Yep, that's right. I have it! Well. I have the beta. Good enough. I'm gonna sum up what I think of this game in one sentence:

My feelings are mixed.

Read on to know why.

I booted the game and sat down, anxiously awaiting the game to start. The main menu loads up and presents three options:



Newgame
Continue
Options

I quickly realize that the VS mode hasn't been implemented in this version of the game. That, and "New Game" is misspelled. Also, the Options menu has been disabled. Bummer. With only one real option left, I start a new game.

The first real choice the game lets me take, is whether I want to control the Autobots or the Decepticons... Or as the game calls them, Cybertrons vs. Destrons. Being a loyal autobot-fan myself, I picked the Cybetrons.

The CG movies aren't in use in this beta (maybe they're just promotional videos?), so there's no real intro that tells the main story. There's a lot of japanese text though. Maybe the text is a substitute for the real CG intro. That's what I hope.

After the rather long text-based intro, you're taken to a scene where Optimus Prime, Jazz and Wheeljack are discussing the current situation. The Autobot models are really well made. They've really captured the look of the old G1 bots. The subs are in japanese, but the voice acting is in english, so I understood most of what they said. Apparently they've traced an SOS signal to the planet they're currently on. Whether this planet is earth or not, I do not know. Optimus had sent out two Autobots to investigate, but they dissappeared. He decided to take matters into his own hands, so he went to the planet along with Jazz and Wheeljack to find out what's been going on.

Once this scene is over, you're taken to a menu where you have to choose your main character and the two supportive characters. As of now, you can only pick between OP, Jazz and Wheeljack. You can transform the bots in real-time to see their alternate modes. The actual transformation looks pretty smooth, and they've even used the classic transformation-sounds. Ah, nostalgia.

I know a lot of people who would've liked to see this game as an RPG, and luckily, your dreams have been fulfilled to a certain extent. You see, each bot has his own HP, EP, Weapon level and Shield level. As you progress through the game, your stats goes up. You can also collect Energon-cubes after defeating enemies, and the cubes serves as a currency to upgrade your weapons and shields. Okay, enough about that, let's get back to the actual game.

The first level takes place in what looks too be a canyon. According to my brother, this game plays a bit like The Two Towers; you beat up all the enemies in one area, then move on to the next one. You move around like you do in Tomb Raider, meaning that you turn around by pressing left and right, go forward by pressing forward, and back away by pressing down. There are no camera issues like in Tomb Raider though, and the bots are generally faster than Lara Croft. Here's the general button-layout:

X: Jump. Press twice to double jump.
Circle: Kick. Combine with D-pad/analog stick for different moves.
Triangle: Punch. Combine with D-pad/analog stick for different moves.
Square: Transform. You can perform a special attack in vehicle-mode by pressing
Circle. This attack consumes EP.

L1: Guard.
L2: Lift up enemy and punch them.
R1: Aim. Press circle to fire.
R2: Lift up enemy. Press circle to throw them.

If you press Circle + Triangle at the same time, you can pull of some special moves that consumes EP (OP uses an axe, Jazz does some crazy flip-kicks, stuff like that). It's also possible to launch deadly combos that looks really cool, but I'm not sure how I've triggered those. If you have any companions nearby when you trigger a combo, they'll join in for some extra damage. Defeated enemies drops HP, EP and energon-cubes for you to pick up.

The first "boss" you fight is Soundwave, although the only thing that makes him harder than the other enemies is that he guards, so he was a bit of a dissapointment. Megatron is the second boss, and he offers a bit more of a challenge... Mostly because he runs away as soon as you approach him. He goes down after a few combos, but it took me a couple of tries to beat him. Worth mentioning is that none of the bosses ever seem to transform.

Once you've finished the first mission, you're taken to a menu where you can load and save your game, enter the "Garege" (nice typo, isn't it?) where you can level up bots and upgrade their equipment, and the next mission-map where you can select three new levels. And that's how it goes on and on.

As I mentioned before, this game is still in beta stage, so there are a few things that needs to be fixed. I'll list what I consider to be the most important things:

The AI
The enemies and your companions are REALLY stupid. Sometimes they decide to fight the air, run into walls or just pause for 10-15 seconds. The only enemies I've encountered so far that shows signs of intelligence are the bosses.

Also, the (so called) AI is really cheap. Normally in these type of games, you only have to fight one enemy at a time because the other bad guys enters sort of a stand-by-mode while your beating someone up. In this game, that's not the case. You'll often find yourself being beaten by 4-5 decepticons at the same time. This makes the game really hard, even on the easy difficulty setting.

Variation
During the 1st stage, I saw six kinds of enemies. Two of them were Megatron and Soundwave. The other four are the enemies you keep fighting over and over. According to the stats after I had beaten the stage, I had defeated over 250 enemies. It doesn't take a genious to realize that it gets repetetive.

Great engrisch!
Winkysoft should employ someone who knows how to spell english words. Enough said.

Not being able to change main robot after you die!
I noticed something the programmers overlooked. During the first mission, you have to pass through a mine-field. You have 30 seconds to pass all the mines. To do this, you need a fast character. The problem is, if you use Megatron or Soundwave, it's impossible to make it all the way through the mine field in that time. They don't run fast enough, and since they cannot transform into vehicles all you can do is die. Unfortunately, the game won't let you change character when you die, so if you happen to have picked the wrong character for that part of the mission, you gotta start over from the beginning. Very frustrating.

THE SCRIPT!
Ever seen Days of our Lives? Ever played Resident Evil 1? This game manages to deliver even cheezier lines than DooL and RE combined.

And sadly, none of the old voice actors are left. OP sounds... okay. Jazz sounds like a mature Wheelie. Starscream sounds like Megatron (I'm not kidding!). I think you get the point.

FAQ
Q: While playing as Starscream, can you fly his jet?
A: Yes, you can fly the jet, but it moves a bit too fast. Given the limited space you have to move around, it becomes quite difficult to handle his jet-mode. As soon as you hit a wall, Starscream transforms back to his regular bot-mode.

Q: Does Megatron really transform into a gun?
A: Yep. Although you cannot move around, you can turn around and aim through his sniper scope by pressing R1.

Q: Okay, so what about Soundwave?
A: Once transformed into a cassette player, press circle to release the tapes. That's pretty much everything you can do with him while he's transformed.

Q: Are there any missions where you have to transform?
A: Yes, some parts of the missions encourages you to transform to proceed. I've noticed a rather stupid thing the programmers missed while setting up these parts, read about it in the section where I mention the issues this beta has.

Q: Are the voice actors REALLY that bad?
A: Yes. It sounds like they're reading the script as they say the lines. Honestly.

(Side note: I've always pronounced "energon" as ener-djohn, but the voice actors in this game pronounces it as ener-gon. IMO that sounds stupid. I don't remember how it's really supposed to sound though, so maybe I'm the one who's wrong)

This game has potential, but the issues I mentioned has to be taken care of, otherwise this game will be mediocre at best.

Written by Darkbeat, admin on StasisLock Forums

Find more info on this title at Gamespot