I enjoyed the MP, gameplay, and cheesy story, but wasn't fond of the co-op 'focused' campaign, Foolish A.I. and MP Lag.
-G1 Transformer goodness
-Fast paced Action
-'True to Source Material' Story
-Playing as your favorite Tranformers
-Classic Tranformer Appearance (minus a few)
-Entertaining dialogue
-Playing as a Jet
-Over the top Multiplayer (subjective)
-Nice Cutscenes
-Better than expected graphics
-Intro/The Credits (classic)
Cons:
-Mediocre Shooting Mechanics
-Focus is only Shooting
-Bad level transitioning
-Health/Ammo limitations
-Heavy Focus on Co-op gameplay in Single player
-Overly aggressive/outnumbering Enemy A.I. (Autobot campaign)
-Invisible Enemies
-Useless friendly A.I.
-Lacks Mature Storytelling even if it is Transformers
-No explanation for War
-Final Boss Fight/Level
-Online Lag
I have been waiting a long for the original Transformers to make an arrival in the modern era. The anime cartoon network version is lacking and Michael Bay isn't a fan of Transformers, so we get his terrible remakes which truly don't count. I would have prefered the G1 Transformers return in movie fashion, but I will easily except this as well. So as a fan of G1 Transformers, this game is easily a 9 or above. Most of the classic characters are here and they're for the most part voiced correctly, though Starscream, Megatron, Ironhide, and Rachet sound more like the Michael Bay interpretations which is not a bad thing. I can't complain, most of the original voices were foolish, but Megatron and Starcsream should have stayed true to form. Not smart High Moon. These guys are suppose to be fans of G1 transformers, yet they take away two off the biggest cast members unique voices. Well whats done is done, doesn't hurt the game, but G1 fans know what I mean. The story is entertaing for the most part and it feels cartoony in a good way. No one should take this game serious or the whole experience is ruined. High Moons take on the universe would have made a great prequel to a movie franchise. Nothing is classic here, but I enjoyed this more than any of Michael Bay's creations except for a few things I will talk about later.
Anyway, after all my hype about the original TF's coming back wore down and actually sat down and played this game, I realized, this is a mediocre shooter made special by its unique Transformer universe which this game greatly benefits from. On top of this, High Moon doesn't know how to design a game, well correctly that is. The game is focused around run and gun type game play. Yes fun, but also stupid and overly repetitive once you notice a few glaring issues. Levels consist of shooting this, that, your mom, the empty can, etc with no type of wonder, exploration, etc to go with it. Now one can easily complain all games are like this except game focused on sword play, puzzle, etc. If we actually compare this game to other shooters (first or third person), the gameplay feels embarassling childish. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is its over the top and in your freakin' face fun, but the bad thing is, cheap deaths await you at everyone wrong mistake or game design mistake.
See this is one of those games that's made longer by throwing waves, and waves, and even more waves of animals, I mean enemies at you. The enemy A.I. is overly agressive, stupid, and they outnumber you in every small room level which becomes annoying at times especially during the Autobot campaign. For the most part, I enjoyed the waves and waves of enemies, but during the Autobot campagin, after chaper 6, the game takes some E and the waves of enemies don't stop. The little guys are coming, the big guys are coming, the jets are atacking, the turrest are firing, etc. Its very chaotic and big fun if you don't die. It all becomes very frustrating because either you will die due to the lack of vision (caused by camera) or the section lasts too long because the whole Decepticon force is coming after you. Most of this is due to the fact that High Moon wanted everyone to play this game co-op. This becomes apparant when the last Autobout mission becomes avaiable. The issue is then enhanced by the 'yellow bus' friendly A.I. They don't kill anyone, the Medic doesn't replinish my health during extended battles, and for the most part, they do none of the dirty work. I played as Otimus Prime for the most part and when he told his Autobots to ? I ended up completing the task. This clearly shows the developers design process. Make it co-op so people will buy it because people want to play co-op. I played parts of the game with co-op and it doesn't make the game any more interesting, it even points out some of the stupidity of the game, but it definitely lowers you stress level.
Nothing is wrong with co-op focused gameplay, but High Moon should have known that people were going to play the game by their lone selves, either the whole thing or part of it. Poor design choice. Another incredibly annoying flaw in this game is the invisible A.I. Enough said. One other issue is the need to search for health and ammo. So many enemies, sometimes not enough ammo or health at you disposal. Didn't hurt the game, but during certain enemy invasions my irritation level reached a point I have never reached during gaming. I am exagerating, but only to get my point across.
