Transformers: Legends Review

My love of Rage of Bahamut has become a sort of running joke around here, and with good reason. My love of Transformers isn’t quite so obvious but it’s also most definitely a thing. So combining the two into a Robots in Disguise CCG sounds like a perfect match, right? Well, yes and no.

Transformers: Legends has been referred to as a re-skinned Rage of Bahamut on more than one occasion. That’s both true and false. Players can put together their own dream team made up of Autobots and Decepticons alike as they complete missions to earn experience, as well as more cards. They can sacrifice lesser bots to power up favorites. And they can ogle some really cool illustrations. However there’s more of an emphasis on individuality here, with players encouraged to find allies that aid in summoning more warriors through the Spacebridge (i.e. earn points to buy more cards), but no guilds or anything like them.

As both a lover of Transformers and impressive drawings I’ve become fairly smitten with Legends’ visuals. The interface is clean and easy to read, even if some important options are buried a little bit, and the cards look amazing. Seriously, even the most common Cybertronian looks fantastic but the more rare cards are particularly jaw-dropping. The drive to collect all of them almost reminds me of hunting down the physical toys. Gathering enough to make a worthwhile team or upgrade a few notables can take some time, but much like Mobage’s other online CCGs there’s always the possibility of an event to really move things along. Heck, simply joining the newest “Episode” flooded me with medals to be used for more acquisitions.

With the exception of the events, however, Legends feels slightly hollow. PvP is always an option and there are plenty of missions to complete that yield cards for both factions, but progression can take a while when the Energon meter (i.e. stamina) takes so long to fill up and expand. It’s even worse when fighting other players since there are only three Energon Cubes (i.e. PvP stamina) at maximum. And they take hours to replenish without items. I know I probably sound like a bit of a broken record for saying this but I think it’s a shame that there’s no trading, either. Aside from a few tiny icons during a bout or a quick peek at an ally’s leader card there’s no real opportunity to show off one’s own team or reap any rewards from painstakingly turning Grimlock into the unstoppable force he is.

Transformers: Legends isn’t entirely a copy and it isn’t entirely its own thing. It’s a strange hybrid that works, for the most part, but ultimately feels kind of shallow. It can be downright compulsory during special events but in those moments in between it doesn’t shine quite so brightly.