Transformers: War for Cybertron

Rating: 2 out of 3 Stars (why only 3 possible stars?)
Genre: Third person shooter
ESRB: T (For lasers hitting robots? Megatron being a jerk? Not real sure.)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 10/8
Developer: High Moon Studios
Wiki page

Considering the release of the game Transformers: Fall of Cybertron yesterday, I decided I could dive into reviewing this game first and then hit that one in a week or two. As you may know, I like to play the whole game thoroughly and hit the multiplayer (if I can) before I do a review. And a single day isn't enough for that. So here we are... 2 years later. But I'm betting some people might accidentally find this review searching for information on the sequel, especially with the stupidly similar titles. Wakka wakka!

It could be that they want to beat Rambo for the title of "worst numbering of a series".

I think the screenshot up above probably already sums up all the problems with this game: general blandness. Everything is grey and boxy, yes, but that even bleeds into the other aspects as well. The levels are overly simplistic and the story doesn't really flush much out in terms of backstory. Rather, it's just a list of battles and objectives that need completing. But what can you expect of a children's toy turned TV show turned cash-in-childhood-nostalgia-movie turned video game turned revisit-of-original-series-via-video-game? Not much! Yet strangely this game feels like it accomplishes that shallow goal, but by doing so with a bit of competence that seems to make it an actual decent game. There's attention to lore and functional controls. There's accurately remembered characters and impressive set pieces. Most importantly, I think the tone of the game just feels right. A bit light-hearted, but with a dark shadow cast over the stakes. Really that's what Transformers feels like in the back of my mind, and as a re-visiting that makes even more sense to me. Although I'm guessing many would say the characters being accurate is most important, I just don't think there's that much depth to Transformers characters beyond things like Optimus being the "brave leader" and Bumblebee being "the brave little guy."

Beast Wars, on the other hand, has memorable characters...*drool*

I do consider the gameplay to be a pretty important success. You can transform at will, each level has a character selection of 3 choices, you get both a Decepticon campaign and an Autobot campaign, your primary gun is unique to the character and you can swap out the secondary gun, etc. Lots of fun. It can boil down to a lot of cover usage, especially on harder difficulties, but the ability to transform gives you mobility to run around more so you can run-and-gun. But it still can feel bland at times as you tend to rely on many tried-and-true shooter tactics. Hell, even the controls are derivative of other shooters despite having such fantastical characters.

"Realistic" shooters: for those who love blandness.

War for Cybertron also comes with some multiplayer modes, including both team deathmatch and a Horde mode. There's some others like capture the flag (maybe?) but objectives are stupid. I've said that before and I'm still too stubborn to be convinced otherwise. Both function well, but neither particularly shined. Like I said, the gameplay can feel bland. So that becomes infinitely more important in a mode that is infinitely replayable. That being said, both are well-designed enough that I can see them both being very popular. The deathmatch's aren't quite up to Modern Warfare, and the horde mode isn't quite up to Mass Effect 3. But I can't complain about extra content that's given free for the price of the game!

Conclusion:
A well-done enough third person shooter that anyone can enjoy it, not just fans of the series. There's no feeling of a complete lack of explanation like with Space Marine. And fans of the series should be happy with the efforts here, so they will surely enjoy this further!

And the end credits theme is done by Stan Bush! Awesome!