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TRANSFORMERS: The Game - Hands On Preview
Reported by Joystick - 18:05:17 June 12, 2007
"Bumblebee this is Optimus Prime..." a familiar voice over instructs you what to do. Its none other than the unmistakable voice of G1 Prime, Peter Cullen. In a surreal sense, its the most nostalgic part of the Transformers: The Game. Michael Bay's movie coming in just weeks, presents the Transformers in an entirely new light. From head to toe, the Robots in Disguise have been retooled and revamped block buster movie style. Activision's game offering for the film property takes things one step further to the real experience by giving fans additional background as they command a virtual Transformer that can wreak havoc and save the world big bot style.
There is something for everyone too. Activision is putting so much punch behind "The Game" they will be releasing 8 different games on 7 different game platforms. If you've got a console released within the last couple years, you'll be happy to know your Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2 & 3, PC, Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS will all have their own edition of the game. The DS will even offer two takes on the game, one from an Autobot and the other a Decepticon perspective.  At First Sight After choosing the character you want to play, in this case BumbleBee, you are instructed to fulfill a mission by none other than Optimus Prime himself! Missions can vary from finding a hidden message. To closing down generators and gates or going head to head with Decepticon drones and other movie character opponents. Ever wonder what happens when a giant robot runs down the street? The ground shakes, concrete shatters and mass hysteria ensues. Roll out! That's how "The Game" begins. Faced with a maze that has been disguised as Anytown, USA. You navigate around, through and over buildings, city streets, parks, cars trucks and buses. Humans scatter as your giant hulking feet mangle and sweep anything in their path. Your massive robot arm swung at a building knocks tons of rubble to the street. Dangerous to everything in your path, you are on a mission and anything in the way will not deter your progress. If there is one thing you learn from this review, it should be that ILM supplied the actual CGI Transformers movie robot models for the game. Activision, the PR reps, the developers and even Tom Desanto emphasized this. No question, they are some awesome looking robots. Saying they are extremely detailed is an under statement. Pipes, gears, hinges and levers abound a mass of gleaming robot goodness. So much so that it kind of leaves one wanting for even more detail. The cinematic shown in the game opening is stunning. Compare the game renders, while the best I have seen in real-time game play, were not good enough in my opinion. Pushing the graphics to the limit of the game platform was not always optimal in robot mode. This was most apparent on the darker colored robots. I had few problems making out Bumblebee and the drones, however with so much intricate detail. Barricade could be hard to identify at times. Get a Grip Robots got it rough! Nothing happens automatically. These are machines that need to walk, run, jump, block, convert (Transform), shoot, punch, look, turn, and you get the idea... You are their brain and you need you to command their every action. I didn't count how many buttons each game required. Its enough that you really can't play the game properly until you familiarize yourself with all of them. The manner in which these controls are implemented varies from platform to platform. Ideally, functions like transform (Convert is what they call it) and different weapons have dedicated buttons. On the Wii, each of the nunchaku controls are used simultaneously. I my case, the right controller was used to aim the device, transform and control melee movement. This latter melee is performed by swinging the nunchaku left and right in mid air. The left Wii controller was used to steer, fire and toggle various functions. The PS3 and Xbox utilize the conventional game pad controller with the plethora of controls distributed over each' special function keys. Those familiar with each platform will appreciate the layout most I am sure. Moving to the hand held platform opens up some interesting differences unique to the DS and PSP. The DS with a limited set of buttons already required the player to use the lower screen as a control panel too. Similarly, because the PSP does not have a second controller, the developers found creative ways to control the robots. Transformers at Play Finally, we get to choose which character and side to play on. Player can select from four Autobots and five Decepticons. Supposedly there are as many as 20 characters in all including unlockables - more on that later. Activision went to great lengths to incorporate this into the game. Even the game objectives are modeled on the chosen character and alliance. Different environments, missions, opponents and goals are laid out to best characterize each robot's abilities. Blackout takes you to the air base, Starscream to the Skies, Barricade and Bumblebee face off and chase in a city setting. Each warrior' skills are adopted to them. For example Barricade has nunchakus, variable projectile lasers and missiles all his own. Blackout sports these awesome spinning blades and a variety of missile weapons. As much as I can appreciate how hard this is to do, the Transformers alternate modes felt like the most unique part of playing each Transformer. In robot mode, the interaction was harder to discern from robot to robot. Shooting, hand to hand combat and even the variations in weaponry and melee action didn't feel a lot different from one character to the next.  