Transformers: Battlegrounds

The name or term "Battlegrounds" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Battlegrounds (disambiguation).

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Transformers: Battlegrounds
Good luck, Commander. We will be watching.
Developer	Coatsink
Publisher	Outright Games Bandai Namco Entertainment (Europe)
Platform	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Release date	October 23, 2020
Ratings	ESRB: RP PEGI: 7+

Transformers: Battlegrounds is a video game by Coatsink, released October 23, 2020. It is the first new Transformers game released for a home console since Activision's previous game development license expired. Described as a "tactical warfare adventure" game, Battlegrounds is based on the Cyberverse franchise, featuring the character designs and voice actors from the accompanying animated series.

Synopsis

Act I

In Central City the Decepticons are attacking. Bumblebee saves a random human. When asked to move the human to safety, Teletraan-X takes them into the sky to Bumblebee's complete confusion. Afterwards, he takes the fight to the Decepticon forces, relying on the human's guidance to navigate the suburban landscape. Along the way, he links up with Windblade, fights Shadow Striker, and rescues Grimlock from a unit of Seekers led by Slipstream. After the trio reunite, they deal with Soundwave and Starscream before heading off to locate Optimus Prime.

Act II

In the desert, Arcee and Wheeljack are in hiding, hoping to delay the Decepticons when Teletraan-X arrives. After complaining about the drone's lack of clarity and bemusement at the new commander, they set out to find Optimus, regrouping with the other Autobots. They find an injured Windblade after battling a group of Deceptions, then team up with her to face Shockwave and a trio of his drones. With Shockwave defeated, Bumblebee and Grimlock arrive. The Autobots locate the Allspark, but Megatron reveals that this was his intention all along, saving time and resources by letting the Autobots find the Allspark for him. Optimus Prime arrives to debate Megatron over the Allspark's true purpose, but they remain at odds. Megatron leaves with the Allspark, forcing Optimus to remain behind and protect his injured friends from Battletrap. Slipstream and the Seekers arrive to delay the Autobots even further.

Act III

The Autobots pursue the Decepticons to a base camp in the Rocky Mountains. Megatron's forces build a Space Bridge to return to Cybertron and use the power of the Allspark to their advantage. The Autobots attempt to stop him, but Megatron passes through the Space Bridge and Offroad destroys the machinery, leaving the Autobots unable to follow. On the edge of final defeat, the Autobots prepare to return their human companion to Central City when the human drops a flier. An old, outdated Space Bridge has apparently been on display at the Central City museum all this time. With a new route to Cybertron open, the Autobots converge on the museum and defeat Slipstream one final time.

Act IV

Bumblebee travels to Cybertron first through the unstable space bridge. He is confronted by a powered-up Shadow Striker while trying to stabilize the bridge for the others to follow. He succeeds, and the other Autobots help him defeat Shadow Striker. Megatron plans to use Vector Sigma to reprogram the Allspark and produce a new generation of Decepticons. The Autobots advance on the Vector Sigma chamber, fighting Decepticons and avoiding energon storms along the way. They defeat Shockwave and then confront Megatron and his forces outside Vector Sigma. A wounded Megatron takes down all the Autobots except Optimus Prime. A final battle occurs between the two weakened arch-enemies, but Optimus is protected by the power of the Matrix and defeats Megatron.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Optimus Prime (Jake Foushee) Bumblebee (Jeremy Levy) Arcee (Jaime Lamchick) Grimlock (Ryan Andes) Windblade (Jessica DiGiovanni) Wheeljack (Billy Bob Thompson)	Megatron (Marc Thompson) Soundwave (Marc Swint) Shockwave (Ryan Andes) Shadow Striker (Deanna McGovern) Hyperdrive (Kellen Goff) Offroad (Marc Swint) Dead End Battletrap Blackjack Roadtrap Seekers Starscream (Billy Bob Thompson) Slipstream (Erin Yvette) Acid Storm (Jaime Lamchick) Thundercracker Nova Storm Thrust Ramjet Dirge	Teletraan-X (Tony Daniels) You

Quotes

"You Autobots. You never had the courage to strive for true greatness. Except one... Windblade. We're the same. We live for combat. It surrounds us. It defines us. You have no allegiance to their cause. Join me and command Cybertron as Captain of the Seekers."
"...Orders, Optimus?"

