I found this to be a solid, if not spectacular, start. The art is absolutely amazing, very kinetic and colorful. Even the panel that's just Optimus and Ratchet driving in vehicle mode looks awesome. My only complaint visually is probably the scratchy font they chose, kinda hard to read.
As for the writing... yeah, ok, I can see how the violence would turn some people off, and at least for this issue it definitely feels a lot like "MTMTE (cartoon) but dark." But I think it does have its place: it's a way to winnow the cast size down, and it really does help set the stage that these guys are giant alien war machines, which I think is a perfectly legitimate tack to take, especially with a Earth-centric storyline. We had a lot of redeemed Decepticons in IDW 2005 and even a fair amount of shades of grey in IDW 2019, so seeing Starscream be an out-and-out villain from the start is also a bit refreshing in a way.
That said, I am hoping the familiar setup is just a start, and things do head in a more interesting direction. Right now the only real mystery is what's up with Megatron. Johnson is known for digging into character's emotional beats so I'm still hopeful. (I definitely could relate to his note in the back... though, while I was able to draw Optimus Prime, that most decidedly did NOT mean I could draw anything else...)