If you film it, they will come…and make a video game tie-in for it. Activision has released a new trailer for the upcoming Transformers: Dark of the Moon video game, which will feature “an original prologue storyline to the upcoming film and debut in-game ‘stealth force’ conversion mode”.
The original storyline is self-explanatory, but no word on what the “in-game stealth force” is all about.
Although video game adaptations and tie-ins to upcoming movies are typically pitiable things, like the mangy dog you find out in the street that you know will never do tricks and won’t impress anyone, but you just love that particular breed of dog so much that you are willing to take a try, right up until that dog shows you its bland level design and rushed gameplay–dogplay. Whatever, the analogy is wearing a bit thin, but you get the point.
But the developers for this title, High Moon Studios, are the group responsible for the surprisingly solid and well received Transformers: War for Cybertron. Of course that game was a standalone project that told a story set well before the movies so it did not need to coordinate with Transformers director Michael “boom boom” Bay, and that title actually has its own sequel due out sometime in 2012. This new Transformers game seems to be a different animal altogether, although you can almost certainly expect a very similar style of gameplay.
If High Moon Studios has had the time to create the game they want for the upcoming movie, it may be worth checking out. But as the developer’s last game was released less than a year ago, it does raise questions about how much development time was spent on the title. Time will tell.
No release date has been given for the Transformer: Dark of the Moon video game, but with the movie due in theaters on July 1, you can expect the game sometime in June for PS3 and Xbox 360, and if the developer remains true to its past history, then there will likely be a modified Wii version as well.
