Transformers: War For Cybertron has three player drop in on-line co-op and features very cool vehicles turning in to very cool robots who kick seven shades of shiny metal ass. Why are you still reading this when you should be pre-ordering it right now? More details you say? You are hard to please..
Apart from the aforementioned online co-op (no split screen, sorry) the game will be played over 30 stages where you will ‘get to experience the breadth of Cybertron from space and the orbiting stations surrounding the planet, down to the surface and all the way down to the planet’s core.’
The game design as some neat features; If you are playing as Bumblebee (yellow) and you give Skywarp (purple) a kicking and grab his gun, it will transform and recolour to indicate it is now your weapon. There will be gun turrets to use but you will not just sit in a chair and fire, your character will transform and become part of the actual turret. Autobot characters will be big and bulky and ‘heroic’, Deceptions will be pointy and evil. ‘Pointy’ as in the have sharp edges, not that they just point at you and laugh – that is qute evil but it’s no match for turbo laser up your exhaust pipe.
Each character will be able to carry two weapons at the same time including sniper rifles, automatics, rocket launchers and laser beams. Characters will also have a ‘class’ system which grants them two unique abilities, for example Optimus has a ‘buff’ ability that will boost the morale and stats of the Autobots around him. No details have been given of the other abilities but they are ‘contextual to character’ so that probably means Hound will get decoy holograms, Soundwave will have some sort of aural stun facility and Tracks will have a nicely polished chrome bumper and a subscription to ‘Bad Boy Bots In Boots.’
The game features a tightly scripted story but who is writing the plot remains a secret at present. My money is on Simon Furman, the guy who wrote hundreds of stories for the Transformers comics and graphic novels. Those who have played the game have compared it to Gears of War and producer Jason Ades spoke about this:
“I think anybody would tell you that if that’s what people feel they see then that’s high praise. Gears of War is a freaking awesome game. We love it, I love it. I think a lot of that comparison has to do with the crisp, clear graphics and the fact that War for Cybertron is built on the Unreal engine, so yeah, you’re going to see some similarities there. But this is going to be the Transformers experience that Transformers fans have always wanted to play, and for a gamer they’re going to get to play a really cool third-person shooter set on a really cool alien world with giant awesome robots.”
When creating something in the Transformers universe there are golden rules that have to be followed. Starscream has to be a backstabbing bitch that gets slapped around by Megatron, Jazz has to be ultra cool and Optimus Prime has to be red and blue and voiced by Peter Cullen, so it’s excellent news that Peter Cullen is back as Optimus Prime and in a bit of surprise casting, Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock) is playing Zeta Prime. A slight missed opportunity there as Spock voiced Galvatron in the original 1980s movie.
Characters confirmed for the game so far: Air Raid, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Ironhide, Jetfire, Omega Supreme, Optimus Prime, Ratchet. Silverbolt, Warpath, Zeta Prime, Brawl, Breakdown, Megatron, Shockwave, Skywarp, Soundwave, Starscream, Thundercracker and Trypticon.
Sources: Seibertron, Gamerzines, Ausgamers
