Fallout: New Vegas Review 28/10/2010

This identical copy of Fallout 3 may look a bit out of date now, but this enormous game is still one of the most addictive & enjoyable experiences to be had on a PS3.

I was never a fan of role playing games (RPG’s), but 2008’s Fallout 3 totally won me over, and gave me a gaming experience unlike anything I have ever played before. It mixed action with role playing elements, gave a really engrossing story and a ridiculously vast nuclear war devastated wasteland to explore, with huge amounts of customising, side quests and exploring to do. It was so addictive that I just couldn’t get enough of it and it was easily in my top 3 of the best games I have played so far on the PS3, and the vast majority of the gaming world agreed with me as it won many accolades of “game of the year 2008”. As you can imagine I was anticipating this follow up, Fallout: New Vegas, with huge amounts of eagerness. So can lightning strike twice, can Bethesda Studios make another masterpiece? This game is an action RPG set several hundred years into the future, but from the perspective of how society perceived the future would be in the 1950’s. So you have nuclear powered tail finned cars, robot waiters, duke boxes etc. In 2227, inevitably, mankind wiped itself out in a nuclear war between the USA and China. Few people survived but the humans that did, being humans, emerged from the ashes as greedy and willing to kill each other as ever before. Several hundred year’s later people are surviving but society is struggling to be restored and technology is still few and far between. The concept of every man for himself is the most widely adopted attitude. Las Vegas somehow managed to avoid the apocalypse and is still a vibrant neon town, powered by the Hoover Dam which is still functioning, but is in the charge of a mysterious overlord with a robot army, called Mr House. Several societies battle for power in the nuclear wastelands, such as the “New California Republic (NRC)” and the “Legions of Caesar” for example, each one wanting to enforce their particular rule over others. You play a simple courier who was delivering a package when a group of gangsters intercepted you, robbed you and shot you in the head, leaving you for dead. Luckily though a robot finds you and takes you to a nearby doctor, who heals you. Several days later you emerge from the doctors house and go on a mission to try and find out why those people tried to kill you, what was so precious about your package and survive the savage nuclear wastelands long enough to find out.

What’s good?

As before (in Fallout 3) the sheer size of the game is mind boggling. It isn’t quite as big as the capital wasteland of Washington DC, from Fallout 3, but it’s still a monster of a game. Walking across it in its entirety would take hours. There are far more towns and settlements to discover, than its predecessor, including the fully modelled New Vegas, which represents Las Vegas from the 1950’s, so this is casino’s run by mob bosses and crooks in general. There is no subway system as in Fallout 3, but you can still go in practically every house and building and there is still a myriad of underground sewers, caves, bunkers and vaults to explore. There will always be something worth getting in all nooks and crannies so exploration of the wasteland is highly advised. For example, I came across a small group of heavily armed robots defending a crashed aeroplane, and after killing them I found a huge bazooka like laser cannon. I also found a mini nuke launcher, called a Fatman, in a cave which had a nest of night stalkers in it (half dog, half lizard, mutated beasts). There is also the noticeable gang element to New Vegas, as there are loads of these societies. All are very different such as the organised, but desperate, “New California Republic” army, the drugged up rapist murdering psychopathic “Fiends”, the warrior tribe “The great Khans”, the supremely cool “Brotherhood of Steel” (my favourite), the heavily armed “Boomers” and loads more. There are also loads of companies to work for as well, such as caravan companies, weapons dealers, tradesmen, mercenaries, casino’s etc, and all require investigating and communicating with as most will offer you work with high reward, or attack you causing you to slaughter them and fleece their corpses of all their fine weaponry and armour. For example, the “Fiends” will attack anything and everything on sight and are armed to the teeth, but gunning down just a small group of these lunatics will enable you to pick their cold dead hands of their very fine arsenal. You should wander into “Fiend” territory now and again, despite the risk, as you are far better off in this desolate future killing and stealing from those who mean you harm, than earning and purchasing things honourably. The sheer amount of content blows Fallout 3 away and it vastness is unmatched by anything you will have played on the PS3 before.

It trumps its predecessor in the ludicrous amount of game time you will get. Fallout 3 was a big game in the huge amount to do, but New Vegas has taken that and just gone ballistic. I got 5 hours into this game and I was yet to undertake the first mission from the main story. It packs out the hours spent playing by having an untold amount of side missions. They are literally everywhere, in every town, from everyone you speak to. It encourages you constantly to chat to people all the time, and it will always serve you missions as a result. Although not technically essential, side missions are hugely influential, as performing the main story mission is much much harder if you don’t utilise all the favours gained from others in this world. Getting into New Vegas, for example, will cost a fortune, however if you get on the good side of a gang boss called “the King” it’s completely free. This of course involves doing missions for him. Doing missions for others can ultimately end up with them accompanying you on your wasteland trek, and company is often a hugely beneficial asset. Added to this is your need for experience points, the vast majority of which will be gained from missions, to level up your character to make him a jack of all trades. If the vast amount of exploration to undertake didn’t already consume a huge chunk of your life, the sheer amount of missions and tasks alone would still cease your social life. It is a serious amount of game for your money.

This game has so many moral choices to make. Although Fallout 3 had choices to make it never went too far into it and you were often better off being good anyway as the advantages were more obvious. New Vegas completely evens out the playing field though as being “good” or “evil” have a totally equal amount of pros and cons. An innocent old woman wants money for some items you badly need so do you a) pay her or try and barter her down and then pay her, or b), blow her head off with a shot gun and rob her. New Vegas has no issue with either. Depending on how good or bad you are affects how the whole game plays out, including the main story, and especially how others treat you. This packs out the already huge amount of content even further as nearly all main story missions have at least two alternative ways of dealing with a quest, normally involving doing the decent thing or having the back stabbing murderous approach, but please be aware its carefully constructed so that neither moral choice will ever have an advantage over the other. I worked for some very unpleasant energy weapon dealers, in a shop called “silver rush”, which gives you bad karma and makes others dislike you, but the rewards for doing so where huge, with the most sophisticated weapons and armour being handed over as payment, along with loads of money. I also hated “Ceaser’s Legion”, as they are slave dealers, but working for them, which again has negative impacts, allowed me access to an essential character in the game. On the other hand, if you are super nice and helpful to the “Boomers” you receive essential help from them later on in the game. Don’t ever be afraid to mix it up, don’t always choose the path of good, as there is no method that serves you better than another. Never have I come across a game before that gives you so much free will to play with.