That said, the game play itself is a hell of a lot of fun. The player has the liberty to wreck and wander or focus on the mission at hand. Each level includes a variety of tokens, info stations and energon cubes hidden through out. Collecting 20 energon cubes will open up new options within the level. In the demo we saw, one of the missions focused Bumblebee on locating communications towers that need to be destroyed. Missions are not always a casual affair. Once engaged and or completed a timer may be activated requiring your response within a specified time to complete the task. Proximity can be a factor too. In a head to head battle, you may be required to stay in range or be penalized for it. A geo-positioning device in the bottom right of the screen helps you track current location and direction. Symbols and indicators on the map give you a sense of where your bounty is located. Additional function indicators supply information on current robot stasis. The placement of them vary somewhat on each game platform. The good news is this is a progress driven game. Failure to complete a mission puts you back at the beginning to try again. We were not shown more of the game, so I cannot say for sure if there are other scenarios where combat is not the main event. From all my impressions so far, this is a true fighting game. This is a very high energy game that is sure to please all those hell bent on death and destruction. Get ready to go to war. Drones swarm on you constantly. With so many, its not really an option to shoot and pick them off one by one. Maintaining focus can be a challenge. Learning to move, block, shoot, physically counter attack and utilize your surroundings is a constant effort. What weapons to use, when to fight or flee, how to make use of random objects as weapons will make you a Warrior as you proceed through the game. Gee Wunderful Activision took judicious liberty in adding Transformers factor everywhere they could. Look for signs and billboards sporting a number of easter eggs, puns, jokes and some real gems hidden away that unlock old favorites like a payable Generation 1 Optimus Prime and Jazz. He's fantastically recreated in the game, a spitting rendition of Masterpiece Prime if I had to guess. Hefty and fearsome, this is no happy Prime. He's able to smash and crash with the best of them. If your are lucky you might meet up with an old Decepticon buddy, Shockwave, for a romp in the park. Don't peak your GeeWun meter too fast. This is not the classic Shockwave robot design the name would have you expect. In reality, "The Game" Shockwave is a bigger badder Decepticon drone that wants to give you a really hard time. It was mentioned that like swindle, Hasbro liked the drone designs so much, more of them would be released as action figures. Could Shockwave be one of them? Where's the Drama? I am going to take some flack for this, but this is not the Transformers I know and love. There is a lot of drama that is packed into the Transformers legacy. Almost always, there was a team element involved in the comic and cartoon stories. Its easy to imagine a lot of metal sparking when these monsters clash. However, its very hard to take a handful of very new characters we don't really know yet and relate to them when they must fight alone on every mission. Combat fighting was not all the Transformers did. They were armies trying to outflank one another. For me, this left something to be desired in the classic sense. I would have liked to see more of a plot driven team element in the game. Granted, we won't really know about till the movie comes out.  Platform Showdown Based on my first impressions of roughly 15 mins play on each of the Wii, PS3, XBox 360, DS and PSP platform. I enjoyed the Xbox the most of the consoles. The game itself looked the best graphically, the controller was logically laid out and easy to get a grasp of quickly. Most of all, the 360 engine seemed to be most responsive. Of the handhelds, I had the most fun on the PSP. The wide crisp display is a big plus for a small format game. The graphics were impressively sharp and smooth. Likewise. the arrangement of the controls made it comfortable to play even without a second control pad. Overall Impressions This game is everything that a robot fighting game should be. Pure unmitigated destruction is yours. Activision went above and beyond to give us a game experience from a Transformers' perspective. The control and game play is cumbersome at first, but fluid and well thought out when you get the hang of it. The characters are presented in an operatic fashion that really does convey a heavy bigger than life presence. There is no lack of action and heart pumping mayhem for fans to engage in. For the avid gamer I don't know if this will fill a void. However for Transformers fans with any kind of gaming interest, this is really a must have. Without seeing the movie, I have to emphasize it is hard for me to truly identify with these characters. Something I am sure that will only enhance The Game's qualities once we know them better. Add in the G1 goodies, lots of tricks and twists and its hard to argue this is the best Transformers game ever made. That said, I also realize that there is more than meets the eye to a game that stands up to the Transformers property. As impressive as "Transformers: The Game" is. I am still saving my hopes that one day a Transformers game will truly embrace all the legacy, team work and drama that makes the Transformers so special. Until then, it is such a pure joy to transform and fight as a robot in "Transformers: The Game." How can you deprive yourself of that? Get this game. Learn more about "Transformers: The Game" at the official Web site: TransformersGame.com Check out more game previews coverage of the event at these sites: Seibertron.com TFArchive.com TFW2005.com Unicron.com
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