Transformers: Fall of Cybertron offers some entertaining action, lots of explosions, and few surprises.
The Transformers may be more than meets the eye, but Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has an obvious goal: to let you control numerous Autobots and Decepticons while filling the screen with as much fire and brimstone as possible. Developer High Moon strives for metal-on-metal sensory assault, which is both a strength and a weakness. When the game thinks big, your eyes and ears are treated to larger-than-life spectacles; gargantuan robots sprawl across your view, and you annihilate mechanical monstrosities with the touch of a button. But Fall of Cybertron's most exciting moments are those you watch, not those you play. It can be a lot of fun, but the visual thrills don't consistently translate into stimulating gameplay.
There is excitement to unearth, however--it just takes a while for it to come into focus. The first half of the single-player campaign never finds a groove. You spend several levels in control of the kingly Optimus Prime, who sounds more than ever like an elder statesman, morally incorruptible and in complete control of his emotions. As in Transformers: War for Cybertron, you can morph from robot form to vehicular form and back again, though shooting, driving, and shooting-while-driving aren't Prime's only skills. He also fires artillery, ducks under beams, orders air strikes, lifts heavy objects, comforts his subordinates, and pulls levers.
That's normal shooter stuff, of course, but Fall of Cybertron's first half has you spending so much time watching explosions, performing single-button tasks, and occasionally hitting a button to make things die, that the full-fledged action seems like an afterthought. There aren't many extensive shooting sequences here. Instead, you get tossed from one task to the next without any kind of rhythm developing. Battles heat up just in time for you to find another door to open or another scripted event to witness. Aspects of the flat early hours carry over to later hours as well. Every major showdown between main players is interesting to watch but boring to play. That includes the game's final encounter, which you conquer not by overcoming a challenging enemy, but by responding to button prompts. Prompts that involve only one button.
Yet even before you leave Optimus Prime behind for other Transformers, there are momentary pleasures that keep you invested. Some of these moments are power trips: you speed across a bridge, mowing down the nameless bots that dare cross your path. Others build atmosphere: a facility morphs around you as you walk through it, making you wonder what might be causing such an anomaly. All the while, you get a real sense that the planet of Cybertron has reached its expiration date. Environments are in various stages of collapse, and the skies burn with sparking metal and the blistering exhaust of Decepticon dropships.
From here, Fall of Cybertron cycles you through various Transformers, changing up the gameplay--and then changing it up again just when you get the hang of things. One mission encourages stealthiness, having you go invisible and sneak behind sentries for a one-button execution. As Jazz, you play as a sort of bionic commando, grappling from platform to platform, using your mobility to stay out of the sights of the foes that continually hound you. Aside from the levels in which you soar through the skies in vehicular form, careening about as Jazz is one of the most enjoyable things to do in Fall of Cybertron, in part because you must stay light on your feet if you want to stay alive. The controls are smooth and the animations are fluid, so zipping from spot to spot is never a struggle, just a joy.
Land battle sequences play out as a standard third-person shooter and are generally solid, though there is an odd disconnect between the mechanics and the level design. Most Transformers are glass cannons--that is, you might do a lot of damage, but you're also surprisingly vulnerable, considering you're a huge hunk of metal. The game even encourages you to use cover, and indeed, several areas seem ripped right out of a cover shooter. Friends and enemies regularly use cover, but you yourself cannot; you can't even duck. Wading directly into the fray is sure death, and more time than you'd want is spent trying to find a safe spot for your shields to replenish, rather than standing strong.
Larger levels fare better, encouraging you to morph back and forth from bot to vehicle. The best of these have you zipping through the air and dropping death on your foes in aerial form, and then landing on platforms and finishing off the survivors. Sadly, there are only a few such levels; others are more interested in sending you on a power trip than in making you earn your triumphs. In several instances, such as when you stomp about as Grimlock, you lose ranged weapons in favor of melee attacks, wreaking havoc on waves of foes by slashing, swiping, and breathing fire. There's little strategy involved--you just press buttons and view the dramatic display of death that ensues. It's exciting to watch, but you're not working very hard for the victory.