There is a lot of customisation and personalisation to do. Customising, or levelling up, your character is pretty much the aim of the game. You can choose superficial stuff of course such as your sex, facial feature arrangement, facial hair, hair, eye colour, your armour/clothes, everything. But the main purpose is to add to your experience points. Every thing you kill and every mission you complete adds points in order for you to evolve your character’s skills and abilities. You can make him/her linguistically suave, physically strong, a good shot, a good trader, a lock picking expert, a computer hacking genius, improve your healing ability, the list goes on. Plus, there are loads of levels of this each with it’s own set of “perks”, which include being able to carry round more supplies, having heightened senses at night, increasing your luck when aiming for a critical strike, increasing your abilities with explosives, energy weapons or normal guns etc. The more game time you put in the more levels of experience you will unlock until you can pick the hardest of locks, heal someone who’s on deaths door or barter every merchant to give you seriously discounted supplies. The clever thing is, however, that New Vegas limits the amount everything can be upgraded so you will never be able to have maxed out points of every skill. You have to decide in advance how you are going to approach this wasteland, what sort of character you are going to be. For example, in Fallout 3 I had made a physically strong character who was able to kill the largest of mutated beasts with his bare hands and carry shit loads of stuff, but couldn’t argue his way out of a paper bag and got financially buggered by every trader. This means I could never convince anyone to do anything making many missions very difficult to overcome, and always got ripped off by traders costing me a fortune in caps. So in New Vegas I wanted a character who was linguistically mighty. So it was awesome having the ability to convince a stone to give me blood, however the consequences of this slapped me hard round the face when I realised it was at the cost of not being strong enough to hold my weapons for aiming, so I was constantly missing my targets, wasting ammo, being killed a lot and couldn’t carry many supplies with me to go long spells of surviving in the wasteland. You have to approach every situation using your pre-selected advantages and make the best of problems where you have none. The depth and detail of choice and its implications is immense and even more so than its predecessor.

V.A.T.S is still awesome. The Vault Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.) is one of Fallout’s unique combat systems. Whenever you encounter an enemy you have the choice of, simply by the push of a button, to enter this mode which allows you to pick an enemy and then choose what part of him you want to shoot at. If you shoot a leg, it will disable the enemy, shoot an arm and he may drop his weapon and if you choose his head you will likely blow it off resulting in a “critical strike” (I’m sure you can guess what that means). You have an unlimited time to choose these targets, once in VATS mode, but it is restricted by your action points (AP’s) displayed in the lower left hand side of the screen. You only have a certain amount, so you can’t use it indefinitely, and they slowly build up over time. You can also take various chemical concoctions that will increase their regenerative ability temporarily. Once your chosen target is selected it will zoom out and show you a slow motion replay of what the kill looks like. Although its not quite as effective as you might think (more on that in a bit) I have come across few more satisfying experiences than watching, in slow motion, your character blow a mutants head clean off with a double barrelled shot gun, blood and limbs splattering everywhere. It is so very rewarding, in a slightly disturbed way, and I have yet to get tired of it. It is often the best method of killing and you should use it a lot.

There is a seriously huge amount of fire power in New Vegas. A criticism I had with Fallout 3 was how unspectacular the weaponry was. It did the job, but other than a few highlights, it didn’t do much to ignite your love of fire power. New Vegas rectifies that though with a huge amount of crazy futuristic weapons. The Gatling lasers, missile launchers, shotguns and machine guns remain, of course, but now you have things such as the immensely powerful Gauss Rifle, a laser sniper rifle that can decapitate at a considerable distance. You also have a laser “Tommy Gun” (basically a smaller Gatling laser), much more variety of hand to hand weapons, such as the ludicrously destructive chainsaw or power glove, a punching mitt that can literally blow your enemy to pieces with one punch. I could go on. There is also a new weapon that combines the two best words possibly in gaming: “Grenade Machinegun”. Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. The AK47 has gone, but you can use a myriad of carbine weapons, such as an M16 machine gun, a magnum revolver and rifle, all very powerful. There is also many different shot guns, not just the few found in Fallout 3, and many varieties in general of all weapons. I also found several special guns, such as a rocket launcher called “Annabelle”, a mini gun called “The Avenger” and a grenade launcher called “Thumper”. These special weapons often require you to kill their particularly tough owner, but they have an advantage over its normal brethren such as being more powerful, holding more ammo etc. Plus, of course, the legendary “fat man” remains, and if you don’t know what that is it’s a device that launches “mini nukes”, which are exactly as the name states. They are small nuclear missiles that vaporise anything in a glorious, yet miniature, mushroom cloud. Its particularly entertaining to launch one through VATS and watch it in slow motion, as your target feebly tries to leg it, blow everything sky high. You need to be fairly careful when using it however as ammo is seriously scarce, far more rare than it was in Fallout 3. Power armour is also back and still awesome, though you have to work harder to get it, but it is still particularly cool and very effective. Of course everything has to be maintained and repaired to keep it at full maiming capacity, and there is an untold amount of customising to do on most weapons, such as adding sights, larger magazines etc, and there is different ammo available for every weapon, such as explosive or armour piercing rounds. If you like fire power and weapon customising this will be your nirvana.

This game oozes atmosphere like no other. One thing you will notice is that Fallout doesn’t do things in halves; it has to have ridiculous quantities of everything. Huge amounts to do, vast wastelands to explore, an obscene amount of guns and ammo, but what it has most of is atmosphere. Bethesda Studios really know how to suck you into a game and make you incapable of turning it off. Atmosphere comes from the world that’s been created, for example, very early on you meet a trampy looking wastelander who pleads with you to rescue his sister on top of a hill from irradiated geckos, and upon doing this you find nobody on the hill accept some supplies. The bloke then turns up behind you, states he used you to get rid of the geckos and now needs to kill you to claim the supplies, which he of course tries to do. What a cruel but realistic introduction to this savage wasteland. I also found a house in the mountains full of giant super mutants that were intelligent and you could converse with. There was another mountain that had a massive “nightkin” (a huge dark blue super mutant) dressed as a woman, complete with hat and wig, and broadcasts on the radio bizarre messages of hatred. I found a club in a sewer called “The Thorn” that rears mutated creatures and gets them to fight for sport. There’s a gang called “the Kings” where every one of them is dressed as a 50’s greaser. I got a cyborg dog with an exposed brain called “Rex” as a companion. In a town called “Freeside” I saw two children chasing a rat, and upon shooting the rat, the kids fell on it and started eating it. I explored many deserted vaults often filled with ghouls (mutated human killing machines) and one that was filled with killer plants as a result of an experiment that went wrong. I even found one vault that had become deserted as the computer that ran the vault had become corrupt and demanded a human sacrifice once a year or the oxygen would be turned off. I couldn’t resist going into the sacrificial chamber, where you walk down a brightly lit hallway and into room with a single chair in the middle. It then plays you a really creepy film about accepting death, appreciating your life’s achievements, before the walls drop down and a load of turret machine guns turn you into Swiss cheese. It was disturbing to say the least. I was even walking through the wasteland at one point and came across a man kneeling over the bloody corpse of a woman. As I approached he took a gun out and shot himself through the head. Who comes up with this stuff? “Imaginative” doesn’t come close to describing the mood and atmosphere in this game, it is fantastic.

