Home > Reviews > Xbox 360 > #959

Screenshots (9) | Reviews Archive

Transformers: The Game Review - Xbox 360

Introduction

Based on a true story, Earth finds itself under attack from conflicting aliens from the planet Cybertron, who are scouring the universe in search of the Allspark. The Allspark, a ‘Rubik’s Cube’-like block that creates mechanical life and instantly repairs Transformers, was banished into space by Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, in a bid to keep it from the hands of the corrupt Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. The robots arrive and are in a race against the other to find Sam Witwicky, whose ancestral blood discovered the mighty Megatron snowed in Antarctica during the '30s and holds clues as to the current whereabouts of the Allspark and the leader of the Decepticons. So begins Transformers: The Game, brought to us by the evil geniuses behind the Lego Star Wars games.

Gameplay

Transformers is a third person shooter of the most basic sort, combining elements of driving and hand-to-hand combat. Both aspects are severely under-developed and the game quickly settles into a formula that is repeated consistently throughout the game. It amounts to nothing more than driving to a hot spot, taking out a few Transformer drones, driving to another hot spot, and then taking out a boss. Rinse and repeat. The sheer lack of variety and innovation is without a doubt the most disappointing thing about the game. Despite having the option to play as either Autobots or Decepticons, you’ll be hard pressed to find any real differences (besides cosmetic) between the campaigns. As an Autobot you’re rewarded for restricting damage, while as a Decepticon you’re rewarded for creating damage. It’s that simplistic.

While the game promises an open world plan, missions are extremely scripted and you’ll be given very little time to truly explore it. If you ever do decide to have a look around, you’ll come across various minigames that, if completed, unlock numerous bonus goodies (stock standard fare like comic covers, film stills and trailers). There are also various character skills to upgrade, such as driving, jumping and slides. Don’t get too excited though, because the upgrades seem to be in name only – you can’t actually tell the difference. The Transformers license had the potential to be a great videogame, so it’s a shame that Traveller’s Tales didn’t expand on the ability to upgrade the Transformers with, say, new weapons and characteristic boosts.

All of this would be bearable if we had some balls-to-the-wall action that gave us a chance to kick all types of robot ass. Unfortunately we don’t, and hand-to-hand combat ends up being nothing more than button bashing over and over producing the same bland combo over and over. Sure, every now and then you have to block an attack or throw something, but that’s about as exciting as it gets. While enemy targets can be locked onto, the system is extremely unresponsive and you soon learn that you’re best just freestyle brawling.

Each Transformer has a primary and secondary weapon, but the secondary long-range options (like missiles or machine (continued next page)