Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen The Video Game

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen for the X-box 360 is a movie tie-in game which relies heavily on the franchise and suffers from many of the same problems as the film. The cast of characters is rather small, and some missions only allow you to play as one of them. If that wasn’t bad enough all of the characters feel the same except for the fliers. Everything is so loud and noisy that it’s hard to tell what’s going on, and the voice acting is rather bland.

You get to choose to play as Autobots or Deceptecons, but their missions are very similar, and the only real difference is who you get to listen to the whole game Ironhide, or Starscream, and they tried to make Starscream sound different than his movie counterpart. Most of the Autobots sound right, except for some reason Ratchet’s voice is much harder to hear than the others, but perhaps that was just my copy.

No matter who you play as, the controls are basically the same. Giant robot is your default form. You can run around, punch, shoot , and jump. The game does do a good job of conveying just how heavy the transformers are in that they shake the ground when they land. The problem is than they are also rather slow, but that’s what your vehicle mode is for. Unlike the movie, the Autobots in the game only turn into vehicles to get around faster, not to hide what they are. The problem is that the controls are so convoluted you’ll find yourself stumbling over your fingers in the middle of combat. To jump you press X. You hold right trigger to transform, and automatically drive while in vehicle mode. You press while holding right trigger to boost, but if you hold down X and release the right trigger you transform and jump at the same time. It may sound easy, but it takes a lot of practice to remember especially when the attack button can be used in a similar way while in vehicle mode.

Another annoying control scheme is the combat. You have to press another shoulder button to enter shooting mode in which you have a primary and secondary long range weapon. They don’t run out of ammo, but they do overheat, so you basically just fire one until it needs to cool down and then switch to the other. The primary weapon can be charged up to do more damage, or lock on to the enemy. While you are firing in this mode, you can dodge to the side and move, but it feels very stiff. It is so rare that you will get close enough to an enemy that I don’t even know why the game added a melee button. Enemies turn into vehicles and run away if you approach, or they shoot you to pieces before you can get to them.

The hit detection is also a problem. The transformers are surprisingly hard to spot for giant robots, and even the red life bar is little help, but when you get one in your sights, your weapons cause so much smoke and fire upon impact that you can’t tell if you’re hitting the enemy or the tree next to him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the game actually insults you during the between mission cut scenes about how bad you’re doing, saying you waste ammo or take too many hits. The best method I found was to get within medium range and try to shoot what I looked like the head until they died.

The game tries to mix up the levels with rescuing humans and such, but they all boil down to entering shooting mode and blasting anything that moves. Even the boss battles are more annoying than exciting because all you do is move to a distance, unload weapons, if enemy gets too close, turn into a car and move away. Throw in the fact that your health regenerates, and you can breeze through the game rather quickly. In order to make the game seem longer, most levels have an unlockable optional mission that you can play through, and you can level up different stats which seem to be universal for all of your faction members.

On thing I liked about the game is the unlock able consent, namely the old transformers episodes you can watch, and not just clips, full episodes. If they had the entire series with this game, I would recommend it, but as it stands, you’re better off just buying the DVD box set. This game is too boring for an adult, and its controls are too awkward for a kid. Afraid I just can’t recommend it as anything more than just a rental, and even then only so you can form your own opinion.