For much of my life, I have loved two things more than almost anything else: Video Games, and Transformers. Yet despite the seemingly limitless potential of these two virile parents to birth a child of unequaled power and beauty, we have been denied that perfect genesis. Instead, we have been forced to play pretend with mutant offspring that have clearly been inspired by their source material, but fail to do more than make you wish it could transform into a better game. With news of Transformers: War for Cybertron slowly leaking out, we wait with baited breath in the hopes that a new champion will rise, and finally return Transformers to its rightful place of Awesome.
There have been plenty of screen shots, hands-on previews, and a neat story trailer, but today saw the release of a multiplayer trailer, giving us a glimpse into what could be the most engaging part of the entire experience. However, the trailer moves pretty quickly. Only someone with a lot of time on their hands and a large amount of patience would sift through it frame by frame to pick each last, succulent bit of knowledge off its sturdy frame. Lucky for you, I am that man.
The trailer begins with the ESRB Teen rating, so rated for "Violence". This is a promising start. More promising still is the phrase that follows, "Create your own Transformers character." Peasants, rejoice. Then, in 5 seconds, they flash through that character creation process, barely giving you enough time to process what's going on. After taking a careful look at the screens, here's what I've been able to put together.
The first screen clearly shows the four classes available in the game, namely Scout (Bumblebee type), Scientist (Wheeljack/Ratchet type), Leader (Optimus Prime type) and Soldier (Ironhide type). Details on the specifics of these classes can be found below. In this menu, each class has its own experience level, starting with 0 and progressing to an unknown cap. Underneath each class heading are 3 slots. The top slot in the video reads "1", followed by "Unlocks at Level 5" and "Unlocks at Level 10". My guess is that these are character slots, and so that as you level up a class, you can create more characters in it. These slots may represent something else, such as chassis for your Transformer, or what not, but based on the similarities to a Modern Warfare type system, my guess is that you can unlock the ability to make and save more than one character in each class. Hopefully, the area that says "1" is a placeholder for the name of your Transformer. You could name him Slagface!
As the video scrolls down through each class, the right side of the screen shows the weapons, abilities and upgrades chosen for each slot. Each character can have two weapons, two abilities and three upgrades. No upgrades were shown in the video, so we can only guess that these are unlocked at a higher level, and that the grant some sort of passive benefit, similar to Modern Warfare's perks. Each class offers six weapons to fill a character's two slots, ranging from grenades to missile launchers to melee weapons. There seems to be some restrictions as to what weapons can be equipped in each slot, a la the primary/secondary weapon system in Modern Warfare 2. Each class has 4-5 unique weapons, but some are shared between classes. Each class has 4 abilities (at least that's what was shown in the video), and these are unique to each class. These abilities appear to be what gives each class its unique advantages and flavor.
The video then selects the Soldier character, and proceeds to a weapon selection screen. Here we see the options for weapons that can be equipped in the first weapon slot. The second weapon slot is grayed out, and it is impossible to tell whether that selecton is fixed or not. It may be that additional weapons aren't unlocked until a certain level is reached. Each weapon has four statistics associated with it: Damage, Range, Accuracy, and Rate of Fire. There is also a brief description of what each weapon does. The three given in the video are recorded in the Soldier section below.
Once weapons are selected (and presumably abilities and upgrades as well), an image of the Transformer appears, in this case, a Decepticon tank. There are three options on this screen. The first may be to select the skin or alternate mode of the transformer. In the video, this option reads "Crusher", and the right and left arrows on either side of it indicate that there are multiple options to scroll through. It is unknown how many options there are, and whether they would all be tanks, etc. Based on the later descriptions in the video, the only class with a Jet mode is the Scientist (much to the chagrin of Starscream fans), with the Soldier as a tank, the scout as a car, and the leader as a truck or larger vehicle of some sort. Hopefully there is some variety here, but we have yet to see. It would certainly be nice if they had a few options for each class, particularly some fem-bot options. It is also possible that "Crusher" refers to a color scheme, which if true would be appropriate, because it would crush my hopes if there were no options for changing what your Transformer turned into.
Underneath that option are two Color selection options, inventively labeled "Color 1" and "Color 2". It appears that "Color 1" is the primary color, and "Color 2" is a detail or trim color. The video then selects "Color 1" and launches into the color selection screen. There are preset colors that can be scrolled through with the right and left triggers. Once a swatch has been selected, you can then choose a shade of that color from a larger box, ranging from black to white and everything in between for that color. So, if you choose the green preset, you could then pick a shade of light or dark green.
