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Transformers The Game (PS3)

• Developer:
• Publisher: Activision
• Genre: Action
• Official Website: http://www.transformersthegame.com
• Score: 4 of 5: Niche

A great war has decimated the proud Transformers race, and the relic containing their essence, the "All-spark", has been hidden on the planet Earth. As the war to obtain it is brought to our planet, a lone human is thrust in the middle. The game's plot, like the movie, is a little on the weak side, but that is not why you came here. You came to kick some robot ass, and that you will be doing repeatedly, my friend.

Being a multiplatform game, I thought that Transformers's graphics would suffer on the PS3, but they are pretty good. They never achieve the wow-factor of PS3-specific games, but they hold their own; in-game graphics rival their cut-scene counterparts, which smooths transitions between the two. Props also have to be given for the presentation, as the feel of the game replicates well that of the film. For example, as you jog through the areas in robot form, the camera bounces along with you. The lighting and shading of the robots even come close to their on-screen counterparts. I was frankly surprised by how well they captured the look of the movie.

Gameplay was a little hard for me to pick up. While the controls were pretty intuitive, I found myself fighting a losing battle with what I thought I was doing, and what was happening on screen. Vehicle forms took mastery to learn to control. I found it hard to drive down a straight street with traffic, let alone enemies. Once in robot form, hand-to-hand battle was smoother, but had targeting issues. I was constantly throwing punches in the wrong direction. And some of the battling mechanics made me ask why they even bothered: I had long-range missiles and machine guns, but whenever I used these my enemy would inevitably use a force field, requiring me to come into mêlée range. Why bother having them in the first place, if they are impossible to use?

One nice feature is the ability to play either side of the Transformer war. As Autobots your missions tended to be timed races to achieve some objective, while the Decipticons's involved destroying as much of Earth's civilization as possible within a time limit. Each path required its own slant on gameplay, and each was enjoyable for its challenges. The villains get an advantage though: in their campaign you get more points simply by destroying more stuff. But on the Autobot side, you receive points only through destroying enemies. If a bad guy gets in your way and you knock him into a building, you get dinged for making a mess. Not fair, man! Regardless, each level offers multiple chances to repeat and master events, which adds to the replay value.

Each level also contains scattered bonus icons, which unlock extra content. Some interesting and fun mini-games will appear in the maps when you collect enough, providing worthwhile diversions from the main plot. You can also unlock movie and history extras, which expand on the lore of the original Transformers and go behind the scenes on the making of the movie. I very much enjoyed flipping through comic-book covers, vaguely remembered from my childhood. I already liked this game, and the bonus material was just icing on the cake.

I wasn't expecting much from this game, but Transformers surprised me. Activision has done the nearly impossible: made a great blockbuster movie franchise game. With a great premise, solid graphics and good replay value, this game made up for the iffy controls. If you want a solid robot-smashing game, you need look no further.

Aug 15, 2007 | 0 comments
Paul Bishop