Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Preview

Transformers games have largely been met with critical drubbings in years gone by, but Activision is now looking to change this track record. The new PS3 and Xbox 360 game is being developed by Santa Monica developer Luxoflux, so we caught up with chief creative officer Joby Otero to talk about big shooty robots.

VideoGamer.com: Is this the best Transformers game we’ve ever seen?

Joby Otero: Well, of course I’m biased and am going to say HELL YES! [Laughs]. We’ll leave that to the fans to decide. But what I can say definitively is that we’ve got three aspects that I think have not been seen in any previous Transformers game. Whether it’s every fan’s cup of tea or not, everyone will agree that it’s definitely bringing something different that feels true to Transformers. One is the transformation mechanic. When you get hands-on with it it’s hard to describe verbally, but it’s an active transformation control that really forces you to transform all the time. That constant transformation was built into every character and every mission from day one. It wasn’t something we designed around, it was something we designed into, and I really think that it gives it a different feel to any other game out there.

Secondly, we have The War Room. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but because of the fact that all the missions are like these five or ten minute crescendos of destruction – they’re very fast-paced – we also wanted to make sure that the personalities of the characters come out. So between missions you’ll come back to this War Room where all of the bots in your faction are gathered around a very high-tech projection of the globe, showing the state of the conflict. They’ll talk about things, and after a few missions players will notice that depending on how you play, the conversation is different and the personalities of the characters come out. Ratchet, for example, prizes not taking too much damage on the battlefield – he wants the Autobots to be careful. So if you’re letting yourself take too much damage, whether you succeeded in the mission or not, he’ll give you a bit of a finger-wagging. “Be careful out there!”

VideoGamer.com: I heard that if you’re an Autobot and cause too much collateral damage then Optimus Prime will get upset, but if you’re a Decepticon then Starscream will be pleased.

JO: Yeah, and it’s not just different for each faction, it’s different depending on how you play. You could do the mission several times and get slightly different conversations each time. And it’s not just a bit a of a stat-chat, it’s actually something where we really focused on working with our writers and passing it through Hasbro so that the way characters express themselves, the words they use, remains true to their long history. So Ratchet’s wording was carefully tuned. Hopefully long-term fans will say, “Wow, I’m not sure I’ve really gotten that much of a taste of Ratchet before.” Certainly not in the previous games, and maybe not in the film.

VideoGamer.com: Do you think that the previous Transformers games have failed to nail the key feel or flavour, then?

JO: Yeah. We felt like there was an extra dimension to these Transformers. Ultimately, visually they’re these big alien machines and I think it’s easy to get lost in the cool factor of all that machinery. They actually have a humanity to them. They’re not human, but they are sentient, caring beings, you know? They’ve got a heart. It was a fun challenge for us to try and bring that out, who they are. All of us as kids would talk to the bots while we were playing with them. I’m holding Optimus and my buddy’s holding Megatron, and we’re kind of doing our own improvised battle chatter. You’re imbuing it with your own humanity, and we’re trying to get that into the game.

VideoGamer.com: In terms of design, I rather felt that you’d taken some inspiration from Call of Duty 4: there’s the snap-to lock-on for targeting, and all the mini objectives to complete. Was that a big influence for you guys?

JO: Yeah, absolutely. Any time a game comes out that is that insanely polished, of course it’s going to have an impact. Whether or not we ever brought it up explicitly during our design meetings… I’m sure it did come up a few times, but even if it didn’t explicitly it was certainly in the back of our minds, along with other top titles. I definitely played the shit out of that one! Going back to what makes our game different, the third thing is the multiplayer. Again, I think every little kid who ever played with their Transformers has had it in the back of their minds that in this day and age, with so many franchises getting turned into interactive experiences, why can’t somebody bring this thing online? And of course we wanted to do that, as much as any fanboys out there, and it’s something that indisputably no other Transformers game has really done. So we’re really proud of the fact that we’ve got not only two full single-player campaigns for the Autobots and Deceptacons, but also a compelling multiplayer that is absolutely not a tack-on. I think some folks have the expectation that, “Oh, it’s a license. They probably felt forced to do multiplayer.” We totally didn’t. We put our eggs equally into single-player and multiplayer baskets from Day one.

VideoGamer.com: Licensed games normally have to be put together quite quickly so that they coincide with a film release. Has Luxoflux been on a very tight schedule with this game?

JO: As a developer, you always want to go “it’s done when it’s done”. Luckily we’ve worked on several really nice licenses over the last few years and we’ve learned how to design things that will be very scalable. So if things change with the film, we’ve got this core that works on a fundamental level. And if it turns out that maybe we don’t have as much variety as we’d like, which luckily wasn’t an issue that we ran into this time, we can dial that back and it’ll still be beating from the same heart. It’ll still be the same vision that will be distinctive when it gets out in the market place – but we might have to save some stuff for the sequel. Mostly things that are only going to bother us, because we didn’t get them in there.

VideoGamer.com: Were there things you wanted to do with this game that you didn’t have time for?

JO: Definitely. When you’ve got something as huge as Transformers, where the history implies millions if not billions of years evolution, from Cybertron and Unicron and seemingly pure energy-based beings, the original sparks… There are so many characters and different places that come out of that. I don’t want to go into too many details, but there are just so many of those things that we’d love to explore. But you know, the great thing is I think that we have a unique foundation to build on here. Hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to explore some of that stuff in the next one.

VideoGamer.com: So is DLC something you have plans for?

JO: Absolutely. We’ll be able to make an announcement pretty soon. I can’t give details, but we’re definitely going to be getting out there with that. And I’ve got to say that in particular fans of the G1 TV series [ie the original 80s cartoons] are going to be pleased by some of the stuff that’s in there.

VideoGamer.com: One last question. Who’s your favourite Transformer?

JO: In the game, or of all time?

VideoGamer.com: Let’s say of all time.

JO: So, I can tell you right now that this guy isn’t in the game. My all-time favourite, for bizarre personal reason, is Pepsi Optimus. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him? He’s a version of Optimus, and I think the original toy came out in 85 or 86 after the show had been out for a little while, in the States at least. He’s got a trailer, but instead of being a big box-y tractor trailer it’s just a giant Pepsi bottle. I don’t have the toy but our art director does, and I’ve quite often thought of snaking it for myself.

VideoGamer.com: I guess it would have been pretty hard to put him in the game…

JO: I think I just like that peculiar juxtaposition, that there’s this insanely advanced, intelligent alien machine that for some reason wants to dispense soft drinks. That tickles me!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be released on all leading formats on June 26.