The Arkham Asylum of Transformers

To say I am excited for Transformers War for Cybertron would be a massive understatment.  I've been a fan of the franchise longer than I've been a gamer and from what I have seen, read and heard it is clearly aiming to be the best thing to come of the giant transforming robots ever. 

All the bots have a melee weapon in the game, Optimus gets a snazzy axe

Everyone is familar with Michael Bay's atrocious "movies" staring the bots and unfortunately their is an all to common but understanable lack of interest in this game because of them amongst many jaded or cynical gamers. Anyone who isn't a hardcore fan hasn't really thought of Transformers being relevent since its debut as a late 80s morning cartoon back when they were a child and unless you're easily entertained by explosions and blurry off camera cgi the films probably didn't change your opinion.

So why should anyone but the hardcore fans be interested in WfC? for starters the developers; High Moon Studios have the complete opposite attitude to the franchise as Bay and Hollywood.  Bay happily admited that he "didn't wanna do a movie about some dumb toys" and between that and Devastators wrecking balls (which was his idea) its clear the man has no love for Transformers at all and seeks only to further butcher and laugh at the franchise and its fans while raking in piles of cash from the same people who think 3D is going to be the best thing ever.

Now at long last people who actually care about Transformers beyond its exterior image of just big robots fighting and cool toys that sell like crazy have gone and made what they believe to be the defining Transformer experience.  This is a game for fans, that is also trying to say to all the cynics out their Transformers can be cool, it can be awesome and this is something you will enjoy not because your a fan (though clearly if you are its a huge bonus) but because when Transformers is treated with respect, with intelligence and care it can be so much more.

When I tell my friends that their are actual well written interesting stories involving The Transformers they dont laugh but they clearly have a hard time believing me, until of course I show them some of the many comics I've bought over the years and their minds practically explode at how un-stupid they can be. The follow up comment is almost always 'so why are the movies so bad?' or 'why hasn't anyone made something cool about them?'  The answer is simple, when their are actually people who give a damn good things have a much higher chance of happening.  

High Moon didn't go and make a Transformers game for money or to tie in to something else, they made it because they wanted to, they went to Hasbro with the idea for the game and Hasbro liked it so much I and my fellow Transformer fans may finally have something we can point to when asked why we love this franchise so much that isn't a niche comic or a $250 figure.

Maybe I'm just setting myself up for extreme disappointment, its happened before with games I've been super hyped for but I have this unwavering gut feeling this time its real. The fact I've been persistently seeking every inconceavable detail about the game and have yet to develop any concerns at all proves that it has alot of promise so I'm pretty convinced High Moon will deliver.

Transformers has an image problem among the non-fan gamer populace, but this game could very well do for the franchise what Arkham Asylum did for Batman; yet again show that any licensed title can be as good as any normal game when the right people and right amount of time and care is uitilized.