Transformers The Game (console)

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One of these things is not like the others...

The console version of Transformers The Game follows several of the movie's robotic characters through an approximation of the movie's plot. The game has two campaigns, one for each faction. The Activision-published game was developed by Traveller's Tales, with cinematic cut scenes animated by Blur Studio.

Versions

• PlayStation 2
  • The PS2 version is the highest-reviewed, despite limitations on draw distance, physics and damage persistence. In this version, Blackout, Starscream and Barricade start missions 1, 2 and 4 of the Decepticon campaign in their altmodes, while for some reason the PS3 version has them start as robots. Reviews noted it suffers from fewer frame rate issues than other versions.

• Nintendo Wii
  • The Wii version is very similar to the PS2 version, with the addition of motion-sensor gimmicks that reviewers were resoundingly unimpressed by.

• Xbox 360
  • The PS3 and 360 version featured improved graphics, more persistent environmental damage, and more physics objects, including ridiculous clouds of rubble that eject themselves from buildings if you so much as look at them funny. The latter is generally annoying, since they get in the way when driving.

• • The 360 version, as might be expected, also features Achievements, though calling them that is somewhat of an exaggeration. There's one for pressing the "transform" button once. This version suffers less from frame rate issues and has better lighting then the PS3 version.

• • It was also available in a limited "Cybertron Edition" that featured exclusive packaging art, a "Making Of" DVD, codes that unlock the Cybertron level and issue 1 of the Transformers movie prequel comic by Simon Furman, Don Figueroa and Josh Burcham. It was exclusive to Gamestop/EB stores.

• • For 500 Microsoft points, players can download an add-on that unlocks everything in the game. While this does not disable Achievements like the cheat codes do, a message that reads "This item has been unlocked by a downloadable content pack" appears below any bonus features that have not been earned through gameplay.

• PlayStation 3
  • The PS3 version suffers from more frame rate issues than the 360 version, typical of lazy porting. For some reason, this includes frame rate issues in the FMV cinematics when the console itself isn't doing anything.

• • SixAxis motion control is also added for Decepticons with aircraft altmodes [Blackout, Starscream and Megatron]. It's disabled by default.

• PC DVD-ROM
  • The PC version is exactly like the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Synopsis

It can be surmised that the writers for the game had not seen the script for the movie. Or been allowed on the same continent as it.

"You said they'd reciprocate!"

Decepticons

Mission 1: SOCCENT Military Base

"Time for a delicious, cool...What? Pepsi?!"

Blackout started things off by shooting down an MH-53; confusingly, this happened in Qatar right near the military base, rather than in Afghanistan as might reasonably be expected. At Starscream's command, he then proceeded to the local puny human military base to wreck it because that's just how Starscream rolls.

"Damn it Scorponok, that is NOT my Powerlinx plug!"

Sadly, his plan to wreck stuff up all day was foiled by some human communication vehicles, and rather than destroy them himself he deployed Scorponok, as the slower, less powerful Decepticon would be much better equipped to deal with the situation. Blackout busied himself destroying some communication arrays in the meantime, hoping to steal their vending machines mainframes and grab some data.

Scorponok, having succeeded in destroying the communications trucks, returned to Blackout, whereupon Starscream revealed he had in fact failed to do that and some human reinforcements were on the way to make Blackout's life miserable. Blackout instead made their lives miserable, and the end of level screen helpfully explained the entire level had been pointless.

No, really.

Mission 2: The Hunt For Sam Witwicky

Barricade's protoform landed near a local donut store, and he promptly copied the nearby Saleen S281 (a police car near a donut store, see what they did there?) and got in contact with Starscream. Starscream informed him he was there to find Sam Witwicky, for some reason forgetting he was only supposed to know Sam's eBay username at this point. By finding Sam, Barricade would be able to get hold of a pair of glasses he owned that held the key to the end of the game. You're better off forgetting about this conversation entirely, it'll prevent later sanity loss.

This is what is technically known as a bad idea.

