Video game review
Xbox 360
Release date Out now

Robots, fighting, vehicles: it’s time for the Transformers to go to war!

With its heady combination of big robots and vehicle-based action, Transformers is a franchise that should be easily and successfully translatable into the video game format. Yet somehow, the great Transformers game has yet to emerge – possibly due to the fact that the previous games were hindered from having to fit in with the patchy movie franchise. The good news is that, while this latest entry in the series isn’t perfect, it is the best yet by a considerable distance.

Transformers: War for Cybertron shifts things away from the movies and takes the story back in time by millions of years before the Transformers arrived on Earth. This allows the game to concentrate on the robots and their environment. The price to pay is that this loses the human touch of the previous games, but that’s not what you’re here for, right? Presumably you’re looking for robots blasting away at each other in a futuristic environment (though, yes, War for Cybertron is actually set in the past); thankfully, this game delivers exactly that.

The campaign mode is made up of 10 levels of fast and furious action with a choice between Decepticon and Autobot missions. As a world made entirely of metal, Cybertron unfortunately looks very samey, a problem alleviated by occasional visits to a rainy prison colony and space battles. But the animation is stunning. When you switch from robot to vehicle (at the touch of a button) it’s smooth, quick and convincing, while picking up and using weapons as you progress is instinctive and easy.

It’s great fun as a single player game, but the fun really kicks in when you engage the spectacular co-op. The prospect of taking down powerful giant robots as a team is a tantalising one and, taking clear inspiration from the blockbusting Gears of War series, this gives the game a sense of competitive fun as players fight to take down the most enemies.

Authenticity is given by Peter Cullen, who is once again employed as the voice of Optimus Prime. It’s pleasing to see that the recent trend for quality vocal performances in video games continues with War for Cybertron, with the rest of the cast also giving impressive turns. It’s strange to think that decent vocal performances was once such a cruelly ignored factor in games like this.

Going on past form, my hopes weren’t high for a new Transformers game. It’s a great pleasure to have my perceptions well and truly transformed. Jonathan Wilkins

VERDICT: 9/10
Fun in single play, but War for Cybertron really comes alive in multiplayer mode.