Most fans of G1 Transformers will appreciate Transformer War for Cybertron story, but most of the fans who grew up watching G1 transformers like myself are a little older now and thus, a game with a more mature approach while keeping the classic cartoons zany touch would be just fine. This game reaches the middle ground between mature storytelling and goofy cartoon if you count out the mature factor and replace it with reasonable. I would have appreciated if these developers, who are adults I guess (sacrcasm), made a game that catered to a mature audience. What I mean by mature story telling is character development and drama (outside of the war). Even though we know these characters, High Moon should have ta ken advantage of creating a story with a little more substance. For the most part, I ate the story up with pride. I don't hold any of these things against High Moon, more or less I commend them for staying true to source material. The storytelling is as fast paced as the cartoon which in my opinion is sloopy, but it fits this game perfectly. The game follows this same form of storytelling through its campaigns. Broken into 10 seperate chapters seperated by a non-paragraph length explanation for what has and what is going to happen. One point I'm fighting, the next I am captive. No cutscene to explain, just a sentence or two. Very mediocre in presentation and something that lessens the over all quality of a game thats far from a triple AAA release, especially a PS3 exclusive, but it's so G1 Transformers classics that you have to love it. A good well thought out ending would have gave the storytelling some credibility, but High Moon doesn't go all out there either. The ending screams sequel, which I will definitely pick up.
As far as the seperate campaigns go, the Autobot campaign is the cream of the crop. The Decepticon campaign is how do I say this, kind of pointless well in the beginining. I already don't like playing as the bad guy in games, but I'm force to play near half of the game as so. On top of this, none of the Autobots make an appearance except for the mindless drones who you of course kill. I am not sure, but High Moon should have never let players play as the Decepticons. I say this because it ruins the nature of the game, the storytelling, and the level of intensity. But the dialogue and story during tis campaign is very interesting to follow. The last three chapter are great adn the final boss is AWESOME. The Autobot Campaign may be the most frustrating of the two due to the alarming rate of enemies, but it is the most interesting storywise. But the ending boss fight is annoying frustrating if you are not playing with a friend due to the boss only targeting you.
After GOWIII, this is the most fun I have gotten out of a game all year, mostly due to the Tranformers appeal/story, the robots transformations, and the "Oh my god" fun Multiplayer. I don't care for multiplayer games, exceptions include Killzone 2, Uncharted 2 co-op, and Demon Souls. Out of all the multiplayer games I tried this year, this one stood out the most. Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer won't be winning any awards in my book and Red Dead Redemption multiplayer is just boring. Transformers War for Cyberton on the other hand has one unique feature that I will always appreciate, playing as a Jet in multiplayer, playing as a Transformer is just crazy as hell.
Multiplayer: The shooting/melee mechanics are as sloppy as the single player, the server tends to crash alot, it laggy, and maps are not crafted extradonarily well, but damn the multiplayer is just Fun. Leveling up seems pointless in the beginning, but by the middle of leveling, there is definitely a difference. Even though I like playing as a Jet, High Moon made them the most fragile, and thus, they are the easiest too kill. The coolest robot is the weakest, but then again, the Jet has alot of benefits and it weakness are its biggest strength if you use them correctly. Everyone knows the classes by now, but if you don't just know there a four classes and they are all unique. The Jet may be the most unique of them all. It's fun experiencing Starscream's life. But one can't ignore the lag in the online portion. The lag is terrible and the hit detection is even worse making luck your best friend. I spent hours shooting people directly for a long time and they never died mostl likely due to lag and time input. Characters fall through enviroment and of course that is an instant death. One of the real kickers is trying to find a match. Either you are sent to a waiting room where no other players are added or the game automatically finds a game for you. There is no way to choose what game you want to play, but you can choose the type of game. And when the host quits, the game is completely over sending you back to the multiplayer menu screen...NO NO NO. Besides thouse obvious issues, the online portion is superb and really shows the potential of this game, but that is if you can find a game that is lag free which you can. 1 out of 10 games had lag during my experience.
Conclusion: I 'border line loved'/liked this game, never hated it, but I definitely got irritatd by it. G1 nerds will love every ounce of this game, but gamers will definitely notice its drawbacks, but the crazy thing is, a G1 fan like myself will easily look past them because they seem to fit this universe, but I will never forget them and wont give this game a pass either. This game is the most unique product on the market right now. Yes it's a shooter, but its a unique shooter and the mediocre shooting mechanics and action cliches won't keep it from being unique and it's fun as hell. The games got character, unlike most of these games out. But its only unique in a good way if you are a interested or fan of classic Transformers. The campaign is far from impressive and the gameplay could use some tweaking, but it is fun boy...is it fun. Even if you are a fan you may be dissapointed by the over simplistic presentation of the story, but you will be satisfied to an extreme certainty. I assumed all of this happened when I was a kid, High Moon just made a game about it. Not a great one at that either, but one that satisfies this G1 fans needs. If this wasn't a Transformers game , I may have given this a lower score (7.5-8), but not as low as gamespot...what were they thinking. Gamespot is for the most part accurate and inaccurate when it comes to reviews. This review is accurate when it states the obvious, but the score is kind of harsh. 6.5 doesn't accurately represents this games fun factor. The guy with the monotone voice must of rated this game. His arrogance is bouncing off this review. Anybody remember the GTAIV video review?...that guy...lol
Just remember, one might want to have some friends tag along during certain missions because the game is overly cheap in dealing you the hand of death.