Publisher: Activision
Developer: Edge of Reality
ESRB Rating: Teen
Release Date: June 24, 2014

First off-- since the core gameplay for this game is borrowed almost wholly from the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron series, I recommend being familiar with those two games (or at least my reviews of them) before reading this one.

Now that that's out of the way, Rise of the Dark Spark by and large keeps those two games' solid gaming and gunplay. The bulk of the campaign is played in that universe as well (after WfC but before FoC), with the movie universe only "bookending" the various campaign chapters, with one chapter at the very beginning and a few more at the end of the campaign, which is surprisingly long for a movie shooter game-- it clocked in at around 10 hours for me, and that was on Easy. If you want more of a challenge, obviously it'll take a longer time to play through it on a tougher difficulty. The graphics-- for some reason-- are a step down from the previous games played in this same general engine and playstyle, but I wouldn't go quite so far as to say that they're bad (unless you're playing on a PS4 or Xbox One-- then it's definitely way subpar compared to the other games released for this systems). It's only particularly obvious if you see a environmental texture up close, as they're a bit muddy.

Graphics aren't what most people complain about when they slam this movie tie-in game, however; rather, it's how things were "ripped" wholesale from High Moon Studios' games, given that a new developer (Edge of Reality) is behind the helm for this game. And to be fair, there are a LOT of things taken from HMS' games, though not without acknowledgement-- all of the WfC/FoC character builds are taken from those games, and no new models are added for the characters from that universe. However, as a bit of a counterpoint to that, there a LOT of characters playable in this game, particularly in the multiplayer Escalation mode-- you have over 40 Transformers characters in total to choose from, many of which were previously only available as DLC from WfC or FoC. (Only six-- Lockdown, Grimlock, Optimus, Bumblebee, Drift, and-- if you preoredered the game at Wal-Mart-- Stinger, are from the movie universe, however. Another note is that if you preordered this game at Gamestop, you get skins for WfC/FoC Skywarp and Thundercracker as well, though unfortunately the few comments they make in multiplayer are in Starscream's voice.) Although the ability to customize the look of your Transformers character isn't given in this game, you can customize their abilities and T.E.C.H. (temporary power-ups), as well as weapons, before you even enter a multiplayer session.

Speaking of multiplayer, there's also been a big hubbub about PvP multiplayer being taken out completely from this game. To be sure, that is a bit of a downer-- but given the tighter-than-usual deadline for movie games, I can forgive this some, given that I think PvP was the most boring of the modes from the previous games in this style anyways. However, Escalation DOES make a return, and it's mostly like FoC's escalation in that you fight 15 waves of increasing difficulty and, if you and your team of up to four players can survive, you beat the map-- it doesn't go on theoretically forever like WfC's escalation. There are some important differences between this game's escalation mode and FoC's, though-- first, the entire map is open to you from the beginning, and instead of spending your cash for ammo, health, and other power-ups (you get those from downed enemies or by interfacing with a console in between waves), you spend them all on defenses that help you beat back the bad guys (or good guys, if you're playing as Decepticons). These range from "corrosive installations" which slowly kill any enemy within their range to missile turrets to decoy transmitters that have enemies go after and attack those "fake" Transformers before they focus on you. Every 5 waves, there is also a named boss-- say, Bumblebee, Shockwave, Lockdown, or the like-- that show up along with the usual menagerie of enemies. Unfortunately, although kind of neat, this doesn't really affect gameplay much-- they're basically just like regular enemies but with beefier health bars. Because of the different approach to Escalation mode, this leaves the gameplay much more open-ended and less frenetic, but also less focused. It's not a net positive or negative change, in my opinion; just simply a change to help shake things up. There is one gameplay-balancing oversight for Escalation mode, though-- given that you can customize the loadout of each Transformer so thoroughly here, there's no reason to play as anyone other than a flier. Since fliers can now be just as strong as everybody else-- but are much faster-- you can easily see why this would be the case. Most of the Esclation maps are also re-used from WfC/FoC, but there's two new Earth ones. If you're playing as the Autobots, Optimus voices commands/updates you regardless of what map you're playing-- but in an unexpected twist, if you're playing as the Decepticons, Lockdown will voice those commands if you're playing on an Earth level, whereas Megatron will voice the commands if you're playing on Cybertron level.