What’s bad?

As with Fallout 3, glitches and bugs make this a technical nightmare. Fallout 3 was ridden with glitches that often left you stuck and having to restart from a previous save point, and unfortunately New Vegas takes this technical inferiority to new extreme levels. It’s embarrassing for Bethesda Studios. Playing this game is a lot like walking across a very rickety old bridge, such as you would find in an Indiana Jones film. It’s going to collapse; it’s just a matter of when. It pauses, admittedly very briefly, constantly, and every time it does there is fairly decent chance it will crash entirely. This isn’t every half hour or once in a while, this is every ten seconds or so, I kid you not, it’s that bad. Other characters get stuck on each other and their surroundings constantly, or sink into the backgrounds so they have no legs. Then things will start moving randomly, such as metal cans falling repeatedly from the sky, wasteland animals walking up trees (as funny as it is to watch), people standing perfectly still but gliding across the floor, people talking without moving their mouths and just lots and lots of cock ups. It’s easily far worse than the already seriously dodgy predecessor and this is really something that should be improved upon, from previous games, not allowed to deteriorate. There are deeper problems as well as you can get completely stuck as glitches will suddenly not allow you to go through a door which is vital to a mission or a character you have to meet will get stuck on a surface and you can not remove them, or they will simply not be where they are supposed to, meaning the mission can never be completed. I could never gain favour with a gang called “The Great Khans” as I couldn’t complete a mission for them as I had to talk to some woman who simply wasn’t where the pip boy indicator showed, and never was. It is literally tough luck! I also had serious issues with the controller input as if things got a bit frantic on screen, and I needed to change weapons, simply fast selecting them (using the directional buttons) stopped working. Even the fire button ceased on several occasions, leaving me to hammer the trigger whilst screaming “shoot you bastard, I’m pressing the fucking button!” only for there to be a huge delay whilst the game catches up with the input and several minutes later, well after the danger has passed, the gun then starts blasting away unprompted, as a result of my earlier infuriated crazed button mashing. I can’t imagine getting huge games like this to work flawlessly is easy, but other large games, like Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption”, can manage it, so I’m not sure how much I can excuse Fallout New Vegas for its glitch ridden technical crapness.

I still have issues with V.A.T.S. Although I love using VATS, and watching your character blow a raiders head off, it is really only effective at close to point blank range, as it was in Fallout 3. If you are anything less than right up close to your enemy you will almost certainly miss. The problem is that you are not really fully in control of whether you make direct hits on your enemy or not. As you pick which part of the body you want to shoot at it displays a percentage number next to it which indicates how likely you are to actually hit. Obviously the bigger the body part, like the torso, and how far away they are, the more or less likely you are to hit it. If it’s below the 80% mark however, I would not bother. This throws the percentages into question, as surely at 50% it should be 50/50 whether you hit or not, but you will miss every single time. Maybe I’m just unlucky, but it does seem to encourage VATS to only be used for particularly close up messy kills. VATS also encourages you to target limbs for the best killing effects but it is so inconsistent. I have unloaded many double barrelled shot guns at point blank range in the enemies face and he is fine and continues to attack you. I have also shot pistols from a mile away, at an enemies’ leg, and it hits him straight between the eyes for a “critical strike”. The inconsistency does take a lot of the skill out of the game and can often involve luck more than anything else. I prefer to rely on my skill personally, and if I miss it doesn’t bother me as much if I know it’s my fault.

Shooting and combat is still a bit rubbish and clumsy. Although it’s better than Fallout 3, as you can now aim down the sights, aiming and shooting is still very difficult. Just because the cross hairs of your rifle are lined up at an enemies head does not mean you will incur a head shot, as unless you’re close, crouching, aiming down the sights, with 100% condition weapon and not moving you will almost definitely miss, whether you like it or not. If you are doing all you can to be as accurate as possible then the enemy will shoot you way before you even knew he was there, or started to aim, or even had your gun drawn! Plus, trust me when I say, the enemy is a much much better shot than you. Your gun’s accuracy and damage dealt are affected by its condition and your skill abilities but generally you will not have full accuracy skill and not a hint of damage on your weapon until you have put in some serious hours into the game, so you basically miss a hell of a lot. It is frustrating. There is not really anything you can do to be more skilful than your enemy as it nearly always comes down to who has the more powerful weapon or the best armour. Skill is pretty much irrelevant. You can jink, duck and dive, but, as I said, you will definitely miss if you shoot whilst doing this. Plus, the enemy is, again, much more accurate. It’s not terrible it’s just so simplistic and out of date by today’s standards. I just found it annoying as I am doing everything right and it is still not having the desired effect. I keep telling myself that it’s not a FPS as such and that I shouldn’t expect such traits, but there is far too much shooting and killing to be done, in first person, to let this fact go.

