411mania.com: Games - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox 360) Review

Gameplay

Well, you can start by making the controls hard to pick up. They do get easier as the game develops, but they remain non-sensical. You have 3 modes: robot, vehicle and weapon. To change from robot mode (where your attacks are restricted to melee) to weapon mode, you hold down the left trigger. The right trigger is then used to fire. Of course you need to use the right stick to aim, all the while using the left stick to move so you don't get shot yourself, and possibly pressing A to jump over obstacles or B to climb up buildings. But whatever you do, don't let go of the left trigger or the next press of the right trigger will turn you into a vehicle and oh no I've gone cross-eyed. As a vehicle, you go very very fast unless you ease off the right trigger (but not too far, lest you revert to robot!) or hold down the left trigger as a brake. You can fire weapons in vehicle mode with X but you cannot aim them since you're moving at the same time. There are some strong moves you can do to change from vehicle to robot, but they are fiddly to execute at first and rather hard to land. Now as I said, the controls do become more natural as you progress in the game, but they never get to the point that they feel easy.

Bumblebee demonstrates why you should never eat Mexican before a firefight

The game itself is huge. You have both Autobot and Decepticon campaigns you can play through, and they are both vast. They follow the plot of the movie fairly loosely, but with a 2-hour plus movie to draw from, there's no lack of material. The missions could do with a bit more variety, and the locations feel very uniform. If you're not fully engrossed in the robot-flavoured destruction, you'll find this tedious. It's not that the missions are bad, they're just not any different from any other game you've ever played, and they're not sufficiently different from each other. With that said, the two campaigns play completely differently, enough so that it's worth playing both of them. There are bonuses, accuracy targets and medals for completing missions in specified times that add some depth to the missions and prevent you from feeling like you're doing the same thing over and over again. However, the lack of variety in attacks can make the game suffer from “Assassin's Creed” syndrome – you find the attack(s) that work(s) and only use that.

The online mode is interesting. It's Autobot vs Decepticon with a few different game modes, and unfortunately by the time I got the game there were a ton of experts online already making me into metallic Swiss cheese. It's easy to see, though, that it's very strategically deep and could be very enjoyable. The special moves of each robot really come into play here: do you want Prime's melee buff, or Ironhide's healing? Bumblebee's EMP is great for stunning Decepticons, but he's not the toughest of characters. With practice (and more patience than I have), this could be the best part of the game.

The gameplay does a decent job of capturing the sheer destructive power of a Transformer, but you have to be willing to dedicate time to mastering the controls before that kicks in. I forced myself to do that, and I'm glad I did. If you want something that's accessible, look elsewhere.

Prime is feeling blue that his wasn't as pretty

Graphics

The game looks lush. The detail on the Transformers, both the foot soldiers and the main characters, is impressive and the explosions are satisfying. The weapon effects can be a little hit-and-miss though. Things like the flamethrower and the laser sights on sniper rifles are excellent, but a lot of the vehicle weapons are hard to follow and thus hard to aim. Bumblebee, for example, has no visible tracers on his vehicle primary, making it very easy to overheat. The transformation animations look good and are very smooth, but there is some slow down in places that is incredibly frustrating. The environments are really well rendered, if not terribly exciting, and draw you into the setting.

Sound

A rare miss. The voice acting is very inconsistent, and it feels stitched together in a lot of places. Having the real voices of the characters would normally be a plus, but Shia and Megan sound like two people who would rather be on a beach in Malibu than recording lines for some video game. The soundtrack is all generic, which is a shame, and the sound effects on transforming are almost impossible to hear. You can't always hear when a weapon is being fired either. Just too many things
that don't work for me.

Look out! He has a glowy thing behind his back!

Lasting Appeal

I initially thought that this would be a one-and-done sort of game, where you finish it and trade it in right after. WRONG. There are two parts of this game that will keep you coming back: the deep multiplayer, and the desire to get all the medals, unlockables and achievements in the campaigns. The latter is slightly less universal than the former as you'll have to put up with a fair bit of repetition to do it (Platinum medals are HARD), and if you don't mind getting absolutely owned for your first few tries than the former is certainly the bigger draw. The game is also somewhat helped by the fact that you actually get more engrossed with the controls as you play on, instead of becoming fed up with them.

Fun Factor

I'm torn here. To start with I was not enjoying this game at all. A game that is frustratingly difficult to control is NOT fun. It reminded me far too much of the controls for the first Resident Evil, a game which made me swear off the entire franchise. It did get better, but there are still some things I just couldn't find fun. I mean, playing as Breakaway and changing to a jet in midair then changing back, hovering and sniping is all sorts of fun, but trying to aim the advanced melee attack is much less so. At the end of the day, the enjoyment of rampaging as a giant killing machine outweighs the fiddliness of the controls, at least in terms of fun.

In his spare time, Megatron pimps Ginsu knives

The 411

Revenge of the Fallen is definitely better than the movie. That's the first major relief. If you're looking for a game that you can pick up and dive right in, this isn't it. If you've got time and patience and can dedicate both to a game that, ultimately, you may not find worth the effort...go nuts. ROTF is not a BAD game, but it could have been GREAT with some of the control issues ironed out and a bit more attention to detail with graphics and sound. Buy it, but get it preplayed.

Graphics	8.5	Beautiful in many places but questionable in a few others that actually affect the gameplay.
Gameplay	8.0	I've played games that took a little getting used to, but this one takes it far further. Once you DO get used to it, it's a lot better. Plus the multiplayer mode makes up for a lot.
Sound	6.0	Just too many misses in terms of voice acting, sound effects and soundtrack.
Lasting Appeal	7.5	It's either going back to the store the same day or staying on your shelf for a long time. If you have the patience, it's rewarding.
Fun Factor	8.0	For me, I was able to stick out the control issues long enough that the game became fun. That might not happen for you, but it's worth the effort. It never becomes awesome, but it does payoff the time you give it with some tremendous mash'em bash 'em acti
Overall	7.6 [ Good ] legend

Screenshots

All 16 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Screenshots

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