Game Review - Rise of the Dark Spark
Introduction
Rise of the Dark Spark, available on multiple platforms (I have the PS3 version), follows the storyline of – surprise surprise – The Dark Spark. First how it originated on Cybertron as Unicron’s version of The Matrix, then arrived on Earth conveniently to be found during TF4.
Storyline
The Cybertron part of the Dark Spark saga takes place between WFC and FOC and comes across as something that should come in an expansion pack rather than a whole new game. The Dark Spark earth saga does not fit with the movie story at all and felt shoehorned in. Disappointing.
Gameplay
If you’ve played any of the TF games released over the past few years you know how this game plays so I wont waste time going into depth. What was disappointing was that there was less reason to Transform in this game and when there was a reason to use your alt-mode it was usually to get from A to B in a hurry such as Jetfire evacuating Trypticon or Optimus driving through Kaon. Once again, the Cybertron levels felt like an expansion pack for FOC and the earth levels felt like the DOTM game. No innovation or anything new to really enjoy.
Weaponry & Special Skills
All lifted directly from FOC, no new guns, no new innovations. Instead of earning cybercredits to upgrade your guns you get different locked boxes that come with different ungrades and graphics in them. Even the special abilities were recycled from FOC, such as the shockwave that Vortex could send out has been passed on to Jetfire, Starscreams cloak passed onto Sharpshot, Jazz’s grapple passed onto Sideswipe etc. One of the few new things was that Optimus could deploy a shield that would absorb enemy fire and then charge up and fling it back at them but that was rather annoying to master.
Characters & Enemies
It was kinda cool to play Shrapnel/Skrapnel/Sharpshot/Whoever he is in this game and Shockwave in the storyline mode. On Earth you get to play new characters like Drift. All other characters had been recycled from previous games (Optimus, Soundwave, Jetfire, Swindle, Sideswipe, Bruticus, earth Bumblebee etc). I quite enjoyed the interplay between Megatron’s 3 main lieutenants (Shockwave, Starscream and Soundwave) and it was interesting to see an Insecticon and Combaticon on a mission together. But much like the Transformers mythos overall, the G1’ish Cybertronian characters were interesting, the Bayverse characters were dull.
The enemy characters were pretty dull, the only ones being remotely interesting were mini-bosses such as Cliffjumper and Megatron. As for Lockdowns army – argh! “Lets see what we’ve got” is said about 8 million times per fight! Guess what nimrods – your boss already said “Bumblebee and Drift are in the hanger” so you already freaking know what you’ve got! There was not a lot of AI on show, though some of Lockdowns crew were good at taking cover. Nearly all enemies were in robot mode, a few in vehicle mode, and I don’t think I saw one enemy besides Megatron transform during the whole game.
Graphics
The Cybertron levels fail to pop like FOC did, they are more on par with WFC and even then fail to meet the standard. I was really disappointed that Kolkular was visible out a window yet you could not see it properly or position your bot on an angle to see it better, I would have loved to see the capital of Kaon in all it’s glory! There was not much variety and everything, even the bots, were fairly drab.
The earth levels were uninspired, much on par with the ROTF & DOTM games. With the processing power available even on the last generation of consoles like the PS3 they were capable of having huge scenes with buildings on fire and humans running and screaming – yet just bland forests and empty warehouses.
Multiplayer and Escalation
I have gotten that bored with the storyline game I have not bothered to have a go at them. Somebody else can bite the bullet and do them.
Overall
I wanted to wait until I had finished the storyline portion of the game and at least had a go at Escalation to review the game but time constraints at home and, to be frank, a lack of interest means I have yet to do so, so I apologize for an incomplete review. Would be interested to hear if it’s at least worth playing up to the earth-Grimlock level.
Anyway – overall a fairly disappointing game which for me the only redeeming feature of was that you could play as G1 based characters. We have come to expect crappy movie tie-in games and they have not broken the mold here. If you enjoyed FOC then when the game price drops you may want to pick up the game to play through those levels.
