Normally I would stay away from television/movie licensed games, but Transformers caught my eye. The graphics looked really nice and the previews I had read, and the videos I had seen got me interested. I've been a fan of the series ever since I was a kid, and the thought of a good Transformers game was exciting, to say the least. So how is the game you ask? Well let me tell you:

First off, the game has very tight controls, which helps the gameplay a lot. The shoulder buttons control your weapons/abilities, which works really well, but the best thing is how easy and fluid the transformations are. The triangle button is used to transform, and does so very quickly, but the best thing is that you don't have to be stationary to do this. For example, You can be sniping, transform at the press of a button, be racing along in vehicle mode, transform back into a robot, (which sends you into a slide that feels perfect) jump off a cliff and then go into glide mode (assuming you have the appropriate mini-cons equipped) in one fluid motion.

   

They also managed to get across a really good feeling of mass and scale. You actually feel like you're a giant robot; something a lot of mech games don't seem to do very well.

Transformers is primarily played from a third-person perspective, but you can go into first-person view (with three levels of zoom) and whilst you can't run about whilst using it (you walk slowly) you can hold down L1 to "bob & weave" which lets you avoid shots, or get a better view.

You gain abilities and weapons in Transformers by collecting "mini-cons" to equip. You can equip up to four at once but each takes up a number of slots, which are limited, so you have to choose carefully. This adds more depth to the game, as there are 40 different mini-cons to collect. Here are just some of the weapons you will find: mines, grenade/rocket launchers, a sniper rifle, an "arc gun" which fires off a bolt of electricity, and a weapon that looks very similar to the things the Ghostbusters use...

There are three different Autobots to play as: Optimus Prime, Red Alert, and Hot Shot. They vary in speed, and armour, but I found myself using Optimus the most, even though he is the slowest, because he has the most mini-con slots available.

   

As for abilities, you can find ones that allow you to glide, give you extra armour, stealth camouflage, shields, boost ability and more. All of your weapons/abilities have infinite ammunition, but they all wear down an energy bar when using them, and each has varying recharge speeds. The game adds more depth to this system by giving each of the mini-cons one of four different colours. If you have two or more of the same colour equipped you will gain a little bonus - the most noticeable of these being extra energy. If you have the right combination, you can double your health. There are also over 60 different "data-cons" to collect, which unlock things such as artwork, toy production, comics, soundtracks, and the old "knowing is half the battle" TV spots which some of you may remember.

Having seven levels in a game might not sound like a lot, but they are absolutely HUGE. Each takes an hour or more to finish the first time, and you'll want to go back and search for all the mini/data-cons you couldn't get to the first time through. Not only that, but Transformers also has some of the biggest and most enjoyable boss battles that I've fought in a game for a long time. There is one that is so big, the missiles it fires are bigger than you are - and there can be eight or more of them headed your way at any one time!

   

The way you can spot enemies and take them out at huge distances is very similar to Far Cry, and the way that you attract attention from all around when doing so, is also very similar - perhaps Far Cry is possible on the PS2 after all…

Visually the game is stunning - they've pulled off just about every trick the PS2 has, and used it to maximum effect. The draw distance is almost as far as the eye can see, with very little pop up. In levels with grass, it's everywhere, and in snowy levels there are huge amounts of particles onscreen. The jungle levels are remarkable - I have no idea how they managed it on the PS2; they are incredibly dense in places, and like nothing else I've seen on the system - the only other attempts at doing dense jungle are the ones in Turok Evolution or Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, but they don't even compare. The framerate is a fairly steady 60 fps, and when it does slow down they added motion blur to make it almost seem intentional. It only ever slows down when there are a huge number of trees/enemies onscreen at the same time, and has never been bad enough to affect gameplay.

There is also some really nice lighting thrown in for good measure, as well as ragdoll physics, and some of the levels have excellent water. Rather than having a pixel-shaded effect, there are actual 3D waves! The explosions in the game are worth a mention too; when you kill enemies they go out with a bang - bits of scrap metal go flying, and bounce independently when they land, showing off some more of the nice physics that the game has.

   

The AI is surprisingly good as well, very similar to Halo in a lot of ways - the enemies feel "smart" at times, and will try to flank you, and the way they react to your fire really reminded me of it. (And sticking a grenade to some of the enemies looks like it was ripped directly from it!) While the AI is really good most of the time, when you're sniping from a long distance and there's no one near you, things can go wrong occasionally. Sometimes you'll snipe an enemy in a group and all they do is run around like headless chickens for half a minute, and then resume patrolling like nothing happened.

Sound effects, on the other hand, are average, and the music is nowhere near as good as I had hoped - it's all forgettable. Voice acting is very poor - only Optimus Prime and Megatron are the proper voice actors from the series; the other Autobots/Decepticons are voiced by other people, and sound terrible. (Starscream's voice was a big disappointment) The voices are only used when you are getting a mission objective, or encountering a boss - it would have been nice to have some kind of idle chatter.

Sadly, the game is based on the Armada television series, which means that you won't be seeing many of your favourites in it, and ones that do return don't look as you would have hoped. (Megatron is a tank now, for example) But don't let that put you off, because it is a very solid third-person shooter, and I suspect the decision to make it an Armada game was to draw in the younger crowd that most likely don't have a clue what the G1 Transformers were like.

   

Forget your prejudices and preconceptions about Transformers; it is a great action game whether you like the series or not, and a game no PS2 gamer should be without. It feels a lot like a mix of Halo, Mechassault and Far Cry, there are many similarities to all three titles, and it's definitely worth your money.