Transformers: Fall of Cybertron has an ambitious vision. The game makers at High Moon Studios are looking to broaden the appeal and excitement of the Transformers brand by expanding the fictional backdrop in new and exciting directions. As exhibited in sci-fi franchises like Halo, Killzone, or Gears of War, a key component of a believable mythology lies in authentic and surprising locations and environments. Fall of Cybertron aims to bring the metallic homeworld of the Transformers to life as never before with an array of exciting locales.

Take our illustrated tour of the game’s many sites in the pages ahead. On any of the many art images and screens, you can click the image for a larger version.

Cybertron

The home planet of the Transformers is a world of metal on the far side of the galaxy from Earth. No known organic creatures exist on the planet, but life has found a way through sentient robotic beings that have the ability to transform their shape at will. Cybertron holds within itself the essence of Primus, the god-like creator of the Transformers.

Long ago, Cybertron and its inhabitants experienced a golden age of expansion, scientific growth, and peace. Cybertronian civilization spread out to colony worlds across the galaxy. That civilization came to a tragic end millennia ago, leaving behind relics and remnants of a time when the Cybertronians were more powerful than they are today.

More recently, a horrific civil war ravaged the planet, fought between two armed factions, the Autobots and Decepticons. The Decepticons poisoned the planet’s core with an insidious substance called dark energon, and the entire planet has shut down to repair itself. Cybertron is now a world in stasis, and most of its inhabitants are being forced into exile or face extinction.

Iacon

Once the capital city and headquarters for the Autobot cause, Iacon has crumbled into a war torn and depowered ruin by the time Fall of Cybertron begins. A snow of soot and ash coats the sprawling city. Dead robots lie scattered in the streets, with no one to mourn their passing. Once vibrant lines of energon that lit the city now sit dark. The Autobots lost the war for Cybertron, and few places so clearly show that loss as their home city.

In Iacon, and further into the Sea of Rust, players will encounter the fallen corpses of ancient Cybertronians

Iacon is blanketed in ash and soot -- the detritus of a seemingly endless war

[NEXT UP: A metallic desert, and the legendary space bridge]