This constant flipping from one type of gameplay to another is a departure from the monotony that crept into War for Cybertron. At times, the game focuses so much on mixing things up that it loses focus: developer High Moon never deepens or strengthens any single mechanic before it moves to the next. But in the final levels, something miraculous happens: Fall of Cybertron weaves these disparate threads together into an exciting sequence that puts you in control of one bot after another so quickly that all you can do is ride this overcharged roller coaster and relish in its hyperactivity and visual excess. A boss fight featuring the agile Jazz might again be the highlight here, as it is one of the few times in which Fall of Cybertron puts a clever spin on mechanics it previously explored.
Kevin VanOrd is a lifelong RPG lover and violin player. When he isn't busy building PCs and composing symphonies, he watches American Dad reruns with his fat cat, Ollie.
1 Like War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron are videogame gems in the sense that the developers managed to stay true to the source material while at the same time offer the player a fun game playing experience.
The storylines of these 2 games are much better than the recent movies which focused more on the human character's "love life" instead of the transformers themselves.
War & Fall of Cybertron are must-haves for true fans of the series.
Wow,you've got to be frickin kidding me Gamespot.I've never played a Transformers game,this was the first one i played and absolutely loved it.A fucking 7 / 10 ? The only thing i agree with is that the final boss fight could be better and not so corny,and the texture popping was bad.Other than that, i have no problems with the game.I'm going over to play WFC now,i thing i'll like the series.A fair score should be 8.5 or atleast and 8.
**PS I don't mean Kevin directly in my ranting, it's more an overall ,all encompassing statement lol. Except for the quotations from Kev and his cat.
Looks like some people like to come onto the board to pms at other people. This baat character hates their own reflection and adds nothing but knit picking to the board. The only constant in all of your failed relationships is you. Remember that. Besides the editor giving the game a "ho-hum" rreview, members seem to enjoy it. As with other boards as well. The sad thing is that a crappy rating can make or break an entire studio. The peeps that made "prototype 2" got the axe from Activision because they didn't hit projected doller amounts. That game was great for what it was. Saying "it could have been better' ,"it wasnt award winning"is like going to see the Rob Zombie version of Halloween and then complaining because it wasn't an Oscar award winning film and it didnt hit the masses like Leonardo Dicap etc. We have to start looking at games for what they are. A game like "Dead Light" ,old shool side scroller that again, we would've punched infants to get our hands on not even ten years ago, gets an "eh could've been better" YOU COULD'VE BEEN BETTER ,YA SH!THEAD NAYSAYER!!! I mean c'mon already with these people. When you can't do you teach or you preach. Like an Olympic judge,"oh that wasn't perfection,you exhaled when you landed" WHAT?! Let's see you do something ,you three eyed chef! Instead of saying'eh my cat didn't like Transformers" Why don't you suggest/tell us how YOU would improve on it without going over the budget you guys usually have zero clue about? "It would be better if the game was 2 disks more and 120 hours + of gameplay"etc..Is that so genius? Well cough up the cash buddy,we are waiting.Classic.pssssh....
1 Like Basically we hold about 4 games up to the light and say" these are the games to worship" and if a new game doesn't mimic it in some way then we give it an "eh". We need to dust off our SEGA Master systems and our 8-bit Nintendos and then go back to our game collections and realize how fortunate we are lmfao.To say "eh the game is fun but..." It's one guy's opinion and for some reason we will sign up and listen to the male equivalent of a "cat lady" to make up alot of minds. I don't even remotely identify with this guy. I'm not his age, I don't watch "murder she wrote" and I get laid! And in the meantime I wanna play some good games! The game is good,if you want it to do your laundry,and wash your car while it covers all the bases and is going to be the end all/be all of all gamesss,it won't.But if you come from any generation that loved Transformers then this would be and is an awesome game. Growing up we would have friggin died to play this game and he gives it an"eh","it's fun to watch" GTFO here bro. Go watch the moss grow and turn your controller in to the front desk. You've peaked.
