Gears Tactics studio Splash Damage are making a Transformers action game
It's a 1-4 player co-op action game made in collaboration with Hasbro
Right, here’s where I have to stay objective and professional. I’ve been a card-carrying Transformers fan since Generation 1, so I’m somewhat confused by the trailer shown at The Game Awards tonight for Gears studio Splash Damage’s upcoming co-op action game Transformers: Reactivate. Yes, theoretically any rather large robot that changes shape counts as a Transformer. Possibly a GoBot, I’m not going to judge anyone on their lifestyle. Just watch the trailer below and tell me what you think, go on.
Earth’s been invaded in Transformers: Reactivate, and it’s the fault of giant machines. Your team of plucky people will need to salvage ruined Autobots – the goody Transformers, for the uninitiated – and repair them to help you survive. That’s pretty much all we know so far about Reactivate, other than the baddies are called the Legion. Splash Damage say that you’ll get a chance to play as your favourite TFs in their robot and vehicle alt modes, though, changing between both “seamlessly”. The studio is working together on the game with licence-owner Hasbro and Derby-based devs Bulkhead.
The big car lads have made their way into games a fair bit over the years, from the not-bad War For Cybertron series to PlatinumGames’ homage to the Eighties cartoons, Transformers: Devastation. Thing is, I find the better games stick to the classic version of what Transformers is, rather than the melty looking live-action movie ones. I hope Transformers: Reactivate features the former, although it mostly concentrates on a band of humans in the trailer. Humans aren’t all that great, they don’t turn into trucks very often.
Transformers: Reactivate hasn't set a release date yet, but has a closed beta planned for 2023. While you’re waiting for Autobots and Decepticons to reveal themselves, you could always transform and roll out to check more of our coverage of The Game Awards.
For more of the latest news and trailers, check out our Game Awards 2022 hub. We also live-blogged the show as it happened right here.