Activision certainly has their hands on a blockbuster with Transformers: The Game, being able to surpass many movie-to-video-game conversions out there with its engrossing gameplay and spectacular graphics, but can be too run-of-the-mill for some action veterans. Transformers is about a raging war between the Autobots and Decepticons, fighting over the Allspark, an object able to bring mechanical and electronic objects to life. The war begins on the planet Cybertron, and spreads to another galaxy when the Allspark is discovered on Earth. The Autobots seek to protect the Allspark from being abused, whereas the Decepticons are determined to use it to fulfill their evil needs. Transformers is structured much like a Grand Theft Auto game, only with two separate storylines to choose and play. Players can choose to play the Autobot storyline or Decepticon storyline, and complete respective stages and chapters.

The Autobot chapters will see to it you are preservative, as the Deception chapters let you wreck havoc. After completing a chapter, you are able to roam the world freely in search of secrets to discover and miscellaneous goals to complete, and to find your next objective. Progress is made by completing stages made up of chapters. Thankfully, that’s not all the game is. There are quite a few things to do in each stage, and some stages present new areas to explore. There are yellow cubes to find, which will unlock hidden content and side missions, keeping gamers quite busy, as players who want to level a few buildings will be able to do so in a fun and exciting manner. The combat system is quite tight and simple, with three main attacks- a ‘heavy,’ ‘light,’ and melee weapon. For ballistic and energy weapons, there is unlimited ammo for unlimited action-ammunition regenerates as it is unused, which present challenges in kill efficiency, much like old-school shooter games. In addition, the bots can transform just like in the movies, a very fun feature that’s very entertaining and will last quite a while.

There are many ways to get through the chapters, and finding the fastest, most exciting, and most explosive is very exhilarating. The graphics are stellar, which is expected of an Xbox 360 game. The road reflects the sun’s yellowish character, the bots properly transform as they do in their movie counterparts. Transformers’ user interface leaves a lot to be desired with its plain blue scheme. The frame rate is also disappointing, but acceptable, as the slowdown is not critical. The sound engineering is fairly basic, but the soundtrack more than makes up for this. Bullets will zoom by in great effects, the sound of bots falling from high stories make for a nice thud, and all this is presented in standard Xbox 360 auditory setting. The music is filled with adrenaline and has a sense of epic to it. It’s a shame you don’t hear it while roaming around often. Transformers is a great movie, and the game does it much justice. There’s much fun to be had in this game, and fans of the movie and action games will find lots to like in this game.