Only recently, the future of the Transformers gaming franchise looked bleak. Having incurred the wrath of fans and critics alike with last year's disappointing movie tie-in, Dark of the Moon, developer High Moon was under pressure to deliver a return to form. Its response was to look back to the 80s for inspiration, and the result is both a love-letter to Transformers lore and a much-improved action game.
Transformers nerds will no doubt delight in the many nods and winks to Marvel comics and cartoons, but it's the frenetic pace and large-scale battles that impress the most. Building on the blueprint set out in 2010's War for Cybertron, this latest instalment is a brash, bombastic concoction of third-person shooting, vehicle combat and melee action that moves along with relentless speed.
The story campaign, while short, is littered with huge setpieces and is at its best when providing the player with large, open battlefields in which to experiment. In these sections, the seamless transition between slick, responsive gun-play and fast-paced vehicular action offers a refreshing degree of freedom. With solid multiplayer and co-op modes in tow, Fall of Cybertron is the perfect example of how a developer can reassert control over a faltering franchise.
