I had high hopes for the Transformers: Dark of the Moon game tie-in. On one hand, it's the Transformers, and while I don't think highly of the Bay films, I still love giant robots punching each other in the face while they turn into cars. You tack on that it's been developed by High Moon studios, which was responsible for last year’s phenomenal Transformers: War for Cybertron, and I'm anxious to get my hands on it. Now the question comes up, is this game designed more for the traditional fan, like the previous game, or is this just a quick cash grab meant to dazzle fans who just walked out of the movie hungry for more explosions? For me, the even better question is if this is a quality follow-up to one of my favorite games from last year.
The story starts out simple enough, trying to be a prequel for the new movie. The Decepticons have retreated into hiding after their defeat by the Autobots and earth forces (and probably because they too saw the second movie and had the common decency to vanish, unlike Michael Bay). Now the Autobots have teamed back up with NEST, the US army division designed to aid them in tracking down and destroying the bad bots. That's really about it. What follows are excuses to have the Transformers battling in all sorts of different environments. It never provides a better narrative than just a Decepticon is at “insert new place name” and you have to go blow him up and anything else in the way. It is supposed to lead up to the new movie, but that only happens at the end. The game winks and nods at a new baddie from the film as the final boss and then ends by practically saying, “Just go see the movie already!” This is a boring story, with no fun interactions or clever dialogue between any characters. There's a complete lack of a larger narrative to drive the player on. There's just no glue holding this thing together, and it shows as every level drags and drags on.
The worst part of the story is that every level is built around the use of only one transformer. Unlike last year’s brilliant War for Cybertron where you had the choice from three transformers every level, this time I only get whoever the developers wanted me to play. This leads the game to commit the ultimate sin of a transformer game, the inability to play as Optimus Prime. I hate that I get an entire level as Mirage just to show him off for the new movie and yet Optimus is only playable for the last boss fight. He doesn't even get his own level, just a single boss fight! The first film-based Transformers game did this and it's terrible to see this mistake repeat itself. It may seem stupid to make a big deal about this, but I simply cannot forgive this and feel it needs to be pointed out.
Luckily, the game itself is a good enough third person shooter, mimicking enough of the right elements from War for Cybertron to make it competent. The part that struck me as funny was the heavily advertised stealth mode. I find it hilarious that they are calling a mode “stealth mode” when it's just the Transformers in vehicle form with big guns sticking out of everywhere thus contradicting the “stealth” part. The other part is that it is exactly how the vehicle forms worked previously in (yup, you guessed it) War for Cybertron. It's not a new feature to someone like myself who played last year's game, just a different label for the same goods.
Everything else works well enough, but the problem is that none of the levels are very exciting. There's never any life to any of the environments. I will admit I was having fun when I first booted the game up and was zipping around as Bumblebee, but it quickly turns into a corridor shooter where the same robots just keep coming. There's just no variety here. The game even commits another mortal sin in having a stealth level. I mean, a stealth level in a game with giant robots. The only level that really stood out to me was a section where I controlled Lazerbeak and Starscream's section. That was only because both levels feature sections that break from the normal game style. It doesn't help that I never got the sense that any of the Transformers were actually unique. It just lacked all the punch that the previous superior title delivered.
The graphics are quite a mixed bag. The transformers themselves look spectacular. The amount of detail and fluidity as they transform is a sight for the eyes. I caught myself just standing still and watching the animations of the transformations. It really just comes down to if you do or don't like the Bay version of the big bots. I personally don't (especially Megatron who looks terrible in this new road warrior version) but I was still quite impressed with character models. It's just too bad the same detail didn't go over the environments. Everything is just bland and stale. The game fails completely to deliver anything on the scale from the trailers.
I was even more disappointed when I switched over to the multiplayer side. All the modes had been carried over from War for Cybertron including the ability to customize the Transformers. The game even plays very well online. The ability to switch from robot to vehicle and chase after other players still feels fresh and fun. All the features are still intact and work just as well with one giant exception: the “Escalation” mode is completely absent. That was a hard hit for me being my favorite mode from last year. Escalation was the Transformers’ answer to the popular horde modes, and it was so much fun. I really have to knock the game for not carrying over my favorite part.
It saddens me to say that after enduring the 7 to 8 hours that the answer to my question became quite clear. To quote Soundwave, “Dark of the Moon inferior, War for Cybertron superior.” Looking back at my review, I constantly compared this game to War for Cybertron, and for good reason. That game has everything this game doesn't. It's fun, well designed, and geared towards fans of the cartoon. I can still say this outing is better than most licensed games and should someone decide to pick it up, they will enjoy a decent shooter. My problem is just that it is a step back from last year. I personally feel that Dark of the Moon is not worth the time or the money. I would tell anyone interested to just spend less money and pick up War for Cybertron or just play through the game again. You're going to have a much better time if you do.
"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is on sale June 14, 2011 and is rated T. Action. Developed by High Moon Studios. Published by Activision, Electronic Arts.
