Transformers: The Game

Transformers The Game is as underwhelming as Transformers The Movie. A lot of missed potential. Too bad.

I just hope in the next game they amp up the free roam capabilities and truly allow us to dive into the world of the robots from Cybertron.

Being in control of giant robots with the ability to nearly level an entire GTA-like city sounds like nothing but fun, but issues get in the way.

Transformers does have a few redeeming moments, like when you get to play as Scorponok, but there are just way too many long stretches of mediocrity for me to be able to recommend this one.

It’s about on par with all other movie licensed games: relatively short, decent graphics, decent gameplay, and not much value to it.

If you liked the movie and have a high tolerance for missed potential and repetitive, button-mashing gameplay, give Transformers: The Game a shot.

While new and veteran fans of the Transformers were thrilled with Bay's movie, the Activision game is a complete bust.

A big, loud, shallow action game that severely lacks in content.

The Game is the best twenty-dollar game you will ever pay sixty dollars for, and in this case you can rest assured that there really isn’t any “more than meets the eye.”

So, lame missions, filled, again, with arbitrary restrictions like time limits and invisible walls, meet a clunky camera and mindless wash/rinse/repeat combat that doesn’t require the suspension of disbelief, but the annihilation of it.

The 2004 videogame adaptation of the Transformers: Armada line from Atari (on PS2) was a Transformers game done right. It had better visuals, cooler incentives for moving between robot and vehicular forms, and boasted some of the best boss battles that year. But Activision's 2007 iteration doesn't live up to that standard. Its lack of depth and poor mission design ensures that.

Very similar to most Michael Bay films - graphically intense, but shallow in terms of character and story. Add to that boring combat and you have a game good for fans of the upcoming movie only, though not even Transformer fan in general.

The clunky controls, lousy storytelling and overall unappealing gameplay make it difficult to recommend this game because you’re better off watching the movie.

A lazy film tie-in, barely redeemed by some fan-pleasing extras. Only satisfies in brief flashes. [Sept 2007, p.70]

It's hard to recommend Transformers: The Movie on its own merits, but those looking to simply stomp around a city as Optimus Prime will have some fun with it.