A somewhat more worthy representation of Transformers, Revenge of The Fallen still lacks polish, multiplayer aside.
The plot follows the movie very loosely, and centers around the Autobots teaming up with a human special forces NEST team to track down the few Decepticons who stayed after their leader's death, planning to find the remaining shards left after the AllSpark's destruction. Lest they succeed, they'll revive Megatron and bring back an entity known as the Fallen, an ancient Prime who rebelled against his own kind and possesses enormous power.
There is no real attention given to the story. The characters don't even try to show some personality, and some plot points from the movie are altered so drastically for the sake of the gameplay that it seems too much even for a game. There are barely any cutscenes actually doing the storytelling, and your only lead is a constant radio chatter from your friends and systematic sitreps in the NEST base(Or, in the case of the 'cons, in what seems like a destroyed version of Cybertron).
From the very beginning the game shouts "I'm not another movie-game" by introducing quite a complex gameplay. Not a smart move, considering the learning curve it is needed to nail all of the three modes and transformation techniques. This time around, weapon targeting is activated while holding down the left trigger, while you morph in a vehicle with the right one. Releasing the buttons disable the modes, so the gameplay becomes really fast, and utilizing the transformations quickly become the key to victory. Your momentum always carries on from robot-to-vehicle mode and vice-versa, and you can use that momentum to perform transformation jumps, ground pounds or exiting from vehicle and delivering a jaw-crashing blow at the same time.
There are two primary weapons, one unique power and a melee attack available in combat. Hand-to-hand bashing is basic here, with 3 chained attacks being a maximum combo and a charged hit available just in case. The two different guns usually stick to rockets/machine gun formula, they overheat but don't deplete. The unique powers include invincibility, healing, land mines, EMP stuns, deployable turrets and sniped shots, one for every character in a faction. Additionally, Megatron has his iconic Fusion Cannon arm as a special ability.
Missions vary little. While it is fun to beat Sideways with Ironhide and then switch to Decepticons and bash Ironhide in the same mission, constant escorts, defend/destroy and "survive a wave of 15 foes" start to bore out close to the middle of the game. More than that, you have to complete even more of those if you want to unlock an area for freeroam. There are minor feats(Scare 100 people) for getting additional energon points and upgrading your team, or unlocking bonuses like unique characters and skins for the multiplayer and G1 episodes which are by far the best idea for bonus content in a TF game.
The boss battles usually have you fighting another regular baddie, but Autobots sometimes get an unfair share, regarding the constructicon Demolishor who you have to bring down with Optimus Prime, and the infamous Devastator, an enormous Decepticon made up from 7 different transformers. These showdowns are impressive, but to the core there's nothing really hard in them. Just shoot the marked spots.
The multiplayer, on the other hand, is a fresh new experience. There are 5 modes, all of the campaign characters plus additional few available, minor tweaks to the gameplay, and complete chaos and fun on-screen. Considering the overall good handling of the vehicle modes(Including jets and a helicopter) the online play is a definite try for a transformers fan.
Visually it's nothing stunning. Purely graphic-wise the game doesn't vary much from it's predecessor, some textures are even tweaked down to make Beenox's horrible port work somehow. Regardless of the poor framerate because of the bad optimization, there are notable pros like impressive HDR and lighting systems, as well as tight animations for the bots, including fluid transformations and many secondary gestures. Unfortunately, the game sacrificed too much for almost up-to-date visuals: The maps are strikingly small, the buildings are not destructible any more, and there are some iconic characters missing altogether(Sideswipe, Rampage). The HUD has a mini-map at last, a minor but pleasant element.
There are about 4 or 5 actual cutscenes in the game, not considering the comments from your team back at the base. Those few are produced pretty well, with great camera angles and impressive shots, but they're short and, as I mentioned already, not strong in numbers.
However, the great voice acting livens the game. LaBeouf, Fox, Cullen and Welker(As Megatron) provide their voice talent and act believably. The score is a somewhat letdown as it contains tracks from the original game apart from a few new pieces. Transformation sounds vary and are unique to each character.
Basically, it's safe to say that this is what the first game should have been. Nevertheless, it provides fresh Transformers-styled multiplayer experience, uses the trademark feature of the series as an actually useful element of the gameplay, and is generally a good game for a die-hard Transformers fan. It definitely captures the essence of the film as well as the original franchise and tries to expand them. If anything, it's a huge progress form the first game.