The enemies can be ludicrously difficult! Of course this depends on the difficulty setting, which you can change at anytime in the main menu, but even if you have it on the easiest difficulty it will still present you with foes that will appear to be indestructible. My main issue is the amount of fire power it takes to kill some enemies, as it is just preposterously stupid. I mean a seriously, ridiculously, unbelievably, ludicrously, hideously, unfeasible amount of damage needs to be done. Killing some thugs that try and mug you is easy enough, as is killing some small RAD scorpions or bloat fly’s, a simple hunting shotgun to the face solves such niggling issues. But often you will come across some armoured raiders, some nasty huge poisonous mutated insects and, the most abominable of all, Deathclaws! I appreciate that playing a game on a hard difficulty is supposed to be hard, but unloading a double barrel shotgun into a raiders face, at point blank range, and it does minimal damage is just ridiculous. That is a one shot kill that is not even easy to pull off so it really shouldn’t take a further 47 point blank shot gun shots to the face to kill what is basically a normal person. It is ludicrous! Even worse is when giant insects, particularly fast moving giant fly’s called “Cazadors”, swarm you and each one delivers a poisonous sting that effects your ability to aim and shoot, so even if you had the required 4782 machine gun rounds to kill one of them, you couldn’t fire anyway or have enough ammo to kill the other six. Then you have the Deathclaws, not only the hardest non-boss enemy in the game but possibly one of the toughest enemies ever encountered in gaming ever. Mere point blank shotgun shots to the face don’t affect this guy at all; I mean it will literally do nothing! You need at least 2 mini nukes to make a direct hit before it is killed, or around 3 or 4 missiles or several Gauss rifle head shots, on the easiest difficulty, otherwise you’re a dead man. Plus bear in mind that’s just one Deathclaw which you will never encounter as they are always found in packs. Let’s just be clear about this: that is TWO NUCLEAR MISSILES to make direct ground zero contact on a flesh and bone organic creature! To make it worse this thing has an unavoidable attack that will kill you with one hit, unless you have the toughest fully repaired power armour on, and even then it only takes two or three hits. This makes missions where you have to take out a horde of them, with even tougher alpha male and female variations, a total ridiculously impossible nightmare. Believe it or not though, even Deathclaw’s are out done in the bullet sponge competition when compared with the end of game boss. I won’t reveal too much detail but it is literally just a man with some armour on. I had to switch it to the easiest difficulty to do it (pathetic I know) and I launched (yes I counted) 167 explosive round grenades at him from my grenade machine gun to kill him. 167 explosive grenades, which are more powerful than the normal 20mm grenades, at point blank range on a flesh and bone human! There isn’t enough words in the dictionary to describe how ridiculous, and I mean RIDICULOUS, the amount of punishment some enemies can brush off and it leaves me wondering if anyone at Bethesda Studios actually played this game before it was released? Did they not think they were overdoing it slightly? Basically, be prepared to unload round after round at enemies, as they shrug off such things as a missile to the face (for fucks sake!), and if you come across more than one Deathclaw, run. Run for your life!

The game still finishes after the last mission, whether you like it or not. As with the previous game they have maintained this incredibly annoying feature in New Vegas. Basically, when you have completed the last main story mission the game is over whether you like it or not. To be fair it does warn you this time by having a menu pop up before the final mission which states that if you continue now you can’t go back, which is fine. However, you acquire so many awesome weapons and experience whilst doing the final mission that you really didn’t have the money for while doing the game, so if you were looking forward to using them whilst continuing your exploration through the wasteland, then tough luck.

The graphics look really out of date. The funny thing is, I remember how good I thought the graphics of Fallout 3 were, at the time and considering the size of the game. New Vegas uses the exact graphics engine as Fallout 3 and it’s strange to see how much a difference two years makes. The graphics look really out of date by today’s standards, and are by no means bad but when compared to other games out at the moment, such as the eye popping “Vanquish”, they do look like something from the PS2. You can live with it, don’t worry, but things have clearly moved on since 2008.

Conclusion

As much as I loathe using the expression, Fallout New Vegas, much like its predecessor, is a game that has the “X-factor”. There is just something about it that makes it so addictive and hugely enjoyable to play, despite the many things wrong with it. There is a hell of a lot wrong with it, I assure you. Particularly the ludicrous fragility of the game with its constant crashing and technical feebleness, bad graphics, really simplistic and often futile shooting, enemies that absorb a stupidly, soul crushingly, monumentally, ludicrous amount of fire power (It is beyond anything feasible) and an ending that comes and ends the whole game whether you want it or not. It frequently infuriates and frustrates and I don’t think it’s as good as Fallout 3. Cloning a previous older title then shoe horning content into it at a cost of quality doesn’t make it better in my opinion. But despite all that sucks, I still absolutely loved it. It is a strange feeling that only someone who’s played Fallout can understand. It’s like finding an old toy you loved as a child, and even though in reality it’s broken, rubbish and useless to you, you still love it more than anything. It was like crack to me for the hundreds of hours I spent playing it and I just couldn’t get enough of it. The thrill of saving enough caps to buy a favourite gun is so satisfying. Exploring an underground vault that’s filled with mutated inhabitants trying to figure out what happened to them all is thrilling and scary. Exploring a mutated beast filled abandoned mine looking for survivors is exciting. Hacking computers and finding ridiculous emails in abandoned robot factories is pointless and hilarious. Setting off a giant orbital laser frying many people is a brilliant moral choice and just the entire bizarre, humorous, violent and desperate atmosphere Fallout New Vegas creates is ridiculously addictive and keeps you playing and exploring for more gaming hours than you will find on anything out right now. If you liked Fallout 3, New Vegas is your next fix, and if you have never played any Fallout game, New Vegas will be an experience worth having. CA.

Summary

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 9.5

Your “pip boy” is as excellent as ever and will be overly familiar/identical to anyone who played Fallout 3. Will be a little overwhelming if this is your first go. Very well thought out, you don’t need to be an RPG fan to get the hang of it and the controls will offer you nothing unexpected or unpleasant.

Is the story any good? – 9.0

Main story is very engaging, intriguing and can alter depending on your in game decisions. The hundreds of side quests range from tragic to hilarious, but never dull and add to this wasteland atmosphere.

How does it look? – 6.0

3 years ago they impressed, but now they look really out of date. There is a lot of detail, but everything is so wooden and rigid and just looks like an old graphics engine doing its best. Not terrible, but not good either.

How does it sound? – 9.0

No music as such but all voices and eerily quiet wasteland sound effects are very atmospheric. All music changes with the scenario, such as when your attacked, or exploring a vault.

Is it good to play? – 7.5

VATS are awesome but combat is very “old-school” and often futile. Skill has very little to do with it. Character interaction and general exploring is fantastically addictive and very immersive. It is the most glitch ridden, fragile and technically feeble games I have ever played however, it really is bad, and some enemies are so stupidly tough to kill it will drive you mad.

When will I get bored? – 10.0

For those who want the full experience, ice ages will come and go before your addiction is fulfilled. There is an unbelievable amount to do in terms of exploration and side quests and a stupendous amount of guns and ammo to discover and accumulate. Be prepared to sacrifice your social life.

OVERALL – 8.5

Review created by C. Armstrong.

Runescape – The Evil Tree Guide

Introduction

You might cutting down a tree or two, when you notice something popping up from the ground. Yes its a evil tree and you can nuture it into a fully grown evil tree.

And yes you do need requirements.
It’s best to have completed Tree gnome stronghold so you can access the spirit trees, you can ask them about clues so you can locate the evil tree. If the evil tree is fully matured the spirit tree will teleport you directly to it.