Starscream's plan to find Sam's location entailed Barricade driving to a more or less random part of town, where he was set upon by Autobot Drones, then driving to a different random part of town where he was set upon by Autobot Drones again. This incredibly important objective fulfilled, Barricade promptly teleported to a location he couldn't possibly get to during the actual mission, and was told to head to the power plant in order to find an irritating little abomination. Upon arrival, Barricade found himself faced with humans armed with rocket launchers, so immediately did the most sane and sensible thing and hid behind a line of propane tanks, which for some reason actually worked. Finding himself dealing with a magic Sector Seven SUV which could somehow hide itself inside buildings, Barricade was forced to tear down all the nearby buildings in his search for Frenzy as the small Decepticon's energy decreased, which, presumably, meant the humans were torturing (?!) him. In an SUV. In a building.

After repeating this several times and watching the SUV at one point burst out of a non-existent building next to the local police station, Barricade cornered Frenzy's captors at the local shopping mall, destroying the entire building and letting the cutscene gloss over how the hell Frenzy got out from under hundreds of tons of collapsed masonry. From this he determined that a human named Sam was in possession of a "pair of ocular lenses." Which both he and Starscream knew at the start of the level. Argh.

This is what you'll be doing for approximately 90% of the time you're in Tranquility, so get used to it.

Bumblebee then showed up heading for the police station, forcing Barricade to brave his abysmal driving controls in order to stop the Autobot. The heroic Bumblebee then resorted to using a ridiculous shockwave attack that destroyed a huge area of town every time he did it. Unperturbed by this inexplicable display of Autobot villainy, Barricade vanquished Bumblebee, then chased him down to the local Bay Demolition site, where he was ambushed by Swindle drones and Dropkick drones that were blue in the cinematic, despite being red. Despite having no reason to stay there and every reason not to, Barricade defeated all of them.

This led him back to the Police Station, which had impishly decided to reassemble itself since being destroyed in the second mission, as police stations are noted to do from time to time. Here he cornered Sam, but failed to walk the required two steps straight forward before Bumblebee smacked into his legs, picked up Sam and Mikaela and drove off. And then drove back or something, since the mission started with him in robot mode three hundred yards directly in front of Barricade.

Barricade fought with Bumblebee. Then Bumblebee drove off, Barricade followed, and they did it again. This happened several times, with Barricade at one point somehow ambushing Bumblebee despite the Autobot getting there before he did. After entirely too many identical fight sequences, Bumblebee lay defeated, Barricade recovered the glasses, and Sam, Bumblebee and Mikaela were surrounded by Sector Seven vehicles. It is again a good idea to forget that the Autobots no longer have the glasses and so have no idea where the All Spark is, as the game will forget this shortly.

Mission 3: A Gathering Farce Force

Starscream was next to take the reins, attacking a secret human airbase where Bonecrusher and Brawl had decided to hide out in a somewhat ill-advised manner. After discovering that he couldn't understand what the hell Frenzy was saying either, Starscream realised his radar was jammed by the local human communications equipment. A quick bout of destroying things later, this problem was solved, allowing him to locate Bonecrusher.

"Brawl! You're a tank! Use your tank parts!"
"I can't, I'm shy."
"What?!"

"None shall stand in my way!"
"Your talking privileges are hereby revoked, Bonecrusher."

Bonecrusher had stealthily hidden himself in the middle of a road surrounded by turrets firing weird electrical stuff at him, and proceeded to take a route through the airbase which cunningly didn't avoid any of the handful of checkpoints containing such turrets. Starscream, rather than reprimanding him for this idiocy, destroyed the checkpoints and escorted him onto the runway, then proceeded to a point near the runway for his next mission...Only to find himself stood next to Bonecrusher on the runway again. This somehow led to a mission to destroy drone aircraft, which upon careful inspection (which consisted of shooting down the aircraft, falling to the ground, picking it up and then throwing it away) had actually been made using technology based on Megatron's vehicle mode. Realizing this, Starscream no doubt viewed destroying these vehicles as useful practice.

Following on from this (somehow), Bonecrusher and Brawl moved out... Right into human gun batteries firing weird electricity. Since they had somehow forgotten what all their weapons were for, Starscream was once again called upon to do everything himself, flying back and forth using his strange rocket launcher to save his rather apathetic comrades from self-imposed doom. Since neither appeared to do anything in the game after this mission, you have to wonder why he bothered at all, really.

