Eric’s Transformers Notes
Questionable control schemes
Kinda like War for Cybertron
Doesn’t look terrible
Fun
That is the entirety of the notes I took while playing through Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Usually, I have about three-quarters of a page of notes written down to cover in a review. Well…Transformers didn’t need that much, clearly. I realized that a base review for a licensed game that showed promise wouldn’t really cover it. So, I began to think.
How do you tell people that Transformers controls suck one-third of the time — how do you properly convey that feeling? I could blatantly spit out that being in vehicle form is the absolute worst part of the game, or I could gloss over the poor part of the controls and mention how tight the stealth force transformation mode and the robot forms are. Getting that proper feeling into the reader can be difficult.
DotM is made by High Moon Studios. If you recognize that name it is because you played last year’s Transformers game, War for Cybertron. If you played WfC, you probably liked the game at least a small amount. So, with the same studio working on both games, you should expect that some elements are going to fall over. The story was pretty irrelevant in WfC, and it is irrelevant in this as well. The mechanics were solid in WfC, and they are in this one as well. Get it? High Moon made both games, so you will have at least a little fun if you liked War for Cybertron.
One thing High Moon couldn’t do was keep the game looking spectacular. DotM looks like a game from 2008. It isn’t bad, but the year that they had to create this game meant there were some concessions to be had somewhere, and they chose the graphical department. If graphics are the end all, be all for gaming to you, well, for one, you’re doing it wrong. Secondly, don’t play this game.
This one is the toughest thing for most reviewers to write: How do I explain to you that while everything is middle of the road, it is just plain fun? Is it because shooting robots with a multitude of weapons and attacks is inherently fun? Well, that probably helps, but shooting can be done in many games. I suppose stomping around war-torn cities and jungles is something people would enjoy, also?
It isn’t even close to being a great game, but I played through it in two sittings. While the game is only six or seven hours long, I haven’t done that with a video game in some time. A helping factor, I admit, was the achievements. I cleaned up many of them on my first play through and they were compelling enough to keep scooting me along.
Unless you are a “graphics whore,” consider playing this game. It isn’t worth spending full price on, but if you want to Gamefly it or wait for bargain bin prices, you’re in for a pretty decent deal. As a movie tie-in, it is an exemplary game. It is quick, fun and very easy to lose yourself in for a short amount of time. Not every game needs to be the Citizen Kane of video games. Sometimes, the Transformers of video games really isn’t that bad.
This review was based on a copy of the game for the Xbox 360 sent to the writer by the publisher.
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