Transformers: war for cybertron review

Overall-6/10

I hate purple dinosaur...

Gameplay-7/10
Win
-excellent singleplayer story
-interesting gameplay in escalation
-original optimus voiceover
Fail
-retarded AI
-lack of interesting weapons
-shooting mechanics get boring over time
-tedious boss fight

Visuals-5/10
Win
-interesting transformer design
Fail
-uninspiring environments and design
-limited variety of environements
-unreal 3 engine no longer up to standard

Even not being a transformer fan, promise to bring gamers back to where all the shit began in transformer universe, really catch my attention even before its release. But can this relatively unknown developer called high moon deliver the goods?
Lets start with what they done right. Original voiceover for optimus is a great bonus. Realtime transformation of transformer looks cool. The story involving the fall of cybertron is great. Escalation, co op for campaign and a class based multiplayer isnt revolutionary but should last you awhile longer before you start getting bored.
Bored? Well you see, the gameplay mechanic isnt as polish you would come to expect. Ever fancy a transformer that needs to hunt for ammo for their weapons? Personally i dont. The weapon choice itself is very boring and they could have created a system where different class of transformer will be able to employ the same weapon differently. Even though u can transform as often as you like, lack of customisation and nothing to make up for the lost of meele ability in vehicle form makes it pretty useless. Vehicles also lack interesting and important abilities that may make them indispensable in a battle. Therefore vehicle transformation is more of a cosmetic layer and lack any tight intergration with the gameplay.
Next the AI is horrible, both allies and enemies. Think you would stop seeing badly programmed AI by 2010? High moon studio is here to prove you wrong. Blind, slow reaction, stuck in pathfinding and worst of all gaining abilities missing on the real player itself is unforgivable. Guess whats their unique ability that the devs didnt grant you? The type of cover system you see in Mass effect 2 or gears of war and a much welcomed feature if implemented for players. Theres quite a number of boss battles that is noteworthy of being tedious and repeatitive with lame 1 hit ko attacks that irritate the hell out of you.
The next biggest mistake is using Unreal engine 3. Theres some cases where UE3 still produce presentable visuals like Mass effect 2 through nice art direction and some additional effort from the devs. But in this case, be ready to look at the same boring metal waste land with very limited variety. Some transformer and enemy design is unique but ruined by low polygon and resolution.
Good thing this game came out before starcraft 2 or it probably be lost among Blizzard's marketing blitzkrieg. Though not up to my definition of being a polish game but its still playable and nostalgia for those transformer fans out there.

Spot the spider


One of the few scenes that play and look great


Uh oh?