Transformers: War for Cybertron |

Publisher: Activision

Developer: High Moon Studios

Release Date: 6/22/2010

Available On

Transformers has always been one of those licenses that has struggled in the gaming world and produced mediocre to abysmal products that were quickly forgotten. The fine men and women at High Moon Studios have finally delivered the first excellent Transformers game that brings us back to the beloved cartoons we grew to love and embrace in our hearts.

You play both the Decepticon and Autobot campaigns, but you start out as the Decepticons trying to use Dark Energon to hijack the core of Cybertron and destroy the Autobots in the process. When you start each chapter, you can choose one of three Transformers to play as, and in the Decepticon campaign (minus the Star Scream mission), you can play as either Megatron (yes!), Soundwave, or Breakdown. Each one has unique abilities and starts out with its own weapons. Once you jump into the game, controls play out like a standard third-person shooter, but the game does a bit more for us here.

You can carry two weapons at all times, and of course, you have to reload and acquire more ammo, but sometimes you’ll find a really big weapon that you can carry, but switching to other weapons will drop it. You can use your abilities, such as sucking the life from enemies or hovering, but as you can see, the abilities are pretty lackluster, and you never really use them! To regenerate your abilities, you must collect fallen energon from dead enemies. You can also transform into your vehicle form, but once again, you never really have to do this unless you’re traveling long distances or you’re almost forced to. The transformations are seamless, but there’s just no reason to really do it since your firearms are sufficient.

You can throw grenades as well, and one such grenade called the healing grenade is excellent since it creates a healing bubble that comes in handy a lot. The weapons are pretty versatile and very useful, and High Moon did a good job giving a nice selection. You really have to decide what’s the best weapon for the situation, especially during boss fights.

While the gameplay is solid, it needs to be more cinematic. The game is very straightforward and stays the same throughout. It’s just killing wave after wave after wave, then killing this boss. Each chapter replays the same formula but offers just enough diversity to keep you playing. I wanted the game to be more cinematic and varied in gameplay, but maybe next time around. The game looks very good, but some of the textures are on the low-resolution side, and it could have also looked so much better. However, the art style is spot on and really makes you feel like you are fighting this massive war on Cybertron. The voice acting is top-notch, and everyone sounds like, or almost like, their cartoon counterparts’ personalities and all. I do have to point out that the AI is pretty solid and gives you a good challenge, but the difficulty is poorly balanced due to easy sections and then a sudden section that you die in 10 times.

The multiplayer side is fun with the escalation mode that pits you against wave after wave of enemies, but the competitive side is pretty standard and not very exciting after a while. With a compelling story and solid enough gameplay and variety to keep any Transformer fan or newcomer alike busy, you won’t have a reason to come back to play through Cybertron again unless you just want to hear your favorite metal men talk.