Transformers War for Cybertron (360/DS Review): "Reenergizing A Franchise" | Tome of Silver

hello everyone and welcome to the Tome of silver the show where I randomly select a game for my collection review it and add it to an ever-growing ranking list the story of Transformers is one we've seen told time and again on a distant planet a civil war between the noble Autobots and the villainous Decepticons has left their planet of Cybertron in ruin and uninhabitable forcing both factions to abandon their dead planet where they find themselves landing on Earth from there the war continues with the battle for Earth being reimagined with over dozens of iterations of the characters and the Autobots battle to protect the Earth from the Decepticons but for the most part we almost always exclusively shown the Transformers after they had arrived on Earth only ever being given glimpses of the battle on Cybertron either through brief flashbacks or maybe a short scene of the Transformers leaving their Planet at the start of a given story that was however until someone's mind expanded and unlocked the secrets of the universe giving them the brilliant idea to work with High Moon Studios to create a video game entirely taking place during the war on Cybertron a dream come true for Transformers fans thus Transformers war for Cybertron was created was it a shiny new interpretation of Transformers or a pile of scrap transform roll out and let's turn the page to Transformers war for Cybertron for the Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS [Music] the console version of Transformers war for Cybertron is a third person shooter with the player gets to play one of two campaigns one for the autobots and one for the Decepticons each containing four main levels and a final boss fight these two campaigns are actually both part of One Singular story with the Decepticons consisting of the first half of the campaign with the autobot story containing the second half despite this you can play through either campaign first which I found a little strange if you chose to play the autobot campaign first it entirely spoils the events of the Decepticon campaign so why would I want to do that personally I just play through the game chronologically the game throws the player right into the ongoing civil war with the Decepticon campaign having Megatron acquire a powerful yet unstable energy source called Dark Energon and using it to devastate the autobot Army as he seeks to use the dark Energon to Coop the very core of Cybertron meanwhile the autobot campaign has Optimus not yet a prime and his team of Autobots attempting to push back against the overwhelming power of the Decepticons and save what's left of their home war for Cybertron story is solid getting to see the war we've always heard about but barely experienced before is a novelty in and of itself it's certainly one of the darker Transformer stories with torture and death being commonplace throughout the game's 8-10 hour run time thankfully the game never felt too dark keeping a bit of that campy dialogue that gave Transformers its initial charm all the way back in the original cartoon I was wondering when you guys were gonna show up we took the extended tour saw the sides blasted some bad guys the usual there's a lot of fun dialogue between the Autobots and Decepticons and I like that you can see the clear difference between the two factions just by how they interact with each other the Autobots are friendly but competitive with each other while the Decepticons are much more antagonistic with their constant bickering and backbiting high too rusty to keep up all right did you see that you mean that creepy looking thing that just jumped over the side yeah nope I didn't see anything I should have left you two of a station on the topic of character interactions the voice acting and war for Cybertron is Stellar having an All-Star cast of some of the best actors in the industry as always Peter Cullen returns as Optimus and proves why he remains the voice of the autobot leader and thankfully returns to a personality that shows a more caring and compassionate leader rather than the murder psychopath we got in the Michael Bay films you're a skilled fighter but you shouldn't be out here alone Autobots are no longer safe in iacon he's going to die yeah I'll kill you give me your faith [Applause] unfortunately Frank welcome was not brought in to reprise his role as Megatron which is a shame that's not the downplay Fred tatuscore's acting as Megatron as he gives a tremendously powerful performance and demands the player's attention whenever he speaks Decepticons receive your Birthright I'd also like to give a shout out to Sam Regal as Starscream who gives a near perfect balance of slimy schemer and coward it's too unstable Megatron using that power you're endangering our entire world teach me Megatron teach me to wield dark Energon the way you do and I will serve you and what could you possibly offer me that I cannot simply take the supply of dark energy on aboard this station is nearly exhausted I know how to manufacture more regardless of which character you look at the voice actor provides an excellent show no one here is bad or even mediocre this is an A plus cast across the board I was a little disappointed that the game starts after the war has already begun as I would have loved to have seen the initial Sparks of conflict that led to the war I understand why they decide to forgo this after all it is a video game not a movie so they want the player to actually you know play but I wish we at least got to see some key events like how Megatron formed the Decepticons Megatron in this game is just such an to everyone including his own troops to the point where it's honestly baffling his any followers at all reroute all power to forward guns and thrusters Full Speed Ahead but sir that's suicide further objections this could have been remedied by maybe having some text or audio logs scattered around the level that detailed some earlier events but unfortunately nothing of the sword is here that's not to say there aren't any cool events in this game because there absolutely are seeing Optimus before he gains the title of prime or witnessing Starscream as an Autobot