Games that are based on movies or TV series are usually rather disappointing as they rarely live up to the original television or movie counterpart that they are based on. Transformers: War for Cybertron changes this gaming stereotype by not only being a good game, but by employing a unique and absorbing storyline that fill us in on how things went down before the mighty and sophisticated alien creatures landed on our planet.

 

 

The game’s storyline doesn’t follow any of the movies and even predates the TV series. It kicks off during the final days of the Autobot’s and Decepticon’s epic civil war on the surface of their home planet Cybertron. This choice of the developer High Moon Studios has made it possible to fill fans in on some of the back stories to the popular series, such as Optimus’ rise in the ranks of the Autobots to become Optimus Prime as well as Starscream’s defection to the Autobots.

 

Game modes  

 

You choose to play the Decepticon or Autobots campaign and can also tackle the campaign by yourself or with your friends in co-op mode. Furthermore, you can also choose to tackle the campaign as different bots, for example as Megatron or one of his robotic henchman, like the soldier Brawl or the scout Barnicle. 

 

Each member of the unit is of a different class, allowing for different responsibilities within the campaign for example doing the scouting for the path forward or barring the brunt of the fighting as the soldier. Each class also has unique abilities such as a scientific class Transformer like Ratchet’s ability to project an Energon shield barrier to protect him from enemy fire or a scout like Bumblebee’s ability to quickly dash in any direction. 

 

The world of Cybertron and all its colourful robotic inhabitants is really well designed and looks great thanks to High Moon Studios’ use of the Unreal Engine. The voices of the various characters will also let gamers hark back to the original TV series.   

 

The game sports several multiplayer modes, allowing players to complete missions with or against their friends via familiar options like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch and newer ones such as Escalation, which is a four-player online co-op mode that allows gamers to fight together as Autobots or Decepticons versus seemingly countless amounts of enemies using teamwork to survive.

 

The game also enables you to create your own Transformers character for the head-to-head multiplayer modes. You can choose among four distinct character classes, personalise your character’s look and select from a variety of weapons, skills and abilities to equip it with.

 

 

Transformers: War for Cybertron will satisfy fans, but will also get newcomers hooked or at least more interested in the series. Thanks to its well scripted storyline it transforms the bland movie-based game stereotype into an interactive homage to the popular Transformers universe.