I'm a huge fan of Transformers and this game was just a great failure! Really!?! After those great games WfC and Foc(War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron) we get this. The campaing sucks and WE HAVE NO MULTIPLAYER! Only escalation(it's the only good thing in the game). No new weapons, just 5 new characters who are from Bayformers... and if I remember right 8 maps to escalation mode where players fight together agains 15 waves of enemies. Thats it. SPOILER WARNING!!! The campaing start in cyberton and the transformers are looking for the mysterious dark spark. After many of boring levels(the leveld don't even fit to FoC storyline) we get to earth AND THE BAYFORMERS UNIVERSE! After great story in the other games before this stupid game, the makers of the game decide to kill everyone! Well Optimus, Bumblebee and Drift are alive... but everyone else is DEAD. No Unicron, no continuing the old story, just combaining Bay's movies and the old good games. The story really SUCKS. There is still some new things: You can level up your character in campaing and escalation(it doesn't effect the game anyway) to level 25, and then you can activate "Prime mode". It means that you have level your character again to level 25 and unlock all characters and weapons again. What is the point in it? And from like achievements and completing waves in escalation you get gearboxes. When you open those boxes you get new weapons, characters, abilities, and upgrades. First its fun, but after a while it will be very boring! You get like 100 gearboxes in 2 minutes! Well not really that much, but I think you get it. The graphics are the same they were in FoC, and controls too. Buy this only If you are a big fan of Transformers. I'm so disappointed to this game... maybe next time we get a better one? :) This was my first review in Steam, I hope it helped you. I give this game 3/10. Sorry Edge of Reality, High Moon Studios just makes better Transformers games.
UPDATE!!! I was wrong about the story(I went to wiki to check it). The Dark Spark just appeared in the movie universe. But, the story is still very bad. :(

With High Moon butchered and sent off to make Call of Duty ports for the rest of eternity (hereby referred to as The Activision Purgatory), Rise of the Dark Spark is a game built over the grave of the phenomenal "Cybertron" series of games, by new developer Edge of Reality, the studio that bought you... err, The Incredible Hulk. And the console port of Dragon Age: Origins. With a pedigree like that, what could go wrong.

Technically, there's everything in this that made War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron work - appealing third-person shooting, familiar faces and voices from the G1 Transformers cartoon, and gimmicks hooked in from the Transformers universe that are, admittedly, as compelling as they have been, if nowhere near as fresh. It's deprived of a soul, though.

It's a product, built and manufactured with devious precision, from the inclusion of the Michael Bay film universe to satiate marketing drive, to scenarios that seem to be outright ripped from prior games. Very few new things happen in this game, instead opting to be some kind of weird, bad DLC for Fall of Cybertron, only selling at full-price, as a tie-in to a often-derided Transformers universe, at least by fans (the same fans that made the High Moon games successful). It's an insult, albeit a perfectly playable one, with a confusing plot, bored actors, tried-and-true gameplay that has nontheless run its course and has been sucked of all joy. Also, it is really ugly. Ech.

No-one deserved this. High Moon especially, their legacy trampled on as they scream silently in The Activision Purgatory. Rise of the Dark Spark, bafflingly, takes two of the most intensely passionate games of the last decade and turns it into the definition of "shovelware". I could recommend it to people who really, REALLY want to play more of Fall of Cybertron but much, MUCH worse - and if that sounds like it could be fun to you, well, bully t'you, but it's not exactly my idea of a good time, and I don't doubt most would agree with me.

My least favorite part of TF2 is dealing with enemy snipers from halfway across the map while running around as the slow heavy weapons guy.

In this game the snipers are very small, hard to see, FLYING, aimbot-accurate, high dps, hitscan monsters that kill you in waves before you can even see them. Your character can't aim straight up so enjoy being griefed by these hovering jerkoffs you can't aim at.

Allied AI enjoy falling on their backs without killing any enemies then expect me to pick them, rendering myself prone to being instantly killed.

There seems to be no connection to this game and its prequel, no explanation of how we got where we are from where either of the last two games ended. I guess they were in a hurry to connect these games to the Michael Bay movies and cash in on the movie tie in.

