I’m still pissed off that Bay gave Optimus moving robotic lips in the first film, but the overall awesomeness of seeing CGI Transformers 20+ years after the fact allows me to tolerate such insubordination. I never played the first game based on the movie, though.
Activision’s title sold over a million copies, but received less than desirable reviews from jerks like me. Sometimes you just need to leave things alone, but the gaming industry is notorious for such crimes against humanity. And wouldn’t you know it; there was another TF game coming based on the upcoming movie. Truth be told, I wasn’t all that excited to get a preview of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen the game, but what else was I going to do on a Friday.
So the game starts out in Shanghai like the movie and you’re trying to figure out what the Decepticon insurgence is all about. Megatron is dead and the Autobots just want to go home, but that’s easier said than done. Apparently Simmons knows what’s going on with the Decepticons. You can jump in and out of missions during campaign mode as you please and you can play as a Decepticon or Autobot. The “War Room” is the home base for missions and where you return to when a mission is over. If you did a bad job of protecting humans and causing massive destruction during your mission then Optimus will let you know about it in the “War Room.”
Gameplay looked so-so, but a little more polished than what I’ve seen from the first game. When transforming you don’t lose momentum, which I’m told was an issue in the first game. Think of the major battle scene at the end of the first movie when Iron Hide does a crazy flip transformation while that lady screams bloody murder as he leaps over her. Like real life, Iron Hide has dual shotguns, a grenade launcher and a special ability that allows him to drop turrets. This gives him some backup when he’s being bombarded from both land and air. Specialty kills like headshots or land-to-air kills will add to your “Overdrive” meter and when full will make you faster and give faster reloads among other beefed up attributes. There’s also an Energon (sp?) meter that gets full when you defeat Decepticons and let’s you buy upgrades, which can be shared amongst the team.
Boss Battles look daunting especially when the only one I saw had Devastator in it. Optimus sure looked like a puny ‘bot compared to that monstrosity.
I was told that this title would have the largest cast of characters with DLC packs coming soon after launch that includes characters not from G1. Think Dinobots. It wasn’t confirmed, but the guys from Activision alluded to unlockable ‘skins’ when I asked about playing Bumblebee as a VW Bug and not a f*#^ing Camaro. And this might be complete BS, but I think there was mention of Gobots. I may have misunderstood what I was told, so take that with a Texas-sized grain of salt.
If you do a kickass job during a mission you can unlock content bonuses like video from G1! Multiplayer online will have a 4 on 4 mode, Team Death match and a Capture the All Spark.
There will be a 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and DS versions of the game with various developers and publishers. The DS will actually get two versions so you can play as a Decepticon or Autobot and battle over Wi-Fi with your chums.
If the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions from Luxoflux can deliver on the DLC front with good content then this sequel might actually do well based on the fact that nerds like myself will want to play as Dinobot or some other TF Universe character. Look for the game to drop on June 23.