Twelve for 2012: Video Games Part Two – Fall of Cybertron

July 9, 2012 By Louis Rabinowitz 11 comments

We began on Thursday with New Super Mario Bros 2, and now we’re at the second stop on this video game train journey. Kicking off the feature proper, (and the second week overall) it’s the one with the robots, the war,  the punchingand the slightly overbearing amount of explosions. Part two, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron!

Release date: August 21 (US), August 24 (UK)

Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

THE POSITIVES

I confess I haven’t played War for Cybertron (Fall of Cybertron’s predecessor), so when it came to compiling this list, Fall of Cybertron looked like the black sheep of the list. But after watching a few trailers and reading up on the subject, one thing’s clear: it ain’t Bayformers. Micheal Bay’s eye-bruising, ear-damaging trilogy-as-it-stands was certainly not dark; not with the frequent attempts at witty humour which fell embarrassingly flat. Fall of Cybertron, however, is another kettle of fish. Depicting the last days of the civil war on Cybertron, it’s a dark, gritty take on Transformers that looks to be the Dark Knight to Micheal Bay’s Batman and Robin. There’s still explosions, though. Can’t forget the explosions.

High Moon Studios (developers of both War and Fall) have dipped into the immense back catalogue of Transformers robots, with a hell of a lot of ‘bots showing up for the sequel, including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz, Cliffjumper and Ironhide. There’s a lot more, by the way.

The idea of a campaign for the Autobots and a campaign for the Decepticons is a pretty neat idea, allowing players to see the final days of Cybertron from both perspectives. It’s not the most original idea, but it certainly fits Fall of Cybertron perfectly, with a rare chance to beat the crap out of robots, knowing that you’re doing completely the wrong thing, as well as the usual good vs evil story of the Autobots campaign.

For online multiplayer, you can create your own Autobot or Decepticon from scratch for use in multiplayer, which is pretty damn cool. There’s also a load of custimization, with hundreds of pieces and options for your paint job. Those green and white go-faster racing stripes will have never looked better.

THE NEGATIVES

It’s Transformers. A video game based on and bearing the name of a franchise which has been irreversibly tainted by Micheal Bay’s godawful trio of movies (and the prospect of a fourth one) doesn’t sound particularly great on paper. And while you might argue that Fall of Cybertron looks nothing like Micheal Bay’s movies (which it does) – for a lot of people, the Transformers name will put buyers off buying Fall of Cybertron, which means lower sales for a game that should  deserve a spot at the top of the charts for a few weeks.

It’s a third-person shooter (or TPS, to give it’s not-so-catchy acronym), which seems to be the ginger-haired stepson (to use a slightly odd cliche) of the far more popular and easier first-person shooter genre, which has included mega-hits like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Name a third-person shooter as popular or well-reviewed as those franchises. You can’t? Neither can I. Third person-gaming is OK (it worked in Arkham City!), but third-person shooters have always been a step or two behind the refined, easy-to-play first person shooter genre. And many a great game has fallen flat due to a dodgy gameplay mechanic. Will Fall of Cybertron?

Will it be good? I’m not as certain as I was with New Super Mario Bros 2 that this’ll be good – after all, a few great trailers doesn’t mean a game’s going to be good (cough, Dead Island, cough). But I’m going to say yes, anyway.

Will it succeed? It says something that part three of this feature comes out in late September – home console wise, Fall of Cybertron has a full month to itself. Sales will most likely be dented by the Transformers name, but it’ll still sell well.

Next time: Is FIFA 13 the best football game yet? Tomorrow, I take a look at this year’s edition of the football simulator.

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  • Denilson

    name a popular TPS? how about Gears of War! GOD do your research

  • Scott C

    Wow, you really hate Michael Bay movies, which by the way have made over 3 Billion dollars, this game has NOTHING to do with the movies. Now you’re assuming transformers fans will act negatively towards this game because of the movie? LOL You really do not give the fans enough credit. War for Cybertron was a great game, and it sold well enough for them to make a sequel. High Moon has taken all of the complaints about the first game and tailor made this game for the fans. I think this game is going to be a huge hit, no thanks to bias people like the author of this article.

  • Scott C

    please don’t do part 3, you’re an idiot, you write about games, but you’ve never heard of Gears of War?

  • Josh P

    This is retarded. You haven’t played the game and your review might as well be copied and pasted from the info that’s been out there in the gameosphere for weeks now. You base a review (including negatives and positives) on trailers and give an opinion like we’re supposed to take you seriously. Seriously?