before defecting is fantastic and are the kind of moments you can only get during the battle on Cybertron in a given level you have the option of selecting one of three characters to play each character in the game is one of four classes leader Soldier scientist and Scout each class provides small differences in the character's movement speed their primary weapon and a unique ability usable by pressing the left bumper such as a quick Dash or temporarily turning invisible otherwise each character plays identically being able to hold two different weapons having a strong melee attack and most importantly being able to transform into a vehicle on the Fly you have The Usual Suspects when it comes to weapon types to scrap the metal off the opposing Force machine guns snipers grenade launchers shotguns if you've played a shooter before you know what you're getting there's no crazy unique cybertronian weapons to choose from but what's provided here gets the job done the enemies being made out of metal gives a satisfying crunch whenever you defeat an opponent making shooting even the most basic of foes feel good of course the real Thrill is being able to freely switch between robot and vehicle form adding a particular spice to combat by giving you additional Mobility on the battlefield it was especially thrilling when playing as the likes of Starscream or Jetfire shooting foes on the ground before blasting into the skies at intense speed I do feel like the game could have benefited from some sort of cover system at numerous points there are instances where you need to face off against large waves of enemies that greatly outnumber you even on the easier difficulties I found enemies shred through your health a little too quickly and without a dedicated cover system there were plenty of moments where I thought I was out of the line of fire just to be shot down leading to a fair few game overs which left me a touch frustrated there are also a few bits where the difficulty spiked much higher than I felt it should the chief example being the part you need to defend ratchet in the autobot campaign the number of enemies thrown at you while trying to protect ratchet was just absurd overall the shooting mechanics and war for Cybertron are good aside from the transforming there's not a whole lot in terms of combat that you likely haven't seen in other third person shooters but considering Transformers remarkably poor track record in the world of video games prior war for Cybertron was certainly a massive Step Up in quality I did notice a bit of difference in quality between the autobot and decepticon campaigns with the autobot levels feeling like they got far more love between the two with the amount of shooting and war for Cybertron it can get a little repetitive after a while in the autobot campaign I felt as though there were many more little moments that spice up the gameplay like when you lose your weapons in a Decepticon prison [Music] racing along a crumbling Road or a turret section while traveling to the core of Cybertron these brief changes to the gameplay kept the experience fresh and saved off the repetitiveness of endless shooting galleries the Decepticon campaign did also have moments like this flying through the air Starscream at top speed was a particular highlight but I found there were fewer and farther between this led to me getting burned out of the Decepticon campaign much faster while the autobot campaign had a better pace which was far more engaging and continuing the difference in quality between the two campaigns I found the Autobots had a much wider selection of characters rotated between each level when one level would have Bumblebee and Ratchet the next would have iron hide and Warpath the Decepticons on the other hand had much less variety with levels 3 to the final boss only allowing you to select between the same Trio of Megatron sound wave and breakdown this isn't a huge deal but it is just one of those little things that made me feel the autobot campaign had more care put into it but maybe I'm overthinking it our clear weakness of war for Cybertron is its visuals plenty of textures look muddy up close and the environments are almost entirely gray making all the areas you visit bleed together nothing about Cybertron leaves all that much of an impression I suppose the reason why the colors in war for Cybertron are so muted and unsaturated is that they want the tone to feel much more serious we are in the middle of a war after all so it does make sense to stray away from Transformers more colorful roots I'm sure this gritty look has its fans but I personally didn't much care for it I much prefer the visual style of the game sequel Fall of Cybertron the color choice of war for Cybertron leaves the world in characters looking Bland and unremarkable I'm personally not a fan of it though I do want to praise the decision to implement neon Tron lines into each character's design giving each Autobot red lines and Decepticons purple since each character otherwise uses an identically dull color palette the neon lights prevent the characters from blending into the background it helps the player tell whose Friend or Foe with just a split-second glance this was a fantastic idea that would have really hampered the overall experience if it wasn't there the campaigns of war for Cybertron last about 8 to 10 hours and unfortunately once you finish the campaign that's really all that's left nowadays wolfer Cybertron originally came with online multiplayer and a Mode called escalation uh horde mode where you and a team of up to four players try to survive as many waves of enemies as you can however the service for war for Cybertron shut down in 2020 leaving both these modes now permanently unplayable and only the campaign for players to sink their teeth into you can't even play the campaigns in multiplayer anymore as there was no split screen and the co-op was only available online this unfortunately significantly lowers the overall content value of the game as mentioned previously there are no text logs audio logs or any other extras hidden in the single player leaving very little incentive to replay the story outside of trying on a hood of difficulty or playing as one of the other