If there is one thing I remember fondly from my past it is Transformers, robots changing into trucks, brilliant, they just don’t make them like that anymore, so when I first caught sight of a trailer for the new movie you could say I was excited and not because of the movie, no but because of the game that I knew would inevitably follow. I know what the cynical amongst you are thinking, it’s a film license so wont it be mediocre just like all the rest? Read on and find out. 

Transformers is a action game which closely follows the storyline of the movie, it is set in a destructible environment and although to begin with it has a free roaming feel about it, you will soon find out that if you want to get anywhere you will have to follow the games (very basic) objectives. Players start out by choosing the path of either the Autobots or Decepticons, each has a different path to follow, which certainly makes things a bit more interesting.

The Autobots missions mainly involve destroying invading enemy bots or certain objects, it is fair to say that there is nothing very complex about these missions. As with most robot games, it has a very clean feeling to it, there is not a speck of blood to be seen no matter how many cars you tread on or buildings you smash, so you can destroy all you want without harming anyone, but as the Autobots are the good guys this is probably best left to the Decepticons.

One of the disappointing aspects of the Autobots missions is Optimus Prime’s quests, given that he is the bot most people remember as the dominant force, it is sad that he spends most of his missions driving around trying to get from A to B within a set time limit. It really makes no sense that more hasn’t been made of his strengths, even when you do use his weapons they rarely have any effect anyway as most of the bosses are too quick or strong to be damaged by them, meaning that you will spend most of the time brawling your way to victory, although given you only have a few combos to use even this isn’t very exciting, to put it bluntly the combat system is very poor.

The Decepticon missions are probably more fun to play, this is because the missions offer more of a challenge and are much better than their goodie counterparts, they also have some great moves, one example being Scorponok who can burrow underground and cause maximum destruction. The most fun thing about playing as the Decepticon is causing as much damage to the environment as possible and being rewarded for it, this certainly adds to the games otherwise countless flaws. 

Throughout the game you will come across hidden items called power cubes, this allows you to unlock various items which can be viewed from the main menu including art and trailers from the movie and game. It is probably fair to say that only true fans may be interested in this content but it is still a good  to have this included.

Graphically the game is a major disappointment, the environments are some of the most disappointing to be seen in a game for quite a while, trees, poles and other objects feel stuck on and give no feeling of realism, as do the buildings, the cut scenes don’t offer much either and are very average. Considering that this is a game on next generation console the presentation is a bit of a let down.

The most fun Transformers offers is playing as a Decepticon and crushing the environments to the ground, however this gets old quickly and what you are left with after that happens is not a lot, to sum up this game we only need to use a few words - movie tie in - , that says it all really and from this you can probably guess what was needed to make this a good game, more time.