I grew up right in the middle of the Transformers phenomenon. I was just 5 years old when those toys were the rage. I remember watching the cartoon back to back with GI Joe everyday after school at 4 p.m. Even now, 20 years after the cartoon first appeared, the Transformers legacy still lives on. While the series today has undergone many makeovers that reflect the different era we live in, many of the big names like Starscream, Megatron, and Optimus Prime still remain. Yes, Megatron isn't a handgun, Starscream isn't as whiny, and Optimus' trailer is gone, but the core of what the show was all about still exists.
Atari has come out with what is probably the first truly playable Transformers game. It's a 3rd person shooter that resembles a cross between MechWarrior and Socom US Navy Seals.
Story
The story centers around a neutral race of Transformers called the Minicons. The Minicons fled the Transformers' home planet of Cybertron, only to crash land on Earth. The key to victory in the Autobot-Decepticon war lies in who controls the Minicons. Thus the search for the refugee Minicons on Earth is paramount. The importance of the Minicons is their ability to grant a Transformer an additional ability. These abilities can be increased firepower, armor, the ability to cloak, or the ability to fly. The Decepticons have a seemingly endless army of Decepticlones, or generic Decepticon soldiers. The only way the Autobots can ever hope to defeat this large Decepticon army is through the abilities of the Minicons.
Gameplay
The gameplay is your basic 128-bit shooter with a bit of treasure hunting mixed in. You can use one of three different Autobots to explore the lush terrains of many different Earth locations in order to recover Minicons and Datacons. Once obtained, Minicons can be added to your arsenal immediately, while Datacons serve as extra unlockables that have little to no bearing on your missions. In the process you'll fight groups of Decepticlones and the occasional Decepticon boss. After a boss is polished off, you can move on to the next area, while still retaining the ability to visit any of the previous areas at any time.
One of the best aspects to this game is that you can be successful sneaking around like a Seal or come out blasting like Yosemite Sam. When equipped with the appropriate Minicon alignment, either method is possible. However, later in the game more hit and run tactics are required in order to prevent your fender from being blown off.
There aren't many different kinds of Decepticlones to fight during the course of playing Transformers. Instead, the game opts to add variety by using the terrain to create ambush situations combined with various enemy attack formations. This sort of variation reminds me a lot of the original Doom in how effective each different enemy unit can be, given good placement. The dynamics between each different kind of enemy forces you to contemplate your Minicon layout strategy in order to simply survive impending battles. For instance, without flak cannons, just 3 flying units can pick you apart, but those same flak cannons do not help much when facing off against multiple heavy units.
The most unique aspect of the game is the Minicons. You are allowed to equip four different Minicons to the Autobot you take into battle. Each Minicon can only be placed into an active or passive trigger slot. For instance, the L1 is the jump button but also maps to a passive Minicon like an armor upgrade, thus you cannot equip a blaster Minicon there. In addition, each Minicon has a power rating ranging from one to four. Depending on which Autobot you use, you can only hold a certain total power sum. For instance, Optimus prime can hold a load of Minicons totaling a power rating of 10, whereas Hotshot and Red Alert can hold a power rating totaling up to 8.
Datacons are Transformers’ way of adding in extra unlockables. Datacons are scattered all over each area in the same way Minicons are. Each Datacon unlocks a certain extra that can be viewed in the main menu. These extras include game and toy renderings, specs, comics, soundtracks, and even old clips from the original Transformers series. While some of these extras are neat to see, many of them aren't worth the frustration of trying to battle your way through hordes of enemies or make tricky jumps to get to them.
Graphics
The graphics are a mixed bag of brilliance and shortcomings. The terrain is rendered beautifully right down to the swaying of the trees and the blowing of the snow. However, up close the detail seems grainy and gritty. The pallet looks to be very dull and limited, perhaps to increase the framerate. That framerate, however, is very impressive and doesn't lead to graphical slow downs during huge battles. The CG sequences are very impressive as well. Graphically they fit in perfectly with the surroundings and really set the tone of an upcoming battle or mission.
One of my biggest complaints graphically is that the environment is relatively indestructible. While there are a few props that explode if you detonate a missile or grenade near them, most of the environment is invincible. It would have created a much more interesting gameplay dynamic to be able to knock a tree down on top of a horde of enemies or to block the path of a heavy unit. Instead, while your weapons can destroy the metal casings of your adversaries, it cannot damage a wooden tree.
Sound
Like the graphics, the sound is also a mixed bag. The sound effects are clearly the best aspect to this game. Every effect from moving to shooting sounds very crisp and clean. Enemy explosions are great but not over the top as is frequently the case in other games.
The voice acting is about average. While the voice actors sound clear and their lines are delivered with conviction, the script may not sit well with veterans of the original Transformers series. The game likes to deliver classic lines from the original series; however they are not spoken with any regard to their original context. Instead, the dialog seems to be forced. For instance, in the opening CG sequence, Megatron, who is just about to finish off Optimus Prime, utters the famous lines, "I would have waited an eternity for this. It's over Prime." As soon as those words are uttered he's interrupted by a signal stating that the Minicons crash-landed on Earth and he promptly forgets everything he was doing just to get the jump on retrieving them. When Megatron originally uttered those words he fully intended on finishing the job. But this time it seems as if it was only a meaningless token phrase. This is just one example of the many meaningless lines delivered.
