War for Cybertron (game)



Transformers: War for Cybertron is a video game franchise for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, and DS. The game was developed by High Moon Studios, based on the Unreal Engine used by the Gears of War franchise, and released by Activision Blizzard.

Single Player / Co-op
The game is a behind the shoulder, third person shooter that allows the player a choice of one of three canon characters at the start of each of the 10 chapters. The 10 chapters are divided evenly between Autobot and Decepticon, with the Decepticon missions coming first chronologically in the story, and each faction has one flying mission each. Players can transform freely between both modes (no triple changers are included though), and in something of a derivation from established canon, all have weapons in both modes (Megatron, Warpath, and the planes I understand, but...Bumblebee? Really?). Each character has "cool down" special abilities in both vehicle and robot mode that is always available and automatically recharges (such as dashing, hovering, and ramming in vehicle mode) as well as "Energon abilities" that are powered up by collecting Energon shards from defeated enemies and breakable containers in game. These include, among others, energy shields and shockwaves. Characters can fire a variety of projectile and beam weapons, jump and double jump (double jump activates feet rockets), and perform a melee attack. Powerups found in game include new ranged weapons, grenades, extra energy and ammo, and special Energon powerups that act as a separate power supply. All told there are 12 different guns, 4 different grenade types, and 2 turret heavy weapons in game, including null rays, as well as Optimus Prime's classic ion blaster and Megatron's fusion cannon.

All single player missions are also available for play as co-op, with up to three players at a time. In co-op mode, players still choose one of the three canon characters for each mission.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer modes feature character creation and customization, and several gameplay modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Conquest (similar to Star Wars: Battlefront's Conquest mode), different takes on Capture the Flag, and Power Struggle. You can unlock new abilities and upgrades/power-ups.

Multiplayer classes include:
 * Scout - Four units of health, transform into cars, abilities include Decoy Trap, Dash and Cloak. Made for hit-and-run tactics as well as sniping.  The are the smallest in robot mode, and run at about the same speed as scientists.
 * Scientist - Three units of health, transform into jets, abilities include Shockwave, Sentry Spawn, Drain, and Disguise. Made for giving support to other players and assassination.  About as tall as leaders, and run about as fast as scouts.
 * Leader - Five units of health, transform into trucks or "rigs". Abilities include Shield, Warcry, and Molecular Bomb.  Made for leading other players into battle.  The tallest type, these run more slowly than scouts and scientists.
 * Solider - Six units of health, transform into tanks. Abilities include Whirlwind, Ammo Beacon, Energon Sling and Hover.  Made for dealing damage, about as tall as leaders, and are the slowest at running.

Abilities

 * Decoy Trap- (Scouts) sets out a fake pickup that damages enemies when they touch it.
 * Dash- (Scouts) rocket powered jump in the direction the player is moving.
 * Cloak- (Scouts) turns the player invisible for a period of time, or until they are hit or they attack.
 * Hover- (Soldiers) Lifts the player into the air and increase their weapon damage and accuracy for a short time. (NOTE: you can't move very fast when using it)
 * Wirlwind- (Soldiers) the player hold out their melee weapon and spin around at the hit or a period of time, this ability is extremely usefully for taking out multiple players in a small area and for destroying cloakers and swarming spiders.
 * Ammo Beacon- (Soldiers) deploys an ammo pack with a hub beacon, allies get more ammo and increased damage and accuracy when near it.

Downloadable content
On the Xbox website there is a listing for a character and map pack #1. It includes two new multiplayer maps, Havoc and Fortress, two new Escalation maps, District (Autobots) and Forsaken (Decepticons). There will also be new characters, Scattorshot, Onslaught, and the Pre-order characters(Shockwave, Demolishor, and Jazz). You can play those characters in Escalation mode, and you can play their chasis in regular multiplayer. No pricing or release dates have been annouced.

