Engage in a battle for supremacy across the globe as either Autobots or Decepticons to drive, fly, fight and blast your way through intense, pressure-packed levels. Select from a diverse range of playable Transformers - each with distinct personalities, abilities and weaponry - and jump straight into action as you instantly switch between robot, vehicle and weapon modes to fight for the preservation or annihilation of all mankind...

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a massive step up, in many ways, from the previous Transformers movie based game (Transformers: The Game). The most noticeable difference is the way in which the game handles. Firstly the transformations are now extremely fluid and can be easily used during fights.

Whilst in a transformed state there are many things that can you can do, including more powerful attacks, higher jumps and the ability to get to other locations much faster. Whilst in the vehicle state you can fire weapon but only in the direction the vehicle is facing. Some characters can transform into flying vehicles making it easy to transverse over the map to checkpoints, and to where the enemies are, in order to complete the levels faster.

Shortly after you begin the game you are asked to choose a side, Autobots or Deceptacons, both of which have fairly similar levels, it's all down to personal taste and which side you like the most. At the start of the game you have to play through a tutorial which is made interesting thanks to a chatty and complimentary Autobot or a chatty but fairly condescending Deceptacon. Both of which will amuse you and eventually like you by the end of the tutorial.

Combat in the game involves three different forms. One is the classic hand to hand combat where you have to simply punch your opponents, you can also do a charged attack by holding down the attack button. There's the weapons system which allows you to use two different weapons which varies between each character, and can range from a simple machine gun to a sniper rifle or even proximity mines which when fired stick to things such as enemies, cars and walls. The third form of combat is the use of the weapons on your vehicle, which are extremely simple and includes only one type of gun which can only fire in a straight line.

One of the best things that this game pulls off is the graphics for the characters. These are amazing. You can only really appreciate them once you transform, where the character just changes perfectly into their vehicle and then back to normal form again.

Most of the missions are set in different places around the globe, including China and America. This helps to make the game feel like it has a natural story rather than feeling like a repetitive game. But as you progress through the levels you'll notice that some of the missions are a little too similar - and there aren't that many levels.

As you progress through the game you will see that there is a timer on each level and also a rank, platinum is the highest rank and bronze is the lowest, the higher the rank the more points you get at the end of the level. There is an upgrade system which lets you improve your characters such as the amount of health they have or the amount of damage they can inflict. At the end of every game you are rewarded with points that can be used to upgrade your Transformers.

There are unlockable videos which can be earned after completing certain tasks such as spending enough points on upgrades or destroying enough opponents, most of the tasks are fairly simple but some include having to do them with certain characters.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a giant leap forward for the Transformers gaming title and is definitely worth getting if you are a Transformers fan. With lots of different transformations and characters to play as, as well as some huge bosses, the game hosts an excellent variety of things to do and unlock, and should keep you busy for a fair while whilst trying to unlock everything.

8

Carl Simpson