Product Description

Protect or destroy the Earth: As the Transformers robot`s war comes to Earth, gamers make the choice to join the Autobots in protecting our planet or to join the Decepticons in destroying it. With dual campaigns, the fate of the world is in players` hands.

More than meets the eye: Instantly change from a larger than life robot to a high-powered vehicle such as a sports car, fighter jet or helicopter. Seamless transformations leave enemies in the dust or enhance players` combat strategy with a range of options in both vehicle and robot modes that take full advantage of the characters` dual forms.

The world is your playground: Players crush, topple and wreck every object, including buildings and vehicles, in their path or use the objects as weapons. It is up to the gamer to decide how best to use their surrounding environment.

Freedom of choice: An unprecedented line-up lets gamers experience the massive scale, unique abilities and sheer strength of an army of characters from the Transformers universe when they choose to play as Optimus Prime, Megatron, Ironhide, Starscream, Bumblebee and more.

Variety of combat: For head-to-head battles, fans engage in melee combat that reflects each Transformers robot`s character, scale, weight and power along with melee weapons and special moves unique to each character. The game`s ranged combat offers a wide array of projective weapons designed to take out enemies from afar.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #958 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2007-07-20
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review

Trying to turn non-action based blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into games was never going to be an easy task, even given the limited amount of effort afforded to most film tie-ins. A movie involving giant transforming robots beating the tar out of each other though presents a more straightforward source of inspiration. The end result here is sort of Grand Theft Auto with giant robots, with no need to steal cars… because you are the car.

A complex storyline is not one of the new movie’s primary achievements so this game tries to provide as much freedom as possible in exploring the game world and competing in a wide range of missions – from world saving story related tasks to more laid back driving and flying races. You get to play as any of nine different Transformers, including good guys and bad guys, some of which aren’t even in the movie.

What makes the game interesting is the way in which being a 30 foot tall robot genuinely changes the dynamics of normal third person combat. Not only can you toss cars about like rugby balls and smack rival robos around with lamp posts but each character has their own unique mix of Sci-Fi weaponry as well. With the ability to transform into a car or jet fighter (or giant robot scorpion) at any time there’s a degree of tactical flexibility in the game that’s certainly far above that of most other more pedestrian film tie-ins.
Harrison Dent

Manufacturer's Description
Transformers: The Game lets gamers control the outcome in the battle for Earth as they choose to protect it as Autobots or destroy it as Decepticons. Players will also experience the unstoppable power and massive scale of their favourite robots in disguise such as Bumblebee, Barricade and others.

Features:
Protect or destroy the Earth: As the Transformers robot's war comes to Earth, gamers make the choice to join the Autobots in protecting our planet or to join the Decepticons in destroying it. With dual campaigns, the fate of the world is in players' hands.

More than meets the eye: Instantly change from a larger than life robot to a high-powered vehicle such as a sports car, fighter jet or helicopter. Seamless transformations leave enemies in the dust or enhance players' combat strategy with a range of options in both vehicle and robot modes that take full advantage of the characters' dual forms.

The world is your playground: Players crush, topple and wreck every object, including buildings and vehicles, in their path or use the objects as weapons. It is up to the gamer to decide how best to use their surrounding environment.

Freedom of choice: An unprecedented line-up lets gamers experience the massive scale, unique abilities and sheer strength of an army of characters from the Transformers universe when they choose to play as Optimus Prime, Megatron, Ironhide, Starscream, Bumblebee and more.

Variety of combat: For head-to-head battles, fans engage in melee combat that reflects each Transformers robot's character, scale, weight and power along with melee weapons and special moves unique to each character. The game's ranged combat offers a wide array of projective weapons designed to take out enemies from afar.

Customer Reviews

Transforms your £££ into a waste of £££

The subject of Tranformers, especially given the premise, history and content from the backlog of characters and stories (not to mention the forthcoming movie) should lead to what could be a very enjoyable and unique gaming experience. We had a couple of Transformers games on the last gen which were actually quite reasonable, and with the creators of the generally excellent lego Star Wars being given the task of brining this game to life, hopes (depsite it being based on movie, which usually results in a dire game) were high. Especially when a GTA Free-Roamer with selectable characters and an infinately destructable landscape was promised.

