No disguises can save Optimus and co this time…
The potential for a good Transformers game has always been there, and past games have come close to being truly brilliant thanks to High Moon Studios, but this time the reins have been passed onto Edge of Reality who completely mess up whatever potential the “War for Cybertron” saga of games had, with a typically average, dull and repetitive third person shooter.
The story makes absolutely no sense to begin with, and then it splits you between playing with Autobots and then the Decepticons who try and mask the repetitive campaign with unfunny dialogue between the characters, making it even more painful to experience. The game handles as a typical third person shooter, with the difference that you can transform into a vehicle at any point during the campaign, which is a nice touch…but it really ends up being more of a gimmick and isn’t used to its advantage like it should be.
Besides the campaign, there’s an online co-op mode where you fight off waves of enemies for survival, much like Gears’ Horde mode. It’s more or less the only redeeming feature of the entire game, but let’s face it…it’s been done before, and much better than this. Escalation Mode is nothing more than a cheap imitation.
Then there’s the problem with the game’s presentation. Being on the PS4, you would expect a good looking game and a smooth framerate, well you’d be wrong. The textures for some areas are a blurred mess and don’t even look good enough for PS3, let alone PS4. Character models look average. I imagine later games for the franchise will look a lot better, but seriously… Optimus deserves to look a lot better than he does here.
The Verdict
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is about as basic as it gets when it comes to a third-person shooter. It’s dull, repetitive, its story makes no sense, the co-op mode is average at best and all in all, is a real letdown compared to the rest of the “War for Cybertron” series. Maybe one day we’ll get the Transformers game we deserve, but right now this is far from it.
