I've written before, in my Transformers: War for Cybertron article, about how bizarre it is that we've not really gotten that many Transformers games, given how massive the franchise is. Of the few notable games we have, they're typically third-person action-adventure titles of varying size, scope and quality. As a fan of the tactics genre, I was surprised and thrilled to discover Transformers: Battlegrounds, a grid-based tactical game, cut from a similar cloth as Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Unfortunately this game was delisted from digital storefronts after this past December, as the publisher lost the license to the Transformers IP. The licensing issues with Transformers is an ongoing problem that I also spoke about in my Run It Back piece. The few Transformers games we do get, seem to disappear after a few years due to these byzantine licensing problems. Thankfully, I managed to grab Battlegrounds before it was delisted.
Transformers: Battlegrounds is set in the continuity of Transformers: Cyberverse, a cartoon (that I had never heard of) that ran from 2018 through 2021. This game borrows the cartoon's distinctive, bright, cel-shaded art style, and because of that, Battlegrounds actually has a pretty fresh, vibrant visual style that looks quite unique, especially alongside the other Transformers video games. The story is centered around the iconic Autobot Bumblebee and his friend Windblade, and fellow Autobots Grimlock, Wheeljack and Arcee. They're seeking their leader Optimus Prime, and the AllSpark, and must contend with the villainous Decepticons, who are constantly battling them and blocking their progress. There really isn't much more to say about the story. It's very straightforward, and feels like a small story arc pulled straight from a Saturday morning cartoon.
From a gameplay perspective, Battlegrounds plays like a fairly standard tactics game. Movement is entirely handled on a grid, and each character class has a certain distance that it can move on the grid. Lighter characters like Windblade can travel huge distances in a single turn, while heavier units like Grimlock are restricted to smaller navigable distance ranges. There's a slight tradeoff though, where those lumbering, weighty boys are capable of inflicting greater damage than their lightweight teammates. As with many tactics games, the grid is also replete with terrain that can be used for cover. Many of the maps have your team battling through towns and neighborhoods, and you can duck behind houses, stores, gas stations, fences, etc. I really enjoyed the careful planning and strategy of utilizing my lighter units to zip around, baiting enemies into tight corridors and alleys, where my stronger units were waiting to pounce. Sometimes my planning didn't work though, as the enemy AI was surprisingly competent. I specifically recall an instance on a desert map, where an enemy unit shot a sand dune (a type of environmental hazard in that biome) and kicked up a sand cloud, so that Megatron (the boss of that stage, who I was getting close to killing) could be shrouded from any damage.
As I indicated, there are different classes in the game, with each playable Autobot fitting neatly into these groupings. Brawlers (my personal favorite), are the heaviest, strongest units. Scouts are the nimble, long-range units. And Support, as you'd expect from the name, are your healers and utility units. Each character has a unique playstyle though, with distinct abilities that I had a ton of fun experimenting with and finding which units fit my playstyle. Windblade stayed in my party for much of the game, largely because of one of her extremely helpful attacks, where she'd use her jet thrusters to blast enemies backwards, creating some space between her and them. If you could coordinate that attack just right, you could sometimes throw an enemy into a parked car or an energon battery, which would then explode and cause even greater damage. Grimlock, one of my favorite Transformers, also has an ability that I loved using when I could. If I managed to catch the enemy team clustered in one small location, Grimlock could use his fire breath and do "area of effect" damage and torch the entire group in one turn.
I feel like I've mostly had positive things to say about Transformers: Battlegrounds up to this point, but truthfully, there's a major disconnect that I have with this game -- the missions themselves are incredibly repetitive to the point of being a drag. The game has four acts, with each act being comprised of a few missions. These missions have only three variations: reach "X" location, survive "X" many waves and eliminate all Decepticons. Between the bog standard, relatively uninteresting plot and the constant repetition of these mission types, it makes the game feel far too cyclical, even with its short runtime. This isn't helped by the fact that many of the maps also look incredibly similar to each other. I will say that there was a cool stage mechanic introduced in the final act, where deadly gas (almost like from a battle royale game) started filling the stage, and I had to travel as fast as I could through it before the gas could kill my team. I would've loved to see that element peppered throughout the campaign just to add some variety.
Transformers: Battlegrounds is ultimately a fine game. It's far from the best tactical game that I've ever played, and by the end of the game, I was happy to see the end. To the game's credit though, this is the only Transformers tactics game we've ever received, and as a fan of the genre and the IP, I'm happy that Battlegrounds exists. The game had some intriguing genre innovations too, and unique character builds that kept me experimenting with different mechanics. Since the game is delisted, it isn't easy to obtain now, but if you can score yourself an inexpensive copy, I feel like it's worth experiencing. If you can only find pricey copies of the game, I don't know that I can recommend it, unless you're a diehard fan of Transformers or the tactics genre.
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