VGChartz had the opportunity to sit down with the developers of Transformers: War for Cybertron at DICE 2010 and see the latest build of the game in action. Unlike the two most recent Transformers games which were based on the Michael Bay directed movies, War for Cybertron returns to the 1980s animated series for inspiration. As a big Transformers fan, it was great to see Optimus, Bumblebee, StarScream and co. just the way I remember them from my childhood and the team are clearly playing on this nostalgia to broaden the appeal of the game beyond just recent Transformers converts. The game features a sci-fi art style that introduces to fans the entire living, metallic world of Cybertron, as well as all-new visualizations of the Transformers characters in their original Cybertronian forms.
As the title suggests, the majority of the game is set on the Cybertron - the home planet of the Transformers before later moving to Earth. In the original TV series, Cybertron is a planet once used by the Quintessons as a factory with assembly lines creating soldier and worker robots. Following a rebellion which drove the Quintessons off the planet, the workers became the Autobots and the soldiers became the Decepticons. These two factions eventually engaged in civil war, which forms the basis of the various Transformers stories. War for Cybertron fills in a lot of the plot holes from the TV series and the development team has worked closely with Hasbro to develop the character models and ensure that the story is true to the original material.
Gameplay-wise, the game is a 3rd person shooter in the Gears of War style. You start the game with a choice of playing either the Autobot or Decepticon route and begin with a choice of 3 characters from each. All are instantly recognisable and the intro movie for each reveals something of how the Autobots or Decepticons first met and started to work together. The graphics were pretty impressive, character models especially looking great. One of the key features is the ability to perform transformations mid-movement, the whole thing feels very slick and easy to control. For the first time in a Transformers title, fans will be able to play the game with their friends through team-based online co-op, or go head to head in a variety of online multiplayer game modes. Overall, the game looked nice. It's nothing groundbreaking but solid game mechanics mixed with a source material that is nectar for fans like myself results in a game that I'm certainly looking forward to playing. Check out the gameplay trailer below to see the game in action.
Transformers: War for Cybertron is in development for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS and is set for a summer 2010 release.