Finally, the music also fails to stand out. While the music at times borrows melodies from the original Transformers theme, they are short-lived. After only a minute or so, they seem to repeat. Even worse is that they tend to repeat themselves during action sequences when repetitious music can be the most painful. Transformers tries to combat this by changing music tracks based on a particular group of enemies encountered. While this does add to the general suspense, you might not get a change of music for a while, especially if you are attempting to get a difficult to reach Minicon or Datacon. Overall, it seems as if Transformers skimps on the music while trying to hide its shortcomings using clever diversions and tricks. While I won't go so far as to suggest muting your TV, I will say that many people might end up turning off the music entirely.
Controls
The control scheme is very well laid out but lacks the responsiveness it should. Transformers implements the classic two stick configuration for moving and aiming, making it easy to strafe your targets. The R1 and R2 buttons are your primary and secondary fire buttons respectively, depending on your Minicon configuration. The two left trigger buttons are used for jumping and other passive Minicon actions, like cloaking or toggling your deflector shield.
Pressing the Transform button allows your character to change into vehicle mode, wherein he can travel long distances quickly. The control scheme changes when in vehicle mode to a layout similar to that of a racing game like Gran Turismo.
While this game is a 3rd person shooter, you can also switch to a first person mode, as well as zoom in and zoom out. Combine this mode with the sniper rifle Minicon and it becomes even more potent.
The final control is something I took issue with. After you defeat your first boss, you can press the square button to slow down time at the cost of losing energy. While this feature was nice in Max Payne, it doesn't really work well here because your character moves with such great momentum, it's hard to dodge enemy fire no matter how quickly you see it coming. The bullet time option really seems to be a feature added to mimic something successful rather than to really add to the experience.
Instead of bullet time, what should have been implemented is a button allowing you to dive out the way of missiles and other projectiles. It's annoying to see your enemies perform those agile moves to avoid your shots when you can't do it yourself.
While the control scheme is good, the responsiveness is generally sluggish when it comes to moving. The controls are precise and accurate when it comes to aiming and firing your weapons. I find it very easy to nail an enemy at long range without using the zoom function. However, when it comes to moving, Transformers doesn't quite execute the momentum accurately. At times the momentum seems to be much more cumbersome than it should. When strafing, for instance, you aren't moving as fast as when you're running or even sliding down a cliff side, even though the amount of effort to stop your forward progress is the same. What's more, jumping and skidding to a stop seems to do a better job than simply pointing the left analog stick in the opposite direction of your momentum. I can be driving in car mode at a good clip but stop almost on a dime if I transform and skid to a stop. It just seems as if the physics engine needs more work with regards to the controller input.
Challenge
Transformers is easily one of the most difficult games I've played this year. Even on the lowest difficulty setting, I have been overwhelmed by countless Decepticlones. In addition, rarely can you traverse all the way from waypoint to waypoint before your Minicon layout puts you at a disadvantage for certain situations. The challenge implements a good learning curve where you will encounter more difficult situations while keeping the frustration level surprisingly low.
The central challenge lies in the fact that the abilities you gain for each Minicon you equip rarely overpowers your enemies. What this means is that the more difficult the situation, the more likely you must implement hit and run tactics. Frequently I can pepper a heavy unit or spider tank with weapons fire, only having to take cover to wait for my weapons to cool down. This is a good change of pace from other shooters where accurate aiming allows you to run through an area without having to break stride. Still, being forced to use more hit and run tactics does limit the game's appeal. I would have liked to see multiple ways of dealing with a given situation, such as those in Grand Theft Auto or, to a lesser extent, Socom II.
While the bigger enemies can hit you with massive firepower, the smaller units can overwhelm you with numbers. The smaller units, while slightly more fragile, are a lot more nimble. Simply firing a grenade at them will frequently cause them to dive and scatter out of the way of the blast. This makes firefights much more intense and lively. The enemy AI, while not at the pinnacle of the shooter genre, is challenging nonetheless. Combine that with a level playing field with regards to firepower and all of a sudden Transformers becomes very challenging.
Replay
While Transformers is a great game, the replay value is surprisingly low. This is mostly because it consists of just a single player campaign mode. While increasing the difficulty level will bring different and more challenging combinations of enemies, the strategies remain the same. In this era of shooters, the best way to create renewed interest is through multiplayer, which is absent in Transformers. B+ computer AI simply doesn't allow enough variety after the last Minicon and Datacon are found.
In addition, the game does limit your strategies the later you progress in the game. The later levels require specific Minicon layouts in order to have a ghost of a chance of progressing to the next area. This means that you are compelled to use Optimus Prime in the latter stages of the game due to his increased Minicon power capacity. While I like using Optimus, I find that it's very limiting to be forced to use him in given situations.
The best way to describe Transformers is that it's a challenging shooter that fails to really revolutionize the genre. People interested in 3rd person shooters looking for a new challenge should give this a whirl, but the overall value means that this is a rental for most. The Minicon aspect is an interesting variant, but the game is so restrictive in the end that it just feels unsatisfying.
