I know it's been a while since I've added anything to this blog, and I apologise.
Curb stomping, heads being lopped off and slicing folks in half. All of these things would place a game or a movie firmly into the higher age ratings (or in some cases banned) if the victims were people or animals. Since they're all robots this is perfectly fine for most people. This is Transformers: War for Cybertron and I regret not playing through this earlier when I bought it 3 months ago.
I felt compelled to type this review because of how much fun I had with it. Set before the Transformers leave for Earth, the campaign is one long story where you play as both the Autobots and the Decepticons. This is different to most games based on the Transformers universe, where you would normally play through two separate campaigns with two different endings where either side dominates the other, as is usually the case with transformers games. I found the campaign to last a lot longer than most modern shooters, as it felt like I was playing for at least 12 hours. That could just be due to me not being the best of players or due to me playing other games around the same time, but the campaign still felt meaty. The gameplay is your standard third person shooter fare, without the rubbishy cover system that most of them seem to use these days. Enemies will actively try to get around whatever cover you use and some pack rocket launchers that just fly around whatever you use. Much of the level design is based around room sized encounters in which you deal with enemies attacking from multiple angles and having to rely on your agility to not die.
The weapons are your usual assault rifle, SMG, sniper rifle, semi-auto, rocket launcher and grenades, but all given science fiction-ey names like "null ray". The weapons feel like they're big and powerful, especially with your melee weapon which can cleave through foes at close range (spitting out sparks and spilling clear/glowing purple oil onto your screen). Each transformer that you can choose to use before a mission has a small collection of unique abilities. For example, a player who chooses to play as Bumblebee can cloak for limited periods of time while Optimus Prime can "war cry," which decreases both his and his nearby allies' susceptibility to enemy fire for a limited time.
A lot of the time I did not find much real reason to transform unless I ran out of ammo on my regular weapons, which is unfortunate. Boss battles are a different story. On harder difficulty settings you'd be stupid not to transform into a vehicle to outmaneuver their projectiles that seem to aim just where you'd be if you continued moving on foot. The health system is a hybrid system halfway between regenerating and non-regenerating health, split into four segments that refill if they aren't completely emptied (similar to Resistance 1). I actually prefer this to either of the other solutions, since you're not completely screwed when you're almost dead, but not removing all tension from being damaged.
I haven't really tried the multiplayer for more than 20 minutes, but from what I've seen it seems to be a typical setup for a modern shooter. You gain XP, level up and attain additional weapon options and abilities/perks as you level up. There is some customisation involved, as you can create customised versions of each of the four basic classes and choose the body-type and colour of your Transformer to create a little bit of a sense of ownership. The modes on offer appear to be Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, as well as a cooperative survival mode called Escalation, where waves of enemies attack with ever increasing intensity. A cooperative campaign is available, but I was unable to test this because I have no friends that have both a PS3 and this game. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many players these days, at least for the PS3 version.
I really liked this game, and I hope that the upcoming sequel manages to be as good if not better than this. I recommend this game heartily for those who like giant robots and/or fans of Transformers, as well as people who would like a nice shooter. If you're one of those annoying folks who feels that they need a number at the end of a review to tell them what to think of a game, I give it a 84. Just 84. Make of that what you will.
