TRANSFORMERS BATTLEGROUNDS
Rolling out one move at a time
The conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons for the legendary AllSpark – a robot war in which the soldiers happen to be sentient robots who can turn into vehicles (and sometimes other things, like Grimlock who turns into… a robot dinosaur?) – is a natural fit for a turn-based strategy game in the style of XCOM.
That said, you play as a human. Caught in the middle of a battle in Central City, you’re airlifted to safety, where you end up helping Autobot Bumblebee and his comrades spot and strategise fights against the Decepticons. 1 It’s a delight to watch them take cover behind buildings that would dwarf us. Most of the bite-sized battles revolve around your team of three Autobots. Each has a class-based ability slot, a characterspecific ability slot, and an ultimate attack. Even Autobots with the same class can end up feeling quite different.
Every turn you get three action points to spend, which can be used to move or attack. Usually you’re limited to one attack per turn, but you can spend a full or half party-wide energy meter on a special attack. Choosing when to give yourself those extra boosts of power can be vital. Some attacks can heal allies, or give buffs or debuffs. Shove is a big deal as you can knock Decepticons into walls and explosives, and it’s satisfying when a rocket barrage sends them tumbling.
A range of mission objectives keeps things interesting, and there are nice moments when the action is used to tell the story. 2
It’s fairly simple (it’s based on a kids’ cartoon), but this twist on the genre is easy to understand, and fun to stick with until the credits. Oscar Taylor-Kent