Requirements

Runescape Evil Tree Requirements

Runescape Evil Tree Requirements

Most important you can only kill two trees everyday, and a tree will appear every 2 hours.

Don’t worry if you don’t have supplies a leprechuan always is next to the evil tree cheering you on, he will supply you with everything you need to kill the evil tree.

As you go on battling with the tree you will recieve exp im not sure how much yet so as soon as i find out i will update this guide.

Rewards

When the tree has finally been defeated you will gain rewards, these rewards range from money, logs(of the trees kind), money, nests and clue scrolls. Also the leprechuan will take any logs you recieve while woodcutting and put them in your bank ONLY! when your inventory is full.

I hope this guide was useful it is my first ever guide

Working as a clan

The easiest method I can think of is everyone has their own world and get into contact with a spirit tree and ask for any information about up coming evil trees, once someone has been notified about it they can then pass on the information to the rest of the clan about the world and location of the evil tree.

Runescape – Corp Beast Guide

Before I start this guide I would like to raise a few key issues

1) if you die you don’t get a grave, so don’t take anything you dont want to risk.
2) Corp beast is incredibly strong and can hit 55+ at a consistent rate, so mage prayer is a must.
3) Mage prayer doesnt totally negate all damage dealt, just as when pking you dont negate all damage when praying against a fellow player.
4) The Corp Beast does ignore most of your armour Bonuses so therefore the argument of “put on karils instead of Black d hide” is in my opinion irrelevant.
5) The corp has 20,000 hp so killing it will take a while
6) Do not step under the corp beast at any time as it will crush you, hitting upto 500 damage.
7) NO BROAD BOLTS
8) NO BROAD BOLTS
9) you guessed it, NO BROAD BOLTS
10) Don’t take a summon, it will only get eaten and heal the corp

INTRODUCTION

the corp beast is the strongest creature currently on runescape. The corp will attack with all 3 combat styles however using mage prayer is best as it hits hardest with its mage attack.
The risks are great with this beast, however the rewards are great. Not only does it drop the 4 sigils, almost all of its drops are worth having as they are all worth something, e.g. 2000 cannonballs.
To fight the corp effectively you need either 6+ lvl 130+ or 10+ lvl 120+.

Corporeal Beast is a boss that requires a high combat level and good gear to kill efficiently. However, a very underestimated aspect in corping is “skill”. The number of kills a trip and kills an hour you do is highly dependent on how you how you handle your supplies in the corp lair. This includes but isn’t limited to: when you eat, what you pray, how you react to the core, how good the stunner is, and where you stand. Just because you meet the combat requirements and have all the supplies does not mean you can corp. This guide will tell you how to corp efficiently and do a large number of kills per trip ranging from 20-25 kills a trip (I’ve done 28 as a peak but considering the majority of corpers get around 12 ATM, 20-25 is good enough to distinguish you from the rest).

British Elites Runescape Clan

REQUIREMENTS

Must of completed SUMMERS END (quest)

90 range (if ranging)

85 attack and strength (if meleeing)

85 defence

These stats are only a guideline so dont panic if you have lower stats, you can still fight the corp beast. Of course the more people there are the lower stats are required to kill it.]

ELITE SETUP

Corp Beast Range Gear Setup

Corp Beast Elite Gear Setup

Note: Gear that can substitute the above:
Fighter hat
D stone/Diamond (i)/Berserker/ Berserker (i) (if you’re under 100 MA rank bring berserker, If you don’t want to risk 5m extra corping here’s you inspiration to start doing ma). If you bring ring of life you will be KICKED from most 5 man teams. Simple as.
Fire cape (Bring games necklace if you’re bringing it) / Ardougne Cloak 4
—————————————–
Explanation.
Why the rune crossbow? It has always been debated that the rcb “kos the core more than mith”, where it doesn’t affect ranged strength. I honestly don’t care which you bring because the difference is probably microscopic when you’re in karils and your range bonus is already high and are hitting on a low def lvl 75 core.

OTHER SETUPS

Range setup:

Corp Beast Range Gear Setup

Corp Beast Range Gear Setup

Neit helm > Archer
Black D’hide body
Black D’hide Chaps
Snakeskin Boots
Ring of WEALTH
Spirit Shield (Ely or Divine) > Unholy Book > Other prayer books.
Rune Crossbow
Amulet of Ranging > Fury > Glory
Alerter > Accumulator

Inventory

Ruby bolts (e)
Emerald Bolts (e)
2 Range potions (Ext if you can)
3 Prayer potions (optional)
Inventory of Sharks/ Cavefish/ Rocktail
(You can if you wish take Brews and Super restores with the ratio of 3 brews to 1 Restore)

Melee setup:

If you have the bank value to increase your weapon then do so, upgrading the Darklight to a Bando’s Godsword is extremely helpful.

Super Set Setup

This setup is for people with low cash value, and people who have not got 90+ herblore.

Corp Beast Melee Gear Setup - Super Set Setup
Corp Beast Melee Gear - Super Set Setup
Corp Beast Melee Gear – Super Set Setup

Extreme Set – Setup

This setup is for people with low cash value, but 90+ Herblore.

Corp Beast Melee Gear Setup - Extreme Set
Corp Beast Melee Gear Setup – Extreme Set

Overload – Brew – Restore – Setup

This setup is for people who have a slightly higher cash pile, as well as 96+ Herblore

Corp Beast Melee Gear Overload - Brew - Restore - Setup
Corp Beast Melee Gear Overload – Brew – Restore – Setup

Neit helm
Black D’hide body
Black D’hide Chaps
Dragon Boots > Bando’s Boots
Ring of WEALTH
Fury > Glory
Uber cape (Upon Arrival) > Max Cape > Ardy Cape (+ Stab Bonus) >Fire Cape > Soulwars Cape > Skill Cape
Barrow gloves
Zamorakian Spear

Super Set Inventory

Statius Warhammer > Bando’s Godsword >Darklight
3 Prayer potions (2 Super Prayer Potions if 94+ Herblore)
Super Set/ Extreme (90+ Herblore)
Inventory of Sharks/ Cavefish/ Rocktail

Overload Inventory

Statius Warhammer > Bando’d Godsword > Darklight
Overloads
17 Saradomin Brew
7 Super Restore

GETTING THERE

Since recent updates have reintroduced the Wilderness, you no longer are required to run through past Bounty Hunter to get there. As a requirement you need to use a Games Necklace which will teleport you directly into the lair’s entrance. From there follow the screenshots on what to do.

