Preview: Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron

Transformers has a rich mythology with multiple timelines and hundreds of characters but I wondered if the team were inspired by other games or movies.

“Ideas for characters and for the game come from many sources; TV, movies, feedback and even fans. My job as game director is to filter the ideas. I buy art books, I might go to the zoo and get an idea, you never know where you may be inspired.”

“I try and play as many games as possible. I’ve passed the point where I’m chasing trophies, I set the game to easy as I want see everything a game has to offer. I am so beyond my ego, I know there are twelve year olds who are better gamers than me but I’m O.K. with that!”

The final section of the preview features Jazz as he hunts some vicious sniper bots. This sequence introduces a new feature, a grappling hook. Jazz must zoom around the multi-leveled area to locate a spot that allows him to take out the snipers. These being Transformer snipers, they do not hide behind a barricade, they fly around and walk across walls and ceilings.

It is obvious that High Moon is trying to make the game varied and interesting, War For Cybertron was rather samey – enter a room, kill the bad guys, drive to next room, repeat.  The developers have taken the criticisms on board and the new game continually changes the gameplay. One level is a straight shoot out, the next will be tactical, then grappling, then melee combat and then sneaking.

“A lot of people considered War For Cybertron a flawed gem, and I agree with that assessment,” said Matt, “We listened to the press and gamers, to find out what they liked and what they felt could be improved and a lot of people felt the gameplay was repetitive.”

“There is a very intentional juxtaposition of play styles. When you play as Optimus Prime, it’s Braveheart, it’s saving Saving Private Ryan, it’s a war movie. Then the next level you play as Cliffjumper and it’s stealth, you set the pace, then it’s Metroplex stomping around.”

[drop2]High Moon has also been working hard on the story and the game will take an occasional break from the combat to allow you to explore Cybertron. At one point Cliffjumper discovers a long lost archive and as he moves up a spiral staircase a number of planets appear in holographic form. One of the planets seems to be Earth, a hint as to where the next game will be set?

Another criticism leveled at War (rather loudly by me, it must be said) is that it looked like, well, an Unreal engine game. Graphics were good rather than stunning and there was little in the way of effects. It’s therefore a great pleasure to report that Fall Of Cybertron is gorgeous.

The environments are now more detailed and there are plenty of effects. Colour has been used well and the dark greys and blues of the previous game have been replaced by sun drenched courtyards. The sound design has also been taken to another level, obviously influenced by the Michael Bay movies.

For me the most annoying part of the War For Cybertron was the lack of ammunition, it seemed to be scarce and I frequently ran out. Fortunately with Matt sat in front of me I can demand it be fixed, please for the love of god tell me it has been fixed Matt!

“(Laughs) That’s a really interesting one. We did tonnes of focus testing and the ammo situation never came up –  but when the game was released, for a lot of people it proved to be a big problem. For this game there is significantly more ammo, all the A.I. characters have a 40% chance of dropping ammo, they never did that in War For Cybertron.”

“Ammo is also placed in the levels, we’ve made it bigger so its easier to spot, you get more ammo when you pick it up and we have increased the clip sizes. There was a lot of ammo in War For Cyberton but I don’t think people could find it, it wasn’t distinct enough”.

One other problem I had with the first game was that there was little incentive to be in vehicle mode, being a truck served little purpose, other than to drive from one section to the next. I put this to Matt, and once again he responded honestly to my criticism.

“I agree,” says Matt, “The space you saw in the demo when Optimus is in a huge plaza, you can drive for almost a minute from one side to the other. We expanded our knowledge of the Unreal engine and how we can use that when people are driving vehicles. War for Cybertron was more of a corridor shooter but for this game we use the terrain and big open spaces. We have a much better understanding of vehicles and how to use them.”

Obviously dedicated Transformers fans will pick up the game without hesitation, but I asked Matt if he felt the game appealed to players who are new to the franchise.

“For the gamer who has never played War for Cybertron and picks up Fall of Cybertron, what they are going to say is this”, he responded, “Every single character is a unique and fresh experience, and the game is constantly challenging you to rethink. The world of Cybertron is stunning. That the levels are well designed and that the A.I. transform in cool and interesting ways that will continually push and challenge you.”

Activision are holding back on revealing the new multiplayer modes but I did see a brief example of the new character customisation menu. Almost every part of your robot can be altered and any changes you make in robot mode will effect the design of the vehicle mode.

It occurs to me that, with the ability to build pretty much any robot, High Moon have done a Starscream when it comes to DLC.

“I would say we have not done that because… well, there’s stuff we’re not ready to talk about right now,” says Matt.

“I think War For Cybertron multiplayer was pretty decent, it was well balanced but we had a few issues with certain elements.”

“The biggest difficulty we had was the community was not big enough. Our marketing plan for War For Cybertron was a fraction of what we have for this game. We started talking about War a few months before we shipped, we revealed this game almost a year before launch.”

“The VGA trailer has had over six million views, which is well above the sum total of the views for all the trailers from War For Cybertron. We have the backing from Activision to build a bigger community for this game.”

“I can honestly say this game exceeds War For Cybertron in every single way, if you liked War For Cybertron, this is going to be one of your favourite games of all time.” concludes Matt, and I am inclined to agree with him.