Transformers: The Game Review - Xbox 360

When you think about it, it’s a wonder more Transformers games don’t exist. Giant robots who run around and shoot each other and then transformer into vehicles? Isn’t that pretty much Grand Theft Auto without the stealing? In the end, it took a blockbuster movie to precipitate a big-budget videogame release for the Transformers franchise. What seems like a no-brainer recipe for gaming gold turns out to be less than 24 karats in practice.

“Who the #^@& is this Autobot?”

Based loosely on the plot of the Michael Bay film, Transformers: The Game features the classic plot rehashed through so many iterations of the brand. Arriving on present day Earth, Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons, who have tracked down a pair of antique glasses that contain the coordinates to the resting place of the most powerful object in the universe.

The game allows you to choose which side you wish to fight on and sends you off into a series of large, free-roaming levels to accomplish numerous tasks. These tasks (and several of the levels, for that matter) tend to be fairly difficult to tell apart. Most involve a timer of some kind, and generally demand that you stay in a small ring called the “Action Zone.” Should you stray from the Action Zone, another timer will count down, and if you run out of time before you get back to the Action Zone, you fail the mission. This does not make for supremely compelling gameplay.

Even worse, the Autobot campaign often has you doing distinctly un-Autobot things. At one point, you’re tasked to run around as Jazz destroying human law enforcement vehicles and blowing up gas stations left and right. It’s presented under the guise of “causing a distraction,” but it feels more like something the bad guys should be doing.

“I’ve got better things to do tonight than die.”

When you move away from the overly linear and uninspired missions and start exploring the levels, Transformers becomes more enjoyable. Each level has 100 Energon Cubes, five faction symbols, and numerous skill challenges to collect and conquer. These unlock bonus content, including some cool old school Transformers goodies. Still, the game suffers from repetition, even here. One particular stage is used no less than three times, which gets old in a hurry.

If you ignore these side-quests, you can plow through the main storyline in a few hours. That’s right, the food’s mediocre and the portions are too small.

“They’re indestructible!” “And they’re everywhere!”

One particular bone of contention arises when it comes to the “drone” enemies. Since there are only a handful of Transformers on either side in the film, cannon fodder in the game is provided by using a half dozen or so drone enemies. The same drones comprise both the Autobot and Decepticon forces, without even so much as a color change.

Even the weakest of the drones are surprisingly resistant to weapons fire. Each character has a normal and a strong ranged attack, which pretty much just works against buildings and cars. Later, drones are literally bulletproof, and a disturbingly large number of them can only be damaged by throwing an object at them and then punching them repeatedly.

Why do the Transformers even have guns if they can’t harm their enemies with them? Why does a rocket to the face not faze a drone but a thrown lamppost does? How do you take a concept as awesome as giant alien robots in a struggle to the death and turn it into two overgrown Tinker Toys tossing park benches at one another?

“I’ll give you petro-rabbits.”

Transformers: The Game isn’t all bad, of course. The visuals are strikingly good, matching the film’s effects surprisingly well. Voice acting is top-notch, going so far as to feature Peter Cullen, the original Optimus Prime’s voice, performing the part of the Autobot leader, and the legendary Frank Welker reprising his role as the original voice of Megatron.

It does manage to incorporate the vehicle modes a bit better than the 2004 Transformers PS2 game, although the Armada-based outing was definitely the superior game overall. In-jokes related to the old Transformers show abound, and we even get to see (and defeat) a movie-style version of fan-favorite Decepticon Shockwave.

As is so often the case with licensed games, Transformers is strictly fans-only. Hopefully, as happened with the Spider-Man movie games, the inevitable theatrical sequel will result in a refined and superior videogame accompaniment.

Article by: Matt Keil
Video produced by: Matt Keil