The latest game to announce that it’s being delisted from Steam is Transformers: Battlegrounds, which is the victim of a licensing agreement coming to an end. To soften the blow, it’s on sale for 90% off until it gets removed at the end of the month.
Transformers: Battlegrounds is basically XCOM for kids who watch the recent crop of Transformers cartoons like Cyberverse, with which it shares voice actors and character designs. That means it has bright and blocky “evergreen” incarnations of classic characters like Bumblebee and Shockwave, as well as more recent additions like Windblade, who is sort of like if a Japanese pirate could turn into a jet.
Like XCOM, it’s a turn-based tactics game with the familiar shield symbols designating cover and blue grid representing movement range. Spend a bunch of action points on moving and your character will transform into vehicle mode to cover the distance, which is a nice touch, and they have ultimate abilities available when you fill up their Energon meter. There’s local multiplayer too.
Don’t expect anything as complicated as fighting the Chosen in XCOM 2, but it still has the basics down. If you can’t be bothered using mods to reskin XCOM into being a Transformers game, or you know a kid who would have their mind blown by seeing Bumblebee use overwatch fire to take down Starscream, then grab a copy of Transformers: Battlegrounds before it gets delisted on December 31.
