This just hit the PSN on the 28th due to a delay in updating the store, so just what are you getting for $9.99 to go with your Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen experience?
To start off with they’ve added eight new characters on the multiplayer end of things, along with three new re-skins as well as three new maps to destroy other robots online in. For those that enjoy the single player experience you’re getting 8 new characters and three re-skins as well. I bet you’re wondering how that all works? Well Jetfire is getting unlocked only in multiplayer and they’re adding the Aerialbot to the Autobot single player roster for some missions. The other bringers of mayhem from the film universe include Sideswipe, Soundwave, and Jazz. For re-skins you get Stealth Bumblebee, Gen One colors Ratchet and Gen One colors Sideswipe. As a special treat they’ve put in some Gen One character models with new weapons and abilities including Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Sunstorm. So yes you do get 11 new characters to play as if you count re-skins different characters, but it gives you some new options.
I do have to disagree with some of the people who are screaming about balance issues with some of the new characters available. Jazz and Sideswipe are both getting the finger pointed at them, Jazz because he can spam out these guided missiles and Sideswipe is generally so well balanced it makes him deadly in a skilled players hands, which is no different than one of the skilled Decepticon players with Grindor or Seeker. You can always break out of missile lock even on Jazz’s missiles and Sideswipe is not invincible. I’d say the one that got the short end of the multiplayer stick is Jetfire. His shields don’t last very long, his weapons aren’t precise and he can’t really dodge at all so you get pummeled with missiles if you’re not careful. Soundwave you really can’t run in with either and you need to be sneakier. Yes I’m talking to the two guys playing Soundwave against me over the weekend who got nailed by Sideswipe because you flew right at me. You can’t get away with that as any of the other jets why do you think you’d be able to do that as Soundwave?
Most of the Gen 1 re-skins work exactly like their movie counterparts, except Starcscream reaches out and pulls Megatron from his back in gun mode and fires him for his special now. Gen 1 Megatron works like Flight Mode movie Megs, G1 Prime just like Movie Prime with a different look, and Sunstorm has an interesting new tactic that I haven’t seen many employ effectively, but when they do it is awesome. Sunstorm has the overheat special ability which forces the enemy into hand to hand combat, but then Sunstorm has flamethrowers built in and can usually just hose the enemy down without too much fuss. Again, it’s all about skill and there are ways to counter it people.
The three new maps sound great on paper, Hillside, Sandstorm, and Courtyard. Hillside drops you in a tiered multi-leveled section of Cairo with a few key buildings that make for great cover and also a great spot to ambush you if you’re not careful. Sandstorm puts you in a cramped area of the city with no place to hide but lots of dust and fires burning to really confuse not only you but the people you’re fighting. There’s little air cover so flyers here are at a bit of a disadvantage but the relatively low buildings doesn’t give the ground vehicles much cover either. Courtyard creates an area to really duke it out in while giving you cover whether you’re flying or driving all around the outsides. Set in a foggy city setting, you really have to be quick and on the look out as it’s very easy to get snuck up on with the limited visibility.
Oh, and I forgot to mention Elite Mode is included in this handy little DLC package, but from what I’m hearing it will overwrite your normal save if you start a new game in Elite mode, so if you haven’t unlocked everything in normal mode, I don’t recommend starting Elite mode just yet.
And for all those trophy hounds out there, you get an extra few trophies to pick up as well, one unknown and the others are pretty self-explanatory. Two of my favorites are Sideswiped (take out Sideways with Sideswipe in multiplayer) and Soundwave Superior (Soundwave has to take out Long Haul in multiplayer). There are of course the Prime vs Megatron and a Starscream vs Megatron for the Gen 1 crowd.
All in all this pack has shaken up the online play quite a bit and is balanced as far as I can tell. The ins and outs of each new bot and how they work with the pre-existing ones hasn’t quite been figured out yet. As far as single player goes, it is very nice to have some more options in the campaign mode and the new guys perform pretty admirably there, some not as well as they do in multiplayer but that’s a different play form entirely. If you do want to stay competitive, this is something to get, but not everyone is going to need it. The new maps are all pretty awesome and feel much bigger than some of the other multiplayer maps.
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