Fall Of Cybertron Deep Character Dive: Jazz

We’ve spent the month talking about some big ideas surrounding High Moon Studio’s upcoming Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

We’ve spent the month talking about some big ideas surrounding High Moon Studio’s upcoming Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. From a glimpse at the brand new weapons systemto our announcement of the return of the Dinobots, there are a lot of new features to wrap your head around.

Today, we go deep on one small area of gameplay and character – a close-up look at the character Jazz. This Autobot should be familiar to anyone who watched the old 1980s cartoon, but he hasn’t had a central role in the Transformers storyline in recent years. That equation changes with Fall of Cybertron, as Jazz steps up as one of the main playable characters.

Like all of the characters in Fall of Cybertron, Jazz and the levels he plays are built to complement one another. The challenges and battles you’ll face match Jazz’s particular skill set and strengths. Along the way, you’ll get to know more about this redesigned character, including a unique gameplay mechanic that only Jazz can implement.

The Character

High Moon took a look at what Jazz’s character is all about, and came away with some clear ideas of what they wanted to accentuate. Jazz is a fast, highly capable lieutenant to Optimus Prime. He’s funny and brazen, but more than ready for a fight. He’s cool under pressure.

Those ideas helped to inform a new vision for how the character would act, move, and talk. The new Fall of Cybertron version of Jazz is an extremely competent spec ops fighter at the forefront of the war against the Decepticons. His great competency is balanced against a joking personality.

When players take control of Jazz, Optimus Prime sends he and his good buddy Cliffjumper to track down Grimlock and his squad of heavy hitters. Grimlock’s strike team has gone missing, and Jazz and Cliffjumper must follow the trail of destruction they left behind. As Jazz moves deeper into dangerous enemy territory, he will uncover some big secrets key to the Autobot’s escape from the planet.

The Transformation

As discussed in our piece on Animating the Transformers, High Moon wants each character’s transformation to represent their personality. After the transformation animation is complete, the visual representation of robot and vehicle form should speak to the nature of that particular character, as well as remain visually similar to the original 80s look.

In the case of Jazz, his transformation harkens back to the character’s love of music and culture. As Jazz flips from robot to futuristic car and back again, the animation looks like a break-dancing move in fast-forward.

His robot form replicates the original head shape of the Generation 1 character almost exactly. From behind, the character’s constantly rotating engine and pumping pistons are clearly visible, helping to indicate the kinetic energy inherent to Jazz. He’s smaller than many of the other Autobots, a trait that’s on display when he fights many of the enemies, like the Insecticons.

Meanwhile, his vehicle form is sleek but rounded, calling to mind the Porsche appearance that the character had in his original incarnation. Like the old toy, Jazz sports a snazzy spoiler – as much for style as for speed.

[NEXT UP: How do Jazz's levels play, and what ideas did High Moon try and abandon?]