Transformers: War for Cybertron (games)
Transformers: War for Cybertron is a video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision, set before the Transformers take their war to Earth. Hasbro intends it to act as a foundation for Transformers franchise storylines for years to come, and so they've been giving a lot of input and stressing character development.[1] There are both a Decepticon and an Autobot campaign with distinct, linear storylines; the Decepticon campaign occurs chronologically before the Autobot campaign, but fans can play through them in whichever order they prefer.[2]
The game itself will be an over-the-shoulder third-person shooter in which the player can choose his character from a small roster of either Autobots or Decepticons. The game will be released on July 22, 2010, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.
- One shall fall.Megatron
Synopsis
The game is set during the waning days of the Great War on Cybertron. Megatron is searching for a dangerous power source known as Dark Energon to fuel his conquest of the planet. Optimus Prime has come to prominence after joining the fight following an attack on Iacon, but he is not yet leader of the Autobots. Starscream joins the Decepticons as second-in-command, but does not consider either Optimus or Megatron to have the planet's best interests at heart. (We will apparently learn why Starscream is such a whopping traitor and why Megatron doesn't just kill him)
Characters
At the start of each level, the player can choose from one of three characters. The characters available will shift from level to level. Known playable characters include:
Autobots
Decepticons
The Decepticon campaign includes a boss battle with Omega Supreme and the Autobot campaign includes defending Iacon. Trypticon appears in the IGN trailer, but he's, uh, probably not playable. Players should expect references to Cybertron locations taken from all previous Transformer stories, "things which may have only been referenced once, in one comic way back when, could be used and expanded upon."[1]
...They're totally reading the Wiki, aren't they? Hello, designers!
-
Bumblebee fires his weapon. -
Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Prime in battle. -
Omega Supreme attacks a platoon of Decepticons. -
Starscream and Megatron get ready for the ground assault. -
More Decepticons! -
Soundwave sneaks around. -
Holy Jesus.
Features
- Campaigns will be co-op both online and off for the first time in a Transformers game.
- All playable characters have two special abilities, such as absorbing health from enemies or marking targets.
- The game will run on the Unreal engine.
- High Moon is prepared to "support the game after release," meaning either patches or downloadable content.
- Online Multiplayer is being developed for the game.
- All environments, including cover, can be destroyed.
Production
As an early marketing campaign, the game's website included the feature "Operation Transmission Recovery": using transmission and coordinate dials, you could pick up "transmissions" from Cybertron (or "video clips" to you and me).
The art and design team did intense research (i.e. watched the original cartoon, looked at comics, and watched "typical sci-fi cool stuff" like Blade Runner) to work out the aesthetic of Cybertron; lead artist Ivan Power remarked that the original cartoon was the main inspiration, and that Cybertron wasn't shown there so they had to rewatch the same few clips "over and over". While many of the city designs are elaborate and shiny, Decepticon Kaon was deliberately designed to be sharp-edged, rusting, and slapped together to show the Decepticons weren't interested in building a functioning society. [3]
Operation Transmission Recovery
As an early marketing campaign, the game's website included the feature "Operation Transmission Recovery": using transmission and coordinate dials, you could pick up "transmissions" from Cybertron (or "video clips/images" to you and me). There are two dials, blue (outer) and yellow (inner). using mouse you can drag the dial to set coordinates
The blue dial is set by aligning it to marks on outer circle when aligned it becomes a blue ring. After that the yellow dial is set so that signal strength is full (meter on right). Once a transmission is unlocked its symbol lights up and total recovered increases a little bit. When you reach 100% it tells you how many hours remain until next batch.
As of 12 Jan 2010, following transmissions were available (Batch 9), almost all of them are part of second trailer (link below)
| S. No. | Blue | Yellow | Type | Description |
| 1 | 351 | 327 | Video | Game Trailer (unlocked by default). |
| 2 | 018 | 088 | Video | Starscream flying. |
| 3 | 018 | 088 | Image | Starscream standing. |
| 4 | 029 | 209 | Video | Battle scene: Camera behind Autobots, Optimus is prominent. |
| 5 | 040 | 328 | Image | Holographic map of Cybertron and its two moons. |
| 6 | 051 | 110 | Image | Cybertron . |
| 7 | 073 | 190 | Image | Optimus vs Megatron. |
| 8 | 085 | 298 | Video | Decepticon insignia (on Starscream). |
| 9 | 096 | 347 | Video | A bomb explosion on Cybertron's surface (possibly the same one which made a huge hole in it). |
| 10 | 107 | 035 | Image | Megatron crushes cranial unit of a poor Autobot, Starscream is visible behind him, just before the ground assault. |
| 11 | 120 | 040 | Image | Cybertron as seen from a moon. |
| 12 | 140 | 201 | Image | Starscream flying towards Cybertron . |
| 13 | 162 | 359 | Image | A red robot (Ironhide?). |
| 14 | 173 | 003 | Image | A hall (Council of Autobot Elders?). |
| 15 | 192 | 147 | Video | Injured Autobot, trying to get up . |
| 16 | 203 | 094 | Video | Battle scene: Trypticon joins the battle as a burning asteroid (Entry mode) behind Decepticons and Autobots run towards it. |
| 17 | 214 | 004 | Image | A city seen from a tunnel . |
| 18 | 225 | 199 | Image | A city tower falling and hitting another tower. |
| 19 | 265 | 011 | Image | Optimus Prime. |
| 20 | 284 | 021 | Image | Megatron firing his gun (at YOU). |
| 21 | 295 | 249 | Video | Optimus uses his axe on a Decepticon. |
| 22 | 306 | 041 | Image | Cybertron as seen from another moon. |
| 23 | 317 | 081 | Video | City skyline, camera moving down, some music in the background (start of the second trailer). |
| 24 | 328 | 221 | Video | Battle scene: A missile hits a battlestation and an Autobot falls down from it. |
