Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Review

High Moon Studios returns with the sequel to what people considered the best Transformers game ever made. I’m usually not very good with introductions so let’s just kick things off with what those crazy space robots are up to since the events of War for Cybertron.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Developer: High Moon Studios
Price: $60
Platform: PC, PS3 (reviewed), and Xbox 360
A Playstation 3 copy of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron was supplied to us

The game kicks off with the Autobots flying a massive ship called the Arch towards a space portal in hopes of leaving Cybertron to find a new world when the Decepticons decide to ruin their plans. After finishing the brief tutorial level you’re thrown back 6 days to view the events that led to this. Unfortunately the story never really gets interesting or goes anywhere with the first half of the game being the Autobot campaign having each character basically repeat “We need Energon to fuel the Arch so we can leave because Cybertron is fucked” and with the Decepticon campaign basically amounting to “Hey they fueled the Arch, let’s go break it”. Grimlock’s single mission is the only one that adds a decent portion to the story but when I say that I mean Grimlock’s story, not the main overarching plot. The game even ends with players able to pick between playing as Optimus or Megatron during the final battle that lead to one of the worst endings since Halo 2. Basically both characters are pulled into the portal which of course leads us to another sequel. What the hell happened? War for Cybertron had actual plot progression and in this one things just sort of happen.

One thing I actually enjoyed about the story is how they build up Grimlock with hints to Shockwave’s freak experiments on a team of captured Autobots. We’re slowly given hints to Grimlock’s personality and Shockwave’s mad scientist theme until we get to Grimlock’s chapter at the end. This also leads to one of my other complaints about the story in that Grimlock is given a pathetically embarrassing conclusion to his chapter. It’s slightly insulting that they would tease a huge fan-favorite character, make us wait till the very end of the game to play as him, and then throw him away like it’s nothing. I also doubt there’s any room for him in a sequel since like I mentioned before, the Autobots and Decepticons get thrown into the space portal towards Earth, and the Dinobots were stuck on Cybertron when they left. Hell, forget that they threw out Grimlock, they straight up threw out all of the Dinobots.

Ok so let’s talk about the actual gameplay in the campaign, and the first thing you’ll notice is that you can’t select a character at the start of each mission. Instead you’ll have have to play as a single specific character throughout the entire mission which I feel works so much better. In War for Cybertron I didn’t feel like there was much variety between the bots you got to play as and the campaign felt more like a corridor shooter with Transformers in it. This time around each mission focuses on a single character and each one (besides a few) has their own special ability. You’ll go from calling in air-strikes from Metroplex with Optimus to playing a stealth mission with the cloaking Cliffjumper and more. Just like with War for Cybertron you’ll play half the campaign as the Autobots and the other half as the Decepticons, this time however you can’t pick which side you want to play first. You’ll roll with the Autobots for the first five missions and the Decepticons for the rest of the thirteen chapter campaign with Grimlock’s chapter happening at the end. Funnily enough I wasn’t liking the game at all until I reached the first Decepticon mission and was quickly given the reigns of Bruticus. The Autobots just aren’t very interesting, all they do is whine about needing energon for their ship, and their missions just weren’t very fun. The Decepticons on the other hand are hilarious, they actually have *some* story progression, and their missions are a blast to play.

One thing I felt unsure about was the new store you can access in the game. You’ll be able to upgrade weapons, buy one time use items such as increased health regen or a sentry drone, and permanent perks like increased armor. On one hand it was nifty getting to actually see your weapons transform as you upgrade them and I liked some of the upgrades, but on the other hand I felt you were given way too little money to play around with lots of the stuff. You start out with a few primary and secondary weapons, but to get more you not only have to find hidden blueprints you also need to purchase the weapons once you unlock them in the store. It was annoying walking around with a riot cannon during an early mission and not being able to upgrade it or add it to the store until I found the actual blueprint and bought the gun many chapters later. I wasn’t able to experiment with most of the weapons because I simple didn’t have the cash for lots of them, and that’s not to mention upgrades too which can get costly. Sure, you can find all the weapons in the actual missions but by the time you find one you like you’re going to be completely bumped out when you realize you don’t have the blueprint for it so you’ll have to pray you find it again.

Oh yea and they removed the co-op from the campaign which is a shame but like I said before, I feel it’s for the better to keep the missions tighter and more focused.

The multiplayer returns with players able to pick one of four classes: Infiltrator (small & speedy car), Scientist (jets), Destroyers (trucks), and Titans (tanks). The names basically speak for themselves with the infiltrators focusing on harassment/cloaking tactics, scientists can heal allies, destroyers get some heavy weapons but are more agile than titans, and of course the titans are the hulking machines of death. I’m still unsure about how I feel about having to level four separate classes since I like to experiment with all the classes. I would’ve preferred to see them have one cumulative level and allow us to drop credits into any upgrade for either class. Speaking of credits you can use the money you earn online to buy upgrades and perks for each of the classes. Not to worry, the upgrades aren’t anything major, just small things like upgraded fire rate or doing less bullet damage but cause fire damage that damages over time; you can also only equip one upgrade per weapon/perk slot. Fall of Cybertron gives us some basic multiplayer modes with team death match, capture the flag, conquest, and head hunter mode. The first two are obvious enough while conquest has both teams fighting to capture nodes across the map and head hunter tasks your team with collecting the energon from fallen enemies. I’m not really a big fan of the stages they put together and I still feel that they’re just too small for what the game is. The close quarters/claustrophobic feel fits fine in a Call of Duty game, but I want big open stages in my Transformers game where I can freely transform and not run into walls. I also just couldn’t really get into any of the multiplayer (including Escalation which I’ll talk about in a bit) and the game just reeks of ghost town lobbies in a few weeks. I know you get to play as a Transformer in it, but that just wasn’t engaging enough to keep me interested.

So the game has a character creator but it’s basically a collection of all the transformers from the game and letting us mix-and-match their parts. Nonetheless it is pretty cool to make your own guy even if some of it is a bit lacking with the three voice options sounding damn near identical, not much color flexibility, and maybe throw in a few original pieces. You can also pick a load-out for each class and store 3 separate load-outs per class.

Escalation is back and you’ll get to play as either the Autobots or the Decepticons. So far the matches I’ve gotten to play I was able to choose between four characters: Optimus/Ratchet/Ironhide/Bumblebee, Megatron/Shockwave/Soundwave/Starscream, or the Combaticons. I have been told there are other teams to play as but these are the three I kept getting thrown into. No matter what selection of robots you’re given, each team will have the same four skills: a healer, someone to dispense ammo, a sentry turret, and a flak shield. Players will have to decide on a class and work with their team since the later waves can get pretty damn tough if nobody works together. You’ll be able to use the cash you get from killing enemies to buy weapons, upgrades, ammo, and open upper areas of the stages.

Can somebody lend me a copy of War for Cybertron because I don’t remember that game looking as bad as this one does. While the transformers themselves are well designed and wonderfully animated, everything else looks like total ass. The game has some serious aliasing issues, insane texture pop-in, everything has a sort of washed out look and things that are just a little bit away from you look horrid. Even the character creation screen in multiplayer is painful to look at when you’re not zoomed in on a specific body part. The voice acting is stellar though so that’s a plus.

The Final Word
Fall of Cybertron steps almost everything up from the previous game, but a short campaign (7-10 hours), a pathetic story and a multiplayer mode that isn’t interesting enough just couldn’t stop me from tossing this game in my “Collect Dust” pile. It’s still the best Transformers game out there right now (not like that’s saying much) and I’m sure there are people out there who will love the multiplayer, but I just couldn’t play the game without getting distracted at things that irked me.

– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair