Tech Blog

[#1]

Transformers: War for Cyberton is an Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game (there are slightly different Wii and Nintendo DS versions) in which there are two campaigns: first, a Decepticon campaign in which you learn how Megatron began the titular war (or rather, you make it happen) and then a Autobot campaign where you try and fix what Megatron has (you have) done (of course, you could just not play the game and it wouldn't happen at all, depending on your philosophy.)

I played all the way through the Decepticon campaign and was, pretty much, ready to give the game a bad review. For one, Megatron isn't voiced by Frank Welker (Megatron's original, and in my opinion, only, voice actor) and there's (if you'll pardon this sort-of pun) not very much spark to the game's design.

You see, War for Cyberton is essentially just another third-person shooter. You pick your Transformer, and you run around in third person, left trigger aims, right trigger fires, you know the drill, except you can't "stick" to cover, possibly because they thought it would look a bit silly for these hulking robots to be hiding. Of course, what that means is that you spend most of your time strafing in and out of cover, so it's all much of a muchness. You can transform, of course, as Megatron into a tank, for example, but certainly in the Decepticon campaign there's not much reason to (outside of Starscream's lone level, where his jet mode is how you navigate most of it.)

The main problem is that as it's set on Cybertron, you spend most of your time shooting identical faceless Autobots and there isn't very much character to the Decepticions (in this game) so it never really feels like a Transformers "experience." You get none of that sense of playing a giant robot as you would if they were, say, fighting on Earth, and you get one of the sense of a titanic struggle between legendary characters. The Decepticon's campaign is, honestly, pretty dull.

So here's what I did. The music is as dull as anything else, so I stuck on the Transformers the Movie soundtrack for the Autobots campaign. You might know it; featuring instrumentals from Vince DiCola (who also did some of the music for Rocky IV) and an incredibly rockin' interpretation of the classic Transformers theme by Lion.

In combination with Peter Cullen's voice for Optimus Prime, War for Cybertron immediately turned into a Transformers game I wanted to play.Cybertronian setting or not, I was fighting as (or alongside) Optimus Prime; the disposable Decepticon baddies didn't bother me and changing into a truck--even for no reason--was immensely satisfying.

It's a small change, but it really shows how your own personal impression of a series really influences your feelings on new instalments. Players who don't have as strong a connection to "classic" Transformers might not feel the same way, and people with no impression of the series at all certainly won't. But by simply juicing up the game with some classic Transformers tunes, I turned what I felt was a weak third-person shooter into a pretty decent one. However, for most gamers, I can't say that would be the case; it's really going to depend on your feelings for Transformers. It's never a cliché that a reviewer wants to turn to (either "your mileage may vary" or "if you like this sort of thing, you'll like this sort of thing") so instead I'll just split the difference and say that War for Cyberton is an average third-person shooter with a setting that helps or hinders the game depending on your impression (and that your impression, like mine, might alter across the game.)

Of course, that's only one part of the story. Transformers: War for Cybertron also features a very full-featured multiplayer mode. You can play the main game in co-op, and there's also a Gears of War 2-esque Horde mode called Escalation, but the meat is in its Modern Warfare 2-style player vs. player multiplayer mode, which features four different classes that you can level-up while playing different modes such as Team Deathmatch. This, surprisingly, actually makes the game feel the "most" Transformery, because in order to play it successfully as (say) a scout, you have to race into battle as a car, quickly transform to shoot some enemies, only to transform back into a car and race off. While in the campaign transforming doesn't have that much of a point, with a squad of other players to fight with and against it takes on a specific meaning that actually does separate the game from its multiplayer competitors, but whether it's as balanced and as satisfying in the long term as its competitors I can't really say.

Ultimately, Transformers: War for Cybertron is, as I say in the headline, neither cyber-right or cyber-wrong at what it does. Single player is alright, multiplayer is alright too. Some Transformers fans might like it, while some might not, so the setting doesn't stand out as a benefit or a detriment. Everything's just... alright.