Game Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Billy O'Keefe - Mclatchy -Tribune News Service

Reviewed for: Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 Other versions available for: Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS

ESRB Rating: Teen (violence)

Price: $60

No form of entertainment ages as unfairly fast as modern video games do, but really, how long's a year? And if the "Transformers" game that came out in 2010 is roundly better than the one that's out right now, why hold age against it?

As you might guess, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" ties into the movie of the same name and was the beneficiary of a development schedule that was at the mercy of the film's release. If you're somehow invested in the timeline of these "Transformers" movies, "Moon" provides a little color by playing out events that lead up to the third film and piecing it into seven missions starring eight Transformers.

Problem is, these events - which have you switching off between Autobots and Decepticons - don't come together to provide any kind of special significance the movie timeline. Instead, "Moon" feels like a patchwork non-story that serves merely to entice people to check out the movie and see something that actually (presumably) goes somewhere.

That's a problem last year's "Transformers: War for Cybertron" - which didn't tie into any movie and was free to debut when it was ready - didn't have. And it shows.

Lest we get carried away, "Cybertron" wasn't exactly immaculate, either. But its focus on the cartoon interpretation of "Transformers" gave it a considerable stylistic advantage over the movie's artless designs. Additionally, while the story wasn't edge-of-your-seat amazing, it worked in the service of the game you paid for instead of a movie you haven't seen, so it felt more complete.

Perhaps most important, "Cybertron" knew how to manage its gameplay strengths and weaknesses. Environments were tight without being cramped, and they made smart use of some good shooting, driving, flying and transforming controls. It broke no bounds as a third-person shooter with "Transformers" touches, but it was good enough.

"Moon," by contrast, falls back into patterns that made the preceding movie games so unfortunate. The oversized environments are back, and per usual, there's little to do between killing enemies, traveling down empty stretches in vehicle form, hitting a switch and repeating. "Moon" fills these large levels with areas that, ironically, make the game feel excessively cramped as enemies with no attack intelligence swarm from everywhere. The transition parts would mark a nice change of pace if there was something to do during them or if clumsy controls didn't cause vehicles to fishtail enough to make "Ridge Racer" look like "Forza" by comparison, but there isn't and they do.

Though the ability to play as different Transformers in each mission is nice, "Moon" rarely feels dramatically different from one level to the next, and its deviations - a sloppy stealth assignment, a pointlessly easy escort bit - neither change things much nor last very long.

The one area where "Moon" outdoes "Cybertron" is with the ability to transform into a third, stealth form that's a cross between each Transformer's robot and vehicular form. It's slower than the vehicle, but it travels in all directions without turning and, consequently, handles considerably better. "Moon" doesn't offer many opportunities to let the form shine where the other two wouldn't suffice, but any variety is welcome when so little is on offer.

But "Moon" falls right back behind again when it comes to online multiplayer (10 players), which cuts the match types down to only three basic variants and completely removes co-op play from the equation. The experience points system from "Cybertron" is back on board, but climbing the ladder is considerably less fun when the variety and quality of match types are both so basic.

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