When I grew up, I loved me some Transformers; specifically, the 1980's incarnation. I watched the cartoon religiously after school, I had lots of Transformers toys and I saw the Transformers movie three times at the theater. When I saw the trailer for this game, I was immediately on board as it had the look of the cartoon I loved so as a child. That being said I never got around to buying it as it seemed to hover around so I was just going to wait for the price to plummet as most games tend to do. Well, I ended up getting it free due to my Playstation plus membership and I am glad I waited it out because I honestly would have hated to have payed full price for this game. Do not get me wrong, it looks incredible and the game play is fun, but it is really kind of on the short side. I think I managed to get through the story mode in four or maybe five hours tops. Basically, had this game been released back in the day it would have been somewhat forgivable; however, in this day and age where games can run over 100 hours, a four hour game is not really acceptable...at least not a full priced game. I am sure others may get more enjoyment out of the other mode in the game, but I play alone and do not really do much as far as online stuff so I felt a bit sad that it ended so quickly. That being said, I still enjoyed it for what it was as it did pass the time nicely and keep my mind off things and since I got it for free I will not be too harsh.
The story has some sort of invasion going on as Insecticons are overrunning a city! The Decepticons try to capitalize on this invasion to unearth a new power source so that they may rebuild Cybertron, but the cost of doing this will be Earth's destruction! The Autobots led by Optimus Prime must fight the Decepticons and get the power source off the planet before it goes critical, but it will not be easy as Megatron sends wave after wave of Decepticons after Prime and the Autobots to stop them from interfering with his nefarious plans!
The story mode of this game features driving around or walking to spots and then fighting Decepticons. I am guessing the other mode of play is more like a fighter game. You get various Autobots to choose from as you have Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee, Wheeljack, Grimlock and Sideswipe who was my personal favorite in the game. They all do different things and the combat is fun. I thought the weapons system though was a bit overly complicated as I would have just had them level up their weapons rather than having several different types of weapons for use. Just seems silly considering how short the game is to have the whole customize feature.
So, a good game and an interesting story in this one, but it is on the short side as far as the main story goes. It left open the possibility of a sequel, but I am not sure that will ever come to fruition as I do not think this was a particularly good seller. Seriously, how many young people want to play a Transformers game that is basically set in the style of the 80's cartoon? Though for reasons unknown they made Megatron turn into a tank instead of his gun self which was baffling especially since they had no problem letting Shockwave remain a gun. I enjoyed the number of Decepticons in this one as you see a lot of them from the show, but there really is not all that many Autobots. I was expecting them to show up perhaps in cameo type appearances, but no one does till the end where a sequel is hinted at. Still, it was a fun game, while it lasted anyways.
