Really not much more than meets the eye

Now, the Transformers have been around for quite a few years. I grew up on them. I had tons of those little shape-shifting toys and they waged many a battle on my bedroom floor as a kid. I thought the Transformers game for the ps2 was a fun good game. I still think that the cartoon version of the Transformers Movie was probably the greatest movie of my late childhood years. I thoroughly enjoyed the new movie, despite the somewhat thin storyline.
So, with all of that out of the way, here’s my thoughts on the new game.

Graphics: I was really into these. The transformations were slick, the cut scenes were pretty good (except perhaps the renderings of the human characters, they seemed somewhat peculiar to me), the robots really had some size behind them and they felt powerful and epic. The cityscape was also impressive to view from a building top and when you lay waste to your surroundings the explosions and crumbling building are also very satisfying. The intro before hitting pause for the first time was really slick, and it got me fired up to play the game.

Music and sound: This was a mixed bag. The sound effects were all appropriate, if not overwhelming. After awhile, they got a bit repetitive too. The music was also fine, but it did little to stand out for me. Then again, the movie’s soundtrack was somewhat underwhelming in my opinion. Perhaps the best part will really allow me to flex my inner geek here, but the voice work in the game is quite good. They have brought back several of the voices from the movie, including the voice of Optimus Prime. Also, Megatron is voiced in this game by the same person who voiced him in the animated series and movie and not the unfamiliar voice they used in the most recent movie.

Game play: Here is where things start to take a bit of a dive. Combat is easy, but repetitive. Boss fights are fun because of the use of environment. The robots feel very powerful, but they handle very clumsy at times too, especially when jumping to precise locations and moving through traffic when transformed into vehicles. This makes racing and automotive challenges and chapters very difficult at times, almost feeling cheap should you lose them due to the touchy racing controls.

Intangibles: The game has plenty of these. I’m someone who enjoys unlocking content. Love it, and there is a ton of it here to be unlocked. You could spend a lot of time running around gathering up the items and perfecting your skills needed throughout the game. Problem is, there are so many obscure things to collect, so many odd skills to perfect and in the end the combat while easy to master is somewhat repetitive. The game is also fairly short, though it does gain some extra longevity due to the ability to play through the story mode as either the Autobots or their sworn enemies, the Decepticons. So, all in all it’s a pretty mixed bag.

My final thoughts on the game is that it is perhaps a six out of ten for me. Probably less for someone who is not as fond of Transformers as I have been over the years. I think that younger games might get a bit more out of it, because the combat is fairly simple and easy to pick up. The other side of that is some of the chapters could prove incredibly frustrating for them as well. It sort of feels like the design team was trying to cater to all audiences and somewhere along the way missed out on hitting any specific one on the head. In the end, this game feels like more of a rental than a purchase, because it lacks lasting appeal.