Let's just get this out of the way: War for Cybertron--from Darkwatch and Bourne Conspiracy developer High Moon Studios--is far and away the best Transformers game on the market. If you are or were an avid fan of giant shape-shifting robots, you should not hesitate to at least give this game for a spin, and in fact, I'm betting you already have. For everyone else bred on the Modern Warfares and Halos of the world, is War for Cybertron worth taking a break for?
The answer is yes, but there are a couple of catches. For one, the single player campaign leaves much to be desired. It's "solid" and has its high points, but for the most part both campaigns (there are separate Decepticon and Autobot storylines) are generic and repetitive. The enemies are the same bland models over and over, save for a couple of interesting boss fights where you actually get to fight recognizable foes. You can select one robot from a choice of three before any mission, but the choice does little to mix things up. Worse, while High Moon has brought Cybertron to life with a myriad of moving parts in each level, they are naught but decorative and the levels themselves are totally bland corridors that all look the same and are filled with the same aforementioned bland enemies. I did not get a chance to try out the 3-player co-op mode which no doubt would've made it more fun, but the core experience is just...well, boring. To cap it off, the narrative is slow and shallow, hardly fulfilling the promise that we'd be seeing the full-fledged Cybertronian War.
The core gameplay, however, is very good--a fact that resonates in the game's fantastic multiplayer offering. High Moon has included a wealth of the standard game modes, including a Horde/Firefight-like endurance mode called Escalation, and there are customization options throughout. You can tweak the design of your very own Transformers based on the character models in the game, plus a few unlockable bonuses. Furthermore, you can customize loadouts, abilities and perks, and you can unlock extra configuration slots in each of the game's four classes. You earn experience by class, steadily unlock more of the options listed above, and each class can be leveled up to 25. Max out all 4 classes and you can start all over again in the Prestige-esque "Prime mode". Most importantly, the match-to-match gun play versus other human beings is extraordinarily fun. Essentially, WFC injects a bit of Bad Company 2's class system into Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer suite, and then tweaks everything to fit into the Transformers mold. The only complaint with the multiplayer is that it was hard to stay in the same room with people as I consistently would get disconnected after 1 or 2 matches, but the game is so fun that this is a minor, albeit irritating, complaint.
To wrap up, if you're looking for an entertaining interactive story to fill in the doldrums of your summer, then look elsewhere. However, if you are bored of the military shooters that have inundated the market, or would just like to try out something new that incorporates the best parts of your favorite multiplayer shooters, then look no further than Transformers: War for Cybertron.
OVERALL GRADE: B
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