Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (console)
| This article is about the home console/PC version. For the Nintendo 3DS version, see Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (3DS). |
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| Developer | Edge of Reality | ||||||
| Publisher | ActiVision | ||||||
| Platforms | PlayStation 3 & 4 Xbox 360 & One Nintendo Wii U PC | ||||||
| Continuity | Aligned continuity family Movie continuity | ||||||
| Chronology | Between War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron Alternate version of Age of Extinction | ||||||
| Rating | ESRB: Teen PEGI: 12 | ||||||
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is a video game jointly-created by both Hasbro and Activision, released on June 24, 2014 in Europe and North America, and June 25 in Australia[1]. Developed by Edge of Reality for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and PC[2], it incorporates elements of both the Transformers film franchise and the War for Cybertron / Fall of Cybertron games. The story will take place before the Ark is launched in the Aligned continuity, while it also occurs simultaneously with the events of Age of Extinction and its aftermath. It features over forty playable characters, slightly fewer than the Nintendo 3DS version. [3]
Synopsis
Chapter I: The Dark Spark
- Character: Drift
Above Earth, a strange object flies through space, destroying a satellite in orbit. The mysterious item flies past a ship, piloted by none other than the legendary mercenary Lockdown. One of his henchmen arrives in the cockpit and asks Lockdown what it was. He replies that it is "the past come calling." Drift, the Decepticon-turned-Autobot, arrives in a burning city to investigate. He notices that something crash-landed nearby. He contacts Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and tells him about the strange object. Prime instructs Drift to investigate the crash site, but while Drift is en route, Lockdown's goons attack the city. Recognizing that they are not Decepticons, Drift reports to Optimus, who correctly guesses that they are mercenaries (much to Drift's disdain). Drift takes out all three mercenaries and, at Optimus's instruction, equips himself with blasters to better fight with, he continues to the site of the crash, taking out mercenaries as he goes. Drift meets up with Optimus and Bumblebee, and the three arrive at the crash site. The Autobots discover an object that Drift does not recognize, but its appearance horrifies Optimus. To make things worse, Lockdown's henchman have arrived first. After another fight, the Autobots walk to the edge of the crater, and Optimus reveals to Drift that it is the Dark Spark. Before it can be retrieved, Lockdown arrives and steals the artifact for himself. The Dark Spark's power prevents him from intervening, and all he can do is furiously watch as Lockdown departs in his ship for parts unknown.
Chapter II: The Lost Vault
- Characters: Soundwave (WFC)/ Shockwave (WFC)
As Shockwave and Starscream fly through the an ancient, abandoned Cybertronian city, Starscream complains of Megatron sending him on a fool's errand to find a mystical relic that may or may not exist. As this sparks a discussion between Shockwave and Starscream, Soundwave chimes in over the com link, demanding "less talk". As the three 'cons make their way through the city and into an ancient vault, they are met with heavy resistance from feral cybernetic life forms Shockwave has dubbed "Insecticons". Upon destroying the Insecticons attacking them, Shockwave splits off from the group, hoping to find out more about the vault thy are in and what is hidden in it. He never gets the chance, however, as he is attacked by, to his surprise, three sentient insecticons. Inadvertently insulting them, (kind of) and incurring their wrath they all attack him, and are all soundly defeated. As Soundwave and Starscream come upon more Insecticons, they go about opening up the vault further so that they can keep moving. Upon defeating the attacking Insecticons, Starscream is alarmed at the appearance of Hardshell, and begins shooting at him, only to be stopped by Shockwave, who reveals Hardshell, along with Kickback and Sharpshot, to be "new recruits" to the Decepticon cause. Sharpshot points the Decepticons in the direction of the Dark Spark before departing with the other Insecticons. The Decepticons continue their trek further into the vault, they are met with resistance in the form of auto turrets and Crystal Guardians as they deactivate the chamber to the Dark Spark. While doing so, Soundwave begins to notice Autobot energy signatures on his scanners, but Shockwave passes them off as glitches. Soon, the Decepticons arrive, triumphant, at the entrance to the chamber holding the Dark Spark.
Chapter III: Getaway
- Character: Sideswipe (WFC)
Sideswipe and Ironhide have been tailing the aforementioned Decepticon trio through their whole trip to find the Dark Spark, and have arrived at the Dark Spark before the Decepticons. Ironhide, wishing to be long gone before they are found, Ironhide takes the Dark Spark. As the Autobots are leaving, marveling at their luck, the Decepticons enter the chamber, and, enraged that the Autobots beat them to the Dark Spark, open fire. Ironhide and Sideswipe barely escape from the chamber as security measures cause it to close itself up, trapping the Decepticons inside. Starscream is enraged, but Shockwave bids him to calm down, as Soundwave had released Laserbeak before they entered the chamber, and the small bird-bot would ensure they are not trapped for long. Meanwhile, Sideswipe and Ironhide are running into resistance from the Insecticons, and Sideswipe must juggle keeping the Insecticons away from Ironhide and the Dark Spark, along with using his grappling hook to pull Ironhide up through the tunnel to the exit. As Sideswipe and Ironhide keep moving, they get separated when Sideswipe accidentally closes a blast door between himself and Ironhide. As Sideswipe fights off swarming Insecticons, Ironhide opens up another path for him to travel through, allowing them to meet up again. As they reach the scheduled rendezvous point (some abandoned subway tunnels), Ironhide reports to Prime that they have the Dark Spark. They are greeted at the rendezvous point by Optimus himself and Bumblebee. As Optimus and the others fight off the swarming Insecticons, Sideswipe is ordered to get to the control control panel for the subway and call a train Sideswipe is successful, but the train, being revealed to be on a timer, leaves as quickly as it came, with only Bumblebee onboard. Optimus declares that they will have to hold the line against the Insecticons until the next train arrives. As the Autobots fend off the the Decepticons, Starscream, having been freed by Laserbeak, arrives, triumphantly demanding that the Autobots surrender or face his wrath. The Insecticons proceed to swarm him. As Starscream is distracted by the Insecticons, the next train arrives, and the Autobots board, departing for Iacon. As the train leaves, Shockwave and Soundwave arrive, just in time for Starscream to finish off the Insecticons and berate them for not coming sooner and letting the Autobots get away. Shockwave simply looks at Starscream, then presses a switch on his arm, causing the train, which had been wired, to explode.
Chapter IV: Possession
- Character: Sharpshot
Chapter V: Hustle
- Character: Swindle (FOC)
Chapter VI: Gates of Kaon
- Characters: Swindle (FOC)/ Bruticus (WFC)
Chapter VII: Infiltration
- Character: Optimus Prime (WFC)
Chapter VIII: A Desperate Plan
- Character: Jetfire (WFC)
Chapter IX: Ascension
- Character: Optimus Prime (WFC)
Chapter X: Hunted
- Character: Bumblebee (Movie)
Chapter XI: Investigation
- Characters: Bumblebee (Movie)/ Drift
Chapter XII: Ambushed
- Characters: Drift/ Grimlock (AOE)
Chapter XIII: Extinction
- Character: Grimlock (AOE)
Chapter XIII: Locked Down
- Character: Optimus Prime (Movie)
Featured characters
| Movie Autobots | Movie Decepticons | Aligned Autobots | Aligned Decepticons | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Soundwave, did Shockwave make a joke back there?
"AFFIRMATIVE."
"Was it intentional?
"AFFIRMATIVE"
"You know Soundwave, you've become quite the conversationalist."
"AFFIRMATIVE"
- -Starscream and Soundwave discuss Shockwave's brief moment of humor.
[A failed headshot prompts the Decepticon Titan to turn towards Bee and Drift]
Bumblebee: [Surprised beeps]
Drift: Bee, I have formed a plan: Run!
- -Drift, coming up with brilliant impromptu plans.
Swindle: "No sign of the bug [Sharpshot]. Oh well, can't say I'm sad to see him go."
