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By Andrew T. Finger on August 18th, 2007
In this decade, we have been bombarded with movie remakes of old television shows. We have experienced everything from "The Avengers" to "Scooby Doo" and nobody’s childhood nostalgia seems to be safe. A further pox on our society seems to be the quickie movie games which are unfortunately developed on a severely rushed production schedule best left for cinema. For those who try and repress their memories of the 80’s, "Transformers" was a toy line and cartoon featuring two warring factions of giant, sentient robots that could "transform" into different vehicles or devices. This ignited much of the West’s love affair with giant robots beating the crap out of each other, and if you said to yourself "Gee this sounds like it’d make a decent Michael Bay movie!" well he thought so too. With this in mind, Traveler’s Tales, the folks behind the stellar Lego Star Wars series, stepped up to the plate to try and make something of the recent movie that’s "more than meets the eye".
"The game itself follows the storyline of the summer blockbuster "
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The game itself follows the storyline of the summer blockbuster as you attempt to reclaim the Allspark, the contested source of life for all Transformers. Allowing you to take control of the Autobots (good) or the Decepticons (eeeevillll) you get to experience some of the high points of the movie and some of the space unseen and in-between. The game’s basic premise is that it is a light driving game and a light combat game put together. A big plus is how you can Transform at any time whatsoever (albeit without the familiar noise). Unfortunately, that’s where the fun stops. The mission structure is unbalanced; the weaker characters get thrown into epic battles where they are severely overmatched or outnumbered. The stronger characters get relegated to decidedly less epic fetch quests or mini battles, if anything, and if they do get into a large battle you get slammed with a learning curve because you are facing multiple unfamiliar strong enemies. Take heart, because the attack patterns are so simple and cheap you will soon be too busy cursing to care. The most grievous oversight is that the massive arsenal of guns which is the trademark of the Transformers is crippled, because all but the most lowly of drones are equipped with an energy shield which they engage the very second you press the trigger. This limits you to either the attack button or picking objects up to swing or throw at your opponent. Relief comes when you hit the transform button to turn back into a vehicle. The driving is pretty enjoyable with enough tweaks in handling and acceleration between characters to make it feel unique. It’s more on par with a PGR than a GTA and for that it feels somewhat fresh and unique.
"The visuals of the game clash"
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The visuals of the game clash, as you have the highly detailed Transformer character models and then everything else. Each of the Transformers looks as if they were taken straight out of the CG-lined movie. Each has that shine and complexity which made fans old and new able to see the Transformers of their youth come to life. Then you have everything else. The new "goons" or lesser Transformers have significantly less detail and are just about as much fun to look at as they are to fight. The human character models would have been acceptable if the cut scenes never used close-ups that reveal the lack of complexity. The game’s environment is made up of shades of the Driver series sprinkled with slight interaction possibilities. You can drive through the city, you can climb or soar over certain parts of the city, or you can destroy the city. The city is so easily destroyable that it seems like the second you open fire on or hit a building, you have basically destroyed it. Climbing isn’t so much a viable option either, considering you must start in a standing position in order to start climbing and you climb very, very slowly. The voice acting has a mixture of actual actors from the movie and cartoon who give their all in bringing their characters to the game. Many of the Transformers voices are present along with the hardest working, young guy in Hollywood today: Shia LaBeouf. Now either Megan Fox is suspiciously absent or her voice here almost makes my ears bleed, but it’s all forgiven as far as I’m concerned because the original voice of Optimus Prime is at almost every turn. Has anyone else considered that Peter Cullen is having a very profitable summer this year?
"The game is not that lengthy"
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The game is not that lengthy, clocking in at just less than ten hours for both sides of the main storyline. A few hours can be added to the experience as you attempt to collect the hidden icons in each level, and the Gamerscore possibilities are fairly balanced. The shortcomings for this title can be attributed to an assuredly short development process; for such a talented studio, unfortunately, this game turns out to be a movie game in disguise.
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