Transformers: War for Cybertron (2010)

I am beating 360 random Xbox 360 games because I love the system and its library. Here is my next adventure.

Game number 3 was Transformers: War For Cybertron. This is a 3rd person shooting game, where the player gets to control their favorite Transformers character and fight to control Cybertron. There are two campaigns and the player can choose to play as either the Autobots or the Decepticons. I had never heard of this game (which is actually a trilogy) and was pleasantly surprised to find out how fun it was to play. This is honestly the best Transformers experience that I could have asked for and had a really good time.

Graphics/Sound: The graphics in this game were passable, but nothing was really special about them. Some of the character models were a little similar and I would have enjoyed some differences in settings as well. Every level is set in a grey machine world and it did feel like a lot of the same scenery by the end, but I understand that this is just how Cybertron is supposed to look and can forgive this. The audio is probably worse than average on the 360. Some of the characters have awful voice actors cough Starscream cough but it was somewhat endearing and I realize that I'm playing a children's game. I'm not a super Transformers fan, but Optimus and Megatron sounded similar to the Shia LaBeouf movies... which I guess is a positive. The music was good, but forgettable. (2.5/5)

Story: This game gives the backstory for the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, specifically showing the reason why they needed to leave Cybertron. The Decepticon campaign takes place first and the Autobot campaign is essentially a response to the events of the Decepticon one. The Decepticon campaign has Megatron trying to get access to a material called Dark Energon. This material gives him tons of power and tips the scales of the war in his favor. The Autobot is a response to this and they are trying to heal Cybertron after Megatron's Dark Energon poisons the planet I really enjoyed the story and was actually engaged with the events happening around me. Despite never being a real fan of the Transformers, the events never seemed to bore me. I also learned a lot about how each faction views the world and their reasons for doing things. Discovering how Optimus Prime became the leader of the Autobots was also really interesting. The plot in this game was great, but still basing and nothing was really groundbreaking here. (4/5)

Gameplay: There are 10 levels in this game, each campaign has five levels. These levels take about 45-60 min to complete and the fifth/final level of each campaign is just a large boss fight. Actually, every level has a boss fight at the end and this was a really good decision by the team. Boss fights keep games new, interesting, and challenging. The ones here are all solid as well. I was very impressed by all the platforming and different types of boss mechanics were stuffed in here. When questioning any Transformers game, the biggest question is: How is the process of actually transforming the characters and are their vehicle forms cool? YES! Oh my gosh, transformations are perfect, quick, and you can do them whenever you want. Most levels are played by land Transformers (where I chose to play as Megatron and Optimus Prime in their respective levels), but 2 levels focus on flying and you get to play as flying Transformers, such as Starscream. I love the vehicles and think they were done perfectly. This game allows the player to hold a minimal amount of ammo on them at any time and it forced me to use whatever weapons I found on the ground. I liked this because it encouraged me to test out all the weapons. The gameplay here is astonishingly good and I was very impressed by everything I did. My only issue would be that there wasn't a huge variety of normal enemies throughout the levels. (4.5/5)

My Journey: I played the game on normal (as I plan on playing every game for RoadTo360) and I was decently challenged. I died a few times each level, but I never really got frustrated with anything. This game was so fun and I personally enjoyed it a whole lot. There was 1 point, during a prison break level, that my game crashed; however, I just reloaded from the last checkpoint and only lost about 30 seconds of gameplay. One complaint could be that this game is a pretty expensive 360 title and I had to pay about 45 dollars for it. If you are interested in this game pick it up now, before 360 starts becoming popular to collect for. It took me 7 hours, 15 min, and 55 sec to beat this game. (4.5/5 for enjoyment)

Overall: This game was really good and I was shocked that a Transformers licensed game could be as good as this. While the graphics and sound were lackluster, the gameplay and story were super engaging. I enjoyed playing this game a whole lot. (4/5)

I am now up to 53 hours and 5 minutes on the RoadTo360 challenge.

Next Game: Payday 2