Unfortunately the description of the game as a Free-Roamer (ala GTA) and letting you play as your favourite Transformers are very misleading. There is no free roam and Four of the Transformers (Brawl,Bonecrusher, Frenzy and Ratchet) arent even playable (or unlockable as playables). This game absolutely reaks of potential but suffers from the fact that it is so UNFINISHED and has been obviously rushed to coincide with the movie release, In short if this was released around Xmas it'd be a winner.

This game is very linear and straightforward, theres no multiple paths or anything. Each stage has its main characters and goals. A town to 'explore' especially as a hulking 10,000 tonne behemoth should be fun however the games pressures you and rushes you to go to the enxt 'spot' and start the next mission. Its all so basic, its a case of time limit drives, get from A to B, fight him, race on etc. It all gets so repetetive once the nevelty of the game wears off (which is pretty quickly).

It may sound like im being over critical however this is because there is a lot to criticise. The A.I, vehicle handling, collison detection and targetting are waaaaaaaay off. Some favourites inc:

Your targeting retiucle has to be targeted at an opponets groin otherwise despite virtually point blank range the giant object your lobbing at it will miss by miles.

Being a superstrong vehicle and bashing through numerous cars and road works only to get stuck behind a small sign causing you to run out of 'mission' time and having to re-start.

Being a super strong metal monster with an arsenal of weapons at your disposal which do nothing to your opponets shields unless you bash the,m first witha lamp post or tree to lower them (HMmmmmmm, well thought out)

I could go on however this game promised so much and has delivered so little.

Pro's:
Characters look like the movies
Interactive environment (when it gives you time to)
Real voices from the film + Frank Welker returning as Megatron (not Hugo Weaving)
Flows Reasonably well forma story point of view
Its fun to be a Transformer
Cut scenes are enjoyable

Cons:
Controls are frustrating (driving, targeting, reversing, u name it really!)
Lack of detail in surrounding environments
Last Gen Graphics
Stupid AI
Full of Bugs
Rediculous collision detection (can off road a tank but cant get through a stop sign)
No choice of Characters
Boring and inane Missions
Often and an excruciating funless exercise in persistence to get through

Im not being unecessarily harsh however i would have been frustrated in 2000 with a game like this. This is 2007 and a next generation console, and games hould not be released in this condition.

If you must have your Optimus Prime fix i'd suggest you rent this and then afterwrads congratulate yourself for not watsing £40!!!

Overpriced by £40
I don't normally comment on games but such was my time and money wasted on this so called game that I thought I would waste another five minutes by writing a review.

I would have given this game a minus if the drop table would have allowed.

It is by far the worst game I have ever played or didn't play. Repetitive missions (hit the Autobot, chase him, hit him again, chase him again, hit him again - couldn't be arsed chasing him anymore.)

The side missions were even worse - find the cogs - what's that all about.
If you are unlucky enough to actually bother getting to the end mission (I cheated)my mother has got more fight in her than Optimus Prime and she is a 60 year old grandmother. Samething again, hit him, chase him, hit him again, chase him again, hit him again only this time I ejected it and traded it in.

There is also no XBOX Live which would have made the game slightly better.

If you are a big fan and by big I mean you live for Transformers then go out and blow £40 on it if not and your brain power is higher than a Lemming stay clear. I am off now to fall of a cliff edge.

OK graphics, but the rest is frustrating and the game is too hard
TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME is, as you probably guessed, based on the live-action Michael Bay-directed film of 2007. The film itself is based on an old 1980s cartoon series that featured two races of robots who had arrived on Earth after leaving their home planet, Cybertron; the races were the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, and this game allows you to play as either race, with the former forcing you to defend Earth, and the latter destroying it.

The robots themselves have the unique ability to transform themselves into other shapes (mostly vehicles), and it was this that helped separate them from other robots when they first appeared in the 1980s. Being a former TransFormers fan I thought I'd check out this new game for the XBox 360. After all, getting to destroy robot foes and smash surroundings, sometimes being able to use your surroundings as weapons against your foes - not to mention transform from robot to vehicle and back - has got to be good, right?

