Sunday, July 1, 2012

Transformers: War for Cybertron

For some reason, I waited until very recently to get Transformers War for Cybertron. I should not have. It's great! So far I've played as Megatron, Thundercracker, and Optimus (not yet Prime). One of the few things that bothers me is that with characters who can dash, the dash button is different in your vehicle form. It's mildly annoying, but I'm already pretty used to it. The other thing is that there's no tutorial stage at the beginning. When you don't know how to do something, you have to look it up in the pause menu. And I suppose I'm spoiled since I know what improvements are coming in the sequel, but in each level, you have three character choices, but whichever one you chose, you play through the level pretty much the same way. Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker being interchangeable makes sense, since (with all due respect) Skywarp and Thundercracker are basically purple Starscream and blue Starscream. But Optimus and Bumblebee being choices for the same level just doesn't compute to me. Optimus is the leader of the Autobots, so you'd think he's stronger and tougher, and the little guy, who's job (with all due respect) is often just to make friends with pointless human characters, wouldn't be equipped to handle the opposition that Optimus does. Ratchet makes some sense here since he's a medic, and it's a good idea to bring one along. If the characters had more varied playstyles, like a modified version of the "holy trinity" approach that is so often seen in MMOs, that would be cool. However, the game is already a great game. And please don't mistake my elaboration on one of its flaws for emphasis. The game has many high points. For example, the story is interresting because it's basically a prequel to G1. It explains how Optimus became Optimus Prime, and why Starscream hates Megatron. And also, you know the good guys are going to lose, but they continue to fight bravely. Speaking of which, the combat is also pretty cool. The weapons have a fair amount of variation, the characters are powerful but not overpowered, and also, everyone I've played as has a pretty awesome mele attack. Megatron has an energon mace and Optimus has an energon battle axe. War for Cybertron is interresting, and most importantly, fun. And even if you're not a Transformers fan, but you like a good sci-fi action game, you'll probably enjoy War for Cybertron.

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