Resident games guru Rob Farquhar takes a look at the latest game to emerge from the Transformers franchise... can they finally pull off a great game in a sea of mediocrity?

Even before the live action Transformers blockbusters hit cinemas, I’d noticed cars and vans about Cairns sporting Autobot or Decepticon logos.

I reckon that, like me and the game developers at High Moon Studios, their owners must’ve imprinted on The Transformers when it aired in the early Eighties.

War for Cybertron puts you (and up to two online friends) into the final days of the battle between the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons for control of their home planet Cybertron.

Both story and game play are simple and fun.

Fights filled with enemies keep me busy; each robot’s special abilities give me nice tactical options and the characters are just as larger-than-life as the cartoons.

Even Peter Cullen returns to voice the character he originated, Optimus Prime.

Click your controller’s left stick and your robot transforms into a car, truck, tank or jet with its own weapon and a speed boost.

All vehicle modes control as smoothly as your robot.

Every Transformer is lavished in glorious visual detail, as is the machine planet Cybertron.

The online modes build on the base gameplay well.

Escalation, a four-player "got-your-back" mode, pits the campaign’s named Transformers against waves of computer-controlled opponents.

Energon, which you earn through kills, can be spent at stations on health, ammo, new weapons and unlocking sections of the arena (you can split Energon costs with your allies).

War for Cybertron also provides frag-your-mates modes like deathmatch and capture-the-flag for up to 10 people.

Earn enough experience during matches and you can equip new abilities and enhancements.

Transforming keeps these traditional modes fresh.

Still, hardcore gamers may prefer tactically deeper offerings like Modern Warfare 2 and my movie fan step-grand-daughter didn’t like the Transformers’ old-school look.

There’s also no split screen or system link support.

Finally, graphical bugs, Internet lag issues and console freezes on the Xbox 360 mar the package. Nonetheless, Transformers: War for Cybertron is a pretty and solid game. If your car’s really a robot in disguise, you’ll love it. I do!

>> REVIEW BY ROB FARQUHAR

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