Written 03.02.2010 - Uploaded 06.04.2010
Transformers - more than meets the eye. That is surprisingly true when talking about this particular game. I am of course talking about the one and only good Transformers game, published by Atari, not the newer multiplatform one based on the movie. The movie was actually pretty good though, but that's beside the point. Of course, in order to fully understand why anything with Transformers in it can be awesome, you most likely need to share a history with them. I'm from the particular generation for whom Transformers were the absolute favorite toys around, so my views might be a bit biased sometimes. But biased or no, Transformers is a surprisingly great game.
The plot is forgettable, so let's just skip it. There's Minicons, and they are needed to save Cybertron. Really, forget it. From game play point of view, Transformers could be a called a tactical 3rd person shooter, and it has a lot in common with Halo. Battlefields are usually quite large, featuring open ground. There are a lot of enemies lurking around, and they are not stupid. One stick controls the Autobot's movement, the other one is for camera and targeting. It's pretty much as good as it gets without keyboard and mouse. Of course, since it's a Transformers game, the Autobots can also transform into cars and cruise around with greater speed. Later on some Minicons allow speed bursting and flying (more like gliding really), which improves the movement range even further. Most importantly, the controls handle all this very neatly.
Because the enemies are not dumb tin cans, and they are often rather numerous and able to call backup, going around guns blazing is a guaranteed way to get killed. The game is at its best in open ground terrain, where there's enough space to observe the enemies, plan routes around them or snipe them from a good tactical position. The player is given some choices which affect available tactics quite a bit. First of all, there's three Autobots to choose from. Optimus Prime is the tank; powerful and tough, but rather slow. Hotshot is on the other end of the spectrum, being the fastest one around but significantly weaker. Finally there's Red Alert, kind of in between the two. Since Autobot can be changed at save points, it's possible to scout and move around as Hotshot, and when it's time to rumble, enter Prime.
Minicons act as equipment in the game, and each Autobot has four slots for them. Choices are also limited by power requirements, and of course stronger equipment needs more power. Minicons are also divided into five different colors, and equipping Minicons of the same color gives nice bonuses. Half of the equipment slots are reserved for weapons, the rest for secondary equipment such as force fields, jump boosters, gliding wings and such. Weapons have great variety, and you can find something for every situation. Anti-air, grenades, missiles with or without homing, sniper rifle, blast area weapons, beams and autofire. It's all there. In addition to whatever properties, weapons differ in power requirement, damage, charge use and recharge rate. In Transformers, ammunition management has been skipped entirely, and each weapon refills its energy automatically.
Transformers is a very streamlined gaming experience. Tactics are often flexible since both Autobot and equipment load can be changed freely at save points. Infinite ammunition means no holding back, but at the same time recharging weapons and equipments forces the player to think when to use their bigger guns. It's usually a good idea to bring one weapon with little downtime, and another that packs more punch. However, sometimes you really need that anti-air gun, or flying enemies will be a real pain. There's no general solution that would solve all the problems, so the player needs to adapt to different situations. And sometimes all you can do is run right past your enemies. To summarize the good points of Transfomers, it's both streamlined and challenging at the same time.
Frustration happens quite rarely in this game, except for the pointless and unncessary epic finale against Unicron. Indoor missions are somewhat duller, since there is no maneuvering space and tactical options are rather limited. Boss fights against Starscream are also somewhat annoying if you don't have the proper equipment, as he likes to transform into his jet fighter form a lot and fly around really fast, shooting bombs and missiles galore. These few flaws aside I can't really point anything that would be off with the game. There's something off with me though, because all the action games I've recently played have started to tire me towards the end. I guess these shooter style action games are not just my thing.
It starts to be a bit late to give recommendations for PS2 games, but what the hell. If you still don't own a newer console, but want to play some good shooter, go find Transformers. It's most likely the best shooter available for the PS2. Also, if you were like me and Transformers were an integral part of your youth, this is the game to get. It's most likely the best Transformers game made, and will probably remain that way.