Usually when a game comes out based on a line of toys, an 80’s cartoon, and two Michael Bay movies, you can bet it’s not going to be a winning combination. Transformers: WFC puts this stereotype to rest. The game at it’s core, is an action shooter. As you can guess, there is a war going on for the planet Cybertron, the home-world of the Autobots and Decepticons. This is an all out war, and the two sides are fighting to gain control of their beloved home planet. Most of the beloved characters are in the game and are selectable, with two characters being unlocked after beating each side of the campaign. there is also DLC with 5 more characters that are available for escalation and multiplayer modes.
The campaigns are a blast to play, literally. Right from the beginning you can select either campaign. The Autobot campaign takes place after the Decepticon campaign. Playing through the Autobot campaign first doesn’t leave you out in the cold as far as vital information goes, but it makes more sense if you do the chapters in order. The game gives you a choice between three difficulties, easy, medium, and hard. I found easy to be too easy and normal to be good for FPS regulars but hard isn’t too impossible either. In each level, you have three characters to pick from, each from a different class with different abilities and starting guns. There is a great amount of variety for guns, some more useful than others, regardless there are enough ammo drops and health containers around to give you a good chance of getting through the chapter. The characters banter during the campaign is very amusing, especially between Megatron and Star Scream. It definitely makes you feel as though you are there fighting with them.
The graphics are good to very good. There are a few places where the frame drops, but it’s not too distracting. You can see pretty far into the distance without it being too blocky. The music is very fitting, it gets dramatic at the right time and has an epic feeling to it, this leaves you with an immersive experience throughout the game. The game play mechanics are pretty solid. Reloading your gun does take a couple seconds, so it’s wise to reload after every firefight. Transforming in to your vehicle mode is smooth and has the catchy transforming noise everyone has come to love. The AI isn’t bad, they will hunt you down if you are taking cover, which adds a nice challenge to the gameplay . I didn’t run into any freeze ups or other problems that would cause me to restart my system. There are a few tiny difficulty spikes, but it’s not to the point where you would want to throw the disc out the window or throw your controller into the wall. The end boss is a pain to beat because he has a blaster that is basically a one hit kill. The game does have a moderate replay value because it is so fun.
I also put a few hours into multiplayer. It’s fast paced and a lot of fun. The only downfall is the poor match making, a team of level 3’s and 7’s vs a team of level 25’s isn’t exactly what most people would consider balanced. They have a ranking up system, like in Bioshock 2. Every time you reach certain levels you unlock new powers and guns to outfit your character during player matches. This can be a pain though as at times it only furthers the unbalance between teams. There is also a firefight/horde mode called escalation. This is were you and another person take on waves upon waves of harder and harder enemies. There are also unlockables in that mode.
In the end, Transformers: WFC, is definitely worth a play through. Its fun, fast-paced, has a good story, and most of all, it’s not one of the games based on the movies. The multiplayer is great (besides some balancing problems) and it offers an escalation mode. Transformers is really a great game in the disguise. Roll out!