    At least wait for the game to come out before you pass judgment or go play wfc to at the very least, gain some insight into what you’re talking about because as it stands you have none. I’ll screen shot this page as the truth will more than likely hurt your feelings and you might delete this. Oh and one last thing, stick to call of camping and leave the real games to the real gamers!

  • SubZero3965

    Personally i liked his review.Also High Moon seems to have liked it too since they tweeted about it and said they loved it.His review wasn’t the best,but certainly not the worst.I think he just needs to rename his topic from ”negatives” to something like ”Possible issues” or like ”Honest opinions.”Keep up the good work and don’t let those comments get to you :)

  • TigerXaiya

    This author sucks and anyone who takes this review with a grain of salt is an idiot. He’s like the blind leading the blind. How could you review a game that hasnt even come out yet let alone never experienced the first game to base his judgement off of? What a clown! My experience in Customer Service would never allow me to sale a product without at least having some common knowledge of it. The only the that he got right was that Michael Bay and his Bayformers are garbarge and Im personally hurt on how he made billions off of ruining my childhood favorite. f…ing pric!!!

  • Steve Lemlek

    Great write up, some great points, but I have to disagree with you on one in particular.

    While nostalgia filled children of the 80′s might be tainted by Michale Bay’s recent Transformers flicks, the two main audiences for this game won’t be detrred:

    1) Fans of Michael Bay’s Transformers (the general public, that is)

    2) Gamers/Fanboys, who’ll buy the game if it’s good, and know the difference between Bayformers and the rest of the Transformers universe

  • Louis Rabinowitz

    Thanks to subzero and Steve for the kind comments and the constructive criticism. As for the others?

    I take all your points on board. I made a few mistakes and bloopers in the article, but to come down on me like that is like a punch in the face. Haven’t you ever heard of constructive criticism?

  • Warg

    What. The. Fuck. Did you ever play War for Cybertron? That game was awesome. It was also accepted by the Tranformers community, this game looks good too. ( don’t expect constructive criticism when your article is complete shit)

  • Scott C

    Sorry Louis, I shouldn’t have called you an idiot, but your review rubbed me the wrong way, first of all I loved the bay transformers movies, besides the 2nd movie I thought they were very entertaining. 2nd thing, you called 3rd person games a red headed step child, you failed to mention how popular gears of war was, plus dead island was an amazing game, which they just re-released in a game of the year edition. arkham city another amazing game. FPS like call of duty are boring to me, they keep releasing the same game year after year, nothing new there. Anyway, if you’re going to write part 3 at least rent war for cybertron and give it a try and see what awesome improvements they have made to fall of cybertron.

  • Mike

    I’m one of those nostalgic 80′s kids mentioned in these comments and though I do agree with your comparison in sales of FPS versus TPS are somewhat accurate Louis, it still doesn’t mean that FOC will be a marginal hit. High Moon had a bigger budget to work with on FOC then WFC so expect better graphics, DLC’s, and game play. WFC fans are just hoping that they use WFC as base template as far as game play and how the characters handles on screen, unlike Transformers 3 High Moon did which sucked, because the characters felt cramped in small maps and were lethargic in movements.

    Lastly, WFC fans are somewhat scared that all the pre-orders we’ve been doing for FOC isn’t in vain because the majority of the WFC clans are more concerned about the MP portion of the game then the Campaign and Escalation portions. High Moon has been VERY tight lipped about the MP aspect of the FOC only saying we can customize our transformers prior to entering battles, which is great, but I for one do not want to spend hours customizing a robot but the game play is shit. They haven’t released a DEMO for FOC like they did for WFC 6 weeks before it’s release either. The MP for WFC is what kept the game alive for the 2years and counting not the campaign or escalation, though the co-op campaign was entertaining. Now on FOC they made the campaign single player (BIG MISTAKE) so we can play iconic transformers like dinobots, triple changers, and city sized transformers..but you only can control/use these robots for certain chapters in the campaign then your back to just the robot you selected at game start. To me it wasn’t worth sacrificing co-op campaign for that just to control metroplex/bruticus for 1-2 mins in one chapter of how many lol, sure the visuals are going to be great but you can’t experience them with your friends anymore. I’m buying the game soley for the MP aspect and if it sucks..off to GameSpot I go to trade it in for something else pronto.