As a child of the 80s, the Transformers was one of few cartoons I watched religiously. I even made my Mum record each episode, bad boy-style, straight onto VHS for repeat viewing. Don’t worry — I’ve since gone and bought the cartoon’s legitimate DVD releases as well, making up for my former childhood piracy. I can’t go this far without mention buying a swathe of toys and comics and, last but not least, both of High Moon Studios’ recent Cybertron games.
I think it’s safe to say that I enjoy Transformers. Which is why I’m sorely disappointed with its newest game, Rise of the Dark Spark.
If I was to look back at the Transformers: Cybertron games that came out before Rise of the Dark Spark, I would be a little annoyed and confused at what this is: a sequel to the recent Michael Bay movies and a prequel to both the Cybertron games I adore. Inconsistences between both worlds are abundant in the game and essentially it leaves gamers neither in the world of the movies, nor the G1 universe. I guess we’ve got a sub-nose truck skin for Optimus Prime for use in multiplayer, so that’s something.
Worse yet, the game looks like an unfinished last-gen game at many points. It’s as if new developer Edge of Reality just gave up texturing objects or even maintaining the rubble or destruction in areas on Earth. Moreover, scale has been flipped on its head; city buildings sometimes looked like they were designed for ants, Zoolander-style, or normal-sized buildings had windows that must have been made for the Transformers themselves.
The game’s campaign alternates between the Decepticons and Autobots. While this has worked well in past Transformers properties, it’s broken and jarring here, ruining any sense of narrative flow in its very weak plot. Things just don’t make sense if you’ve not scene Bay’s latest film.
Rise of the Dark Spark‘s difficulty settings are also borked, with easy, normal and hard modes all playing essentially the same. The game’s true difficulty lies in very specific, few-and-far-between points in the game where certain ‘bots were just overpowered; have fun defending Jazz as Optimus.
The four class multiplayer mode that pitted Autobots against Decepticons in a fantastic take on team deathmatch in the Cybertron games is gone.. with only Escalation making the cut in Rise of the Dark Spark. Dare I say it, Escalation is the only redeeming bit of this new game. In the mode, you team up with three other players online and go toe to toe with waves of increasingly difficult ‘bots, with each fifth wave being a boss fight.
All through Rise of the Dark Spark, you’ll complete challenges which grant you boxes which, depending on their grade, will unlock weapons, skins, abilities and boosters to help in Escalation. Alas, a solitary mode can get boring quickly; split-screen would have at least given Escalation a little more longevity than it sadly has. If you’re a Wii U owner, be warned: Escalation was cut from your version of the game.
Die-hard fans of Transformers will find enough to go back for a couple rounds with the game, but for most gamers, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is rushed and lacking in most every way.
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
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The good
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The bad
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