Second Look - Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (PS3)

Following the release of Transformers: War for Cybertron, a sequel was released in 2012 called Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, continuing the story of the previous game. I recall being hyped for this game when it first came out, and upon playing it believed it to have lived up to that hype, though I had decided to replay it following the preceding game to see if my opinion had changed at all after eight years. While I maintain that Fall of Cybertron is one of the best Transformers games that’s been released thus far, I ran into some technical difficulties that I hadn’t seen before, which ended up affecting my experience to a degree.

Following the events of War for Cybertron, the Ark is the only Autobot cruiser that hasn’t departed yet, mainly due to a lack of Energon resources. As the Autobots search out a fresh supply, Decepticons have been making their way to attack the Ark. With Grimlock and the Lightning Strike Coalition MIA, Optimus Prime sees no other option but to lead the Autobots against the Decepticon invasion.

The story is once again told between both the Autobots and Decepticons, though unlike the previous game where it’s told across two campaigns, the story is presented as one single campaign that switches off between the two factions, with one single playable character per Chapter. For the most part, the Autobots take the spotlight before switching to the Decepticons, though it switches back to the Autobot side before the end of the game, with the final Chapter bouncing between both factions. Audio logs can also be found hidden across each level, each of which contributes to explaining the events of what happened before the start of the game as well as its relevant location.

The gameplay is largely similar to that of War for Cybertron, with some quality of life changes to streamline things. Players can still carry two weapons at once, however they have now been given their own categories of Light and Heavy weapons, each with their own ammo pickups. Each character also has their own unique ability, some shared between characters, as well as an Alt Mode weapon that counts for Light ammo. Ammo and weapons are also no longer hidden in boxes and are freely scattered about the battlefield, though supplies are limited. Players are also given the option to switch the position of the camera, namely which shoulder you are looking over, which can come in handy in situations where you need to hide behind cover.

Two characters that play a bit differently are Bruticus and Grimlock, the latter of which has a wholly unique control scheme. Each of these characters have an emphasis on melee attacks, with Grimlock possessing the ability to transform into Dino Mode after filling up a Rage Meter by defeating Decepticons. Their playstyles each give the player a true sense of their power, with Grimlock’s more cinematic Alt Mode transformation and Bruticus’ cinematic combination sequence providing a good feeling of weight to them.

Grimlock (Gregg Berger) has a very powerful playstyle.

On the subject of transformation, one thing that the game expands upon from War for Cybertron is giving each playable character a unique transformation scheme based on their personality. One stand-out, which was highlighted in behind-the-scenes material, is Jazz’s resembling breakdancing, though another that stood out to me was Vortex twisting his body as he converted into a helicopter. This, along with each character having their own take on the transformation noise, led to me sometimes transforming characters a couple times for the heck of it.

Energon shards serve a different purpose in this game than in its predecessor. Though they can be obtained from defeating enemies and destroying containers scattered about the level, they are now used as currency for the Teletraan-1 store. This store allows players to purchase, equip and upgrade various weapons, T.E.C.H. and Perks that can help turn the tide in battle, as well as rate them on a five-star scale based on their effectiveness. Blueprints can also be found in various levels to unlock new items in the store. As a side note, weapons can be freely equipped and upgraded once they are unlocked, however T.E.C.H. options are consumable and must be purchased each time. While not the best choice for combat, a favorite weapon of mine based on novelty is the Throwback Blaster, which resembles Megatron’s original gun alt-mode and features the transformation noise from the 1984 cartoon.

The graphics are a major improvement over the previous game, with a generally brighter color palette and more varied environments. This gives Cybertron a generally more orange appearance, with the benefit of enemies more easily standing out from the background. There is, however, still a bit of texture loading, even during in-game cutscenes, which can be a little distracting at times.

Environments are more varied in this game compared to the previous installment.

The voice acting is one major highlight of the game, with everyone delivering strong performances. Aside from Peter Cullen returning as Optimus Prime, Gregg Berger returns from the 1984 cartoon to voice Grimlock, giving a more vengeful take on the character while still building off his original performance. Some voice actors who take on multiple roles, such as Troy Baker, Steve Blum and Nolan North, also get a chance to display their range, playing each of their respective characters in a way that stands out from each other. In a rather impressive display of his vocal talents, Troy Baker’s take on Jazz manages to perfectly replicate Scatman Crothers’ voice and performance from the 1984 cartoon. The music by Troels Brun Folmann is also good, with the main menu music being a particular stand-out that serves as a good leitmotif throughout the game.

