Game Review - Rise of the Dark Spark

[CyberiusPrime]

Well I for one got Rotds on PC and personally it just felt like a game to coincide with a movie release.

Other than that i was greatly disappointed.

The Cybertron components werre finely polished (as it should be after 2 other games).

Earth storyline components were very lack luster.

As mentioned previously no new weapons. Multiplayer Deathmatch (i still play it on FoC) has been removed with only escalation as a multplayer mode, as such this greatly diminishes replay value.

All in all i expected alot more for a Transformer title.

But that is my opinion

[griffin]

A big thankyou to Ravagecat for helping me get the one trophy you can't do on your own.

The story was interesting, and works well between both universes, if you accept that this particular Movie Universe is a alternate universe/dimension to the one in the four films. It isn't stated as such, but it's the only way you could have the story work between the three universes we see (Movie, Aligned, Gen1)... and they don't specifically say that it is the same universe.

The selling point of Grimlock was way too late in the game, and should have also been in the first chapter as a sampling of what to look forward to later.
And when you do play Grimlock, they make you use different buttons to transform and use weapons... which makes it unnecessarily confusing.

The final scene of Gen1 Optimus watching the Dark Spark arrive in his Universe/time, hopefully means a Gen1 game next... as the WFC universe has been played out now, and the next movie game won't be until 2017. I think it could work now and be successful, with the significant interest in the brand after all the Movies prompting so much Gen1 merchandise and toys in recent years. (and I know a lot of long time fanboys like me would squeal with delight if we finally got a decent game with Gen1 characters and alt-modes)

The gear-boxes you earn in the game and in escalation are a bit annoying. First you can't successfully play Escalation without earning about 50-100 of them, to unlock and upgrade all the weapons and Abilities. But then once you have them unlocked along with all the Escalation characters, the gear-boxes are redundant. Also, it isn't obvious at first, but as you approach level 25, it is best not to open any more gear-boxes, because when you activate Prime Mode, you will need a heap of stored gear-boxes ready to unlock and upgrade weapons and Escalation Abilities.
Prime Mode is only something you want to do if you aren't halfway to earning certain accumulative trophies (like the audio logs or healing ones). Best to chase up those trophies between Prime Modes - as there are 5 Prime Modes, each one resetting certain counters back to zero. The fifth Prime Mode is called Primus Mode, which is noted as leaving all things unlocked when you get it, but I'm still a couple hours away from getting it to see what happens next.

There is a good selection of maps to start with in Escalation, including two that were from WFC. I never played the FOC maps, so there might be a couple from there too.
A lot of characters to choose from as well, with the flying ones being the better ones, as all the abilities and weapons are accessible by everyone once they are unlocked. The alt-mode weapons are mostly similar between them, to make the flying ones the best for quicker fight or retreat.

Broken Hope is the one I find easiest, as I can complete it with the techvolt, slime cannon and ammo beacon, from the top bridge. You also get three lives, plus a number of weapon and corrosive instillations, that can eliminate most opponents in each wave. (that's on easy setting - when I get Primus Mode, I'll see what hard is like)
The bad thing though is that the game ends at wave 15, unlike WFC which keeps going forever if you survive.
Some of the other maps are really difficult to play on your own, or even in public matches, particularly if you have a lag from poor internet or distance from the Americans hosting the game.
But a tip for playing a private map on your own, is using the Cyber corrupter and Ammo beacon with the Techvolt. From a protected corner you get them to kill each other for you, and the Techvolt takes care of anyone who gets in close.

No Multiplayer games this time, which probably put off people buying this game, as they can be a significant portion of play time (value) to the purchase price. It was also probably why it was easier to complete the trophies on this one, as a lot of trophies in WFC and FOC were in Multiplayer games, that are difficult to get with a game lag, or drop in online players preventing games from even starting.

Chapter 3 was the most challenging for me to get a particular trophy, so I had to do it quite a few times... and since it had unending Insecticons in one location for me to chase up a number of weapons challenges, I ended up getting in the top 20 for the global rankings for that chapter.
I like seeing the leaderboards in this one covering all the chapters and escalation maps... as it can be an incentive to outdo other people, particularly your friends (as you can toggle between three lists).

For anyone needing help with chasing up trophies on this game, I used this site. (I try to get them first, before looking at that site)

[Sinnertwin]

I haven't played what i consider to be a decent game since the Ps2 all those years ago.

I foolishly went out and bought Revenge of The Fallen & 3 minutes into it all i wanted to do was put my head through the walls. Repeatedly.

[FruitBuyer]

Honestly, the only good thing about this was getting the same VAs of the guys from WfC and FoC.

The bit where you're that Insecticon meant to act as Shockwave's bodyguard.....did Shockwave forget that he can fly?

[griffin]

Reached "Primus Mode", which pretty much ends the game for me if I don't get any others interested in playing the online game with me. It is the last level to reach, and stops accumulating points or levels... making it less fun to play (to chase levels)... and also makes gear-boxes even more redundant, as the multipliers are now worthless, leaving only TECH and Hacks as the only things you still use up (but by the time you get to Primus mode, you'll have each maxed out to 99, which won't run out any time soon).

I think the campaign shouldn't have counted to points/levels, as it made it way too quick to earn just by doing the campaign... but was probably a compromise to not having Multi-player games this time (which counted in previous games). You only need to reach first Prime mode to get all the trophies, which I think you'll get just from the campaign. (especially if you redo bits to secure trophies, which racks up more points in the process)

I still have two maps to try out, and try to find ways to complete them like Broken Hope and Remnant... but might go back to finishing off some of the earlier TFs games instead soon.
It is really satisfying to complete all the trophies in a game, particularly if it is a property (like Transformers) that interests me, but I think having it paired with the Movie Universe has put people off it, and tainted the WFC/Aligned universe in the process.

Now I wonder who we can petition to get the next chapter to be what the epilogue teased us with (Gen1).

[Paulbot]

Saw this in store today for $15 so came here for the reviews. Not really convinced either way and I've got two other PS3 games I've not started so might just leave this one behind.

[MayzaPrime]

Saw this in store today for $15 so came here for the reviews. Not really convinced either way and I've got two other PS3 games I've not started so might just leave this one behind.

Its awful mate, dont bother. I had such high hopes for this game, as I love WFC and FoC. It was my 1st Xbox One game and I finished it and returned it within a week, thank goodness Diablo 3 was out around the same time.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Saw this in store today for $15 so came here for the reviews. Not really convinced either way and I've got two other PS3 games I've not started so might just leave this one behind.

For $15 it might be worth picking up to play the Cybertron based levels - only so many games out there where you get to play as Shockwave and Bruticus