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Transformers: The Game Review
Written by Robert Falcon on Thursday, July 26, 2007
User Score
Old-school Transformers make the cut in a decent multiplayer mode.
Everything else. Terrible gameplay; Crappy graphics; Constantly mundane missions.
OK, so there's no doubt that the Transformers film by Michael Bay has become a huge success, yes? It's made over $260 million here in the States, assuring that several sequels are probably going to be produced somewhere down the road. Now, with that in mind, you have to wonder if Activision is going to produce these sequels in video game form somewhere down the road. If so, let me go ahead and implore this to the company ahead of time -- if you're going to make a game featuring any kind of Transformers, gang, please...and I do mean PLEASE...make it something worth playing. I say this because Transformers the Game for PSP simply isn't deserving of anyone's time.
This shrunken down version of the PS2 game gives players the choice between Autobots and Decepticons in an attempt to track down the Allspark, a powerful item in the hands of an unwitting human who has no idea what the hell it is. The story does go off the beaten path of the film a little bit, delving into the old-school flavor of the 80's TV show. It's just a shame that most players won't even bother digging any deeper after they frustratingly push themselves through the first level.
The controls, for the better lack of a word, SUCKS. Players have to look up and down using the X and triangle buttons on the D-pad instead of using some other option. This would be acceptable in a tank-driving game or a first-person shooter, but it runs too haphazardly into the game's combat controls and lock-on maneuvering. As a result, combat feels clumsy throughout, with players forced to try and engage the enemy with weak bullet fire and even weaker up-close combos. Worse yet, the lock-on system doesn't operate effectively at all. Good luck keeping someone in your sights for longer than two seconds, chumps.
The mission structure tries to follow the same free-roaming style of play as previous releases, but it just gets stale too fast. Doing the same sort of thing over and over again, no matter what form you're in, sums up to zero fun. Even worse, the graphics involved in this PSP failure don't live up nearly to snuff with what the system can do. Animation looks horrendous and the cities don't show any real details at all. It's like fighting in a bunch of ghost towns, and Transformer fights just aren't the same without a gaggle of screaming humans escaping the wrath of a transmogrified Mountain Dew machine. It just looks awful. Sound is OK but mostly forgettable, aside from a few cool effects.
Multiplayer turns out to be the only forgivable aspect of this game. Players can hook up in a series of routine battle modes, ranging from full-on Deathmatch to an Allspark-themed Capture the Flag mode, and here they can unlock a bunch of Generation 1 characters, including the likes of Soundwave and Thundercracker. But it too wears out its welcome, with only so much promise behind the appealing unlockables. If only Savage Entertainment had put this much effort into the general development and implicated all the Transformers characters into the storyline, we could've gotten somewhere. Alas, not to be. We don't even have the comfort of Megan Fox screensavers. Damn.
Transformers: the Game needed to transform into something -- ANYTHING -- better than this sub-licensed garbage. Do yourself a favor and play with the classic toys instead, until a better game comes along. (Hint: You might just be a while there, if Activision doesn't change things up soon.)