But, what went wrong?

The first problem, which isn't a major hassle for me - because I accept that great graphics do not necessarily mean a great game - may well be a hassle for devoted next-gen fans. There really isn't anything in TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME that couldn't have been done on consoles prior to the 360. It's still quite satisfying watching your robot transform, and the indented footprints your robot leaves on the ground as it runs around are a nice touch.

Sounds are pretty good, with meaty explosions and metallic clanks as you shoot, blow up and do melee attacks against enemy robots or buildings etc. You also get nice robotic voices such as those of the leaders, with Optimus Prime (if you're with the Autobots) or Megatron (if you're with the Decepticons) giving you your orders as you play. Destinations are marked on your HUD, which is pretty easy to navigate, especially if you're used to games like CRACKDOWN.

Gameplay is, without a doubt, the biggest pain-in-the-neck about this whole experience. Constantly smacking robots around gets a bit dull after a while (and many of the missions involve this), and when it's not dull it's too intense! While you're trying to pick something up to lob at a bigger foe that requires different approaches to simply heading in there and smacking him one, you can often be surrounded by other robots and even some of the humans trying to destroy you, which can deplete your energy bar alarmingly quickly at times, leaving you in a blind panic as you try to get away from the action enough to locate a heart icon to pick up, or to destroy a minor baddie and hope that it drops a heart, as they sometimes do. Unfortunately on some occasions the restart points are very bad if you die, with some missions forcing you to restart the whole thing again. Very poor!

Another problem I've experienced when picking something up is that, if you are running to the object, you might kick or knock the object further back just before you were about to pick it up, meaning that your robot wastes time - and sometimes takes damage from human gunfire and robots - doing the picking-up motion only to be empty-handed when he stands up. A similar thing can happen if you're not quite standing in the right place when you press the Pick-Up button. Grr!

Oh, and while we're on the subject of being able to pick objects up to throw at foes, the target lock is pretty rubbish and only works if you remain facing roughly where your opponent is; the lock is lost if you deviate by too much over about 15 degrees either way, and it's very frustrating when you try and throw a tree or whatever at a robot and it misses because the lock didn't work properly.

While explosions are nice to look at, unfortunately sometimes the screen gets busy with lots of bits of fiery, exploding vehicles, buildings, robots etc, sometimes even making it hard to make out what's going on. Although your foes do appear on the HUD they are not always that easy to pinpoint in relation to your own position, as the icons are so big. Also, if you take a major knock you get flung backwards, and if this places you in an area surrounded by trees and/or buildings, for example, they can get in the way and completely obscure your view! There's no routine to make these items go translucent, unlike other games like CRACKDOWN.

Transforming into your robot's vehicle form is pretty cool, but some of the vehicle mechanics are rather hard to control, and if you're a car, such as Bumblebee or Jazz, these have a tendency to skid around the place - not good when you often have time limits in which to reach a certain destination! Also, you have to bear in mind that, while in vehicle form, you cannot put up your temporary shield to block attacks, but you can move faster.

A further complication when in car form is that the viewpoint could do with being a little bit higher, as the view ahead is sometimes largely obscured by your own robot due to the camera being too far behind it. Another annoying thing is that sometimes you can't even drive over or through very thin, flat objects that you logically should be able to - I even got stopped in my tracks by an antenna lying on the floor when I could plough through a great big coach and send it flying(!) - which is very frustrating.

But probably the biggest bugbear is the game's inconsistent difficulty level, seemingly alternating from 'not too bad, but a bit boring' to 'being really intense and giving you little chance in hell'! The thing is, many kids might show an interest in this if they loved the film, and they're being rewarded with a game that might consistently hand them their robot's remains on a plate with an evil cackle.

I really wanted to enjoy TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME; it shows some of the potential it could have had if it had been handled better, and elements of it are still quite fun, but instead left me feeling frustrated and looking elsewhere for my gaming kicks. Sorry, but if you value your sanity I'd think twice about getting this game.