Video Games GameSpark News: A Closer Look at the Transformers Game That Might Have Been

Transformers: Reactivate, nee Transformers: Rise, is something of a recent tale of tragedy among fans of robots in disguise.

In a post-Transformers: Devastation world, video games that were more than meets the eye felt fewer and further between, and were usually fare such as Transformers: Battlegrounds, Transformers: Galactic Trials, and Transformers: Earthspark - Expedition. Not necessarily bad games, but certainly a far cry from the Triple-A fare that fans had grown accustomed to with Activision Blizzard's titles based on the Michael Bay films, the War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron duology, or the aforementioned Devastation.

But rising above the rest was a game that even went so far as to be featured at The Game Awards and have actual tie-in figures manufactured, released, and sold. Despite all of this, little would come of the game itself following that announcement, until its unfortunate cancellation at the start of this year.

While we thought that unfortunate news would be the last we would hear of the game, something new has emerged. No, the project has not been reactivated itself, but we are privy to at least seeing what had been done with the game prior to the game getting the Jhiaxus treatment.

RoboGamer1HD has been an avid follower of the title, and apparently has a build of the game, one which they'll be giving us a walkthrough of as a series on YouTube. From the description:

I decided to take the plunge for archival purposes and to share a version of Transformers Rise/ Reactivate that originally would have never seen the light of day. The game is now about 5 years old and I would like to be the first to present this canceled game to you. Please enjoy a brief overview of the main menu and the first mission "Back in Action"

RoboGamer1HD also had this to say in the pinned comment on the video:

Welcome to my archival of Transformers: Reactivate/Transformers Rise. Now that Transformers Reactivate/Rise was canceled I feel it is appropriate to share this footage with all of you. I do not know when the next Walkthrough will be shared. But I wanted to share this with the community as they deserve to see what the game looked like. Transformers fans have been waiting for a good Transformers video game for 10+ years. As a Transformers fan and Transformers gaming fan, I present to you Transformers Rise/Transformers Reactivate the technically first triple-AAA Transformers video game that was canceled. Please keep in mind, this is an incomplete game and a lot was broken. Please don't forget to comment, like and Subscribe to see more epic Transformers gaming action! #Transformers #TransformersGame #TransformersReactivate #PlayTFR

There will surely be more to come in the future. You know, provided Hasbro doesn't do something like send the Pinkertons to abscond with RoboGamer1HD's hard drive containing the build or something. But they'd never do something like that... right?

Anyway, if you're interested in the development history of this title up to its unfortunate end, you can find a whole section about that and more in the article on TFWiki.

And if you'd like to further mourn the title's loss, we've got a whole thread for it over in the good ol' Allspark forums. You can also leave a vial of your energon for it in the comments below.

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[CoffeeHorse]

At this point the saga of this game's non-development is more interesting than the game ever could have been. It might have been just another forgettable tie-in. Although the fact that it got to have its own character designs instead of just porting over Sunbow or Evergreen is always going to make it intriguing.