The war waged between the noble Autobots and the sinister Decepticons on Earth made for a loud but action-packed story on the big screen when the original Transformers movie rolled into theaters a long while back. As predicted, a sequel followed by director Michael Bay and once again we find ourselves reviewing a licensed game based on the movie. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the PlayStation 3 follows the scenes from the sequel but it fails to be original or great.

 
Bumblebee: “Damn you, Decepti-jerk! I just got this new paintjob yesterday!”

What Revenge of the Fallen does manage to do is put us in the metallic bodies of Autobot favorites and Decepticon villains. The good news is that the game manages to make it a delight playing as any of these transforming robots. You also get the choice between starting the single-player Story mode as either side, although the campaign levels remain relatively the same.

The only thing that does change is the brief War Room cut scenes and the main mission objective. You see, the game finds the Autobots (led by Optimus Prime) siding with the humans, particularly the US military that has formed a special unit called the NEST that was formed to combat the new Decepticon threat. On the Decepticon side, Starscream has taken command after Megatron was defeated and sunk into the dark depth of the ocean and is acting under the orders of a mysterious Decepticon simply called The Fallen.

The War Room is basically the game’s main hub where you can select missions via the map screen, upgrade your team’s skills, stats and special attacks as well as replay missions or simply explore each map freely. You begin the Autobot side with a few select members that include Bumblebee, Optimus and Ratchet just to name a few. The Decepticon side gets Starscream, Grindor, Sideways just to name a few of the bad guys you’ll get to control.

As far as the levels are concerned, the game takes us through a few key areas seen in the sequel that includes Shanghai, the West Coast and even Cairo where the Fallen and the Autobots will meet in a climactic battle like the one seen in the movie. As I said earlier, no matter what side you pick, the levels are the same. What changes are the enemies you will face off against and some of the goals are slightly different. For instance, as Bumblebee, you will be racing to save Sam’s girlfriend, Mikaela, who has a small fragment of the All-Spark. As a Decepticon, you will be leading a team to destroy communication relays so Autobots won’t come to Bumblebee’s rescue.

 
Truck Driver: “They never told us our rigs turn into robots in Beer Gut Truck Driving Academy!” 

The single-player campaign is quite lengthy and it even offers a few extra brief missions you can unlock that will have you carry out timed objectives such as repair communication satellites or destroy all remaining enemies in the vicinity. The problem is that all these missions begin to feel alike the more you play. Sure, there are some boss battles here and there but they’re not impressive battles like the final missions in Cairo. Even the weaker opponents start feeling like annoying gnats than the threats they were at the beginning of the game. This is mostly due to the team upgrades. 

Robots are also clunky as you will see when you move around in your robot form. It becomes a bit frustrating to turn to face your opponents so you’ll be glad for the targeting system. Still, shooting enemies isn’t as easy as it looks in this game. Even more awkward are the vehicle controls when you transform by holding the L2 button. Some vehicle forms, mainly the cars, can take some getting use to while some flight vehicles fair better. It’s still something of a thrill to see each robots transform on the fly but it could have been handled better than this control-wise.

If the uninventive single-player mode becomes too tiresome, there’s a surprisingly enjoyable online multiplayer mode here. The multiplayer mode allows up to eight players to take each another on in five maps (like the Freeway) and play through five different game match types that also includes deathmatch-styled game modes. One Shall Stand is an intense game mode where gamers fight to take out the team leader. Then there’s Battle for the Shards, which is like Capture the Flag.

 
Neither Autobots or Decepticons want to team up with Gas Leak … I wonder why.  

Visually, Revenge of the Fallen is a mixed bag. For one thing, the Autobots and the Decepticons looks great in action and when they’re transforming. There’s just something cool about watching a truck change into an impressive robot with the push of the L2 button. Then again, the environments look like they belong on the PlayStation 2. The Cairo levels suffer the most and look extremely dull. We would have really loved some better cut scenes as well.

The game does sound good, though, thanks to the fact that the game borrows from the original score from the film. It makes everything from the start menu to battles seem just as exciting as what we see in the movie. Many of the transforming robots sound good while others just don’t sound as good as it should. At least all the key players sound right, although many of the human characters sound emotionless.

Revenge of the Fallen could have been a great Transformers game for the PS3 but it’s missing a number of things that just makes this a repetitive shooter. While it’s a thrill playing as favorites like Bumblebee or Megatron, the levels offer limited variety so you’ll feel like you’ve seen and done everything. If anything, this is a great weekend rental for those gamers who want more Autobot and Decepticon action.

Gameplay: 6.9
Aid the forces of NEST as the Autobots or attempt to dominate the enemy as the Decepticons in the main campaign. There’s a good diversity when it comes to the transforming robots so you can also take to the skies. We just wish there was more to the mission objectives that tend to repeat themselves.

Graphics: 6.5
Despite the fact that there’s a lack of real cut scenes, the Transformers look great on the PS3 and watching them transform right before your eyes is still considerably cool. It’s just too bad that the environments and the visual effects are so flat.

Sound: 7.0
The game’s score comes directly from the Michael Bay film so that’s not a bad thing at all and you’ll even get Peter Cullen voicing Optimus Prime. Unfortunately, the sound effects are as good as it should be and neither are some of the voices.

Difficulty: Medium
Fighting Decepticons or Autobot nobodies won’t provide much of a challenge until you go up against the more familiar ones such as Ironhide or Starscream. The final missions in Cairo are the more difficult ones even for veteran third-person shooter fans.

Concept: 7.0
You don’t get one lengthy campaign but rather you get two of them. On top of that, you can pick from some of the coolest Autobot and Decepticon lineup. Who doesn’t want to be Optimus Prime or Megatron? The best feature the game has to offer is the online multiplayer mode, though.

Multiplayer: 8.0
Online you can play against eight friends in five game match types and the game does run rather smoothly. Sure the DeathMatch and Team DeathMatch modes are fun but the real multiplayer treat comes in the form of Battle for the Shards.

Overall: 6.9
While not a bad game, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has its share of fun moments that manages to shine through the game’s many weaker elements. The campaign is rather lengthy and that’s a good thing but then again there’s not much variety either. Still, this one is good enough for a rental for the multiplayer mode alone.