Bigger, badder, and the cleanest co-op Transformers has delivered to date. Transformers: War For Cybertron has everything a fan of the series could possibly want. Story that fills in the origins of our favorite Autobots and Decepticons, 3 player co-op, and transformations at the touch of a button. ArsTechnica.com was taken on a tour of the war-torn Cybertron, and brought back some details for us to enjoy.
Since we'll be on the site of the Cybertron war, we'll be taking a bit of a trip through time. This full scale war will show us Optimus before he learns the leadership skills that grant him the "Prime" designation. Autobots will still be facing off with the Decepticons, who include Megatron. The darker side of the story will show us how Megatron and Star Scream meet - and their relationship that keeps them together through the years of interpersonal frays.
On the Transformers home world, everything transforms. The planet is, in itself, a transformer. Even turrets and weapons you lift off the ground transform, taking on the traits of whoever is carrying them. That means each weapon will look different based on who is holding it, even if it's simply taking on the color pallet of the Autobot or Decepticon wielding them.
Co-op will be 3 players as mentioned above, complete with drop-in/drop-out style. The one catch comes from the Co-op being online only. I know the split-screen guys won't be happy, but the development team assures players that it's to preserve the beauty and fluidity of the game. A simple touch of a button, and you're transforming seamlessly from robot to vehicle and back again. That, and the scale of the game is gigantic. To us here on Earth, Transformers seem quite huge, but on their home world everything is scaled to fit them. Huge, detailed environments make up Cybertron, and it's up to you to win the war.
Here's the design team talking about the process.
Fans will also have a few nice surprises. First, Peter Cullen returns as the voice of a young Optimus. Also, the new designs for the Transformers unique to War for Cybertron will be available from Bandai. That's right, back to Transformer roots. You better believe I'll be getting my hands on an Optimus Pre.
We should get a few more details about the demo before its release sometime shortly before E3. We certainly can't wait to get our hands on Transformers: War for Cybertron - hopefully the Demo will let us get a few players together.