Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Early Demo Impressions

I hadn't intended on pre-ordering Fall of Cybertron, even though it's one of the few games this year I'm really excited for. As you may recall, I enjoyed the first game quite a bit, but right now I am literally up to my ass in new games to play so I was intending to save this one for later in the year. But GameStop suckered me in with their Generation 1 Retro Pack preorder bonus. Just look at Optimus up there, in all his original cab-over glory! GameStop, you know far too well what brings me to the yard.

So I skipped into town yesterday to trade some stuff in for the preorder, and included with it was early access to the FoC demo. I had no idea about this until the clerk told me, but it was a pleasant surprise. Of course, the demo is live today for everyone, but that shall not dull my triumph! With the benefit of an entire half day of extra time with the demo, I have some early (and generally favorable) impressions to share. Hit the jump for more.

The demo included two levels (or at least portions of levels) from the single player campaign, one focused on Bumblebee and the other on Vortex, of Combaticon fame. Bumblebee's level was your standard tutorial level, with plenty of "just hit A if you want to do X" moments and shouted commands of where you want to go. It was all well integrated with what was actually going on in the game, but it was still tedious to sit through having played the first game ad nauseum. I'm also not a huge fan of Bumblebee (who was strangely mute), and the level was pretty linear with limited ways to play. But it was fast-paced with plenty of exciteing scripted sequences, and was at least notable for the setting: ship-to-ship combat between the Ark and a Decepticon dreadnought, an obvious reference to the first episode. High Moon knows how to fanservice.

The second level was more promising, and actually made me really hyped for the full game. After an excellent intro sequence (they really nail Starscream as a character), you're off to destroy a bridge, or a convoy, or something. I wan't paying attention, I was too excited to play. Point is, you're a badass attack chopper/robot and you have plenty of Autobot foot soldiers to shred. The level was very well designed and gave you plenty of options for playing the way you want to. There were plenty of corridors and open rooms to run around smashing and shooting things, but it all had an open-scaffold design with multiple levels so that you could transform into chopper mode and rain down death from above. I'm hoping the rest of the game keeps this balance between robot and vehicle modes.

There is also a multiplayer demo that includes one map with a couple game modes (Team Deathmatch and Conquest), and some limited access to the game's four character classes. They've mostly retained the Call of Duty approach to gaining experience and unlocking better weapons and abilities, while of course making some tweaks to improve the gameplay. The Scientist in particular feels much deadlier. And it's hard to tell from the demo alone, but it looks like there are going to be fewer weapons but more options to customize them, a move I applaud. I probably won't spend too much time with the multiplayer demo, though, because I don't want to start all my characters over from scratch when the full game comes out in a few weeks.