Differences Between Versions

 * The PC version lacks achievements
 * On the other hand, the PC version also has the highest possible resolution of any of the versions, so it kind of balances out.
 * The PC version will most likely not have Downloadable Content

Decepticon Chapters
The game begins with Megatron in a warship that looks much like the Nemesis attacking an orbital research station commanded by Starscream. He is searching for Dark Energon, a near legendary variant of energon that is supposed to have the potential for great power, other than destroying and corrupting everything it touches. Megatron gives orders to ram the station, after a small bit of rational debate with his crew, and gameplay begins in the crashed wreckage as Megatron, Brawl, and Barricade attempt to survive and capture the station. Eventually they do, but not before getting a stern talking to from Jetfire. When Megatron finally defeats Starscream, and shows he can control the dark Energon without getting turned to robo-bacon bits, Starscream betrays his friend and offers to throw in with the Decepticon forces, taking a few familiar friends with him. Jetfire runs like hell. You the player also get to mercilessly execute a whole slagload of Autobot POWs. Megatron approves when you do.

Starscream buys his life with the promise of an Energon bridge that will allow transport of the dark energon to the planet below. The next chapter is the Decepticon flying mission, as Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp search for the Energon bridge and take down an Autobot capital ship acting as a shield generator.

The next missions deal with the search for the Omega Key, which will grant access to Cybertron's core (and looks familiar), an all out assault on Iacon, and the defeat and killing of Autobot leader Zeta Prime. However, it turns out that the Omega Key is actually only a locator device for the actual key, which turns out to be much bigger. And, well, as the game puts it, the Omega key is angry. So angry, in fact, that it takes the end of Chapter IV and all of Chapter V to put him down.

Autobot Chapters
The Autobot missions begin with the ruins of Iacon and the rumors of Zeta Prime's death. Optimus (no Prime yet) and Ratchet meet up with a surprisingly deadly courier named Bumblebee who happens to be looking for him. Optimus assumes temporary command of the Autobot forces and tries to rally the defenses of the city. In the succeeding missions he and his team search for Zeta Prime, by getting themselves taken prisoner (before Air Raid shoots up the place as their backs are against the wall). As they make it into the heart of the Decepticon prison, they find Zeta Prime's body powering a giant machine, all being administered by Soundwave. When the Autobots bring Zeta Prime's body back to the Council Of Elders, Optimus (who has been quite reluctant to do so until now) is appointed the new Prime. After rescuing and repairing a damaged and tortured Omega Supreme, the Autobots descend into the core of Cybertron to try and reverse the corruption of the Dark Energon. They succeed in stopping the Decepticon machinery...and then the core itself tells them that only by shutting down for millions of years can the damage truly be repaired. The core gives Optimus Prime a small piece of itself, and that becomes the Matrix of Leadership.

Optimus Prime orders a planetary evacuation, so Megatron, gentlemanly loser that he is, starts blowing the evacuation ships out of the sky with a big honkin space laser. That means it's flying mission time! Jetfire, Silverbolt, and Air Raid assault the cannon in a fashion that is in no way similar to the Death Star run. Or the Shadow deathclouds. Or the assault on Unicron.

Only one problem. The gun...is alive. And it has a name: Trypticon!

Much like the end of the Decepticon chapters, the fight with Trypticon takes the end of chapter IX and all of Chapter X, and it's hard. Trypticon blows you up good. Repeatedly.

Trypticon, after being shot multiple times, eventually falls. The game ends with Optimus and crew watching the evacuation proceed, vowing to fight Megatron, and watching construction of a new Ark to take them to the stars.

Technical details

 * Released date
 * United States - June 22, 2010
 * United Kingdom - June 25, 2010


 * Platform: PC / XBOX 360 / PlayStation 3 / Wii / DS

Generation One

 * Cartoon
 * (Besides almost all of the characters and their general alt modes)


 * Energon cubes
 * The end credits are filled with visual cues from the cartoon, including a direct homage to the Season 2 opening, and Stan Bush doing the end music. They also hint at an Omega Supreme/Trypticon fight, which would have been AWESOME.


 * Starscream and Jetfire were both scientists and friends.


 * The Seeker's alt mode are very similar to the triangle jet from The Transformers cartoon.


 * The Omega Key is very similar visually and in function to the key to Vector Sigma.
 * Likewise, the sentient core of Cybertron is very similar to Vector Sigma, and if the core creates the Matrix, there's no reason the Matrix couldn't act as a key.


