[preview]TFW2005 staff Seth Buzzard had a chance to sit down with Activision and High Moon Studios rep Matt Tieger yesterday at GDC 2010. They were kind enough to show us some gameplay for the upcoming War For Cybertron video game, introduce some new characters, and answer some questions. To read the full article, and see a slew of new screen shot images including Ironhide, Soundwave and more, click the title to this story![/preview]
TFW2005 staff Seth Buzzard had a chance to sit down with Activision and High Moon Studios rep Matt Tieger yesterday at GDC 2010. They were kind enough to show us some gameplay for the upcoming War For Cybertron video game, introduce some new characters, and answer some questions. Read on below to check it all out!
Tuesday night I headed down to San Francisco to meet with Matt Tieger of High Moon Studios. Matt is the Game Director of the upcoming Activision game Transformers: War for Cyberton. He walked me through a few sections of the game and answered a bunch of questions. Here is a rundown of what I learned.
Characters have two weapons; different weapons can be found and picked up during levels. Each character also has a special ability. The special abilities they showed off were as follows. Optimus (he isn’t a Prime yet) who had a war cry. This gives Optimus a temporary boost making his attacks more powerful, the cry also has an area of effect granting the boost to nearby allies. Next was Ratchet who has a repair beam that, as you might guess, heals friendly units. Finally we see Soundwave’s power which was to make walls of sound that could be used for cover.
Each level will have a squad of 3 characters, you will be able to choose which of these you want to play as at the start of each level with the computer controlling the other two. You will not be able to issue commands to the computer controlled characters. They will attack enemies and use their special abilities as they see fit. Matt Tieger assured us that they made sure the computer controlled characters are helpful and will not just spend the fight running into walls or putting themselves into unnecessary danger. More interesting than having computer controlled buddies is all the levels support 3 player co-op allowing your friends to hop into your game at any time and take control of one of those other characters.
Unlike the Revenge of the Fallen game transformation is not handled by holding down a button to stay in vehicle mode. This time transformation is toggled, press a button to transform, press it again to change back. This looks to allow much better control of the vehicles. The ground type vehicles are all hover cars not unlike how Wheeljack and Bumblebee where shown to be in the first episode of G1. As hover cars they can slide sidewise and are capable of movement a wheeled car isn’t. The drawback is they aren’t especially fast. When you want some speed the hover disks flip down to become wheels. In this mode you move much faster and control more as you would expect in a driving game.
Although they were nice guys and very friendly the PR folks in the room didn’t want Matt talking about multiplayer just yet and when I asked if he could tell me anything about the custom character feature they put the kibosh on that question.
At the beginning of the story Optimus does not have the title of Prime and is not the leader. A character I did not get to see named Zeta Prime leads the Autobots.
Characters I got to see as being playable were: Optimus (truck), Bumblebee (sport car), Ratchet (truck), Megatron (tank), Soundwave (truck class looked sort of like a van), Breakdown (muscle car) and Starscream (jet).
Characters I saw but were not playable (at least in the parts I saw, maybe they are in other parts of the game) were: Skywarp, Thundercracker, Jetfire (all jets) and Omega Supreme who’s alt-mode was not shown.
Omega Supreme was massive. To show just how big he was they had Soundwave stand next to him and poor Soundwave barely came up to Omega Supreme’s ankle.
Omega Supreme and Trypticon will be the only “cityformers” seen in the game.
There is a plan to have DLC for the game but it was too soon to give any hint what form it might take.
Matt Tieger wanted to update the look of the characters but wanted to make sure they were still recognizable. To test this he would show concept art to his kids and ask them “who’s this?” As long as the kids could still identify the character they knew they were ok.
The decision to make toys based on the game characters came several months into the game development and was seen as a huge vote of confidence to the game makers that they were on the right track from Hasbro.
I did not get to play the game myself as it was an early build and they haven’t settled on a final control scheme but what I saw of the game play, story, the Unreal Engine powered graphics and an attention to detail – like having the butt of Optimus’ gun the same shape as his gun in G1 – I walked away having a good feeling that this could be the best Transformers video game yet.
TFW2005 would like to thank Activision and High Moon Studios for their time and the chance to see the actual game mechanics in action. Transformers War for Cybertron is due out late spring/ early summer 2010. Pre-Order a copy at your favorite game store today!