This was followed by an extended cutscene in which Starscream and Blackout arrived at the Hoover Dam and started trashing it, releasing Frank Welker's voice which declared they should probably stop screwing around and get to Mission City where the next mission was.

Mission 4: City of the Machines

Autobot forces arrived in Mission City despite having no idea of where the All Spark was (and Sam had it despite being arrested by Sector Seven), so, wary of stepping in any more plot holes, Megatron sent his Decepticons ahead of him. Except Starscream, who would not participate except at the very last battle in a cutscene, Brawl and Bonecrusher, who seemed to have got lost along the way.

"I didn't touch anything!"

Barricade found a redshirt protecting Sam and Mikaela, and found, moreover, that he lacked a stupid attack that made him invincible, making him easy prey. However, he reckoned without the Autobot unleashing the most horrifying weapon in his arsenal, the dreaded checkpoint race!

Megatron prepares to unleash his impression of someone else.

Somehow surmounting this horror, Barricade defeated Jazz again, leaving him dying at the foot of the large monument the race may or may not have ended somewhere near but probably didn't. Since Scorponok can't drill under roads and drilling is more or less his only ability, he was a clear logical choice to take over from the undamaged Barricade, and so did this, scuttling to Central Park (slowly) to kill a group of silly robotic crickets who were causing chaos, violence and confusion without first being Decepticons. This somehow led him to Sam, who was about to hand over the All Spark when Ironhide rather uncharitably kicked Scorponok into the monument (which the dead Jazz had vanished from in the interval). Blackout was understandably angered by this mistreatment of his adorable pet evil robot, and vowed to give Ironhide the honor of dying by his blade.

Ironhide pulled out everything he had: every drone type except Mixmaster and Dreadwing showed up to ruin Blackout's day, and Ironhide himself used the dastardly tactics of being invincible for most of the battle, unleashing a never-ending torrent of rockets which Blackout could do nothing about but accept whenever he approached Ironhide too closely, ordering his troops to get stuck on the scenery behind him so they'd be impossible to reach, and making sure every energy-bearing human helicopter crash-landed on the roof of a building where Blackout couldn't get to it. Despite this, Blackout finally defeated him, allowing Megatron to return from whatever the hell he was doing all this time and commence the final battle. The penultimate final battle, as it turned out.

This consisted of Megatron trying to coax Optimus out of hiding by destroying things at random, which would make the brave Autobot leader not appear in person as was expected, but made some drones appear, Megatron destroying them at random, and then this cycle repeating, with Megatron being forced to move to sectors of the city which had not been previously destroyed by his reign of terror and destroying those buildings in what seemed to last forever. 80 (!) drones later, Megatron finally got fed up with this and climbed the tallest building in the city, whereupon the programmers realised they'd driven the player character to suicide and hurriedly ended the level.

Mission 5: Day of the Machines

Having been affected by the same Apathy Radiation from the All Spark that kept Megatron from doing anything in the previous mission, Peter Cullen's voice finally got off his tin backside to have a final confrontation with Frank Welker's voice, just like the good old days. Logically, Optimus inspired himself from a movie featuring a giant beast mode, climbed the tallest building in New York and this is where the final confrontation began. This largely consisted of Optimus fighting Megatron for a while, then running away while Megatron fought some drones, then hiding while Megatron flew around in circles and a not-even-slightly-explained timer counted down, while Megatron tried desperately to quickly find the Allspark while dodging the buildings which had been coated with an unknown substance that made him automatically revert to robot mode. After an alarmingly large number of repetitions of this, Optimus finally keeled over out of sheer frustration, allowing Megatron to absorb the All Spark.

Megatron decided that the Lincoln Memorial would make a fine throne (again) as the Decepticons, even Brawl who had been absent previously, joined together to watch the eradication of the human race. After getting bored of watching things burn, it was time for his triumphant return to Cybertron, which apparently consisted of fighting a bunch of Autobot drones in a big arena while the plot hid in a corner and pretended it wasn't there.

