War for Cybertron

That's no moon...

So.Yes. I have played Portal 2. And it is excellent. In every way. It may, in fact, be the best game ever, of all time. But as much as I want to talk about it RIGHT NOW, I have yet to play the co-op campaign. And I have a feeling that-- more so than gels, excursion funnels, and thermal discouragement beams-- the addition of a partner changes the game at a fundamental level. So my write-up for Portal 2 will have to wait until I can schedule some time with Sr. Joseph P. Buzzkillington to see what Atlas and P-Body have to offer.


In the meantime, though, I need something to talk about, so I thought I would revisit a minor, but (in my opinion) unappreciated game from a couple years ago-- Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Yes, I know, Transformers are virtually everywhere these days. Our cups doth overflow with robots in disguise, though they usually come in a shriveled, mutated form I can barely stand to look at. But Cybertron has the distinction of being based on the classic 80s cartoon, rather than the movies, which makes it instantly better in every way. Transformers were the very first thing I ever geeked out over, as a wee child, and they occupy a deep corner of my brain somewhere near the parts responsible for breathing and heartbeats. But I have enough sense to keep that obsession to myself, so I won't talk much about the campaign. In fact, if you're not completely obsessed with Transformers (like me), it's a pretty flawed single player experience. It's practically last-gen in design-- repetitive hallways, only two or three enemy types, one-hit-kill bosses. But it is pure, blissful fanservice, down to the heavy-handed speeches by Optimus Prime and the near-constant bickering between Megatron and Starscream.

What I want to talk about instead is the surprisingly good competitive multiplayer, which has some interesting ideas about classes and progression. The basic structure is modeled after the Call of Duty formula, with XP gained during matches leading to levels, perks, weapons, and so forth. What's different in Cybertron is that the experience is broken out into four classes-- Soldier, Scout, Leader, and Scientist-- each of which have their own distinct progression and play style.


The Soldier (tanks) is your basic brawler class: they're slow, have the most health, and have access to the "heavy" weapons like chainguns and rocket launchers. Scouts (cars) are basically the opposite, emphasizing speed and stealth over raw strength. Leaders (trucks), my preferred class, are somewhere in between the Soldier and the Scout, but they also have support class abilities that buff allies or weaken enemies. And Scientists, the most unusual class, can be built as either high-offense snipers or dedicated healers. As jets, they have access to vertical spaces unavailable to the other classes.

Soldiers: The opposite of subtle.

The overall effect is that each class feels like its own unique experience, and the flow of a match can change dramatically as the makeup of each team shifts. A team of primarily Soldiers plays very differently than one with more Scientists, or Scouts, etc. If you're not doing well it's very easy to completely change your strategy by changing class. And the Leader and Scientist add a unique flavor, since healer and support classes aren't usually seen in shooters these days (outside of TF2).

Flight adds a whole new dimension. Literally.

The game has its flaws, certainly. Shiny metal robots moving around on a planet made also out of shiny metal makes for some confusing visuals. Level progression doesn't feel balanced across the classes. And on most maps there isn't much incentive to stay in vehicle mode except to get from point A to point B, making it essentially a complicated sprint function. And yet, I keep coming back to Cybertron when I'm between games. Tycho called it "a mess, but it's a good mess, like a ladle of gumbo over dirty rice." I guess I'm the kind of person who likes gumbo. I like it when a game gets dirty and experimental, and pushes new ideas, even if it results in some uneven experiences.

In retrospect, I think this entire post was about trying to sell my friends on playing this game with me. (Only $15 used! And there's a multiplayer demo on XBL.) In fact my original draft was much longer, with detailed strategic discussions on each class. Clan Halo Night fizzled out a while ago, and without friends to play with I just don't spend much time in competitive multiplayer anymore. I haven't even played Reach lately, and Call of Duty got traded in a while ago. Multiplayer really is designed to be played with friends, and victory just doesn't taste as sweet when its with random 12-year-olds.