Transformers: The Game Review

During the 1980's you could be pretty sure that any movie hitting the screens would quickly be given the "side-scrolling" treatment in its tie-in to the computers and consoles of the time. With the odd exception (1986' Batman springs to mind), Ocean Software was the bold badge that often adorned these shoehorn adaptations, squeezing everything from The Addams Family to Rambo into 2D platform proportions. Regardless of the movie, the resulting mindless treatment quickly dragged the movie tie-in/adaptation into hard times, leaving a lasting impression on the subgenre's image to the present day.

Nine years since Ocean disappeared under Infogrames banner, it seems history is repeating itself. Despite a handful of decent exceptions in recent years, the allure to squeeze this year's big summer blockbuster into the free-roaming genre appears too great for videogame publishers and movie companies. After a string of superhero titles so identical that they blur into one ball of radioactive sameyness, Activision and Travellers Tales have somewhat inevitably stuck to the same formula for the videogame adaptation of Michael Bay's Transformers.

With such initial unease, anybody who remembers the first childhood moment of despair stemming from Optimus Prime's demise and not Spot the pet dog's untimely death, must hope that somehow both Michael Bay's movie and Activision's game would remain true to one of the biggest childhood icons from the 80's. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Immediately smacking of the contrived movie tie-in that has blighted the subgenre since the beginning, there's some early relief from the transformers... transforming, even though the game refers to it as "convert" -ing.

Split between Autobot and Decepticon campaigns, each featuring five stages across Earth and a bonus mission on Cybertron, Transformers follows the plotline of Michael Bay's summer movie, albeit in a hasty, disconnected manner. The low-budget quality to the cut-scenes slapped between missions and the overall lack of style running throughout the game fails to create any cinematic quality, backing up the game's 'The Game' subtitle. With missions revolving around racing or shooting, and occasionally a little of each, Transformers' first issue is the woefully twitchy handling system on some of the four-wheeled transformations. Taking control of Jazz, initial impressions regarding the handling system's lack of finesse unfortunately serves as an indication of what to expect from the rest of the game.

Conveying the crushing conviction of the Transformers' mighty stature, Travellers Tales' physics engine weighs big on destruction, throwing cars, trees, trucks and tanks around as though they're made from plastic and crushing buildings with the slightest brush. The result merely creates a lightweight feeling and overall sense of disbelief to the experience, flippantly bringing destruction to the streets of Earth as though you're playing with plastic toys again! Because destruction is the one thing Transformers: The Game does well, the Decepticon campaign is slightly more enjoyable then its Autobot alternative, which punishes you for wanton carnage. Even as the goodies it's virtually impossible to play the game without destroying something, although the increased military and Sector 7 presence rarely provides a problem for Optimus Prime and Co.

Although transforming is fun, for a few times, the novelty soon wears off - particularly if you're a G1 fan like myself and need to make the transforming noise each time. Like much of the game, there's a distinct lack of flair to the controls, which leaves you demanding for so much more. A basic range of mech dodge manoeuvres are accessible, but rarely used; more to the point, the inability to transform whilst in the air is hugely unacceptable, making it impossible to perform any stylish leaps and seamless transformations - it just doesn't feel as fluid or stylish as it should be.

With a bland repertoire of melee and range attacks coupled with a less-than-remarkable targeting system, combat is a weak and sterile affair that fails to convey either the style of the movie or the nostalgia of bashing two plastic figures together until the parts fell off. Little more than a cyclic routine of throwing and shooting, few encounters in the game linger long in the memory, largely because of the ineffective action and the same techniques required to defeat the opponents throughout - if they're blocking throw something, otherwise just wade in with the melee attack. Despite virtually every object in the gameworld serving as a makeshift projectile weapon, actually grabbing hold of them is a fiddly and frustrating challenge that requires far too much precision.

Collecting cubes scattered across the gameworld serves as the only incentive to exploring the free-roaming environment that TT have created, unlocking the secondary missions that have become all too commonplace in the free-roaming genre. With the typical assortment of Autobot Race and Decepticon Destruction events, the limited entertainment on offer will only appeal to the most dedicated Transformers fans and younger gamers, failing to provide any long-term appeal beyond the 10 hours offered by both campaigns.

Probably a result of the wide range of formats Transformers: The Game has targeted, the game fails to provide any visual treats. Beyond the models, Transformers fails to hide its low-res textures on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 despite an array of masquerading lighting techniques. Capturing the vocal talents of Peter Cullen and Frank Welker in the notorious roles of Optimus Prime and Megatron, Transformers: The Game does at least provide some nostalgic charm for fans of the original TV series. The soundtrack remains faithful to the film and a rare highlight of the game, whilst the sound effects enhance the destructive action of the game.