Autobots

A Mysterious meteor crashed down to earth, scanned a yellow Camaro, and was contacted by his leader, who told him to find an artifact, but warned him to beware Decepticon drones. The car, Bumblebee, zoomed off and defeated the drones, Scrappers and Dropkicks.

Logic, etc etc.

Suddenly he saw Swindles and a Dropkick headed for Bobby Bolivia's car shop. He stopped them and was purchased by Sam Witwicky. The next day Barricade attacked Sam, but Bumblebee stopped him while racing from one place to another, defending Sam. When Barricade was defeated Bumblebee had to destroy Decepticon radio towers preventing the Autobots from landing and clear a landing site. Soon Sector Seven found the Autobots. In his new alt mode, Bumblebee took Sam and Mikaela Banes to safety, while Jazz distracted distracted S7. Decepticon drones attacked, however, and Ironhide had to rescue him. Bumblebee was taken by a S7 helicopter and Optimus had to follow the Autobot in vehicle mode. Just as Optimus Prime was about to rescue his comrade however, the Decepticon Shockwave attacked. To prevent Shockwave from destroying the city, Optimus had to follow him from place to place and finally kill him.

In Hoover Dam, Bumblebee escaped and broke open the command center doors, but security robots went to sound the alarm. Bumblebee easily killed them and destroyed a console. Now he had to destroy cooling fans. After they were destroyed he had to race out of the tunnels they were in and finally, destroy generators. Bumblebee shrunk the All Spark while fighting off Energon drones and Megatron. Finally the war was coming to an end in Mission City. Ironhide rescued Bumblebee from the energon drones and Jazz killed Starscream and Blackout. Suddenly, Brawl killed the small Autobot. Ironhide took revenge, however, by killing Brawl. Finally, Bumblebee killed Barricade and after a long fight, Optimus killed Megatron.

That's one heck of a lot of killing.

Response

The game's Metacritic scores hover around fifty-five percent. It was criticised for poor driving controls, blocky graphics, repetitive missions and dull combat; the only thing generally praised was the random destruction. So the Decepticons won.

Technical errors and oddities

• Transformer Protoforms have to scan their altmodes after landing as per the movie; however, drones have an Earth vehicle altmode the instant they land; presumably, so does Shockwave, since Tranquility is a little light on purple Apaches or purple howitzers.
• In the first mission of the Autobot campaign, Swindle drones are walking down the street to Sam's house. WHY they even bother to have altmodes is not clear.
• The residents of Tranquility are apparently capable of rebuilding a power station's gas tank farm within less than an hour, then rebuilding the entire tank farm and three of the chimneys again within less than six.
• Autobots still have the "Destruction" unlock gauge appear, but it crosses out faction symbols rather than having them appear. If it's filled, a large red X goes to the left side of the screen instead of a faction symbol; however, whether by accident or design, this doesn't actually do anything, and the Autobots are free to be as destructive as the Decepticons. It doesn't help that this gauge is filled by causing damage to any scenery and has to be maxed out multiple times while destroying, for example, the clamps that hold the All Spark.
• The final Autobot mission in Hoover Dam's depiction of the defrosting Megatron is all kinds of screwy:
  • Before the mission is triggered, he's shown covered in a layer of ice.
  • In the pre-mission cutscene, there's suddenly not a hint of ice on him at all.
  • As the mission starts, he's encased in ice again, save his left arm which is shifted to the left (his left) of the section of ice that should be around it, which is just kind of hanging there.
  • When the cutscene plays during the mission, Megatron breaks the ice surrounding his left arm, and there's clearly none on his face.
  • When gameplay resumes, there's ice on his face again.
  • In the end of mission cutscene, he's suddenly defrosted right down to his hips.
  • Argh.
• The PS2 version features a bizarre error; in the opening cinematic to Barricade's first mission in Mission City, after Jazz's door slams there is no further post-recording sound work. This means Barricade's voice is completely unaltered. He sounds like Sideshow Bob. The PS3 and Xbox360 versions have the effects added correctly, but it's unknown if the Wii version suffers the same screw-up.
• In the final mission of Chapter 3 for the Decepticons, it's just this side of entirely possible to be too good at it. If the final set of gun turrets facing Bonecrusher is destroyed too fast, he'll reach the last checkpoint before Brawl does and transform. Unfortunately, the turrets' ability to actually take damage is pretexted on Brawl transforming, so all you can do is stand around waiting for Bonecrusher to drop dead. Bonecrusher hates poor bug testing.
• In Decepticon Chapter 4, mission 2's intro cinematic has Scorponok firing from a Gatling gun in his tail. This weapon doesn't exist.
• Because the end of mission "mission complete" screens follow straight on from the game play, some very strange things can happen in them. A good example is the above mission; if Scorponok ends the mission firing at the ground in front of the statue at one end of the park, the "mission complete" screen will show his own bullets hitting him.(The same thing can happen anywhere in the game.)
• Before the final battle in the Autobot campaign, spark drones are just lying around on the street waiting to be brought to life by the All Spark.
• Other cars are like cardboard. Jazz can ram in to a truck, and it will go flying in the air .

