It's a shame Transformers' excellent high points are surrounded by such mediocrity.
Upon starting Transformers: War for Cybertron, you might get the sense High Moon Studios were attempting to do the same thing for Transformer fans. With just a little more polish, however, War for Cybertron could have been a much better title.
That isn't to say it's a bad game, because it isn't. If you're a fan of Transformers in any form, this is the game to play. Forget about the movie tie ins, this one is completely playable and does offer some fantastic set pieces and exciting game play.
High Moon got the most necessary step for a Transformers game down: the transforming aspect. In most other titles, changing from robot to vehicle form could be fun but it never felt fully integrated and more often than not useless. As a third person shooter, there remains little opportunities where it seems necessary to transform. Although certain segments demand it, such as racing off a highway as it explodes behind you. You won't find yourself wanting to turn into a car in the middle of a firefight, which is pretty much the entirety of the game, but credit is due here for implementing segments and boss tactics designed to make a player transform for better results. Considering you can still shoot and strafe in most vehicle forms it's never completely useless, which is an improvement over it's predecessors.
The game features two separate campaigns. One for the Autobots, and the other for their enemy the Decepticons. You have the ability to begin as one or the other at the beginning but it's completely progressive from beginning to end if you start as the Decepticons. Meaning, the Decepticon campaign is "Chapter 1" and the Autobot campaign is "Chapter 6" and takes place after Megatron finishes his task. You won't replay similar segments, no repeat of levels or intertwining story. It's a bit unfortunate the story isn't a bit more intricate as the Transformers storyline has been known to be a little more involving than it might let on.
Each chapter gives the player the option of which character he wants to control. It's a nice addition, but a little disappointing at the same time. Each level has 3 predetermined characters, instead of a full roster of each team. If you like to play as Barricade in the first level that's too bad. That's the only level he's in. Each campaign also has it's own flight mission where you take on the role of a Transformer that can turn into a jet. These are the high points of the game. The levels are well designed and offer enough variety for players that want to run and gun, fly and shoot, or a mixture of the two. The Autobot one was particularly fun and features a Star Fox feeling ending and a great, epic scope that the game's story truly deserved.
The game certainly has it's high points. Fights can be huge and frantic, transforming looks great and has it's uses scattered throughout, and it feels different. The electronic world of Cybertron is interesting when so many games are filled with jungles and cities. It's the low points, or rather, the complete mediocrity of the rest of it that hampers it down.
War for Cybertron feels like a cover based shooter with no cover mechanic. The over the shoulder camera angle can be a nuisance considering you can't switch which shoulder you're looking over as titles like Uncharted offer. Guns are you're typical assault rifle/shotgun/rocket launcher variant which is a bit of a disappoint given how Transformers normally have these unique weapons throughout the series. Boss fights vary on either interesting or uninspired. You're battling a giant robot, yet you feel like you've done this somewhere else. The game feels like your typical third person shooter that you've been playing for years only with a Transformers paint job. It's too bad, really, because with a little more "umph" behind the gun fights and a better camera it would have felt more solid.
Art design is also a mixture of excellence mixed with mediocrity to downright "Why did they do this?" questioning. The world of Cybertron is unique and can have some amazing visuals. However, around the half way point it all begins to look the same. There are a few segments where things are different so you know the developers had ideas but they're few and far in between. The ability for keeping it fresh is there, just not fully realized. There are also some design flaws that feel like the game didn't have any testers helping. For example, during an Autobot mission you have to storm a Decepticon base (what else?) and they have snipers. The snipers in this game use laser sights like every other sniper in third person shooters these days (Why would a sniper with a scope be using a laser sight? No one knows!). The Decepticon laser sights are purple. The walls they're near, and most of them around you as well, are purple. The enemies, are also purple. Add in a hail of gunfire and explosions and it's seizure inducing fun, for sure.
The game also comes loaded with online multiplayer. Competitive multiplayer features similar problems as the campaign: the shooting needs a little work and transforming is more often than not done just to irritate a foe. It also features a mode called "Escalation" which is basically survival/horde mode you'd find in other modern shooters. You have the option to play as any character you want (depending on Autotbot or Decepticon stage) and it's a nice mixture of cooperative play. One might be a tank, another a jet, another truck, another a car, etc. It can be frantic and exciting. Unfortunately, at this moment the community is rather small. At time of writing, it took 20-30 minutes to find a game, as the amount of players online was abysmal. Also, there is DLC but if you're just looking to test the waters there are only 2 maps in the box. It isn't unlikely to get into a match to be informed that you don't have the required map to join. Still, finding a game there is fun to be had with Escalation mode.
So even with some blatant flaws and confusing design choices, War for Cybertron is fun to play if you're a Tranformers fan. The voice acting might be cheesy to people unfamiliar with the series, but for fans of the original cartoon it's spot on campy fun. The story progresses in a fashion you'd expect, so the single player campaign is totally worth it. Competitive multiplayer can be fun, and Escalation is a blast if you can actually find a game. If you don't like Transformers then don't bother, there are other and better third person shooters out there. But for fans, this is a huge step in the right direction but it still needs a little work.