Transformers: War for Cybertron

With great franchises comes great responsibility. Transformers: War for Cybertron by High Moon Studios is one of the very few good Transformer games, but the redundant nature of the game keeps it from achieving perfection.

The story takes place before the events of the series and the movies. Players can choose from the Decepticon Campaign or the Autobots. Though both of them play relatively the same, the only difference is that the Decepticons are fighting for evil and the Autobot fight for the well being of Cybertron.

As for the great points, the world the player is immersed into is nothing less than stellar. There is always something happening on Cybertron as the player is moving around. For example there are jets flying around, in-game cutscenes that do not hinder the flow of the action and battles happening from afar, which make for a very intense third-person shooter.

The graphics in the game are amazing, but at times my eyes got tired of seeing the gray overlay because most of the structures in the world are metallic gray. Therefore, seeing the color gray is something the player better get used to. More color pallets would have helped the game a lot graphic-wise.

The way the Transformers animate is very spot on and almost lifelike. When controlling the Transformer, players can switch between their human form and vehicle form, though there are some areas where one can not switch between the two. Even watching the Transformers shift their mechanical limbs around during the in-game cutscenes is nothing short of spectacular.

Now for the negative aspects, this has to be one of the most redundant games I have ever played. Sure, for a Transformers game it's good. However, I have seen third-person shooting done much better, such as in Gears of War. The main objective in this game throughout the campaigns is to move from one blue indicator to another. Whenever the player is in a room that has a door that hinders forward progression, it will become second nature to know that enemies are about to intrude. This is how the game works: Go into a big room, robots spawn, the player kills them, and then go to the next big room where more enemies spawn. This may be a good thing if one is into mindless shooters. However, I expect more out of my third-person shooting games, such as inconsistency with where the enemies generate. Is surprise too much to ask for?

There is a saving grace. Since there are always three bots in a squad, there is a multiplayer campaign in which players can link up with two other people online and wreak havoc or defend Cybertron together. This will make the repetitive nature of the gameplay much more tolerable because what is more fun than running and gunning with two friends by one's side? However, it is kind of unfair that the multiplayer is only available for online play. It is as if High Moon Studios thinks gamers don't have friends in the real world.

Transformers: War of Cybertron is one of the best Transformer games ever, but that does not warrant the $59.99 price tag. Wait about half a year for the price to drop to about $40, then it will be worth it. It is not a bad game per se, but I can find something better to spend my $60 on.

Transformers: War for Cybertron gets 3.5 out of 5.