Then, the video launches into some gameplay, highlighting each class with a bunch of text that seems largely fluff related. On closer inspection, it is entirely unfluffy! Each screen lists the weapons, abilities, and Killstreak rewards for each class. That's right, killstreaks. These don't seem to be customizable, but each class has unique rewards granted for killstreaks of 3, 5 and 7. Starting with the Soldier, here's a rundown of the information given for each class.
Soldier: The Soldier prefers an all out brawl full of flak over a tactical fight.
Weapons
Neutron Assault Rifle (Rapid Fire Mid Range Assault Rifle, D: 5, R: 5, A: 5, RoF: 9)
X12 Scrapmaker (Full-Auto Mini gun, D: 7, R: 6, A: 3, RoF: 8)
EMP Shotgun (Semi-auto close combat shotgun, D: 8, R: 3, A: 3, RoF: 4)
Thermo Rocket Launcher
Energon Hammer
Flak Grenade
Abilities
Hover – Gives the ability to hover in the air and increase weapon damage.
Whirlwind – Gives ability to do a whirlwind melee attack
Ammo Beacon – Deploy beacon which automatically refills teammate’s ammo when near it
Energon Sling – Disable Enemy abilities for a brief time
Killstreaks
3 kills – Ammo Matrix: refills team’s ammo and grenades
5 kills – Electromagnetic Pulse: Jam’s enemy team’s abilities for a short time
7 kills – Omega missile: Fires off a guided missile capable of mass destruction
Scientist: The Scientist has the highly prized jet form allowing him to bring his considerable support to his teammates wherever they are on the battlefield.
Weapons
Neutron Assault Rifle (Rapid Fire Mid Range Assault Rifle, D: 5, R: 5, A: 5, RoF: 9)
EMP Shotgun (Semi-auto close combat shotgun, D: 8, R: 3, A: 3, RoF: 4)
Photon Burst Rifle
Energon Repair Ray
Energon Club
Energon Grenade
Abilities
Shockwave – Pushes enemies back and causes damage
Spawn Sentry – Spawns a sentry at a location
Drain – Siphons health from enemies
Disguise – Appear as an ally to the enemy
Killstreaks
3 kills – Health Matrix 2.0: Teammates receive health for every kill
5 kills – Overshield Matrix: Teammates receive overshields
7 kills – Nulceon Shock Cannon: Spawn a usable rocket turret
Scout: The Scout uses hit-and-run tactics to deliver sudden damage and circumvent enemy defenses.
Weapons
Plasma Cannon
Null Ray
Scatter Blaster
Energon Sword
EMP Grenade
Energon Battle Pistol
Abilities
Cloaking – Become nearly invisible on the battlefield
Dash – Quickly dash in any direction
Decoy Trap – Spawns a decoy pickup which stuns enemies when touched
Mark Target – Tags an enemy with an electromagnetic pulse which weakens their armor and reveals their location
Killstreaks
3 kills – Orbital Beacon: Displays enemies location
5 kills – Energon Recharger: Health constantly regenerates for a brief time
7 kills – Orbital Beacon 2.0: Causes a level-wide EMP blast and tags all enemies with mark target
Leader: The Leader role is to move the lines of the battlefield by boosting the strength and defense of his teammates.
Weapons
Ion Blaster
Energon Battle Pistol
Magma Frag Launcher
Fusion Cannon
Energon Axe
Thermo Mine
Abilities
Warcry – Area of effect improves armor and increases damage output
Moleculon Bomb – Slows enemies who get near it and causes damage when it explodes
Barrier – Deploys an Energon shield barrier
Disruption – Forces victim to change form and locks them in that form for a brief period of time
Killstreaks
3 kills – Intercooler: Greatly decreases the cooldown time for ability use
5 kills – P.O.K.E. 2.0: Deadly melee attack that causes enemies to explode
7 kills – Thermo Mine Re-Spawner: Spawn a trail of thermo mines
And there you have it. Needless to say, I'm excited. Class based multiplayer? Experience and progression? Customizable characters? Transformers? Sign me up! Obviously there's a lot of borrowing going on, but hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. To finish things off, here are some timestamps throughout the video that show some abilities in action, and a few other fun things. Hit pause every once in a while, and enjoy the roboty goodness.
Timestamps
00:19 – Soldier Whirlwind ability with Energon Hammer
00:31 – Scientist Energon Repair Ray in action
00:35 – Scout Cloaking ability
00:37 – Various Energon melee weapons (Axe, Sword)
00:45 – Leader Warcry ability
00:51 – Aerial combat (Scientist only?)
00:56 – Soldier Hover ability in Tank mode, switches to normal (?)
01:03 – Leader Barrier ability (?)
01:08 – Scout Dash ability (?)
