One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall- Transformers: War for Cybertron

“So there is this Transformers game coming out, its a third person shooter like Gears of War, has a bunch of Transformers from the original series, and actually looks really good.” This statement is almost impossible to believe, given the history of Transformers videogames, but after getting my hands on the Transformers: War for Cybertron Multiplayer Demo, we just might have a great Transformers game on our hands.

Let me start by talking about the single player campaign. The game starts a bit in the past, The Optimus Prime is just beginning his rise to power and putting together the Autobots, while Megatron is himself doing the same. The game uses two separate campaigns that guide you through the story. You can choose to play either the Decepticon or Autobot campaign first, but the Decepticon campaign takes place first in time.

There will be a cast of familiar robots, like Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime), Bumblebee (the original, not the version from the recent films), Grimlock, Ironhide, Jazz, and Kup. On the Decepticon side there is Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Thundercracker and Skywarp. All these names should be familiar to anyone who has seen the original animated series or movie.

The Real Bumblebee is Back

Developer interviews have revealed that the story of the game is going to heavily focus on the start of the conflict between the Decepticons and Autobots, as well as dig a little deeper into the motives and personalities of the Transformers themselves.

So what about the Multiplayer? Honestly, what makes this game perk players ears is not a single player campaign, its the well done multiplayer.

First off we have Escalation mode, a take on the ever so popular horde wave after wave of enemies survival mode. You can choose to play as Autobots or Decepticons, and the goal is to last as long as you can against increasingly difficult waves of enemies. What brings a refreshing twist is the class system in War for Cybertron, which is in effect during Escalation mode.

You will have the choice of playing 4 different classes in the multiplayer modes:

Scout- A small, quick, stealthy wielder of shotguns, pistols and sniper rifles.

Soldier- The Heavy Weapons Robot, wielding Rocket launchers, machine guns and gatling guns, as well as devastating melee attacks.

Leader- The Leader is exactly what he sounds like, a big robot who INSPIRES Buffs his teammates.

Scientist- Every game needs a medic, and the scientist is just that.

Expect Numerous Gritty Battles

The Escalation mode has also taken a few ideas from other popular Wave based survival games. By killing enemies, you earn credits, and at the end of each round, these credits are used to buy health, weapons, and ammo. Weapons and ammo are self explanatory, but the reason for buying health packs is because of the way health is handled. You have regenerating health, but your total health is divided into sections, and you can only regenerate enough to fill the section you are currently at. So for example, if you are shot down to 46% of your health, you will only regenerate to the 50% mark.

When you run out of health, you are knocked into the down-but-not-out stage, where you are crippled on the ground, but can still shoot, and still be revived, and as an added bonus, if you don’t get revived, you can activate a personal self destruct.

The actual head to head multiplayer has a few different game types such as Team Deathmatch, Free for all, and a Domination node like game type.

War for Cybertron is also using the character progression model that has worked so well for the Modern Warfare series, allowing players to level up each class, customize weapons, armor abilities and Perk like bonuses…as well as Kill Streaks. All of these upgrades are unlocked by leveling through playing each class. The upgrades and abilities give you the option to play each class in numerous different ways.

And by far the coolest multiplayer aspect: When you click in the left stick to sprint, you transform into a car, or plane…awesome.

Transformers: War for Cybertron has all the ingredients of a great game, add in the nostalga factor for Transformers fans, and it turns into a must have. Transformers: War for Cybertron hits stores June 22^nd for the Xbox360 and Playstion 3, and don’t miss the Gamestop pre-order bonus to get Shockwave as a playable character.