When you teleport in, run East towards the first entrance as shown on the minimap below

Corp Beast Tele In and Run Towards First Entrance
Corp Beast Tele In and Run Towards First Entrance

Enter the entrance, then continue due east to the second entrance BUT DO NOT ENTER!!!

You will now be at the Entrance to Corporal Beast’s Lair, stand around the entrance shown below and do not enter until instructed.

Corp Beast Second Entrance
Corp Beast Second Entrance

FIGHTING THE BEAST

Part 1: The attacks

The corp beast has various nasty attacks at its disposal. These attacks will use all three combat types, but it is best to use mage prayer.

Splash(unsure if mage/range) – Most dangerous. Can do 4 300s.
Spiky blast of energy(mage) – Easily hit 650 without prayer
Melee Claw swipe – 550 damage.
Stomp – 510 damage IF you stand under corp.
Ball of energy(mage) – 550 damage. Drains Magic, Prayer or Summoning by a small amount

Part 2 : Luring

The first time you enter the corps lair a lure is needed to allow everyone to enter safely without dying or being attacked.

You lure the beast by one person stepping into the lair with mage pray on, then quickly stepping out again.

The corp will then end up like this:

How To Lure The Corp Beast

How To Lure The Corp Beast

This allows other players to enter without it attacking them. Once Corporal Beast has been lured, you will be able to enter the Lair without it attacking you, stand around Corp in a square/ Box formation until you are instructed to start killing, you should all be POTTING up at this stage as you will be starting soon.

Part 3 : Melee fighting.

As a whole fighting the corp beast is fairly straight forward. KEEP MAGE PRAYER ON. If it turns to attack you, run back to entrance and click to exit, then count to 5,
this normally gives enough time for the corp to swap targets, and renter.
Once the core spawns, make sure to step away from it or it will hit damage very fast, this also heals the corp. SO MAKE SURE TO STEP AWAY IF IT LANDS IN A SQUARE TOUCHING THE ONE YOUR STOOD IN.

Your job as a melee’r is to stab Corporal Beast. Upon entering Corp’s Lair you will need to use your special attacks with either of the 3 melee weapons listed above, if your specials hit, they will effectively lower Corp’s Defense making the kills quicker.

When the Core appears, alert the ranger as to where it is, if the core is under you and a ranger stuns it, please step 1 space away and do not move. Not moving will stop the core from bouncing around to other players. Whilst standing near the Core it will drain 100 HP every few seconds, if the core is stunned it only drains 100 HP every 1 minute which is acceptable.

Part 4 : Range fighting

Again this is really straight forward. KEEP MAGE PRAYER ON. If it attacks you leave the lair back through the entrance. The difference with ranging is that you need to stun the core.
If you attack the core with emerald e bolts, and it hits, you will stun the core, you then need to step next to it to stop the core from moving.
Whilst the core is stunned it will hit one damage occasionally rather than the constant hits it normally dishes out.
Use ruby bolts (which the damage is capped at 1000 damage unfortunately) until its low, then swap to diamond.

If you are ranging, killing Corp is simple, Stand far enough away from Corp so he cannot melee you, use Ruby (e)’s whilst he is above half HP, as these hit 1000 HP often enough they are crucial! After half HP Switch to your Diamond (e). When the core appears (Small creature that jumps from player to player stealing life points to feed Corp) You need to switch to Emerald (e) and attack the Core. Once you see green smoke appearing from the Core, it will be stunned, Instruct another player to stand 1 space away from the Core if it is still next to Corp, or move 1 space away from Core if it has landed underneath you.

(Standing next to core will drain 100 HP every few seconds, once it is stunned you will lose 100 HP every minute which is considerably less) Moving away from the core after it is stunned will cause it to regain consciousness and start moving around again.

Method for killing Corp/ Core whilst ranging
Method for killing Corp/ Core whilst ranging

Part 5: The aftermath

If you use up all your food, dont despair, thats why you carry a games necklace, teleport to the wilderness volcano, then run back up.
After the initial Luring kill, you will either need to leave the Lair and re-lure Corp, or you can form a circle/box around it’s spawn point. As shown in the photo below:

Form a circle/box around corp's spawn point
Form a circle/box around corp's spawn point
Form a circle/box around corp’s spawn point

However depending on how many people there are, for example if there where less than say 8, it can be better to lure it.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Review 08/10/2010

Not very daring or innovative, but there is a lot to enjoy.

Another geek-fest game and it will inevitably have to vault the two main hurdles that most games of this type will have to, which is to please all the fans and make it appealing to casual gamers as well. It’s clearly a tough one to do as I can only think of one or two games that have managed it, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” being one of them, “Alien Vs Predator” being one that did not. The problem for “War for Cybertron” is that it’s all very well allowing you to transform at will, making all the right noises on the way, but if behind that nerd pleasing process is a dull, boring, repetitive shooter then it simply wont do. So does War for Cybertron transcend such difficult tasks? This is a third person shooter that’s set in the world of transformers, specifically on their home planet Cybertron, and is more of a prequel to the whole franchise. It’s set towards the end of the war on Cybertron, for example, Optimus is not a “prime” yet and Starscream has not yet met Megatron and is an Autobot. In this game you will play as Decepticons and Autobots doing an equal amount of missions generally blasting your way through each of them. For the Decepticons, Megatron is intent on taking over Cybertron using the controversial and volatile Dark Energon. If he can get hold of and use some Dark Energon he then plans to infect the core of Cybertron with it which will result in him having to fight all the Autobots who mean to stop him from doing this, including a huge ludicrously powerful Autobot guardian called Omega Supreme. As an Autobot you will have to fight the Decepticons back permanently as they try to take over the Autobot home city and try and find a way to stop Megatron from infecting Cybertron with Dark Energon. This is a full on all out war on this planet between massive heavily armed robots, that can transform into jet fighters, cars and tanks at will and use ridiculous amounts of fire power to blow the living crap out of each other.

What’s good?

