TRANSFORMERS: EARTHSPARK - Expedition Review

Do you remember your first movie-going experience? I saw The Transformers The Movie at the cinema when I was a little kid and afterwards informed my mum “He blew his bloody head off!” Okay, so at the time “bloody” was a bit of a harsher cuss than it is these days, but dang did I love Transformers (and still do). Over the years I’ve partaken of most Transformers media, but Earthspark (the latest cartoon at time of writing) isn’t something I’ve gotten around to yet. Regardless, I wanted to play a Transformers game and TRANSFORMERS: EARTHSPARK - Expedition is one of the handful which I hadn’t yet gotten around to. There have been 30 games (including different versions of the same title) in case you wondered.

Set between the first and second season of the cartoon, Expedition sees you controlling Bumblebee in a third-person action adventure. It seems Dr. "Mandroid" Meridian isn’t as defeated as they thought, so Bumblebee has to set out for a few open world-style areas to stop him from obtaining ancient artefacts that will help him destroy all Transformers. Helping Mandroid out are mind-controlled Decepticons, and a bunch of cannon fodder mercenary bots, so it’s not going to be a walk in the cyber park!

If you’re new to the world of Earthspark, don’t worry as the characters tell a little story to summarise things. Three kids activated a thing which built some Transformers, said beings are now kid Autobots (known as Terrans) and linked to the human kids in some way, the pre-existing Autobots now train them while trying to stop evil humans and Decepticons.

As each of the three locations in Expedition are its own open worlds, you will have to traverse a lot of terrain. As you might expect, you can transform into a car at any time, which makes the open regions easier to cross, though obviously, turning into a car doesn’t help with platforming. Also, turning into a robot doesn’t really help, as the jumping in this game is floaty and awkward…

Of course, each area is also filled with enemies which respawn (and literally appear out of nowhere face-down on the ground when they do so), so you’ve got a lot of fighting ahead of you. Bumblebee is equipped with a laser which is basically ineffective against anything stronger than the most basic enemy type. It can be used to stun any foe, but the number of shots required escalates quickly. Then, you’re just a kick and punch away from defeating them, so long as there are less than three of them, or they’re spread out so you can dodge and not get stun-locked by multiple attacks…

When you defeat hostile forces, they drop bolts which can be used to buy upgrades. These are also in crates (which respawn) scattered around the place, though you will often have to do a quick circle to ensure you pick them all up. There’s no “suck bolts towards me” upgrade, unfortunately. Available upgrades are abilities to get around levels and fight combo moves, the usual things.

As each location is open, it would be a simple matter to locate the main stronghold and head right over there, right? Well, you have to usurp control of the area from Mandroid’s forces before you can get inside! You do this by taking over outposts, finding collectibles, and completing side missions. See, Mandroid needs to be stopped urgently, so of course you have time to race against one of the Terrans for no reason. Okay, not all side missions are races, but there are more than you’d think!

While Expedition does have a map for you to check, there’s no mini-map or even a waypoint or objective marker to tell you that you’re going in the right direction. You can apparently set a waypoint and it will appear as a beam of light (which you might not be able to see), but I only learned about this after my time with the game.

The graphics are decent, with some good-looking alien robots. The locations are very samey, however, which certainly doesn’t help the lack of map markers. The main bases are well designed, thankfully, so you’re rewarded at the end of the monotony.

As far as audio goes in Expedition, it’s hit-and-miss. Sound effects are spot on, music is entirely forgettable, and if you’re hoping to hear familiar voices from the cartoon you’ll be disappointed. The game uses sound-alikes, which could have a variety of reasons behind it, and this is hardly the first game published by Outright Games to do so. It’s still going to disappoint fans of the show, and fans of Alan Tudyk.

TRANSFORMERS: EARTHSPARK - Expedition is a mixed bag of decent adaptation and boring, repetitive, frustrating gameplay. Not one that I have any interest in finding all of the collectibles for, but real fans of the show will probably enjoy more.