combat becomes very boring as there's only one combo, and not enough weapons at your disposal to keep the combat fresh. Before long, people might begin saying “This should be more fun.” As for the picking up things, there's no multiple methods when it comes to throwing them or swinging them, which makes the combat even more repetitive. The achievements are too easy to unlock and the missions aren't even that challenging. Also, on many missions where there's the “action ring” which you have to stay in. It's easy to get knocked out of them, and if you stay out of them for too long, you fail. Furthermore, the bonus content isn't much to look at and the game feels very shallow at times.

In the end, only diehard fans will add this to their collection. Other than that, it makes a solid rental.

NOTE: I am a diehard fan and I love this game. I'm just rating it based on my critic point of view.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/07