There's a poorly executed weapon upgrade system that's only good for eating my time away and shattering my immersion.

Dialouge and characterization is solid, hilarious, and memorable.

There were so many impressive moments in Fall of Cybertron, it's sad to see this game sink so hard.

Sorry but, i feel like ive wasted my money here. Ive played through War and enjoyed playing the campaigns through with friends. Then came Fall, which removed coop but added a ton of new features and playstyles. Then....This.., i dont even know. I started out playing and watched my fps lock at 30, then was plopped down with no explanation of where i was or why i was here. "Grab a gun, and meet us here as we leave you lost and introduce the villain" is an accurate description. I noticed also a lot of the assets were recycled from the previous games, and many of the cybertron characters were concepts from fall. It felt like battlefield having to unlock everything, and i hated how terrible the models were for the bayformers. Optimus Primes lips could totally suck the 1980s batsuit nipples in this game.

Terrible game, the multiplayer was great, but the story was absolutley horrifiyingly terrible

Still displays 360 Controller tooltips, no rebindable controls for keyboard, almost no voices from the movie, graphics options non exisant, no class cusomisation in muliplayer (ie you cannot make your own transformers) This game is a massive step backwards from Fall of Cybertron. What the actual balls, do NOT buy this it is a waste of money.

(A more comprehensive version of this review is avalible at https://www.dropbox.com/s/rx0wuudewrsn460/TFRotDSReview.txt)

TL;DR:
Disappointing but still fun game. Wait for the price to drop before you buy it.

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is a third-person shooter based off of both the Michael Bay Transformers movies and the High Moon Studios "Cybertron" games. It attempts to cross over these two fictional universes, and does so with limited appeal.

Story (Spoilers Ahead):
The story is...strange. It feels unfinished, unpolished, and quite frankly, lazy. The plots of the movie and Cybertron segments are almost identical: "Villian X has the Dark Spark! We must retrieve it before he unleashes total havok upon the planet!" The differences are, of course, the antagonist and the setting. The Cybertron story, however, shines brighter than the movie story because it bridges some gaps between War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron; we see Shockwave discover the Insecticons, Ironhide's apparent death (as to my remembrance, he did not appear in Fall's campaign), and so on and so forth. The Cybertron story takes place after War but before Fall, ascting as a prequel. We see that Starscream has not gone rouge, Trypticon is still offline, and the Ark is still under construction.

While I certainly appreciate the attempt at a prequel (and the Cybertron segment is certainly the best part of the campaign because of it), the Cybertron story simply ends up feeling like "Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - Deleted Scenes", and you clearly know WHY they were deleted; the unnessicary plot element we know as the Dark Spark.

The movie story isn't worth going over; the movie it was based off of was a huge contradiction within itself, so just read a review about Transformers: Age of Extinction for that.

Gameplay:
Transformers: RotDS has exactly the same gameplay as its predecessor, which is both a good and bad thing; Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has excellent gameplay, displaying balance and finesce in its weapons and gunplay, pitting you up against challenging enemies who knew their way around a rifle as well as you do. In any Transformers game, you are both soldier AND vehicle, which is always interesting and fun. This game does not screw up in that department, as the gameplay from Fall of Cybertron was left completely untouched. In fact, a lot of things were left completely untouched...RotDS did not have the same developler as the Cybertron games.

Activision slated a new development company, "Edge of Reality", to make this game in lieu of High Moon Studios. Edge of Reality reused all assets created by High Moon Studios for the Cybertron portion of the game, right down to the weapons, character models, animations, sounds, and effects. The only thing that got a re-do was the HUD, which -does- look rather nice, to be fair. Aside from that, the recylcing of High Moon Studios assets was a blatant display of laziness and carelessness that should be frowned upon. They could have at the very least touched up all the in-game assets, giving them a bit of a makeover for the next generation, but not even that was done.

That aside, there is one large flaw in the gamplay.

THERE IS NO PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER.

Edge of Reality and Activision apparently thought it would be an excellent idea to omit the thing that practically made the Cybertron series the smash hit that it was: PVP. Instead of any of the PVP gamemodes, even the simple Team Deathmatch, we get a beefed up Escalation mode.