It’s a transformers fans ultimate fantasy. I’m not a massive transformers fan, but I can’t help love the franchise being an 80’s child, and I have no doubt this game pushes all the right buttons for fans. You will get to play as all your favourites in this, Optimus, Megtron, Iron Hide, Starscream, Bumble Bee, Soundwave, and fight them, and they all have all their traits incorporated. They all transform at the click of a button into futuristic looking versions of the vehicles we all know and love, with a few exceptions such as Soundwave turning into a car. Having him turn into a 1980’s “ghetto blaster” in this game probably wouldn’t serve him very well, and remember this is way before they all came to Earth. They all sound fantastic as all voice actors from the series and films have been drafted in and “yes” they still make the famous and essential noise when they transform. The world of Cybertron has been beautifully re-constructed (more on that in a bit) and everything that you loved about these massive robots from the TV shows and the comics has all been included, and luckily it doesn’t have much to do with the bloody awful films. The story is also pretty interesting, intertwines the two campaigns very well and reveals a lot of storyline many transformers fans will be unaware of, how Optimus became a Prime, how Megatron took over Cybertron, how various characters came to be who they are and all sorts. Playing as Optimus and Megatron is as satisfying as you would imagine (although rather disappointingly they never actually fight each other) and it will definitely do almost everything fans will be wanting.

Transforming is an essential part of gameplay and not just a gimmick. One of the things I liked most about War for Cybertron is that High Moon Studios have really thought about the aspect of transforming into tanks and fighter jets and its implications in battle. I assure you it is not a gimmick in anyway. For starters transforming looks and sounds awesome, and often the game forces you into parts of the levels where you cannot progress on foot. Unavoidably the levels where you transform into fighter jets are a lot more fun, as you can fly in any direction or dimension, and often have to fly down tunnels avoiding lasers or collapsing objects. It’s also really good fun to transform, blast across the ceiling of a level to a particularly annoying sniper, transform back in mid-air, land just in front of him and knock his head off with a big hammer. Very satisfying stuff. Ammo can dwindle quite a lot so it’s also good to be able to fall back on your ability to turn into a tank when your guns have emptied and blow the living shit out of everything. Transforming also opens up completely different pros and cons with manoeuvrability as you are often way faster in car form which comes in handy when running for cover or avoiding taking fire. Learning to use your two forms is an essential part of this game and, luckily, one of the most enjoyable.

The action packed gameplay is pretty intense. I can’t deny the actual gun slinging in Transformers is really simple and unimaginative (more on that in a bit) but it’s compensated by having a huge amount of it and constantly intensifying the fire power to make it really exhilarating. You will have a choice at the beginning of each mission to play as one of three transformers, no matter which one you pick the other two will be accompanying you. You can hold two guns and when you transform you will have a different gun altogether. The guns are the expected machine guns, shot guns, sniper rifles and missile launchers and each transformer has a unique ability, such as making a shield in front of them, cloaking, increasing fire power etc. You also have a quick melee attack when up close that will make your chosen robot form a huge sword, axe, hammer etc on its arm and batter an enemy with it (it ends there though, as there is no combo’s or anything like that to be had). You can also interact with huge gun turrets, a particularly destructive weapon, which can be removed from the turret and lugged around with you. Although this will vastly affect your manoeuvrability, their vast fire power is always an asset. The enemy will come at you in various guises as well, from huge “Brutes” that have shields and hammers and can only be defeated by shooting them in the back, cloakers that are really hard to see and attack in swarms, massive robots with enormo Gatling guns and plasma cannons, flying robots that descend from above and perform bombing raids on you and the (predictable) epic boss fights. None of this stuff is revolutionary or jaw dropping but it’s very well executed and super intense. You are encouraged/forced to just go mental with your chosen robot character, literally blasting, firing and hacking your way through everything, constantly, whilst using the skills of transforming, never ever pausing or trying to hold back and simply don’t stop firing until everything is a pile of wrecked metal on the floor. You are frequently forced into “last stand” scenarios where wave after wave of enemies will come at you, your ammo and health dwindling per wave, and it will test your skills of survival and your aim to the extreme. There is nothing here you wont have done before but if you like your fire power, action, explosions and huge boss battles (who doesn’t?) then there is still a lot for you to like here.

Some of the battles in this are, surprisingly, epic. I say “surprisingly” as this game is quite serious and it’s serious about the struggle in which you are engaged in. The thought of giant robots clubbing each other is a ludicrous one but War for Cybertron paints a very different picture. For example, on the first Autobot mission you have to walk through several Autobot strongholds with the few survivors left fighting to their last breath, and the dead and wounded lying around you. As you walk out into the battlefield you will see your fellow Autobots lining up behind cover, trying to resuscitate fallen comrades, and performing trench warfare style pushes for territory. They all talk to each other as well, recognise you as they say “hail Megatron” etc, and shout things like “for Cybertron!” as they charge into battle. This really isn’t a childish cartoon world. All they need is some regimental gear and to start writing endless reams of poetry and it could be a top quality World War II game. Added to this are the action set pieces which are really quite something. Some of the battle scenes are crazy, with many Autobots and Decepticons going at each other trying to take territory or defend it, with heavy weapon robots slowly advancing on you and other enemies transforming to dive bomb from above or escape to recover health. It’s not dissimilar in anyway to other games more notorious for their epic fight scenes, such as Resistance 2 or Modern Warfare. The boss battle with Omega Supreme, which lasts two levels, is incredibly fast paced as this behemoth chases you down through Cybertron regularly knocking down buildings to get at you, then you have to fight him directly as he rains missiles at you from above and uses his ludicrously huge laser cannons to literally blow your cover to pieces. The Autobot equivalent battle with an equally huge Decepticon called Trypticon is just as impressive, as you have to fly through the body of this giant taking out strategic parts of his anatomy (a particularly awesome level!). The last stand missions where you have to defend something for a certain time take the intensity trophy as wave after wave enemies come at you in many different forms all requiring different tactics as your ammo dwindles and your health borders on death. The Decepticon mission where you have to defend against an Autobot onslaught, whilst waiting for bombers, is seriously intense as is the Autobot mission where you have to defend Ratchet, as Decepticons will come at you from all angles in all guises. This is a seriously good one for action fans and don’t underestimate the slightly childish connotations of Transformers, as this game takes things very seriously.

It’s a seriously visually stunning and gorgeous game. As always there are lots of really good looking games in the world, but I felt War for Cybertron deserves a special mention is it really is stunner. The transformers all look fantastic, with levels of detail you won’t believe. You can see bits of them moving around, tiny things such as gun barrels or feet, when standing still and the transformations are fantastic to watch. The biggest eye opener is the level design as the planet Cybertron looks unbelievable. High Moon Studios have clearly put a lot of work into the workings and visual appearance of the setting and it won’t disappoint.