— Starscream gets shut down by Windblade.

"After countless cycles, it's mine."
"Enough."
"What? The Allspark — it SPEAKS!"
"No, Megatron. I am Optimus Prime."

— Megatron's supposed talk with the Allspark prior to Optimus Prime revealing himself.

Gameplay

Downloadable content

Several pieces of downloadable content were released for Battlegrounds:

• A "Nemesis Prime and Goldfire Bumblebee" pack was offered as a pre-order bonus for the game, later becoming available for separate purchase on April 19, 2021. This pack adds skins based on Nemesis Prime and Goldfire for Optimus and Bumblebee respectively.
• Four different packs containing new skins for each of the six Autobots were released at launch, available individually or as part of the Deluxe Edition. These include the "Energon Autobot Skin Pack", the "Gold Autobot Skin Pack", the "Battle Autobot Skin Pack", and the "Neon Autobot Skin Pack".
• A "Cube Arcade Mode Add-on" was released at launch as part of the Deluxe Edition, later becoming available for separate purchase on April 19, 2021. This adds a Cube game type to the Arcade mode, allowing up to two players to compete against one another in the sport.
• A full expansion, "Shattered Spacebridge", was released on February 26, 2021. The expansion adds a new mini campaign in which the Autobots are trapped in a spacebridge hub, forcing them to travel the multiverse and win randomly-generated encounters to recover the pieces of their own spacebridge and return home.

Achievements

When completing various goals and tasks during the game, the player will be rewarded as part of their console of choice's meta-goal system. Players can earn up to 21 Trophies on PlayStation 4 and 20 Achievements on Xbox One, plus an additional 13 via the "Shattered Spacebridge" DLC. The PS4 version's trophies come in four types: Bronze, which represent easier tasks and are worth the least experience; Silver, which are awarded for challenges of mid-level difficulty; Gold, which are given for harder tasks and worth more experience; and Platinum, the highest-level trophy unlocked only after earning all of a game's other trophies (excluding DLC). On the Xbox version, each achievement has a Gamerscore (G) value that adds to the player's total Gamerscore across all games played; up to 1000G can be earned in Battlegrounds, plus another 195G via DLC for a total of 1195G. These achievements can also be earned in the PC version as part of the Steam interface, but lack the individual values and weights from the console versions.

Base game

Icon	Achievement/Trophy name	Achievement/Trophy description	Gamerscore	PS Trophy
	Central City Secured!	Complete Act I on any difficulty.	30G
	Is a Hotdog a Sandwich?	Destroy a hotdog stand in each mission of Act I.	30G
	Together... As One	Complete Act II on any difficulty.	30G
	To Me...	Use Arcee to heal Wheeljack in "Deserted".	15G
	To You...	Use Wheeljack to heal Arcee in "Deserted".	15G
	An Impossible Task	Complete Act III on any difficulty.	30G
	Squad Get-Together	Position the entire squad around the same Energon container.	30G
	The Future of This Planet...	Complete Act IV on any difficulty.	30G
	Nature is Cruel	Shove a Decepticon into an Energon Storm.	30G
	Our Salvation	Complete every mission on Easy difficulty.	90G
	Tactician and Scholar	Complete every mission on Medium difficulty.	90G
	More Than Meets The Eye	Complete every mission on Hard difficulty.	100G
	Two 'Cons, One Stone	Shove a Decepticon into another Decepticon.	90G
	The Greater Good	Use explosive cover to damage an Autobot and a Decepticon in the same explosion.	30G
	Move It!	Shove an ally into the target region of a Destination objective.	90G
	Energon Aficionado	Perform fifty Ultimate abilities.	90G
	From the Brink	Repair an ally with 1 HP.	30G
	Throwback Thursday	Deactivate a Decepticon using Optimus Prime's Throw Back ability... on a Thursday.	30G
	Fighting Spark	Reduce Megatron's HP to 50% or less in "The Well of the AllSpark".	90G
	Borrowed Tech	Equip Arcee's Black Hole Grenade ability for three missions.	30G
	'Til all are one	Unlock and discover every secret.