However, The new Escalation is my favorite part of the game. You can play as over forty characters from both the Cybertron and movie universes. Esentially, in doing that, all you're doing is selecting your character model and either a ground-based or air-based alt mode. After selecting two characters, you can customize your loadout to your liking.

The loadout consists of a primary weapon, a heavy weapon, a "robot ability", three "T.E.C.H." abilities, and one "HACK" (if you so choose to enable one). The robot ability is an action you can perform at any time.There's a cooldown time for the ability, so you aren't able to just spam it. T.E.C.H. abilities are like robot abilities, but they are one-time use and generally more powerful. A HACK is a disadvantage you accept in order to gain more XP- similar to Skulls in the Halo series.

You use all of these in-game to survive 15 waves of enemies, with each wave increasing in difficulty. In the new Escalation, you can set up defenses such as barricades and sentry turrets to help ward off the attackers. In addition to this, there are "power foes"- essentially characters from the campaign thrown into Escalation mode in order to destroy you. It's a nice addition.

RotDS also has a rather nice unlock system for characters, weapons, and abilities. You unlock the aforementioned via obtaining "gear boxes": crates containing unlockable in-game items. (Think: crates in Team-Fortress 2.) You acquire gear boxes by completing missions, hitting landmark waves in Escalations, earning achievements, earning combat distinctions, and simply slaying enemies. I found this to be rather fun and clever. If PVP were implemented, it would be a great way to level up your characters.

Graphics:
At first glance, the game looks passable. But once you play it for a while, you notice blurry textures, jagged edges, and animation errors. These are especially prevalent in the Earth levels, in which Edge of Reality had to make new models, textures, and animations, rather than recycle High Moon assets as they did for the Cybertron portions.

Overall:
This game was somewhat of a disappointment, although I can't say I didn't like it. At the end of the day, I enjoyed this game. As a compliment to Fall of Cybertron, it would have worked nicely. However, a lack of PVP, a weak story, and a too-high pricetag (that last one especially) make this game not worth it. Once the price drops down to at least $20, it will be worth buying. Until then, if you really want this game, wait for a discount. $50 seems a tad too much for what we're getting.

I'm a huge fan of Transformers and this game was just a huge failure! After those great games WfC and Foc(War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron) we get this. The campaing sucks and WE HAVE NO MULTIPLAYER! Only escalation(it's the only good thing in the game). But still you get next to not even a new thing in the game and how everything is put together is terrible. If you like me and loved the past games don't buy. not even worth it on a 50% sale! This game mad me sad really sad. don't buy it!

The developers of this should not make video games. The ai is crap. The story is crap. Everything feels awkward. You get boxes after you beat enough enemies, and what they contain is random, which does not make sense. Vehicle mode is OP most of the time. Characters are less unique then before. There is no PVP. There is only escalation. The thing that I dislike the most is how the developers tried to rewrite what happened in WfC and FoC. How many new characters are there? About 6. Everything else is taken from the last 2 games. Grimlock has the same animations for both Cybertron and Earth modes. The game crashes when I try to pick anything up as Grimlock

There is no possible way I could ever recommend this game.

First, this game is a console to pc port. All in-game button instructions are for a game pad.

Second, there is no way to change the keyboard controls for this game. The default controls are the only controls you can use.

Third, the audio levels are inconsistent. While some parts of the game the dialogue can be understood, other parts of the game you cannot hear a single thing the characters are saying.

I ended up playing until Sideswipe and Ironhide appeared...which leads me to the fourth and last...

Fourth and last... This game is BUGGY! Throughout the game I noticed that whenever I interacted with an object the game seemed to want to stall out. What I mean by that is this... Imagine having to interact with an object but when you do the character can no longer do anything. The character cannot interact with an object, cannot move, cannot jump, cannot shoot...the game basically is still running and the other characters talking...but the character that you control can no longer do ANYTHING AT ALL. This is a random bug. I reloaded from the last checkpoint a couple of times and I noticed it doesn't happen at the same location where you interact with an object. It just is a random occurance whenever the player character interacts with an object. Considering that this uses the console way to save games it can lead to you having to replay a LONG level before reaching the place where your character stalled out at to see if you are lucky enough for the game to let you through.