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You people who haven't even played this don't know what you are talking about. Talking out of your ass is what you're doing. I'm not even a hardcore fan and this game's given me the most fun I've had out of a fast-paced competitive shooter since before CoD went to crap with MW2. How can you say "it's not 'Transformers' enough" then claim that "Only a Transformers fan would enjoy this"? You see the 7.0 Gamespot gives and put your tails between your legs. Play it in every aspect (SP, MP, Co-Op) and then give an opinion.
I played the demo and didn't feel compelled to buy it. Still, one can have fun playing this game.
1 Like Every fan says "This is an awesome game, u dont know what ur talking about"... wtv, I keep my opinion, its an awesome game because they haven't been creative enough to make new kind of game, they're stuck with this... as I said below, they just picked the transformers story and make a 3rd person shooter like any other. I just look at transformers game and I dont think as a transformers game, I think: "Its a 3rd person shooter where u can transform o:" They need to do Something Unique, not just mix a 3rd person shooter with transformers.... Where the fuck are those ideas from years ago where the excuse was "theres no technology to do this"? Now theres technology and there arent any creative ideas.
1 Like This deserves the raking it has... and I think gamespot is making the right choice about not giving 10's , 10 is a perfect game, and that doesnt exist yet. And 8.5 for CoD and Battlefield 3 is a lot, they're basicly the same every year, and Im a fan of Battlefield, its just that we need inovation.
3 Like this game deserves a better rating. the story was very good and the game play was great. As a long time Transformer friends the subtle things they throw in shows that High Moon did cares about the Transformers name. Little things like the argument about beryllium baloney and cesium salami and Slug's, even though I wish they would've kept his original name at Slag, crash through the door and saying to the insecticon excuse me quote brought back memories of the original movie and let me know that they did their homework. I really liked the first Cybertron game but so far I'm loving this one.
@rasterror I tought the game was good, but it misses lots of things, sure , its awesome in story, but its the "transformers" story, they didnt add anything, they just picked the story and created a usual 3rd person shotter, thats what they did, and it pisses me of that the devolopers cant be creative and do something unique today.
I am what you may call a lifetime transformers fan. However I have played the demo of this game found to be very very boring. {I got more enjoyment trying to kill myself, unsuccessfully as it turned out as there wasn't even a pit I could fall into.}
As the game is quite expensive and that high moon studios last two transformer games were pretty average [to poor] I think I'll rent the game and make my own mind up. (Renting is cheaper than buying afterall.)
Here's hoping the game is consistently fun to play {unlike War for cybertron and dark of the moon which were dire.} or I'll just go back and play the revenge of the fallen and armarda transformer games which I still consider to be the benchmarks for such things.
9 Like your review is a joke, this game is amazing and deserves at least a 9, it has great graphics,great gameplay,an amazing story,great music,beautiful characters and a really great single player campaign
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1 Like the funny thing is that before playing this game i wasn't even a big transformers fan but after playing it (and enjoying every single moment of this amazing and really fun single player campaign) i started watching all the transformers movies and tv series (the same thing happened to me after playing arkham asylum with batman), this game is really fun and really addictive and has amazing replay value
@Gelugon_baat I forgot to mention food. And no, I don't show up to work drunk, because that's irresponsible.
@Gelugon_baat Actually, yes, I'm an editor at my college's newspaper.
"Career" may be a bit of a stretch here, but I have done some exaggeration (for comic effect, of course) in my line of work.
@Gelugon_baat @fullframework "Exaggeration suggests a lack of social life" ? But many people make careers out of exaggeration.
@Gelugon_baat @WCAR18 A single comment does not suggest a complete lack of a social life. Many, many pages full of them, however, do.
I think your time would be better spent drawing pictures that aren't creepy in more ways than one.
