One shall stand, one shall fall

'Them Duke boys sure did get into a helluva mess this time...'

Combat is very strange. Each robot has two types of ranged attacks, but aiming is problematic due to the third-person camera, which follows too closely and isn't well-suited to indoors environments. It is sometimes difficult to complete a mission because targets can't be located, and the manual target lock mechanism doesn't latch onto enemies with any degree of accuracy. Hand-to-hand combat doesn't fare much better. Again, the wonky camera makes combat difficult; the enemy is often lost from the viewport. When the enemy can be located, it's a button-mashing fest and nothing more. Strangely, guns and the like can't be used up close, as opposing robots will always put up their shields. So you're left to pummel the enemy with your metal fists, and occasionally pick up a stunned enemy for a body slam. By no means is the combat satisfying, which is unfortunate because it comprises so much of the gameplay.

If any part of the game can be considered broken, it's vehicle combat. Transforming into a sports car seems like a great idea, but the driving model has no consistency. Steering with a keyboard is next to impossible, making timed racing missions frustrating. There's no AI to speak of, and human police vehicles are always smashing into your car from all directions. That's not really a problem, though, because the very basic physics modeling has no basis in rational thought. You'll bounce through a half-dozen cars without so much as slowing down, though your vehicle's direction will change randomly. Damage modeling? No worries – there's none to be found; you'll bounce off objects with impunity from Newtonian forces. Driving missions left me cursing the game in anger.

Transforming into a helicopter or other flying vehicle is no better. Steering is so quick that over-correcting becomes a part of the game's difficulty (incidentally, there are no difficulty settings available). The camera, which is bad on the ground, is next to unusable in the air. Vertical aiming has follows no particular pattern, so keeping the vehicle at a consistent altitude is an exercise in frustration. All of this makes air-to-air and air-to-ground combat a roll of the dice – just fire constantly and hope for the best.

Every control can be customized, and the game auto-detects gamepads.

Thankfully, the controls are fully customizable for all types of play. Different key bindings can be set for robots, land vehicles and air vehicles. The controls settings will auto-detect gamepads, and it's no surprise that this multi-platform title works well with an Xbox 360 controller with Windows drivers. Controls are a mixed bag – the usual PC settings are there, including sensitivity settings, but during gameplay the controls play favorites.

Driving and flying is best done with a gamepad, but robot missions (particularly combat) are best suited to a keyboard and mouse combo. Even with a dual-analog gamepad, robot combat never felt right with a joypad. Combined with the broken camera, which has no zoom facility, controlling any aspect of the game can be a chore.