There are predictable but competent multiplayer modes as well. When done with the single player there is much to do with your friends. Firstly you can play through the whole single player campaign with two mates online. Then there is a survival mode where you and two friends have to ward off wave after wave of enemies and basically survive as long as you can. Then there are the predictable online battles where, not only can you use unlocked characters like Arcee, but the more you play, the more you can level up your character with upgrades and some customisation. The options are laughably limited and can only be used online but its better to have something for the online obsessed rather than nothing.

What’s bad?

It gets really repetitive. Despite the excellent execution this game is really really repetitive, as it doesn’t at any point venture beyond a simple strafe and shoot game. That is literally what you will do the whole way through. There is no cover system, no puzzles to solve, no hand to hand combat, despite having a melee weapon attack, no huge robot vehicles to take control of, literally nothing other than running around and shooting. The guns vary a bit, but are all far to clichéd and obvious, and the thrill of transforming is really the only thing in this that doesn’t get old quickly. Other than that, it really doesn’t do anything so anyone that’s expecting anything particularly innovative is going to be very disappointed.

The incentive to re-play is little to none. To add to the repetitiveness of the gameplay, is the fact that reasons to keep coming back are few and far between. There is nothing to explore, as it’s incredibly linear, with no bonuses to find, super weapons to unlock, secrets to find, nothing. It doesn’t even have any slight customising to be done, weapons to upgrade, or anything. How hard would it have been to allow some colour changes on the transformers, or to add some battle decals for achievements, or something? How about getting money by killing enemies to buy or upgrade weapons and armour? None of this stuff exactly reinvents the wheel and is found on most games, but it requires some investment in your time, a reason to pick it up again. This is just so totally unwilling to expand on anything. How about some nods to the comic book fans, such as some character details or storyline, such as the vast quantity found in “Batman: Arkham Asylum”? Games don’t necessarily need such things, but one as simplistic as this should have at least one thing to encourage a re-play. The multiplayer or online matches do have customisable abilities, which you get based on achievements, i.e. killing others, but it is ridiculously simple, very limited and hardly worth it. Furthermore, why is it not an option to integrate it with the single player campaign? How hard could it have been? The only real incentive to play through again is to achieve completion on harder difficulties, or, mainly, to play as different transformers. But they have even managed to kill this incentive as the different transformers really only differ very slightly, as there is only around 3 variations of abilities and skills. There just isn’t enough content for my liking when compared to other games.

The boss battles are childishly simple. Another game with vast bosses, and it just isn’t enough to have a very large boss now, as large foes seem to be burned into the gaming industry mandatory bible. They all have them, which is fine, but there needs to be more to it now. Transformers is the perfect example of having huge bosses that are all for show, but don’t really require any skill at all. They are all so ludicrously easy to kill even though they are the size of sky scrapers, could easily crush you with one finger, form and fire laser cannons that could punch a hole in a planet and rain missiles down on you like a monsoon. It’s just stupid. They perform these ludicrous apocalyptic attacks and they just don’t go any where near you, or are incredibly easy to dodge. They may appear quite tough when you first encounter them, but you will soon workout how to evade their attacks and expose their stupidly obvious weaknesses. It just feels like your going through the motions of another huge but seriously flawed boss battle. The battle where you fight Omega Supreme from a gun platform is a good example as he transforms into a laser cannon that sends out a blast that looks like it could create a black hole, and destroy anything that goes within a four mile radius of it. But all you have to do to avoid it is walk behind a thin wall, wait for him to stop and you are completely impervious to harm. If you go up onto other platforms to the right or left then he doesn’t actually touch you at all! It’s just stupid, and as entertaining as they are from a visual perspective the bosses lack some proper balls.

The initial load screen takes an interminable amount of time to load every time you turn it on. For the PS3 there is a lengthy installing process the first time you play, which is annoying but can be forgiven as it is a one off. But what really annoyed me is that every single time you switch it on from then on it has to perform a “check” and spends about a minute loading. “Only a minute” I hear you say, “who cares”, but you, now, stare at a blank wall for exactly one minute and see how long it feels. It’s interminable. You always have to stare it as well as you need to press “start” twenty times to get through all the intro title screens and you just sit there wanting to play the game waiting for the count down to get to 100%. It drove me mad.

Conclusion

My biggest issue with Transformers: War for Cybertron is that I cant help but feel it has ventured too far into relying on the brand name, “Transformers”, but doing very little to make a particularly outstanding game. It’s by no means bad but does nothing for those of you who expect more from a transformers game, other than the ability to transform. There’s nothing to unlock, nothing to find or buy, no customising, except online where it’s really limited, and you will generally just run around and shoot. It feels like it’s as good as a pretty forgettable game can be. In years to come people will still be talking about/playing “Street fighter II” or “COD: Modern Warfare”, but no one will remember War for Cybertron. Saying that though, and despite this, I can’t deny there is still a lot of enjoyment to be had here. The combat is simple, but really intense, transforming never ceases to be cool and the game is designed to force you to learn the skill of knowing when to transform, as often if you don’t you will be killed. The boss battles are epically huge, if a bit simple and easy, and it is graphically utterly stunning. Those who expect innovative games and those who don’t give a flying crap about transformers will probably be less thrilled, but High Moon studios have shown that you don’t really need to change the face of gaming to still get a lot of (predictable) enjoyment out of a title. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 8.0

It’s quite simple and instinctive for anyone that plays games regularly, so nothing will be of any surprise, but you do have to seek out tutorials yourself and a few game options are not so clear, changing the difficulty level for example.

Is the story any good? – 8.0

It’s not anything spectacular, but even if you’re only mildly interested in Transformers this will keep your interest up. Lots of previously untold back story, and the two campaigns are interwoven well.

How does it look? – 9.5

It’s a real stunner, especially environments/levels. The Transformers all look incredibly detailed and the transforming ability looks awesome as well.

How does it sound? – 9.5

Sound effects are all good as is back ground music. The highlights come from the voice acting, Optimus, Megatron, Starscream and, of course, Soundwave, all sound fantastic, and the legendary transformation sound effect.

Is it good to play? – 8.0

It’s intense in places, and you are forced to learn when to transform to aid you in combat, and there are loads of guns, grenades, rocket launchers and turrets to blow the living crap out of everything, including huge boss battles. It gets really repetitive though, it’s incredibly linear, and does nothing you won’t be expecting.

When will I get bored? – 7.0

Single player takes a fair few hours, you can play 3 person co-op as well (online only though, not on the same screen) and there is a rewards based online multiplayer mode, all of which will take up your time for a fair amount. But lack of secrets, rewards, upgrading with any depth or anything at all really, gives few reasons to keep coming back for a very long time.

OVERALL – 8.0

Review created by C. Armstrong.