Following so many attempts of video game developers trying to make the best Transformer game, only High Moon Studios did justice with the release of War for Cybertron. With War for Cybertron gathering a lot of high praise from the press, High Moon Studios aims to deliver a high quality game with Fall of Cybertron. Improving a lot of things from the first game, many Transformer fans had high expectations.
Now that Fall of Cybertron is finally here, will High Moon Studio’s second game to the Cybertron series either fall or soar high? Let’s take a look on what’s HOT and what’s NOT in our review of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
HOT
An Impressive Sequel w/ Great Characters
Fall of Cybertron is a direct sequel of the first game where it immediately takes place following the events of War for Cybertron. With the on-going war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, their homeworld planet, Cybertron, is near the brink of destruction. With the only way to survive is to escape, Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots struggle to leave as the Decepticons try to get in their way. Through the twelve hour campaign, players can expect to journey through the darkest time of the heroic Autobots and the ruthless Decepticons. More secrets and an engaging plot will be unraveled just before the Transformers leave their planet and seek refugee on other planets.
Between the first game and Fall of Cybertron, many things have been improved in the campaign. In the lengthy chapters of the game, players will be going through several characters with Bumbleebee, Jazz to Optimus Prime, detailing their short journey tells more of their struggle as they leave Cybertron. For fans of the Transformers saga, they will appreciate the expansiveness of the mythology, opening more gateways to the possible follow-up game and back story. At the end of the game, players will notice that each of the characters have their own moment to shine in their quest to leave their dying Cybertron.
Great Mix of Action
One of the things that I disliked in War for Cybertron was the repetitiveness of the campaign. In Fall of Cybertron, expect to have a good mix, fleshing out every chapter into different things. Still having the third person shooting elements, High Moon Studios incorporates new things in the campaign that will make it refreshing to some fans. With a decent amount of characters that you will be using in both the Autobots and Decepticons, fans will be pleased that each of them have their own abilities that they can use in their fight against one another. Also, don’t forget that the mighty T-Rex Grimlock will be one of the characters that fans will be able to control as they can use his impressive melee moves to enemies.
Through a lot of characters, each of them have their own dedicated chapter that makes them shine as their show their skills. Aside from having the boring shooting mechanics, there are a lot of things that fans can do in the game such as aerial combat, the vehicular combat , riding into turrets and many more. If you’re worried about having the same type of gameplay shooting mechanics in every chapter, don’t be as you will be surprised how fleshed out the campaign actually is.
Improved Visuals and Presentation
Compared with War for Cybertron, the second game has improved its visuals, making each of the transformer facial features have a lot of detail. Environments still looks muddy and washed out but High Moon Studios makes up for it by having expansive levels where if you search, you will find hidden items and audio logs that you have to collect. In the twelve chapters, you can expect to see the same kind of tone in the environments but the explosions and the all-out war between two opposing faction is surely a nice sight. Think of Megaplex almost taking out the whole screen as he smashes the Decepticons and the swarm of Insecticons flooding your entire screen – that is the amazing sight that you will see. In terms of the voice overs, the voice actors did a good job as they are convincing and it delivers a perfect presentation to the overall format of the game.
Addictive Multiplayer Returns
For fans who loved the competitive multiplayer of the first game, they’ll be pleased to know that it’s back in Fall of Cybertron. Between the first and the second game, there’s no big overhaul that fans can expect but it has improved. This time, the character customization has expanded where you can create your own robot from the parts available. Weapons and special abilities are all interchangeable. As for the modes, all three of them from the first game return but the main highlight of Fall of Cybertron is the new ‘Head Hunter’ mode.
In Head Hunter mode, the main objective for players is to collect the ‘sparks’ of a downed transformer and return it to the node. For every successful node that you deliver, you will get points and whichever team has the biggest score wins the match.
