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Today is the last day of E3 and The Comics Console is bringing you all the news and updates on games based on your favorite comic book characters! Check back tomorrow for our full E3 wrap up with news and videos on titles like Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Scott Pilgrim: The Video Game, DC Universe Online, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and more!

As of this posting, we’re only five days away from the release of Transformers: War for Cybertron! To celebrate, all month long we’ve been playing previous Transformers games like Beast Wars and 2004’s Transformers! This week we’re playing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I’m pleased to say it’s a movie tie-in game that’s actually good!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Luxoflux
Release Date: June 23, 2009
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP
ESRB: Teen

Revenge of the Fallen loosely follows the same story as the film, but from two different perspectives: the Autobot side and the Decepticon side. The game is a third person shooter, and a very good one at that. Depending on which campaign you start out with, you’ll play as either Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, or one of many other playable Transformeres you’ll recognize from the movie.

As one of the giant alien robots, you can run, jump, climb, fire a great selection of primary and secondary weapons, and of course, transform. Unfortunately, transforming isn’t as satisfying as it should be for a Transformers game. You’ll play mainly in Robot Mode and hold down the right trigger to change to Vehicle Mode, then release it to change back.

Transforming to Vehicle Mode does have some uses in gameplay with missions where you have to race from one checkpoint to another. A really cool strategy is transforming from Vehicle Mode to Robot Mode at a high speed, which will throw you long distances, and if executed properly can result in some really awesome kill strikes. Other than that, transforming sometimes just feels somewhat like a gimmick, but it doesn’t hinder the game’s fun at all.

Actually, at first the controls on a whole feel awkward and sluggish, and Transforming quickly will take some getting use to, but once you get it down, it all runs pretty smoothly. One exception, however, is flying characters like Starscream. Flying constantly feels awkward, especially when transforming, but it’s not a big enough issue to keep you from playing as those characters.

Your environments are large and vast, but some of the design is pretty bland. It’s fun to race or fly around the city, but you won’t really have much reason to just explore.

Your missions in the game are pretty simple: attack/defend, race from point A to B, escort/kidnap, and boss fights. Thankfully, none of these missions ever grow tiresome with so many bonuses and unlockables throughout the game. In addition to weapons, you can unlock new character skins and even episodes of the original Transformers cartoon!

Revenge of the Fallen even offers some fun online play. Each character has a specific ability to help their team gain an advantage. Though it is fun, you’re likely to not spend so much time online with its mediocre gameplay options. It’s just your run of the mill multiplayer games, but with the Transformers element attached.

The game looks good graphically, and the frame rate is consistently strong. Sound design is decent, but the voice acting gets pretty terrible.

Overall, this is definitely one of the best Transformers games out there, and this might be one of the rare occasions where the video game tie-in to a movie is actually better than the movie itself! Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen gets a 4/5.

Checkout The Comics Console next week when we play Transformers: War for Cybertron!

Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net