E3 2012 hands-on: Transformers: Fall of Cybertron brings bigger worlds, Metroplex and Grimlock

High Moon Studios knows Transformers about as well as anyone, and after their successful War for Cybertron, we're eager to see what they can offer in Transfromers: Fall of Cybertron. Naturally, we had to check it out at E3.

Fall of Cybertron takes place millions of years before the Transformers land on Earth (all the G1 stuff), so High Moon had to come up with a whole new story to explain the Dinobots' existence on Cybertron. Well, they did, and it's actually pretty cool.

During the demo, we were able to see the Dinobots leader, Grimlock, in action. Interestingly, Grimlock doesn't actually have guns at his disposal, and his design seems to follow a fantasy warrior or barbarian archetype. Armed with an Energon sword and shield, his combat style is very up close and personally, and unlike other Transformers, he can't actually change into his alternate form at will. Instead, Grimlock has a resource meter, "Rage," which will accumulate in battle; maxing this meter out allows him to change into a T-Rex, up until the meter drains out.

Other 'bots will also have their own style, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who played WFC. Various parts of the game will assign players to different Transformers on either side of the conflict, and High Moon takes full advantage of every character's uniqueness. Starscream, for instance, can stealth around and attach bombs to his targets, while Jazz's grappling tool lets him cross larger distances quickly.

The other highlight was Metroplex, who appears during a gameplay sequence as nothing more than a background object, tearing through the horizon of buildings and Decepticons... up until Optimus (Peter Cullen) starts commanding him around. Hey, the guy did pledge himself to the last Prime. The scale of this city-sized Autobot is incredible when seen in-game, and that seems to be a common theme in Fall of Cybertron: size matters. The environments we saw were all designed to reflect Cybertron's massive scale, and players will be navigating in more ways than just running or driving. As before, kiosks all over the maps let you switch or buy weapons and upgrades.

For multiplayer fans, WFC's Escalation four-player co-op mode will be returning in FOC. When asked whether Dinobots would be playable here, High Moon opted not to confirm or deny.

Fall of Cybertron will be out on August 28 for consoles and PC. The PC version is being developed by Mercenary Games but will have all the content found in the 360 and PS3 versions.