 * Characters' speech patterns
 * Omega Supreme's clipped speech pattern.
 * Soundwave's distorted speech patterns, and general loyalist personality (as opposed to his backstabber personality and ability to speak in complete sentences in the Marvel comics).
 * Warpath's "BAM! POW!" speech pattern.
 * Rumble's rhyming.


 * FIRRIB
 * Frenzy is red and Rumble is blue.


 * Weapons
 * Optimus Prime's ion blaster
 * Megatron's fusion cannon
 * Starscream's null ray
 * Optimus Prime's axe and Megatron's mace could also be seen as updated versions of their cartoon weaponry.


 * Quotes from The Transformers: The Movie
 * "Spare me this mockery of justice" is said by an Autobot POW
 * "One shall stand, one shall fall" are said by Optimus Prime and Megatron in the trailer/opening cinematic
 * Rumble says "First we crack the shell... then we crack the nuts inside!" in the Kaon prison
 * In War for Cybertron: Decepticons, when the player switches between one Decepticon back to Megatron, one of the many comments that Megatron snarls is, "Nobody summons Megatron!"
 * During their descent into Cybertron's core, Optimus,  Ironhide and Warpath are saved from a Decepticon ambush by a space slug, in which Ironhide says Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong, the universal greeting used by Kup when he and Hot Rod are confronted by the Allicons in the movie.


 * Marvel comics
 * Repeated references on both sides to Primus


 * Trypticon speaks, is quite articulate, and really likes to break stuff, consistent with his comic personality. He does not, however, throw down with the Dinobots. Maybe in the sequel (If he's still alive). Then again, he's not Ratbat's bitch either.


 * Dreamwave / IDW comics
 * Optimus Prime's alt mode is very similar visually to his War Within redesign


 * Brawl's alt mode is very similar to his War Within version.


 * The endgame of a planetary evacuation due to planetary shutdown (rather than a simple energy shortage, or the planet being knocked out of orbit) is very similar to "Great Shutdown" from Dreamwave and dead Cybertron from IDW.


 * Botcon / Fun Publications Comics
 * The Wreckers symbol is visible on a number of Autobot buildings


 * Generation 2
 * Most of the generic Decepticon soldiers have the same face as the Cyberjets.

Beast Wars

 * The Energon spiders found in Cybertron's core look very similar to Transmetal Tarantulas.

Unicron Trilogy

 * Demolishor is the only Armada-original character to appear in War For Cybertron.


 * Starscream's melee weapon is a large sword that looks very much like his Armada counterpart's.

Live-action films

 * Ratchet's visual design is very Generation One, but his personality and voice acting is much more in line with his movie presentation, with a vaguely British accent and a much more serious demeanor.

Transformers Animated

 * Omega Supreme is a self contained spaceship, rather than two separate vehicles or a base.


 * Starscream (and the other seekers), while having a general Generation One triangle jet shape, have swept wings like their Transformers Animated versions.


 * Zeta Prime, in humanoid mode at least, looks very much like a War Within-ized Transformers Animated Ultra Magnus.


 * In another reference to Transformers Animated Ultra Magnus, the brutes can create thunder and earthquakes, and even carry what appear to be Magnus Hammers.


 * Optimus Prime carries his axe as a separate weapon, rather than a built in version.


 * Megatron's alt mode and general angular design aesthetic are much more in line with his Cybertronian design in Transformers Animated than any other previous Megatron.

Trivia

 * It has been widely acknowledged as the first Transformers video game that didn't totally suck. Other than maybe this one. Certainly better than this one.
 * However, numerous glitches have shown up over time. The top three glitches are: Falling out of the map; Being shoved out of the map while flying; And inescapable areas where one can get stuck inside terrain/objects.
 * Another criticism is that the game has repetitive gameplay, especially with bosses, Destroyers (really really big tanks), and Brutes being the only enemies requiring a strategic attack. The bosses all have weaknesses, Destroyers need to have the fuel cell on their backs to transform, and Brutes can be easily dispatched by destroying their backpacks.
 * It also manages to reference just about every previous American Transformers incarnation at least once. Yes, even the crappy ones.


 * It is not a prequel to the live-action/CGI movies. Mystery solved.