characters at the time of this recording use copies of war for Cybertron range from around 30 to 50 dollars which can be a hard sell due to how little there is to do without the multiplayer servers all that said if you're a Transformers fan and you can find war for Cybertron at a good price there's still a perfectly solid third person shooter awaiting you war for Cybertron isn't particularly revolutionary Noir must play shooter but what's here is perfectly competent and the novelty of game to play through the Transformers War before heading to Earth is certainly a strong novelty most importantly it also mocked a shift in quality for Transformers games for the better so while it's not amazing at isolation war for Cybertron is nevertheless an important game war for Cybertron didn't just come out on consoles though as it also had a handheld release two in fact so let's now turn our attention to the DS versions of war for Cybertron foreign [Music] [Applause] starting with the video game adaptation of the first Michael Bay Transformers film Transformers games on DS had gone the way of Pokemon releasing with two versions one where you place the autobots and others is Decepticons so when vicarious Visions decide to bring war for Cybertron to DS it wasn't surprising to see them do the same thing the key difference here is that the games based on the movies gave a completely original story depending on which version you bought if you bought the Decepticon version of Transformers 1 you'll have a full campaign where you crush the autobots and revive Megatron to take over the world however the DS versions of war for Cybertron uses the same story as the console version only now split up between two versions if you buy the Decepticon version you only get the first half of the story while if you buy the Autobots you only get the second half this means you'll need to buy the game twice to get the full War for cybertron's story which is just gross whereas the movie games gave unique experiences the two version idea here feels more like a cash grab there's very little reason to split up the titles like this and knowing you're getting an incomplete version of the game compared to its console counterpart leaves a bad taste in my mouth personally I only bought the Decepticon version as I've always been more drawn to villains than Heroes anyways moving into gameplay whereas the console versions were third person shooters the DS version is better referred to as a third person action game while each character does have a firearm with their disposal the game places equal importance on Close Quarters combat with you being able to freely switch between close and long-range weapons on the Fly for any given situation before going into a level you can select two characters which you can freely switch between by pressing the a button losing a character will automatically switch you over to your reserve allowing you to revive your partner by defeating a certain amount of enemies each character falls under one of three classes light air and heavy these classes affect the character's movement speed Health weapon specialty and vehicle form the likes of Megatron has a large amount of health and a powerful melee attack but he's slow and his long-range weapon isn't much faster meanwhile Starscream has an outrageously strong firearm and has the ability to fly but he's also incredibly squishy only taking a few hits before going down while selecting your characters you'll want to pay attention to your character's weapon types each character has two weapons a firearm which will slowly use up energy that will need to be charged and a melee weapon which doesn't use energy but naturally requires you to get in close with an enemy to actually use weapon has a particular strength represented by the color red yellow or blue the game classifies these colors as plasma laser and solid but I'll be damned if I can actually remember which corresponds to what color so I'll continue to refer to them as red yellow and blue each enemy will have a color next to their health bar and attacking them with a weapon of the same color will do drastically increase damage you'll want to make sure both characters are able to cover all three weapon types selecting two characters who only have yellow and blue weapons will make fighting red enemies another slog if you tap the touchscreen you can transform into vehicle form where your weapons deal all three weapon types but consumes energy much faster the combat is pretty solid the inherent strengths and weaknesses of each playable character alongside their various combination of weapons did an excellent job of making everyone feel distinct from one another and actually let me stop and think about who I thought would be the optimal combination of characters for a given level the color system also meant I need to constantly switch between my two characters while forcing me to decide if I thought it'd be best to keep at a distance or Rush In And fight bot to bot the fact that the game as a lock-on system was much appreciated keeping me focused on an enemy even as I walked around trying to avoid getting hit I did find that the constant strafing during the walk-on quickly became uncomfortable with the d-pad and my thumb would get cramped after just a short play session it wasn't unbearable but also never really comfortable making this a game better served for short moments of pickup and play not long sessions each level is you alternating between combat sections and platforming sections the platform was fine but being able to skip over these sections with an air character's flight did make these moments a bit of a joke what I did really appreciate is that each level has a handful of these gold tokens hidden behind shortcuts they can only be accessed by particular vehicle types these tokens come in one of two flavors the first are data disks which can be applied before starting a level these data disks offer various stat boosts for your pairing for the duration of a level these allow you to increase stats where your pairing may be lacking or make those strengths all the more powerful the second bonus tokens provide additional unlockable characters the handheld versions actually have a larger roster of playable