Doesn't even compare to the surprisingly awesome War for Cybertron.

User Rating: 6 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon PS3
By nephili232 | Review Date:
I gave Transformers War for Cybertron my coveted second favourite game of 2010. Admittedly 2010 was a terrible year for games, but that should by no means diminish how I felt about this game. It was outstanding. A Transformer fanboy's dream. The gameplay was tight, it felt visceral and brutal and the gun had tons of weight to them. Switching between vehicle and robot modes was easy and ridiculously fun. The story and characters captured the tone of the original series perfectly, but in a modern sense with some epic cinematic encounters. The multiplayer was very deep, loads of fun, and the class based system worked perfectly. It had co-op story along with the escalation co-op mode which was outstanding and a huge rush to play.

In contrast Dark of the Moon is so terrible that I can't believe it was made by the same studio. Another slightly successful title quickly milked to death by Activision forcing a rushed sequel. I can't wait to see when Spiderman Shattered Dimensions (another of my surprising top 5 games of 2010) gets the same Activision treatment later this year.

First off co-op and escalation are completely gone. The multiplayer from War for Cybertron that I loved so dearly is completely destroyed. They mixed up and ruined all of the classes, nerfed the maps and removed features. War for Cybertron had some issues for sure but Dark of the Moon is unplayable. Lag, getting kicked from matches, glitches are all terrible. But the worst is not being able to tell if you're hitting anything whether it's shooting or melee attacking. Actually the worst is getting obliterated every time you touch a team mate. The physics in the same are so poor you'll get tossed around the screen like you're in a washing machine the moment another player so much as bumps you.

The game is laughably short... almost Force Unleashed 2 short. Whatever minimal length is made up of backtracking through the same level, or completing the same boring tasks 5 times instead of 1. Of course we digress to the terrible, ugly garbage heap looking Bay Transformers and there's no story or characters to speak of at all. This game has the absolute minimum amount of dialogue and story possible. "Drive around and shoot things." "I'm driving around and shooting things." "Good driving and shooting" –end level– repeat. There is nothing of any excitement or relevance that happens in this terrible game. In fact Revenge of the Fallen was tons better than this junk as far as story, level design and game play.

Much like multiplayer it's tough to see if you're shooting or hitting anything. The physics are a mess. The guns feel so bad you can't tell if you're using a pistol or a rifle or a shotgun. Transforming is now awkward instead of smooth, and the stealth fire mode is just plain stupid.

I suspect the difference between War for Cybertron and Dark of the Moon isn't as humongous as my brain makes it out to be. War for Cybertron appealed to the Transformers fanboy inside me and was tons of guiltless fun. Whereas Dark of the Moon is an awful, slapped together movie game that is glitchy and terrible and has nothing to do with Transformers really. The many features missing might just have made the whole stack of cards fall down for me and shatter whatever illusions I had about High Noon's Transformers games. Either way, Dark of the Moon is a waste of time... unless you're looking for a 5 hour platinum.

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