Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for PS3 and X-box 360

Apart from the Transformers Armada game for the PS2, the Transformers series hasn't had too many games. Traveller's Tales, one of my favorite game developer's, failed miserably at turning the 2007 movie into a game. Now Luxoflux has taken the reins of the Transformers game series and has released one of the best Transformer games ever.

At the start of the game you're given the option of playing as the Autobots or Decepticons. The Autobots Team consists of Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Breakaway (yes, Jolt gets the short end of the stick again) while the Decepticon team consists of Starscream, Grindor, Sideways, Long Haul, and, later on, Megatron (sadly so does Barricade). Both teams play mostly the same but it's nice to have so many options.

The controls feel like a combination of a standard third-person shooter, an arcade flying game, and Twisted Metal. When in robot mode you control the characters with both joysticks and the face buttons perform basic actions like jumping and punching. Holding LT/L2 activates weapon mode. When in weapon mode the you can use RB/R1 to switch between your weapons (this actually works outside of weapon mode too) and RT/R2 to fire them. Holding RT/R2 activates vehicle mode and changes the face buttons to new actions like boosting and shooting. There are a few more complex actions I could get into but, they're all explained in the tutorial. Overall, the controls require alot of getting used to but they're very fun when mastered.

The single player campaign for both teams is a series of missions. Depending on which side you've chosen you're tasked with blowing up robots, protecting humans, destroying humans, rescuing humans, kidnapping humans, and fighting major characters on the opposing side. It should be noted that the Autobots get much better boss battles like Demolisher and Devastator. The majority of these missions are fairly easy (even on the downloadable Expert difficulty) and can each be beaten within a day. However, some missions are fun enough to warrant multiple playthroughs, which is good since you're pretty much required to play through them more than once if you want any of the games many unlockables.

The multiplayer game is just as much fun as the single player campaign. You're given the options of standard deathmatches and 4-on-4 team matches. There are a few different modes available for team play. One Shall Stand tasks teams with defending their team's leader. As long as the leader is alive, players will infinitley respawn. If the leader dies, the corresponding team loses their respawning ability. Once a team is wiped out, they lose. Battle for the Shards is much easier to explain. Players from each team run (or drive [or fly]) around the map to grab pieces of the Allspark and bring it back to their base. All the games can be very fun if you can get a decent sized game going.

While the multiplayer is fun, it is not without it's own issues. The Autobots have Bumblebee, who's homing missiles make play as flying characters difficult. This wouldn't be a big deal if there weren't times where every player on the Autobot team played as Bumblebee just to use the homing missiles. When games get like this the Decepticon team is basically crippled and the Autobots can easily claim victory. Luxoflux didn't help with this issue by adding Jazz in the new DLC. Jazz's crescent gun fires homing shots that are just as powerful as Bumblebee's. The difference is that Jazz's gun is fired much faster and takes a significantly longer time to overheat. It's possible to deal with situations like these if you know you're way around the game, but I've seen this issue make multiplayer almost impossible for newer players to enjoy.

The other, less irritating issue with the multiplayer is the character switching. By pausing the game or waiting until the end of the match, you can choose to switch to a different character. However, despite the large character roster (made much larger with the new DLC) you're often only given the option to switch between the characters that you or your teammates have already chosen. If your team consists of, let's say, Bumblebee, Jetfire, Breakaway, and Ironhide, then good luck switching to Optimus Prime.

The sound in the game is fairly good. The music is a combination of rock and techno and there's a theme song played by Julien-K. It's not particularly catchy but it's good.

The voice acting is excellent for the most part. Most of the Transformers sound excellent and they even got Frank Welker to voice Megatron. The bad voice acting is on the part of Shia Labeuf, Megan Fox, and Charlie Adler (Starscream). Shia Labeuf and Megan Fox just do a terrible job of voicing their respective characters. Fortunatley they don't appear too often in the game.

Charlie Adler's acting isn't exactly bad. It's just odd. This is the same man who voiced Starscream in the movie, yet in the game he gives him a totally different voice. He sounds more like Megatron than Starscream. This coupled with Frank Welker giving Megatron a completely different voice from the movie led to me and a few other people believing they had accidentally swapped the voice actors for a while.

There's not much to say about the graphics. Environments look nice. While the transformers look good, the human character models are awful. The screen is constantly bombarded with explosions and laser effects. Just like the movie.

In conclusion, if you liked the movie you'll like the game. If you didn't like the movie you may like the game. If you don't really care for Transformers, give it a look anyway. It's a good game.

ALSO: I figured I'd add a bit about the DLC. In the DLC pack released for the game you get:

- 3 new multiplayer maps
- New Achievements/Trophies
- Jazz playable (Campaign/Multi)
- Jetfire playable (Multi)
- G1 Optimus playable (Campaign/Multi)
- Sideswipe playable (Campaign/Multi)
- G1 Colors Ratchet (Campaign/Multi)
- G1 Colors Sideswipe (Campaign/Multi)
- Stealth Bumblebee (Campaign/Multi)
- Aerialbot (Campaign)
- G1 Starscream (Campaign/Multi)
- G1 Sunstorm (Campaign/Multi)
- Soundwave (Campaign/Multi)
- G1 Megatron (Campaign/Multi)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Make Kanye Interrupt People

Yes. Kanye West's outburst of stupidity has become an internet meme. Let's see what you guys can do with it.





Yes. With the above exploitables, you too can have Kanye West interrupt anybody at any time like these images below.





                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Project Needlemouse

http://au.gamespot.com/pc/action/projectne...0&mode=previews

Discuss what could be either the best or worst idea Sega'a had in years.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Nostalgia Critic Reviews Captain N

This has to be one of his funniest videos. I swear I was crying at the part with Simon Belmont's facial expression.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolink.../10213-captainn                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Last thing you bought...

Post the last thing you bought. And no, this is not a forum game.

Anyway, I just bought a Transformers: Animated Soundwave figure.