occidentalover

To date Transformers: War for Cybertron is the best Transformers game. Followed closely by its sequel, Fall of Cybertron.

The gameplay feels flawless and frenetic. Every time I died I thought, "yeah, I deserved that." Perfectly-paced, refusing to slow down at all the right moments, the level design is varied and engaging. Transforming is quick and flows perfectly during combat. There are enough power-ups scattered throughout to complete the game on Easy and Normal difficulties without too much frustration. I almost felt like I was playing a movie at times, like when playing as Megatron and fighting Omega Supreme, transforming into tank form, firing off a couple rounds and viewing that from an exciting angle... it's visually cinematic greatness. What an EPIC boss fight!

Getting to play as both Autobots AND Decepticons is so satisfying. Not enough games allow us to play as the antagonists /villains during the main story, as that option is mostly reserved for multiplayer jiggama-jag. The single-player campaign is so damn solid in War for Cybertron, so playing as the baddies is icing on this tasty cake. I absolutely loved playing as Megatron, tearing through unworthy foes and traitors.

The cinematics' visuals are fine and are the only thing that inevitably date this game's graphics in a less-than-great way. (The voice-acting, however, is SUPERB.) The graphics during gameplay are very good, and I was never too confused by a lack of visual clarity.

Perhaps the only thing I wanted more from War for Cybertron was just... MORE OF IT! I wanted to play as more characters and when the game ended, I wanted the story to continue to keep playing. Thankfully there's an excellent sequel!

I'll add this: I like Transformers. Love some of it... the Bumblebee movie, the 1984 movie, these Cybertron games. But I don't blindly like all Transformers projects. I'm not a 'biased' Transformers fanboy. In fact, I sometimes prefer Macross ; ) Most of the Transformers television projects and movies are crap. Many of the games don't deliver. Transformers: War for Cybertron, however, is perfection. I say this as a 30+ year gamer and NOT the biggest Transformers fan. The devs knocked this game out of the park. They nailed it. One of the handful of games I've rated a '10'. And well-deserved.

Well done High Moon Studios! I hope every one of you who worked on this game are proud of this accomplishment. You made one of the best video games of all time.

Quicktime events ruin the combat.

The sword combat could feel brilliant and flow with beauty. However, Prince of Persia never lets this happen, as it's interrupted with quicktime events. This was that era. The absolute worst thing of the Seventh Generation: QTE. Quite disappointing. Seriously some of the best swordplay I've experienced in a video game, but the QTE ruins it. Just awful. Sad.

The last level isn't fun.

The variation of perspective and lack of colour for the parkour-ing makes it difficult in an un-fun and un-challenging way. Just annoying. I feel personally insulted when game devs don't respect my time, and don't play-test games enough. Yes, it looks beautiful. Initially. But any game can look dull and uninspiring when you've seen the same stage for the tenth time in the same fifteen minutes.

The levels are too linear.

You can choose where to go, but you really can't take alternate routes to get there. Makes traveling the same areas feel pointless after you collect the spirit things that unlock powers, so it's essential you can teleport to fast-travel. As the paths are so linear the parkour would have benefited from more parts where the route is better defined, which allows for efficient sleekness of uninterrupted gameplay.

...That's really the heart of PoP's problem: in an effort to tell its story, Prince of Persia constantly interrupts itself needlessly. Makes me appreciate something revolutionary that much more, like when The Last of Us showed gamers that story could be told during travel, during breaks in action, without stopping the natural flow of the game. I understand needing to tell the story, but we now know better ways to do this without stopping the player's meaningful interaction completely dead.

Games like Prince of Persia make me angry. It's not just some average game. It's not some forgettable experience. Prince of Persia is a beautiful game with timeless (gameplay) animation and some genuinely enjoyable parkour-style platforming. It's a memorable game. I wouldn't be angered by something notoriously awful like Superman 64. Universally hated, I can watch 10 seconds of gameplay and know that game was a steaming turd. But PoP had so much potential to be a great game. All that held it back were poor decisions. Technological limitations and know-how do not limit Prince of Persia at all. It was simply bad choices. It's incredibly disappointing. I would LOVE a remake that dispenses with the QTE and constant breaks in parkour travel. Fix those things, and you have a great game. Allow the combat to feel continuous. The story should be told in dialogue like it is, but allow it to unfold naturally without interrupting travel.

That's it. Fix these things and you instead have a game that is perfectly-paced and flows with the player, not against her.

I really wanted to love this game. I damn-near did. But I will not be replaying PoP, sadly.

Prince of Persia is remarkable in its animation and some of its gameplay mechanics, but the constant interruption of potential flow ultimately sours the experience.

This isn't a sequel. It's just more of the same, but not as interesting because there's barely a story. Thought the story of the first game was thin? Crackdown 2 is even thinner.

I was at least looking forward to some improvements, but it seems like none of the things that annoyed me in the first game have been improved. Like being a super-powered being who gets blocked climbing up buildings by gutters and simple architecture? Yeah me neither. Climbing still sucks. Everything feels more like a chore than fun now. As one reviewer called it: "Busywork: The Game." Sounds fun huh.

If you must play a Crackdown game, just stick with the first one. It's a better game. It appear the devs didn't want to make a sequel. They just wanted to expand the multiplayer, change the mission objectives sorta, and call it an entirely new game. Same city tho. So the maps aren't new.

Crackdown 2 was a huge letdown. I was expecting to find a game that was like the first, but extended and better. Instead we got this crud. Nerf'd. Without any improvements. Even more annoying than the first with all the zombie freaks.

Just not any fun anymore. Boooooo!