Make sure to discuss all the War For Cybertron GDC Info on the boards here: War for Cybertron GDC 10 Discussion
Ezilla82
In June or May…damnit. Oh well May or June I can wait for. Because I've checked tfwiki.net about the game and it said July 22. So anyways if its May or June. I'm looking forward to getting this game.
blumpy2000
The Gamestop near me has pre-orders for June 22nd too…
As for the audio link, there was a thread about it too, but I can't seem to find it now. It's on the front page of tfradio.net.
Transformed
I think you’re a month late. The date many online stores have shopped around is JUNE 22, 2010; however, Activision said sometime in May.
It is looking more and more like it is G1 continuity. Which there are two stories mind you (Cartoon and Comics).
If this is the game they’ve waited 25 years to play, I don’t see this straying too far from what we’ve seen. Bumblebee isn’t going to get killed off in this game, the next one or the next one after that.
Why do characters have to die anyway? The Combaticons were dead and then not dead in the cartoons: they were locked away in some detention center on Cybertron stripped of their bodies, but they weren’t dead. Optimus was killed off too, only to be brought back to life by a Quintesson flipping is hidden reboot switch—this thought may be a little Beast Wars/Machines-ish, but how do we know Vector Sigma isn’t storing and recycling sparks, fulfilling its purpose, giving life to Transformers. The Cybertronians after all are full-grown adults; they aren’t baby stepping anything.
High Moon has played it safe and went for the middle, and that’s as G1 as you can get.
Where can one hear the audio? The link posted a few pages back doesn’t work.
Ezilla82
Thats sounds good. I think personally this game would be more fun than the Movie games at least.
Seth Buzzard
Might happen sooner then you think. Or later, I don't know what you are thinking.
TedimusPrime
I always love when we get interviews like this with people from this site. I actually am more looking forward to the Podcast talking about this.
Seth Buzzard
It never came up. I would assume if there is going to be one it will be much closer to when then game is going to come out
Metal Chaos
I dunno if it's been asked yet but any news on a demo?
Seth Buzzard
I still have a few reservations about the game play and a lot of unanswered questions myself but from what I saw I don't think this is going to be a bad game. At the lest it should be fun enough
During one of the game play parts they showed us Optumis is shooting and when a Con got to close the axe came out and hit him. I don't know if the guy hit a button to use it or it happens automatically when an enemy is close enough.
No problem, I just want to get as much fact out there as I can.
Sideswipe80
Yeah I know not all but so far the only returning voice actor we have is Prime. Jetfire is reported to sound somewhat British from Tformers.com. And Bee doesn't have his voice actor.
Opticron Primal
Yeah, it was said that some of the voice actors were either interested, contacted or signed on.
Sideswipe80
I'm pretty sure gameinformer said it last year when we learned of this game.
Sso02V
Nobody ever said that.
SC0RP0N0K
I can't wait for this game, it looks awesome. I would love it if Hasbro made a new cartoon based on WFC and it's designs. I also can't wait for the toys. I really wish that WFC takes the place of the movies as the main focus of the Transformers line, although I really doubt that will happen.
Rob
Yes, I much more curious of the quality of the new guys work. Can they hold up a candle to legends such as Welker, Bell, Burton and others? Ideally, I wish it was the original voice cast however, that is not to be, so I want to know if this fresh blood still can maintain the essence of the character, kind of like how Burton’s Megatron still captured the essence that is G1 Megatron, powerful, intelligent, a field commander who is lost in his ideals and sees no other path but his own.
Sideswipe80
Aren't we supposed to be getting original cast members for the voices beside Prime?
Rob
You know the argument about whether or not WFC is G1, is a unwinnable argument. Consider the nature of the beast; G1 consists of multiple stories in varying universes. There is really nothing stopping any G1 fans from calling WFC a new G1 or vise versa. As for me, it is just as G1 as the IDW, Dreamwave, OR the original cartoon.
I do have a question; How was the voice acting? Good, bad, different? Thank you ahead of time Seth Buzzard
The Madness
Thank you to Seth Buzzard for sharing his coolness and taking the time to answer questions.
Opticron Primal
Yeah, Megatron's voice was good. His voice ACTING though……eeeeeeeh. Need to hear a clear version.