As per tradition, the game contains a number of references to past Transformers lore, most especially the G1 continuity. Like the previous game, there are numerous references to the 1986 movie, even going so far as to recreate whole scenes and dialogue. Such scenes include Starscream’s coronation scene, complete with Megatron quoting Galvatron’s “This is bad comedy” line, as well as Slug (aka Slag) recreating crashing in on the Quintessons (in this case the Insecticons) and saying “Excuse me” (complete with camera angles) and Slug and Grimlock’s “beryllium bologna/cesium salami” exchange. In a rather humorous Easter egg, the player can also locate Starscream’s crown from the movie early on in Chapter 11, which upon discovery he will wear the rest of the time he is playable in that Chapter. There is also a lot of attention to detail with G1 lore, such as Teletraan-1 informing Cliffjumper about the availability of his signature Glass Gas Cannon, a playable weapon in the game.

While the G1 references are appropriate, a couple bits of dialogue still bothered me a little. Rumble retains his “First we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside” quote from the movie as a random voice line, however when used it can still occur devoid of the movie’s context. The Insecticon Kickback has a habit of repeating the last thing he said, however what bothered me was that this is a character trait of the Insecticon Shrapnel (renamed here to Sharpshot); he even makes an appearance in this game, making the choice to give this trait to Kickback all the more baffling.

On that note, the game also features a lot of design elements that more closely tie it in with the Transformers: Prime cartoon, which Habsro had previously stated War for Cybertron was a prequel to. Such design choices include the design of Cliffjumper’s head to match that of his Prime counterpart, as well as Trypticon being repurposed in-game into the Decepticon ship, the Nemesis, as it appears in said cartoon. Megatron’s new body in the late game, while meant to still evoke his G1 body, also evokes his Prime design to an extent. Though the Dinobots didn’t make an appearance in the series, they did appear in tie-in comics continuing from this game’s story, plus a new character also named Grimlock became a main character in the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon, a sequel series to Prime.

Cliffjumper (Nolan North) more resembles his Prime counterpart.

Though I still enjoyed the game overall, the experience this time around was marred by technical glitches during the late game that I had not experienced before. Since I was playing the game in chunks, I ended up running into a major glitch in Chapter 10 where reloading the checkpoint caused the game to crash multiple times as it was loading, leading me to start the Chapter over again after numerous attempts and necessitating a minor speedrun to get back to the problem area. From later research, players had experienced similar issues eight years ago, meaning that the game had never been patched outside of launch in all this time.

Two issues also came up during Chapter 12, one of which involved an animation not playing out as intended during a section where Grimlock is fighting Insecticons. Here, Slug is supposed to lift Grimlock up to a ledge and the animation somehow left Grimlock out of it, as he was attacked by remaining Insecticons as it was happening. Since the game still registered the checkpoint, I defeated the remaining Insecticons in the area before jumping off a ledge, causing Grimlock to respawn at the intended area to advance. Another issue occurred upon reloading the game during a later portion of the Chapter, in which the audio mixing somehow made the dialogue extremely quiet even at max volume, which I solved by booting the game up again.

I had also learned the hard way that the game and its DLC are no longer available on digital storefronts, which I discovered while trying to access a DLC pack that included a G2-inspired deco for Bruticus. Fortunately, I had already gotten the G1 Retro Pack, which included the Throwback Blaster and the ability to play as G1 Optimus Prime, and any DLC previously purchased can still be freely donwloaded. The only way I could see to still get digital copies of the game and DLC was through PC downloads via Amazon, though I have no idea how well they work anymore.

While War for Cybertron had a small toyline of sorts, Fall of Cybertron had more of a full-fledged toyline, in the form of an entire subset of the Generations line. Optimus Prime and Soundwave make their return here from the War for Cybertron series, the former in his new design and the latter in a larger Class size complete with Deployer gimmick; Megatron is notably absent here despite getting a new body in-game, though this was likely to prevent spoilers at the time. The Combaticons also get representation in this line, to the point where there exist multiple version of the team aside from their general retail counterparts, including a special giftset as Bruticus with game-accurate colors sold exclusively at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2012, as well as another giftset exclusive to Amazon sporting Generation 2 (G2) colors inspired by the original toy (complete with a G2-styled box and new artwork from the original packaging artist), the latter of which I own due to not being able to secure the SDCC version at the time. A number of non-game characters are also represented, such as Blaster (a repurposed Soundwave complete with similar gimmick) and the Wreckers (repurposed Combaticons), the latter of whom who can combine into Ruination.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron stands as an enjoyable Transformers experience, as well as a solid game in its own right. Though my experience this time was affected by technical glitches, the improved combat and visuals, as well as the sound design, made up for this. The Transformers fanservice is also integrated well, even if some of it ended up a little mishandled. Still, this game remains an easy recommendation for Transformers fans, though fans of this game’s style of gameplay may get some enjoyment out of it as well.