Transformers Game Guide

Another Transformers movie means another Transformers game. For many longtime fans, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the other robots in disguise are special characters, and hope endures that someday, a Transformers game will come along that does them justice. Unfortunately, Dark of the Moon is not that game. The various guns and other weapons you use throughout the game sound powerful. The campaign is spread across seven chapters, each one focusing on a different Transformer (or, in one case, two Transformers). When in robot form, you have a few different weapons and abilities available, and the unique abilities of each Transformer lend the action a bit of variety from chapter to chapter. In Dark of the Moon, Transformers have what's called a "stealth force" form, which looks like a tricked-out, heavily armed version of their vehicle form but lets them move in all directions. This mobility makes the stealth force forms fun to control, but their limited firepower means you'll probably spend more time in robot form. Crashing into enemy robots sends them flying back through the air a ridiculous distance. Vehicle forms are also useful during specific sections of levels when you need to cover a lot of ground quickly. In addition to the campaign, Dark of the Moon has a multiplayer mode. There are only three game modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Conquest, in which teams earn points for controlling nodes. Walking through levels blasting and crashing into robots offers some satisfaction, but the game doesn't have any memorable moments, and it certainly doesn't capture the Transformers magic that fans of the robots in disguise are hoping for.