Big robots, little fun
For all the success that its resurgence has provided, the Transformers franchise is still yet to provide us with a truly outstanding video game experience. Atari's Armada game had small flashes of brilliance, while the two games based on the movies were ultimately rather bland, semi-open world affairs.
With the Unreal Engine behind it and the shifting of the action from Earth to the robots' home planet, it was hoped that maybe, just maybe War for Cybertron, would finally be the game to do the Transformers name justice. Certainly, the original trailer released for the game was enough to get any old school fans frothing at the mouth.
Despite the wealth of characters shown in the introduction, it ultimately transpires that you have but a handful to choose from on both sides of good and evil, and that for the most part your time will be spent fighting identikit grunts.
A prequel to the movies/original cartoon, the game is split into 10 chapters, the first five of which are the Decepticon (bad guy) story while the second five are the Autobot (good guy) stories. It's not a case of one story told from two different perspectives, rather the Autobot story simply kicks in where the Decepticon story leaves off. To appease those who don't like to play as the bad guys or just want to follow the hero path first, Chapters 1 and 6 are both available for selection from the beginning of the campaign.
On each level, you get to select from one of three characters, though no doubt the majority will scroll straight to Optimus Prime and Megatron. The only levels where these characters aren't available are the ones where you're required to use a robot with a plane vehicle form. Each robot has a set class, Prime and Megatron fall under the Leader class, while there are also Scout, Scientist and Soldier classes too, which all have their own unique skills, abilities and default weaponry. Problem is, the dialogue doesn't alter depending on which character you pick, so if you pick Optimus, you'll find him giving orders to his subordinates and then being forced to carry them out himself, because the two AI-controlled robots stand there aimlessly.
The similarities to the Gears of War engine are pretty obvious as soon as you get playing, well, aside from the ability to turn into vehicles of course. That being said, Fenix, Dom and co might have had a much easier time of things had they been able to turn into tanks at the tap of a button! There are also shades of the PS3 Resistance series in the health system, which works on a partial regeneration system, where any squares that have not been fully depleted will refill after a short time without taking damage. Empty squares can be regained by collecting energon cubes, or being healed by a scientist class character.
Campaign mode, which can be played solo or via online co-op (3 players max) has two main problems. The first is that the levels are, ultimately, far too long for their own good. Surviving a mass battle only to find that you've still got another 30-45 minutes of corridor traipsing soon gets dull. The second problem is severe repetition. Practically every level involves proceeding to a room, pressing a switch (or two), fighting off the enemies that emerge, and then moving onwards to do the same again. Every so often the middle two objectives flip around. Does that equate to variety in this day and age? I sure hope not.
Repetition can even be attached to the overall structure. Take away the script from the action, and the two campaigns are basically identical, winding up with the same style conclusion after the same basic collection of levels.
While the campaign leaves quite a bit to be desired, it's in the multiplayer aspect that War for Cybertron is able to redeem itself somewhat. Escalation is a Horde-style mode, where up to 4 players fight multiple waves of enemies using well-known characters. However, this is not the main event of the multiplayer meal, with that accolade going to the more standard game modes.
For multiplayer, you're invited to create characters in each of the four classes, and then lead them into various free-for-all and team modes (a variety of deathmatch and control types), in which you earn experience and level up. Levelling up unlocks additional abilities for your robot, which can be applied to boost your powers and killing potential. When you reach level 5 and 10 within a single class, you open up an additional character slot, allowing you to create multiple variations within a class - thus meaning you can have up to 12 different robots to lead into battle. The different variations within a class share the same level, rather than having to be boosted individually.
Upon maxing out all four different classes, you'll then be able to activate Prime Mode, which is the equivalent of CoD's prestige system (and similar functions in other online titles). Whether you make it that far, however, mainly depends on whether you grow weary of the modes on offer to you. It certainly will take a fair number of hours to reach this stage, and there's a good chance that most won't be bothered to make it that far, let alone reset stats and start all over again.
So, we've covered the disappointing campaign, the fun but likely short-lived multiplayer action. What's left? How about the irritatingly slow 5gb install process on the PS3 version, and the regular loading stutters throughout the game? What about the constant use of sound-bites from the 1985 animated movie, which were clearly meant as cute references to the film but wind up making the robots seem like cheap quote machines?
When it comes to the crunch, the wait for an outstanding Transformers game continues onward ever onwards. While War for Cybertron certainly has its moments, the end product is nothing short of being another disappointment. Still, at least there's no Shia Leboeuf.
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