Transformers has been a pretty shitty game franchise for all of it's gaming life (even the AVGN agrees). To be fair it's film record isn't very good either (Michael Bay for the record is 1 semi enjoyable, 1 awful) with the glaring exception of the 1986 classic. Ok maybe it isn't a classic but Generation 1 is probably the most fondly remembered 80's kids show and by far the best (TMNT is a close second) even if it is a bit cheesy. Which is why it's good to see High Moon Studios have shown themselves to have great respect for that era of Transformers in it's new game: Transformers War for Cybertron. The game has recently been released in a multiplayer demo form and it is so full of love for this franchise it's almost overwhelming.
War for Cybertrons multiplayer mode is very interesting, in that it reminds me very much Unreal Tournament, so much in fact I would have called this a very good mod of Unreal Tournament. The game is a third person shooter that is class based with ranks and unlocks of weapons, perks and skills. The classes in the demo are the Scout who is the fast paced sportscar robots who use sniping or stealth to win and the soldier, who are the Megatron tank with the really heavy weapons to go right into the battlefield. Two further classes, the Leader truck and the Scientist jet will be in the full game. None of these robots are the ones we know and love like Soundwave but they will be unlocked through the campaign as skins. The demo comes with the one map and a level cap of 3. The map, Molten is nothing overly special as it feels like the basic Tribes or Unreal map and you will max out your level really quickly.
So your wondering, with a boring map and not much time filling the levels why play this for more than an hour? Simply put, the gameplay is fantastic. The biggest problem with basically all Transformers games is it's very hard to balance the fact the robots can transform. High Moon Studios have worked really hard to balance this espacially in multiplayer and the result is the game is fast paced and strategic gameplay. The option to transform presents pros and cons. Robot mode has more options in terms of weapons and perks while vehicle mode is much faster or as with the tank have greater fire power. Abilities of the classes do vary very much like Soldiers abilty to hover and spin attack, and Scouts cloaking and boosts. This leads to frantic and very unpredictable matches that are tons of fun.
Matches are of ten players but I don't judge by numbers because BioShock 2 proved fun even with 10 players also. High Moon really seem to have thrown extra effort into the game, and that's probably where this game differs like Batman Arkham Asylum did last year from most licensed properties: the fact this a game first and a license second. The games multiplayer abilities are packed, with 8 maps of standard multiplayer of 6 modes, 3 player co op of two campaigns and a mode that will be like Gears' Horde mode and Nazi Zombies combined. If I do have any complaints it's that one sniping is useless. I'm sorry but I counldn't work with it for killing and two melee attacks. Melee is the overall key to victory here. Two melee attacks and your dead. The melee attacks in my opinion are way overpowered and should have been turned down a little. But outside of that the game is solid and a ton of fun that I encourage anyone who likes games to go and buy it as the game is out now. I will have a full review soon as possible.
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