I cannot tell you about the game's story because this game was so buggy I eventually quit.

But I will say this. For this game to be as BAD as it is considering how good the previous two Transformers games were is truly shameful.

AVOID THIS GAME. It was never meant for a PC and the developers obviously didn't care about the PC market at all. They dropped this steaming pile on us and couldn't give one #### about it or us.

Not the best game of the Transformers series. Campaign is much fun I'll be honest on that, but escalation gets boring over time and there are no other multiplayer modes so it isn't much fun :( The fact that I played this game for around 30 hours (at this moment) says enough about the game. I won't stop playing it and if you want to play with me just let me know, but it is a little bit waste of money.....

sry wrong this game is too bad to wear the name transformers

Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark.In my opinion again very good game.Maybe here isnt multiplayer (TDM,DM etc.) but escalation and campain was more focused.Campain ofcourse should be long then 4 h -_- it very bad. Graphic... exelent job.Characters ofcourse all from older parts and new characters like Stinger and Lockdown.Weapons nothing new maybe 2 new guns and weapons we can ofcourse upgrate so all weapons are so epic :D.Escalation is so upgrated. I like it so much we can update so much things what can help us. Its very cool but only 15 waves.If here will be added multiplayer (But i dont think so :D) it will be the best transformers game ! In my opinion 9.5/10 bc should be multiplayer(TDM,DM etc.) :D

no multiyplayru

Oh, where do I start? I love this game! For all the flak it gets, it's a stable, and frankly, fun Transformers title. Despite what everyone says, the visuals look exactly like Fall of Cybertron, which creates some very beautiful character models and locations. Locations like Cybertron's "Sea of Rust", or Kolkular (Megatron's fortress), are beautiful to look at, especially with the upgraded visuals on PC.

The campaign mode's plot is the least enjoyable in terms of story, as it breaks canon in many areas (Such as Optimus and Grimlock's partnership in the game's 13th mission, despite the game being a prequel to Age of Extinction), which nagged on my mind a lot. Besides this break in continuity, it's rather enjoyable, however, I just wish it was focused more on Earth, as over half of the game takes place on Cybertron, which wasn't in my interests with an Earth-marketed game.

Sound design remains the same as Fall, with most of the original voice actors present to fill their roles in game (i.e: Peter Cullen as Optimus, Fred Tatasciore returns as the Aligned Continuity Megatron, while Jim Ward lends his voice to the Insecticon, Hardshell. This attention to voice detailing leaves you immersed in their voices and dialogue. Weapons sound beefy, and hold impact, with my favorite sound to hear, being one of the "Gambler" upgrade for the Path Blaster (Gambler being an upgrade that makes the final shot in the chamber have the destruction potential of a small nuke, while the Path Blaster is a single shot, semi-automatic rifle.)

Level design in this case is never actually "repetitive", as the levels retain the brightness and color from Fall, while giving more varied areas to explore, ranging from a massive "desert-esque" land, a city at dark, and a massive alien fortress, etc. This keeps each area fresh, while also smoothly changing from level to level. The gametype Escalation (A horde-type mode, where players fight off increasingly difficult waves of enemies) is beefed up in RoTDS, as there is not only a healthy amount of maps; but a multitude of upgrades to certain map areas. (Ranging from Corrosive fields, to turrets, and even electric barriers.)

This also goes hand in hand with the amount of playable characters, which is massive, even for a Transformers title. However, most of the characters are Cybertron based, while only about 4-5 are Earth-based, (Drift, Bumblebee, Optimus, Lockdown and Stinger, if you bought DLC) which might leave some players desiring more in the way of Earth modes.

Also, multiplayer is absent in this case, although, Escalation is cooperative. This may not affect people who are campaign lovers, but people who play games for multiplayer need not apply here. Overall, this title shouldn't be treated as a full on, new title. It should be treated as a massive expansion. It's a fun, if not short ride that is well worth the money. I'd recommend it.