characters than their console counterparts and unlike the console versions where you're only ever allowed to play as one of three characters in a given stage once you unlock a character on the DS version you can select them in any level which is pretty awesome having these golden tokens does a great job of encouraging players to explore and replay levels the DS versions aren't particularly long you can beat the campaign in two to three hours so the increased encouragement to go back to Prior levels with the incentive of getting a new playable character to mess around with was definitely the right call the fully 3D levels are impressive for a DS game each of the characters have admirably detailed models and in a world where I found the DS to Veal more towards Sprite work than 3D models I must commend the effort on display here unfortunately the team in Activision may have been pushing the limits a bit too much as there is a noticeable amount of slowdown at various points especially when enemies appear on screen it didn't bother me too much but it was a bit distracting additionally war for Cybertron DS still suffers from a poor color scheme as his console brother with environments and characters having similarly dull color palettes which makes it uninteresting to look at this is Cybertron the sky is the limit when it comes to creating interesting technological architecture but as it stands both versions are fairly Bland the game does have various modes outside of the campaign it has multiplayer allowing you to play in a variety of modes against a friend as well as bonus and Arena Arenas are just bite-sized missions taking place in small well arenas the short and don't leave much of a lasting impression individually but it's more bang for your buck in completing certain levels net you even more playable characters by the time you finish the main story they'll have unlocked four levels in the bonus section what are these bonus levels you may ask why they're the first four levels of the opposite version so if you bought Decepticons like I did you'll get the first four levels from the autobot version this is simultaneously clever and devious obviously by doing this the hope is you'll get invested and more willing to Shell out the extra money for the second version at the same time it's hard to get too upset at this at the end of the day it's more levels and it also means you get a decent portion of the autobot roster to play as well more content is more content and while it's not the full experience it should have been it immediately softens the blow somewhat so there's quite a lot to like about war for Cybertron on the DS but I can't deny it had a fair amount of issues that brought down the game for me first the game made a slightly baffling decision to include an experienced system into the game as you defeat enemies and find Energon cubes throughout the level your character will gain experience and level up with a max level of 20. as you level up you'll be able to distribute points to boost the character's various stats the system was unnecessary and felt out of place in an action game like this it also discourages using the vast selection of characters provided since rotating the roster can mean being under leveled for a particular stage making for a frustrating playthrough some of the later levels in this game are hard and you'll want every Advantage you can get ultimately encouraging you to pick two characters and stick with them for the entirety of the playthrough unless you feel like replaying previous stages over and over again to grind your other characters no thanks next is the checkpoint system it's bad in each level though typically only two or three checkpoints you'll go back to if you get a game over and as I mentioned previously the game can be challenging on later levels and losing both characters will mean constantly need to replay the same long stretches of level over and over again Ad nauseam worse yet falling to a bottomless pit is an instant game over regardless if you have another character on standby make a jump and just narrowly miss a platform too bad back to the beginning with you at least your experience points don't reset so you can still level up your characters as you restart a stage it's a small Comfort though finally and this one's more of a nitpick honestly I wish the ability to transform into vehicle mode wasn't located on the touchscreen outside of transforming everything else in the game is relegated to a button so my hand would always be at either side of the DS if I ever need to transform I would need to take my hand off to tap the stylus it's a minor issue but it doesn't make transforming feel as Snappy and there were instances where I need to transform in a hurry the right bumper is completely unused and could have easily had the transformability map to it as I said a minor issue in the long run but it never felt as comfortable as it could have been both the console versions of war for Cybertron offer a perfectly solid experience each with their own clear strengths and weaknesses if you have both a 360 or PS3 and a Nintendo DS but only want to get one version I'd give the edge to the console version while the DS version's additional playable characters extra content and blend of range in close quarters combat make it plenty fun I can't deny it still feels like I only received half a game with a multitude of bizarre exclusions and frustrations which hold it back from the same level as its console breath run and so war for Cybertron on the Nintendo DS will claim the number 23 spot just above octopath Traveler meanwhile the 360 version will fly a bit higher seizing the number 20 spot under Ultimate Ninja Storm and that will do it for war for Cybertron in our next video we'll be returning to the world of Shinobi with the Naruto series we'll be one of the good ones or the bad ones you'll just have to wait and see in the meanwhile thank you all so much for watching take care may we see each other again when we turn to the next chapter in the Tome of silver

Channel: Tome of Silver

Views: 3,567

Keywords: Tome, Tomb, of, silver, sliver, Transformers, War, for, For, Cybertron

Id: gK_Gct7oCu8

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023