Microsoft
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
By Ryan Newman
Jul 29, 2009, 7 :56 am

I don’t think I will ever ‘grow out’ of Transformers. No matter how old I get, there will always be a small thrill out of hearing the err-er-err-er transformation sound. Despite not having many of the toys – G1 Grimlock, guardian of the desk, is always on deck – or being up on the subsequent shows beyond the first season, I am always at the ready for a battle between transforming behemoths.  The game based on 2007’s Transformers was disappointing, to be kind, but that’s also true about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Revenge) – yet not quite. While the original game was a flat-out dud, Revenge isn’t nearly as bad, but it suffers from something altogether different: great ideas half-heartedly implemented.

While 2007’s offering was a straightforward action title, with a little alt mode action thrown in, Revenge is a little more ambitious. From their headquarters, each faction views strategic locations on the globe and attempts to outmaneuver the other. Councils of war are held after each mission to determine the impact of the outcome, with some dialogue specific to that level and your performance – great idea. The energon that was gained from fallen enemies and completing the mission is then allocated to one of several areas of upgrade – melee strength, health, weapon cool-down rate, etc. Sprinkled throughout are all sorts of ways to get extra energon, such as meeting secondary objects of killing so many units by a certain attack, hitting all five faction symbols hidden throughout the level, and achieving victory in under a certain time for a medal. Success earns campaign points which go towards unlocking additional levels, some of which are basic, to earn energon, while others advance the story. You can even replay a mission, to go for a better time or hit any missed objectives. All of this also nets you goodies in the form of G1 colors, art, and full episodes. This all sounds good, and it is really cool – up to a point.

For all of its good ideas, Revenge constantly comes up short. A good indicator of what’s to come is the tutorial. Each faction has a similar tutorial that features one ground-based and one air-based vehicle, along with a commander barking out orders. Both sides learn the exact same things during training: climbing, jumping, shooting primary and secondary weapons, transforming, coming out of a transformation with style. And each side also has a countdown timer that is ticking down to the time limit for a platinum award while the commander is talking and your controls are locked. Despite this being a very rare occurrence throughout the rest of the game, the clock ticks away while you sit there, fidgeting with the controls, just waiting for freedom while the commander drones on and on. So from the very beginning you get to experience the trade-off that plays itself out so many times throughout Revenge: a decent concept (medal system) made infuriating by haphazard design.

The Transformers mythos is rich with lore, but the movie’s storyline really hamstrings the extent to which it can be explored. The game could deliver a compelling tale, yet it doesn’t. Even after defeating The Fallen, an ancient Transformer that wants our world and our Son, I’m still not entirely sure about what happened. Despite the missions being relatively short – under 10 minutes for the majority – buffered by a ton of unskippable robot chattering, mission intros, superfluous menus (and load screen), the story isn’t conveyed in any meaningful way. Shoehorning actors in certainly didn’t help things, with Shia LaBeouf prattling off key bits of information at the speed of light and laced with lame sarcastic quips. I could have easily done without him in favor of more meaningful dialogue between the factions - or missions that went for more than ‘Get them!’ Both faction campaigns need to be completed to get a fuller picture, with the Decepticon side proving better information, but the story is merely an afterthought, a point driven home in how cavalier the game is in treating the destruction of major characters.

Most of the new additions end up being largely fluff. The upgrade system is interesting, but considering I rarely went into alt mode – strange, being a Transformer and all – I didn’t need to upgrade vehicle-based components, which knocked out about a third of the options. The few moments when something is more than a jump or two away still doesn’t call for vehicle mode as you can just hop along rooftops and scale buildings, and the confined quarters and constant required robot mode. Driving and flying way is useful for replenishing health, and I did maybe five times for each faction, but you really don’t need to. The Decipticon portion required more use of alt modes, but it never truly plays a key role, and I earned plenty of platinum medals without having to transform at all. I did transform a lot though, thanks to the firing sequence requiring one shoulder button to lock on and the other to fire, with the firing button also doubling as the transformation button; the timing is easy to get off when you’re in the thick of things, and slamming into a building as a car during a firefight is never a good tactic.