As for single-player, as with FoC there's an overall arching story with a little over a dozen chapters here, each playable in anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on how fast/good/familiar with the stage you are. Your character for each chapter is pre-selected, though most of them play roughly the same in robot mode (the exception being Movie Grimlock, who is a powerhouse just like in FoC, but can change modes at will this time around-- needless to say, he's the only character you can't play as in Escalation). The levels that take place in the WfC/FoC universe are fairly well-designed and take use of existing textures from WfC/FoC, but they're all-new levels, so not quite THAT much is reused from High Moon's games. Most of the awe-inspiring moments that WfC and FoC had in spades are gone, though, with only a few in Jetfire's level. Mostly it's more straightforward shooting action in this movie while you flip switches, clear obstacles, and the like. In most games this may be a major downside, but given how solid the gameplay is I don't mind this too much, even though I certainly would've preferred a cool setpiece or two. With the Movie levels, the graphics are noticeably a bit more sparser and rough, and the environments rather generic (blasted city/big warehouse/jungle), but they still work well, and again, aren't outright bad. The story tying everything together, though, is incredibly slow-moving, with nearly all of it focusing on the Decepticons and Autobots playing "hot potato" with the McGuffin called the Dark Spark, which can apparently do almost anything its Decepticon owner wants. No sub-plots or dramatic turns here, though the very end of the game should leave any old-skool fan smiling. Although not a whole lot of time is spent on side stuff, there are some audio logs to track down. There's also a TON of challenges to complete in this game (kill 50 enemies with gun X, kill a boss without damaging the balcony he's on, etc.), encouraging some replay value. Whenever you complete a challenge, you get XP to level up and a "gear box", which contains a random assortment of character unlocks, T.E.C.H. pieces, new weapons/abilities, and/or hacks. The latter are completely optional (unless you want to get all the trophies in the game), and make the core game harder in some aspects while making it easier in others. (Some examples of hacks are that enemies drop more health and less ammo, or that they have more hits but that your weapon fires more rapidly). They're a nice side distraction, but certainly nothing that changes the way the game is played. (However, if ANYONE has a hack enabled in Escalation, it affects everyone-- a bad idea, that, as it doesn't tell everybody that there's a hack at the beginning and you're left to figure it out by yourself, sometimes with bad consequences. Hacks should've been disabled for multiplayer.) Getting back to the gear boxes, this is how you get new weapons and upgradw them-- no longer is currency a factor in single-player. It's a decent enough idea-- especially since if you get a duplicate, the game will automatically convert it into something you either don't have a duplicate of or NEED duplicates of-- but I prefer deciding how to upgrade my weapons instead of essentially being randomly told how to. The XP you earn from completing challenges carries over between both multiplayer and single-player, and just like in WfC and FoC, you can level up to 25 and then go back to level 1 if you engage "Prime Mode"-- essentially a badge of honor and dedication, but also requiring you to re-acquire weapons and upgrades again.

A review of this game wouldn't be complete without, sadly, mentioning the glitches. Most of the time, they're not bad enough to force a restart-- I only had that happen twice during the entire time I played through the game, and I played it enough to Platinum it. (One bug was rather hilarious, as in Escalation a player got stuck behind the "enemy spawn point" wall and couldn't get back out.) However, it is fairly common to see an enemy just stand there instead of trying to shoot you, and sometimes during a multiplayer loading screen will stay there forever, forcing you to back out and try to reconnect (and yes, there is Host Migration in this game as well, thank goodness). So the glitches are a bit annoying, but hardly a deal-breaker.

This game has been slammed nearly across the board in reviews, often from the same people who praised WfC and FoC. Sometimes I think certain people-- particularly professional critics-- hate the movies so much they refuse to see anything relating to them as good to any extent. Is the game perfect? Hardly. It's a definite step down from WfC and FoC, but it's still a fun, enjoyable game. It absolutely does NOT deserve the rock-bottom reviews many big-name video game websites are giving it. Thus, though the glitches and overly vanilla story can drag it down a bit-- and I'm not sure why the visuals received a bit of a downgrade-- if you're a fan of the WfC/FoC gameplay, this should be a pick-up.

Graphics: 7/10
Music: 10/10
Gameplay: 17/20
Storyline: 5/10
Level Design: 7/10
Cutscenes: 9/10
Controls: 20/20
Replayability: 9/10
Technical Issues -7

Overall Rating:77/100 Good

(NOTE: Although this review was for the PS3 version of the game, the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PS4 versions are identical, so this should apply to the releases for those systems as well, minus some system-specific bugs. The WiiU version does not have multiplayer, but is otherwise the same. This version does NOT count for the 3DS version, as that is a different game entirely.)

(Screencaps taken from Gamespot.com)

Back to Storage Closet