Can you honestly say that the Transformers are not just a little bit cool? The movies are excellent with awesome special effects, fun pop-corn entertainment with plenty of action and Megan Fox is very nice to look at. Even the toys and TV show way back when we kids was a great time with a lot of enjoyment we never saw or rarely saw with any other show or toy. Now days as adults, or as close to an adult as we act, we can see our childhood fantasies come to life on the big screen and on our TV’s or computer screens. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is one of those games I had high hopes for which would finally bring us that one great and unforgettable Transformers game. Did it succeed or is this another bad movie game experience developers never seem to learn from?

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen you can take control of either the Autobots or Decepticons in two different campaigns and play through various levels destroying your sworn enemies in an attempt to control what is left of the All-Spark. With plenty of recognizable bots and some not so recognizable ones it is remarkable how well the variety of drivable, flyable and walking Robots in Disguise actually work in the game and how they look as well is right up there with the latest movies. Plenty of unlockables such as classic TV Shows, awesome, and new missions make this more than a quick play through for the Transformer die-hard fans out there that want the complete experience but for fans that only have a passing fancy of the Transformers brand who are just looking for a game to enjoy probably will not find much here.


Gameplay

In this day and age as gaming hits its stride, when even small indie development teams can create a truly innovative game in terms of gameplay it makes you wonder if the developers who are working on big named titles have ever played a video game. This might sound harsh but just play with the default controls and wonder at why they did what they did with the controls. Such as holding a button to stay transformed and if you release it you will return to your robot mode. I guess hitting the button once to transform and again to return to your robot state was something too difficult for a default control scheme.
Other than the regrettable button holding concept the rest of the game has good gameplay and the fast gameplay works most of the time. Sometimes a big jump works as intended and other times it does not while other times you will attempt to climb up the side of a building and it just won’t start climbing until your second attempt.

Multiplayer is a forgettable experience in the long run with the only true bright spot being the fact you can have some big fights with your favorite Autobots and Decepticons. If you have been a fan of the series since you were a little kid this is a treat because now we can play what we only imagined back as kids. A full Co-op campaign and many more multiplayer choices would have been better and added much to this games value but of course it is a generic movie game and we cannot expect more than we got.

One of the best features is the unlockables you will come across as you play the game. My favorite was unlocking one of the classic Transformer cartoon episodes from the 1980’s series. This is certainly one of the bright points in the game because it does show the developers did pay tribute to the brand and the fans of the Transformers in at least one way.


Graphics

At first, the graphics of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen actually seem to be good but as you play the game for a few minutes you begin to notice the repetitive use of textures, buildings and the very limited size of the levels you will fight in. The Transformers you will fight are usually the best looking model on the screen other than your own Robot in Disguise. Other characters from the movies that make an appearance look nothing like their real life counterpart and you have to wonder if the 3D artists ever saw Megan Fox or could they not afford to use her likeness? She was doing PR for the game so she was behind it.


Audio

Most of the audio in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is average at best and some of it, such as most of the non-Transformer voice acting is downright horrible. There is a bright light for audiophiles who enjoy, and who doesn’t, good voice acting and that is with the use of the voice talent for the Transformers themselves are the same actors who provided their voices for the movies. It is just too bad that the rest of the audio and the script are so poorly written the story becomes laughable at times and cringe worthy the rest of the time.


Value

With a seriously mediocre multiplayer game and a forgettable single player game there is not much overall value for gamers in this title. While this is not surprising for a game based on a movie it is a shame that fans of the Transformers franchise are still forced to wait for someone to take the series seriously and develop a real game rather than what they give us.

Bottom Line

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a game that one should only buy if they are an absolute die-hard Transformers fan and must have it for their collection along with their Optimus Prime underwear and Bumble Bee lunch box. For gamers who like the movies it is at most a rent for a weekend.