Transformers: War For Cybertron Review [PS3]

Games that are created from movies or classic characters have the opportunity to be great. Unfortunately more often than not they rest on the established fan base to sell the product. This game is a mix of both. When this new game from High Moon studios was announced there was a lot of excitement surrounding it. This new imagining of the early days of Cybertron has both good and bad aspects. 

The best part of this game is the story. It takes the player back to the early days of the civil war on the planet of Cybertron, showing how the war started and introducing some classic characters and how they joined the fight. The story of Megatron and his quest for power and seeing the opposite side of the Autobots and their fight against Megatron is a great prequel to the original cartoon. The story is created as its own but still manages to tie itself in with the classic stories. 

The characters in the game are relatively simple and the weapons are exactly what you would expect. There are simple types of every style of weapon. These weapons are fairly boring and none have any sort of special or interesting aspects to them. The use of the vehicles was an interesting addition as they are given their own weapons. Unfortunately the vehicles are almost too strong so using them makes the game easier and less fun. 

The design of the levels looks nice but unfortunately ever level looks exactly the same. The game looks pretty good but feels like you are playing the same levels over and over. While you are technically fighting in the same setting it would be nice if someone on Cybertron took the time to make the setting look a little different. It seems the Autobots and Decepticons were too busy fighting to make things look good. The enemies are also all the same. There are only a few models of enemies and most attack in the same way. Once you’ve figured out the strategy for the few different enemies the game gets quite easy. Thankfully for your foes you also have totally useless AI helpers. They will occasionally help out with the fight but more often then not they will keep repeating that you need to take out those enemies or some other useless banter. 

I unfortunately was unable to try the multiplayer portion of this game beyond a demo from before the games release. My Playstation decided that with an update it should no longer connect to the PSN. This is apparently an amazing part of the game that redeems all of it’s negative qualities. I can’t comment on this part of the game but with leveling up and some customization it did look like a good addition. 

Despite all the complaints about this game it was kind of fun. It isn’t something I would recommend buying at full price because it just wasn’t that fun to play. The story was good though, and running into classic characters was cool. Getting this game as a rental or bargain is definitely worth the play but it’s just not good enough for full price. 

Second Take: Amos Ngai

T:WFC has reviews as vast as the Michael Bay movies.  I believe that’s due to the affinity a person has to the franchise.  I still remember the first time I saw Bumblebee transform into a robot on the silver screen, it was as if I saw a real life Transformer.  However, T:WFC really tested my Transformers geek-cred.  The game looks decent enough, on par if not slightly better than previous Transformers outings.  But the game play was mindless and the level design was mundane.  Adding in the odd weapons restrictions (such as reloading on unlimited ammo weapons) and the unnecessary ammo box collections, it simply wasn’t all that fun.  I was able to test out the online modes over XBL and while it does remind slightly of Tribes or even, at a stretch, Team Fortress, it was only enough to truly be a distraction.  If you’re really looking for a good online experience, I suggest firing up a game of Halo or even Gears of War 2 and you will have a more enjoyable time.  Bottom line, unless you’re a die-hard Transformers fan, skip this and go read a Transformers trade paperback for the story.