Transformers: War for Cybertron

The most surprising thing about War for Cybertron, given that it's a Transformers-flavored Gears of War clone, is that there's no snap-to-cover function. What's up with that? I mean, I'm as upset as anyone when there's nothing more to a game than cover, but it's 2010 -- you can't make an Unreal Engine shooter and just forget to implement a contextual cover system. That's weird.

With that said, War for Cyberton feels like most pre-Gears shooters, and in that company it doesn't do bad for itself. The "gimmick" here is obviously that you can transform, though with the exception of the one jet-flying level I've done so far, it doesn't really integrate into the gameplay at all. Aside from that, there are also some special "energon"-powered abilities each character can use, but since they're balanced for competitive multiplayer, they don't feel very effective for campaign use.

So War for Cybertron ends up being a passable shooter that, while somewhat behind the times, looks really good. What sells this game is how detailed and fluid the hyper-mechanical art direction looks, and how well it integrates with the whole Transformers motif. Some of the voice acting could be better - except for Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, which couldn't possibly be any better, obviously - but in general the presentation is pretty fantastic.

Progress: Chapter 8