Trivia

• The Autobots really like transforming into robots. Optimus likes it so much, he jumps thirty feet into the air every time he does it.
• Rather than do the sane thing and pan away, we get to watch a robot-mode protoform Bumblebee grow kibble after scanning the Camaro. This looks roughly twice as ridiculous as what you're currently imagining.
• Punching your enemies in the face repeatedly is "heroic" when Autobots do it, but "evil" when Decepticons do it. Sounds like a double standard!
• Blackout is toy accurate in the game, in that his main rotor is his melee weapon, rather than his tail rotor as in the movie.
• Tranquility features a large number of Generation 1 references, with adverts for "Seaspray's Fish and Chips," a local mall called "Metroplex" and a fast food restaurant named "Chip Chase's". As a more recent reference, there is also a building site belonging to "Bay Demolition".
• One Autobot isn't explicitly killed in the Decepticon campaign: Ratchet. Three Decepticons aren't killed in the Autobot campaign: Bonecrusher, Scorponok and Frenzy. The only character who dies in both campaigns is, unsurprisingly enough, Jazz. Even when every other bit of movie canon is thrown out the window he still can't make it out alive.
• Bumblebee uses some kind of axe when he fights with a three-punch combo.
• Ratchet, Bonecrusher, Brawl, and Frenzy aren't playable.
• It is possible to unlock hidden toy-inspired "skins" for several characters, such as Generation 1 Jazz, Robo-Vision Optimus Prime (minus flames) and Generation 1 Starscream (minus the resculpted head).
• Similarly, one can unlock Generation 1 Optimus Prime and Megatron, replacing their movie counterparts with new 3D models (unlike the previous skin recolors). Optimus Prime converts into his original truck mode, but fires from his fists rather than using his trademark ion blaster, and Megatron cannot transform into his gun mode (instead he starts flying in robot mode when the "transform" button is pressed).

Differences between the Game and Movie

The Quarterspark.

• All plotlines relating to humans have been removed; the game has nothing involving GI Joes (replaced by a communication truck), agents (replaced by guests Landmine and Stockade), or comic relief (replaced by the cutscenes). Even Sam himself has barely any role beyond "holder of the MacGuffins."
• Video game Bumblebee breaks free inside Hoover Dam and has to deactivate a silly laser grid to get to the All Spark. Sam turns up at the end of the mission just in time to leave.
• The game's All Spark is tiny, only four or five times taller than Bumblebee as opposed to the movie's city block-sized cube. It's housed in the same room as Megatron (great idea, guys!) who's shoved into a little alcove rather than freestanding in his own room.
• Barricade is present at the Mission City battle. Same for Scorponok, in the Decepticon Campaign.
• In the Autobot campaign, Brawl kills Jazz after Jazz kills Blackout and Starscream. In the Decepticon campaign, Barricade kills Jazz. Either way, Megatron doesn't.
• Autobot Campaign: Bumblebee kills Barricade in Mission City. In the movie, Barricade's fate is uncertain.
• Autobot Campaign: Optimus, rather than Sam, kills Megatron with the All Spark.
• Decepticon Campaign: Shoving the All Spark cube into his own chest does not kill Megatron, apparently.

External links

• Official website for Transformers: The Game

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