Shattered Spacebridge

Icon	Achievement/Trophy name	Achievement/Trophy description	Gamerscore	PS Trophy
	Untangled	Complete your first run	15G
	Rough Journey	Complete a run with a very unstable Spacebridge after finishing 5 missions or less	15G
	Certain Side-Effects	Complete a run with an unstable Spacebridge after finishing 7 missions or less	15G
	Arrive in one piece	Complete a run with a stable Spacebridge after finishing 9 missions or less	15G
	Supercharged!	Complete a run with a fully functional Spacebridge after finishing 11 missions or less	15G
	Unlimited Power	Fully upgrade one Autobot during a run	15G
	Optimus Primed	Unlock all abilities for one Autobot during a run	15G
	Multiverse Multitasking	Capture 6 bonus Fragments in a run	15G
	No rest for the weary	Complete a run without having any Autobot recover at all	15G
	With one hand behind my back	Complete a run without using a single Ultimate ability	15G
	Insatiable	Complete 5 runs	15G
	Big Spender	Spend 50 Fragments on refreshing rewards	15G
	I can do this all day	Complete 3 hard missions while on 1 life	15G

Notes

Continuity notes

• Battlegrounds is set in an alternate version of the Cyberverse cartoon continuity; although it picks up where "Eruption" left off, it is otherwise largely irreconcilable with the events of that show's second season. A conversation between Arcee and Wheeljack suggests that this game takes place in one of the many alternate universes that the Cyberverse cartoon repeatedly alluded to over the course of its second and third seasons.

Transformers references

• Windblade namedrops Ratchet during her first transmission to Bumblebee.
• Dead End is one of three individuals whose design is a recolor of the Decepticon Scouts, rather than his Combiner Wars-inspired design from the cartoon. The other two Scout recolors are new versions of Generation 1 Micromasters Blackjack and Hyperdrive.
• Of the three individuals whose design is a recolor of the Decepticon Bruisers, Offroad retains his G1 namesake's color scheme. The other two Bruisers are new versions of Roadtrap from Power of the Primes and classic G1 character Battletrap.

Other notes

• None of the Autobots understand why Teletraan-X kidnapped a human to be their commander. Somehow, the Decepticons never notice them despite the amount of Seekers fought during the game.
• All the named Seekers outside of Skywarp appear in the game, despite the ending taking place on Cybertron where she is stationed.
• How did no one notice a space bridge in the middle of central city?

Errors

• In the ending credits, at the end of the Italian dub credits is present a memorial to Optimus Prime's Italian voice actor Stefano Thermes...who was actually still alive. Presumably the dedication was supposed to be for Roberto Draghetti, another cast member who actually died before the game's release, who voiced Megatron in this game but at the same time voiced Optimus Prime in the first chapter of War for Cybertron Trilogy.
• The credits also show for the French version some of the Belgian actors from the dub of the animated series, wrongly. Indeed, Pierre Bodson, Jean-Marc Amé, Ludivine Deworst, Alain Eloy and Fanny Dreiss are all credited in their roles from the series while it is clear that none of them is present in the game. Moreover, the game has been dubbed in French studios (Belgium usually do not assure videogames dubbings).
• Ramjet and Dirge are depicted as redecos of the female Seeker design, rather than their distinct conehead designs used in the show itself. Likewise, Thrust is presented as female.