After seeing the film Transformers 2 my love for autobots faded like my passion for Star wars after George Lucas lost his mind but the reveal trailer for War for Cybertron sparked something in me that rekindled that feeling, it might just be the best Transformers game ever created, but let’s be honest that’s not such a high bar to reach.
Set on the home world of Cybertron the game is a retelling of the original conflict and the rise of Megatron and Optimus Prime. Beginning with the Decipitcon’s campaign you witness the destruction they cause during their mission to obtain the Omega key so that they can gain access to Cybertrons core and inject it with Dark Energon.
At the halfway marker the story switches to the Autobots viewpoint where you'll begin the rise of Optimus into "Optimus Prime" you'll hear a familiar Peter Cullen reprising the role and it fits perfectly. The game then proceeds to tell a full story without any overlapping elements between the two campaigns.
Transformers War for Cybertron is a third person mechanised shooter which allows three player coop for the entire game, each mission begins with a choice of characters to select from and their play styles vary significantly.
Optimus, hold the prime
What makes the game work so well is its seamless transition between forms, you are able to transform with no restriction and a proper use of both is required to take down enemies with little damage received.
Boss encounters in single player action shooters have been mediocre at best these last year’s however War for Cybertron gave me satisfaction in the phased boss fights requiring different movements and transformations and not the typical cover, shoot, cover, shoot approach.
While the entire single player game can be finished in under eight hours the game ships with a "Horde" mode straight from games like gears of war where you and 2 other people fight wave after wave of increasingly harder enemies and also comes with a fully fledged Multi-player experience for up to 10 players.
My, you're a big one!
The multi-player is quite probably the most entertaining part of War for Cybertron, much akin to that of Call of Duty there’s a persistent levelling system allowing you to unlock perks and weapons as you progress through the ranks of the 4 classes available, scout, scientist, soldier and leader. I found Scout to be the most fun and effective online- who wouldn't like to be a cloaked 50 foot robot backstabbing the enemy for 1 hit kills?
While it’s certainly kept me going the last few days it’s unlikely it will take you fully away from any other shooter your currently playing online.
The game holds at 60 FPS and looks good in doing so but you'll see something I assumed was long gone in the Unreal 3 engine, popin. The online game's netcode has no issues but is cursed by having player hosted matches which end if they leave. Expect many games to end half way through due the host raging.
So that’s it, if you’re interested in a short term investment which is certainly enjoyable then Transformers War for Cybertron is for you. If you're looking for something more then, you might be disappointed.
