Transformers: The Game

There are certain properties - usually cartoons from the eighties-that are held sacred by most gamers. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, and Masters of the Universe are all near and dear to the hearts of gamers, but perhaps there is no property held in more universally high regard than Transformers. Originally, the cartoon was released to support the line of toys released in America by Hasbro, but quickly took on a life of its own, with a cartoon feature film released in 1986. This year saw the release of Michael Bay’s live-action adaptation, and with it are the obligatory video-game adaptations. Sadly, the game is a textbook case of style over substance.

The game follows the recent film’s basic plot: Autobots and Decepticons travel to Earth to fight over the AllSpark, which is the device that gives life to all Transformers. The Autobots (specifically Bumblebee) befriend and must defend a young man named Sam (played in the film and voiced in the game by Shia LaBeouf) who has the AllSpark, and the Decepticons, led by Megatron, destroy everything in their path while trying to get the device back from Sam. When starting a game you can choose which side of the conflict to control, but each side is similar and short, with the two campaigns together taking approximately six hours to finish. Story segments in the game are few and far between, either because of a desire to not spoil the movie’s plot, or simply due to a rush on the game developer’s part. At any rate, since story doesn’t play much of a role, the game can be judged solely on its gameplay.

The game was developed by Traveller’s Tales, the same team that was responsible for the excellent Lego Star Wars titles - these guys can make fun licensed games. Here, though, they’ve simply taken a previously successful (and fun) game, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and tried their hardest to rip off anything that made that game work. Literally every element of Hulk UD has a counterpart here, from tearing objects out of the environment and using them as weaponry to running up the side of a building before knocking the building down. Transformers, however, somehow manages to make this sort of wide-scale destruction boring. Climbing up buildings is slow and lacks impact; using items from the environment as weapons is not particularly more impressive or effective than simply using your fists; destroying buildings and the environment is even actively discouraged throughout the Autobots campaign. Granted, this is in line with the storyline, but in a game of this type, most of the fun comes from destroying everything in sight. To have the ability to cause rampant destruction but not be able to is an unnecessary irritation.

As Transformers, the characters’ defining characteristic is that they can transform, specifically into modern-day vehicles - Autobots into ground-based vehicles and Decepticons into planes, for the most part. At the push of a button, the game changes from a character-based action game into a open-world driving game, and sometimes you must make that change several times in the course of a single mission. It’s unfortunate, then, that the driving aspects of the game are just as flawed as the on-foot portions. First, you can’t transform in mid-air, which is a minor problem, but really ruined the flow of gameplay several times. If you are running from enemies, you want to be able to leap over a building, change in mid-air, and hit the ground with the engine revved, and it’s just not possible. More importantly, driving and flying feels far too loose. It’s as if they were trying to emulate the arcade-y, slightly floaty physics of the Grand Theft Auto titles, but took it too far. It’s far too easy to over-steer, turning minor mistakes into spinning out and wrecking into whatever’s nearby, be it buildings or crowds of people (there goes that Heroism bonus you were building up, Autobots).

All the gameplay flaws are a real shame, because they totally nailed the presentation. Graphics are quite impressive for a PS2 title, with high-detail character models and silky-smooth animations, especially for the transformations from vehicle to robot and back. Voice acting is well done, with good performances from most of the film’s cast (including Peter Cullen, the once-and-forever voice of Optimus Prime), and the music and sound effects are all appropriately epic and well-placed. A hefty amount of unlockables (including “Generation 1” old-school Transformers character skins) are available for those willing to work for them.

At the end of the day, though, what you’ve got is a game that’s all sizzle and no steak. In the rush to deliver the game day-and-date with the film’s release, they’ve released a game that really could have benefited from a few more weeks or months of development. Transformers fans are a hardcore lot, and it certainly won’t please them to see their beloved franchise treated this way.

Gameplay: 6.6
Run or drive around, fighting evil robots and blowing up everything in your path. And somehow, they made that boring. I know, I don’t understand it either.

Graphics: 8.1
The PS2 version is surprisingly impressive, given the hardware. While some glitches are present, detailed characters and great transforming animations look remarkably close to their next-gen equivalents.

Sound: 7.6
Good voice-over work by the most of the film’s cast and a few soundalikes. Music is dramatic and sound effects are effective. Nothing especially memorable, but it all gets the job done.

Difficulty: Easy
Anyone old enough to get in to the PG-13 rated film should be able to blow through the whole thing in a weekend, or even an afternoon.

Concept: 7.2
Giant robots that can turn into cars has always and will always be a great idea. Setting them loose in an open city that they can destroy is a good idea, if not an original one.

Overall: 6.7
Huge fans of the film might find enough here to keep them occupied for a while. Everyone else would be better off with a copy of Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. It’s not that this game is terrible, just kind of unimpressive and full of things that have been done better elsewhere.