Reviews

One shall stand, one shall fall.

Lets be honest shall we? There has not been an outstanding Transformers game since Transformers Armada on PS2. The two recent film tie-ins were okay, but they didn manage to capture what makes the spark of the Transformers.

War for Cybertron is going to change all that. Exploring the start of the Civil war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, this means its pure robot-on-robot action. Humans need not apply! Add to this 3 player Coop throughout the entire campaign, 10 player online and Escalation mode (think Horde from Gears of War 2), this could go down as the most complete Transformers title to date!

As with past Transformers games youl be able to play as both Decepticons and Autobots. Unlike previous games you won play the same story twice from different sides. There one story, the first half sees you as the Decepticons, as they tighten their grip on Cybertron, the second half puts you in the Autobot camp, as you try to fight back against the seemingly unstoppable Decepticon War machine.

Prepare for termination.

At the start of each level youl be given a choice of three Transformers to control taking into account their character type and alt mode. The controls throughout are well placed on the controller and the handling in each mode, vehicle and robot, is responsive and different. Bumblebee is quick and nippy compared to the bulky Optimus who is a bit slower and bulkier.

Most of the levels within War for Cybertron are land based so youl be hopping in and out of vehicle mode as you traverse levels and wipe out your adversaries in a hail of Laser fire. But War for Cybertron mixes it up a bit as you take control of the Seekers and Aerialbots and head into the air. Again the controls are tight and youl find manoeuvring about as the airborne Transformers a breeze.

The Transformers themselves look great in Robot and vehicle form. It took some time to get used to another re-imagining of Optimus, Megatron and co. but when you look close at their designs, they seem to combine certain elements of different Transformer eras. Optimus for example, his head is a heavy nod to G1, but his body to me combined the new animated series and War Within series designs. This is just my view, and it not a criticism, as those are possibly my three favourite Optimus designs.

My audio receptors! What is that noise?!

The sound in Transformers is a mixed bag. Peter Cullen takes his rightful place as Optimus and the transforming sound returns slightly tweaked but distinct. The laser cannons and explosions have real weight to them. However as good as the other voice actors are, it was disappointing that Frank Welker didn reprise his role as Megatron as he did in the movie tie-ins.

The single player is a decent length and many will go through a couple of times to get all the Trophies/Achievements and also to complete on the different difficulty settings.

But Transformers comes into its own when you take the fight online. 10 players online may seem a little underwhelming but when you get into a scrap youl soon see that 10 is more than enough players.

All the levels have enclosed and open elements to them allowing for a varied and tactical experience. The Characters are separated into different classes, Scientist, Scout, Leader and Soldier. Each class has different skills available but can use most of the weapons available. The scientists are the jets and best used for long distance fighting or hit and run tactics used to disorientate your opponents. Soldiers as you expect are the brute force, taking a lot of punishment and dish out a lot of damage.

As you use each class youl gain XP for that particular class. This XP goes towards gaining new character skins, new weapons and new perks to tilt the battle in your favour, think of it as a stripped down Modern Warfare 2 with huge robots!

Transformers War For Cybertron has successfully made the Transformers Fan in me cry with delight, what we have here is a game that very nearly ticks all the boxes! It looks great, it plays brilliantly and there are no humans to be seen. Granted there are some minor niggles but these can be overlooked as they aren damning to the overall experience that Transformers War for Cybertron gives.

GAME's Verdict:

The Good

• The best Transformers game in years.
  
• Online is amazing.
  
• Solid solo campaign

The Bad

• Needs more melee attacks.
  
• Can only carry two weapons.
  
• Waiting for the DLC.