Shockwave: "Are you implying that you two were not forming a long and lasting bond of friendship?"
Swindle: "You can't be serious?"
- -Shockwave discusses with Swindle about his
slash ficobservations of the two.
Jetfire: "I used to be stationed on Trypticon. I know my way around."
Perceptor: "Your knowledge is based on the erroneous notion that Trypticon's layout was not altered during his conversion from space station to smoldering wreck."
Jetfire: "Point taken... Lead the way little buddy."
"The only future to master is one's own. The humans understand this. Yet they also understand that the past is the genesis of all things, and must be afforded proper deference."
- -Movie Optimus Prime is willing to segue into a Generation One epilogue...but he's going to be meta about it.
Notes
Continuity notes
- The Cybertron portion of the game occurs between War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron – the Ark is under construction, Trypticon still lies where he crashed, and we see Shockwave discover the Insecticons for the first time. However, there is one notable inconsistency – see 'Errors' below.
- The Age of Extinction story, meanwhile, is utterly irreconcilable with the events of the film – the Autobots have an existing alliance with the Dinobots, and Optimus Prime and Bumblebee sport the new bodies they acquire during the film, yet Lockdown is perfectly alive and Prime is active on Earth. Stinger's brief cameo as a mercenary is similarly impossible to reconcile.
- Audio logs speak of the Patterners and Galvatron indicating that studies of the Dark Spark took place during the Age of Origins in The Covenant of Primus
- Starscream sarcastically makes note of how Soundwave is becoming a "conversationalist", likely alluding to the vow of silence he takes and employs during the Prime cartoon.
- Like his namesake, Drift was once a Decepticon before switching allegiance to join the Autobots, as noted by Lockdown when the former was held captive. Whether this background also applies to the film is unknown, given the above differences in the continuity.
Errors
- Despite the game's script clearly positioning it before the events of Fall of Cybertron, Megatron is depicted in the new body he acquired only part-way through that game.
- Ironhide and Sideswipe encounter an Insecticon Bruiser despite Shockwave creating them in FOC.
- The live-action film universe Matrix of Leadership uses the model from the Aligned games, rather than the very different Matrix design first seen in Revenge of the Fallen.
- Lockdown's model has a Decepticon insignia and is undersized.
Trivia
- Rise of the Dark Spark marks a PlayStation 4 milestone by being the very first game to support the PlayStation Store pre-loading feature introduced in the console's 1.70 update.[4]
- As a shout-out, some of the playable characters quote their Generation 1 bios, notably Shockwave chiding Starscream with, "Clarity of thought before rashness of action." and Blast Off telling Swindle, "I destroy Autobots by choice, not command."
- The game notably features the return of the use of "slag" as a common expletive, having been replaced with "scrap" for the majority of the Aligned continuity thus far.
- In the first level of the game there's a billboard that reads, "Vote Berger for Mayor", an obvious reference to the Generation 1 cartoon character Shawn Berger, who expressed such mayoral desires in the two-part episode "Megatron's Master Plan".
- The Crystal Guardians the Decepticons face in chapter 2 are all generics with the body-type of Zeta Prime.
- During Escalation, Earth characters are noticeably bigger than Cybertron characters with Earth Optimus hilariously towering over Warpath.
- While not quite an error, it is worth noting that the friendship between Bumblebee and Drift is much more friendly that in the movie. Lockdown also is very different. In the game he pursues profit all for himself being greedy while his movie version would probably be disgusted by the portrayal.
Foreign names
- Europe: Transformers: The Dark Spark
- Russia: Трансформеры: Битва за Тёмную Искру (Transformers: Battle for the Dark Spark)
References
- ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/05/transformers-rise-of-the-dark-spark-release-date-revealed
- ↑ "Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark" announced; 3DS version to be Strategy RPG
- ↑ http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/video-games-17/new-rise-of-the-dark-spark-preview-from-game-informer-179722/
- ↑ PlayStation Blog: Pre-Order, Pre-Load Upcoming PS4 Games