If you were a fan of the past Cybertron games and thinking this will be just like them im sorry to say that it isnt. story was ok but not as great as Fall of Cybertrons. biggest mistake edge of reality made with this game was that they didnt include a PVP multiplayer which has let down alot of people including my self? I hope they will come out with a multiplayer update but if not i would not recommend this at all unless you just want to play for the story. The story tries to fuse the micheal bay series with the cybertronian which was a big mistake also the micheal bay series part had nothing to do with the movies unlike the movie games which had most if not everything to do with the movie. overall id give it a 4/10 its only saving grace for me was playing as grimlock thats it

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark had some pretty big shoes to fill after the success of High Moon's War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron games. Because of the previous entries in this saga, the odds were stacked against Rise of the Dark Spark, especially when you consider that a new developer took the reigns from High Moon.

The story itself is pretty standard. There's a McGuffin that you must retrieve from the villain, or else the universe as we know it will end. The characters you play as during the Cybertron chapters should feel familiar by now, and all of their respective voice actors seem to have returned to reprise their roles, so the dialogue is at the least still interesting and well done. There is one exception, however: Optimus Prime. In the previous entries, Optimus had a more rounded out personality than what you'll find in this game. Here, in Rise of the Dark Spark, we have a Prime who does nothing but spout heroic platitude after platitude.

Edge of Reality put forth effort to extend the work of High Moon by including the audio tape easter eggs, but after listening to them in game it's hard to shake off the feeling that there is something missing this time around. Likewise, the game mechanics, textures, animations, and models are all recycled from High Moon's work, which comes across as lazy, but may also be symptomatic of how rushed this game was. The quality of the graphics in the cut scenes was already showing its age in 2012, so you can imagine by now how jarring it is to see the high grain, low resolution animations between the standard, even if last-gen, graphics experience of the gameplay.

Speaking of gameplay, the mechanics and controls are the same as those found in Fall of Cybertron, with the exception of hacks and the new upgrade/leveling system. Some reviewers have complained about the twitchy controls behind the vehicle mode mechanic, but I didn't find any difference in handling between this game and FoC. Edge of Reality's addition of hacks and their changes to the weapons/upgrade store system make the game interesting and have the potential to bring you back to what is a short campaign mode in order to unlock more equipment and characters.

One of the biggest criticisms against Rise of the Dark Spark is the total lack of multiplayer death matches. In the past two entries, it was the multiplayer feature that extended the lifespan of both WfC and FoC. It will be interesting to see whether or not the online Escalation mode will attract any attention, but based on the empty servers for this mode in the previous two games, it doesn't look hopeful. Plenty of us wonder why the multiplayer wasn't included, especially considering that Edge of Reality had recycled so much of High Moon's work. Surely the materials were there and could have easily been used.

Because of the recycled elements and wafer-thin story, the Cybertron chapters in this game feel much like they are part of an expansion pack or episode that should have cost a half of the retail cost. The Earth chapters are not discussed in this review because other reviewers give plenty of attention to the failings found in that half of the game, and I wouldn't be saying anything that hasn't already been said. I wanted to focus on the aspects of the game that I really enjoyed, and that I wished were more prevalent in the game.

Due to the current price tag of $49.99, the lack of a multiplayer death match featureu, and the fact that the Cybertron chapters maybe make up about half of the game, I would not recommend purchasing Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark at this time. Unfortunately, we may not get a sequel anytime soon that has the same attention to detail and love of the extensive canon that the past two games in this saga have received.

3rd of the trilogie recent transformers games ( war for cybertron, fall of cybertron) , campaign i would say is the worst of the three, it s corridor style with no choice of directions. No pvp, but best multiplayer online escalation mode (waves to beat at 4, 15 in total, with a few choices of map)

war for cybertron = best co op campaign, up to three persons
Fall of cybertron = good campaign (even if no co op) , and best PvP (autobots vs decepticons)
Rise of the dark crap= best escalation mode

The Game is Crap.
I don't recommend the game. I have played the other 2 but this one is not going to work, no co-op and no multiplayer.
I dont liked the ESCALATION mode before and now its the only option gread, waste of money game great work Activison.
You Cant even customize your character just pick some Char after you unlocked them first.

i like the co-op but it crashes too often