Transformers: War for Cybertron launches across consoles to correct (one hopes) the mistake that was Michael Bay’s Revenge of the Fallen. It removes the pesky humans, and that whole notion of “robots in disguise”, to drop the player into a civil war between the altruistic Autobots and deadly Decepticons. Keeping close to canon, this is once again metal on metal, Prime v Megatron, battling over control of their home world. 

The campaign is split between the two armies and you can choose to start as Decepticons or immed­iately join the campaign in its second half as Autobots. Secondly, you must select which of three Transformers to control in your crack squad. Only then can you “Roll out!” 

Blasting your way through the levels can be intense, but there’s little innovation here aside from the unique surface-to-air combat of certain Transformers. Here on Cybertron, the war will be fought with big guns, not stealth. Less “Robots in disguise” and more “Robots in plain sight”. 

The Unreal3 engine renders the mechanised environment of Cybertron in those familiar gun metal tones seen in Gears Of War or Batman. Sprawling vistas and dense cityscapes gleam, while battle wreckage lies strewn around you. In all this chrome there’s an obvious lack of colour, which the designers have tried to alleviate by applying a fluorescent tint to each chapter. It helps, but the game bears no visual comparison to the cartoons or comics. 

Close your eyes, though, and nostalgia hits on an aural level – from the inimitable transform­ation grunt to the voices of Optimus Prime and others of the original cast reprising their roles. Even Stan Bush gets a look in, with an appropriate hair metal song to play over the credits! Cybertron being their natural habitat, we finally find out why our robotic heroes transform into vehicles! Not to don a disguise, it seems, but to get from A to B a little quicker! 

Under all that shining chrome and mechanical thunder is a tamed beast. This is third-person shooting at its basic level. Transforming is usually left to explicit levels that require you to drive or fly around them rather than a clever mix of the two. Ultimately, most of these qualms are minor, but they’re enough to reveal a game that shines on the surface yet lacks the power to truly deliver underneath.