The enemy transformed much more than I ever did, but not always for the right reason. A border around the battlefield restricts movement, which makes sense, and the enemies don’t scurry away, which given the timed medal system also makes sense, but they certainly do some strange things. The AI is prone to transforming numerous times to no purpose, just jump, transform, land, and transform back. It wasn’t uncommon to see an enemy stuck in a tight spot, say in a corner or wedged between pipes, transforming back and forth. The only real challenge the enemy poses is through either a level restriction, such as a repairing something within a given time, or the sheer number of other robots that you have to contend with: half a dozen dimwits with guns is still half a dozen dimwits with guns.

Missions are based off of killing a set amount of units to progress, with the variety coming from having to repair, hack, or fight a boss in the process. The primary and secondary weapons and special attacks do a great job of distinguishing each transformer, and while some units are initially locked during certain missions, it doesn’t matter, because you’re just repeating the same small set of tasks. While it’s nice to see an event from both sides, the levels aren’t exactly mirrored, with drones replacing key characters, stripping away much of the novelty. Even the awesome extras suffer from a lack of polish: the full episodes suffer from a poor transfer and no control, save for pausing. I also experienced a strange bug in one mission, whenever the Decepticons didn’t appear for me to destroy, but it was an isolated incident and was set right when I restarted the level.

A significant problem is that the game does a good job of conveying the experience of being a giant robot, but not necessarily of being a transformer. Transformers are iconic, but very little in Revenge speaks to that level of importance; instead, you’re just a big robot wailing away and firing rockets at other robots. While the main characters look good, even if you aren’t a fan of the Bay-Escher style, the world is mostly bland, covered with generic buildings and warehouses that limply react to tons of metal and explosives impacting them. A few people still populate the cities, and I found it interesting, and slightly disturbing, that an Autobot could crush a few and suffer only a ‘Watch out for the humans!’ admonishment during post-mission critiques. The battle analyses are interesting and as concept have a lot of potential, but the conversations are often stilted due to sound bites having to load, and it never really shines – or is quite as effective as it could be, as in the example above. I also had a really hard time hearing them, along with the rest of the council chatter, even after turning everything down and the vocals up. I look forward to seeing how this evolves in the future, because when it clicks, it’s really cool.

Multiplayer is barebones, but it covers the basics in terms of scenarios (deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and territories) and maps (cities, warehouse districts, levels from the campaign). What I found surprising is just how enjoyable it is, with a large part of its appeal coming from your alt modes actually being useful – and they absolutely shine here. The character balance could go for some tweaking, but whenever I’m freaking out with a slither of life left, weaving around skyscrapers in car mode while trying to avoid the pursuing jet, balance was the last thing on my mind. Multiplayer could sprout some pretty long legs with downloadable content, especially with a franchise so rich in roster and history. Not to get ahead of myself with maybes, vanilla multiplayer is worth a rental for aficionados as-is.

There is little doubt that Revenge is much better than its predecessor. And it’s a decent game, but it’s rarely much more than that. Its major failings are that it doesn’t live up to the license, and its many sound features were left half polished. It’s as if the game hit a wall (what we might call a ‘deadline’) and what was there was shored up and shipped off. The result was a lot of promising features in a middling state, hinting at an awesome Transformers experience but not delivering one.

Overall: 5.5/10

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is full of great ideas, but it suffers from the developer’s reach exceeding their grasp. Whether it was due to time constraints – making it out for the movie’s premier – or subject constraints – having to follow the movie – I’m not sure, but what is apparent is that Luxoflux was on to something but missed the mark. Whatever happened along the way to fulfilling the design is a shame, because the result is a Transformers game largely devoid of what makes the franchise so great and a direction that teases more than satisfies. I really hope they get a chance to work on a sequel outside of the movies, because there’s an interesting direction being headed to here. Potential aside, what you’ll find on the shelf is a mediocre action game wrapped in a Transformers shell. It’s got some bangs and pows, and decent multiplayer, but there is a lot better out there.