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Terminator Salvation Review for PC

Terminator Salvation Review for PC

Take Cover!

The Terminator franchise seems like the perfect IP for translating to video games. Unfortunately, throughout its lengthy history, there has never been a truly compelling gaming adaptation of it. This still holds true for Terminator Salvation the video game. While the game sports challenging enemy A.I., a well-contrived cover mechanic, and functions smoothly overall, the poor excuse for a story, lack of boss battles, scripted encounters, extremely short length, no online co-op, and meager bang-for-the-buck make this movie tie-in skip-worthy.

Terminator Salvation screenshot

For those yet to see the film, Terminator Salvation the video game won’t spoil it in the least. That’s because the plot in the game, except for the introduction of a few key characters, has nothing to do with the feature film. While some may view this as disappointing, I’m glad it was devoid of spoilers. That being said, the inclusion of an unremarkable player character rather than Christian Bale’s depiction of John Connor feels incredibly cheap. Moreover, the game’s narrative is extremely trite. In fact, it is merely a glimpse at the world of Terminator Salvation. Players simply head out into a decimated L.A. as John Connor and Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) in search of a lost group of comrades without any other real purpose. The game doesn’t even attempt to tie the events of T3: Rise of the Machines to the film’s depiction of Terminator Salvation. As such, players will be hard-pressed to derive much satisfaction out of the game besides what’s obtained from emptying bullets into Skynet machines. The lack of a cohesive narrative is certainly a big knock against the game’s initial appeal.

Another problem the game has is that you’ll constantly be railroaded into battle set-pieces. These relatively small, arena-like combat zones limit the action to taking out just a handful of baddies at a time. Similarly, this game lacks substantial boss battles. All you’ll be doing throughout this game is challenging the same few minion-like machines in different environments. In retrospect, it seems like the limiting of onscreen enemies was done to keep the game running artificially smooth, and the lack of boss battles screams of massive time constraints during development.

Terminator Salvation screenshot

Regardless of which of the three difficulty levels you choose, the game is awfully short; selecting the balanced, Normal difficulty setting will allow players to get through the game in under five hours. Furthermore, a load of mini and lengthy cutscenes have been incorporated throughout play, so that the game feels more like interactive machinima rather than an in-depth shooter. Adding insult to injury, these cinematics, while pretty, aren’t particularly engaging and not at all revealing. This will likely have shooter fans reefing on the facebuttons in consternation.

Though the game is full of missteps, a few enjoyable aspects do a nice job of redeeming it. For starters, having to take on durable baddies from several angles and multiple dimensions (the game often mixes flying and grounded opponents) with squishy humans required the creation of a well-implemented cover system. Thankfully, the developers passed this test with flying colors. The environments are full of chunky pieces of devastation to hide behind, and a very solid cover mechanic was used by the devs to get people scooting from one cover point to the next. Accessing the cover mechanic’s radial menu allows players to get to safety efficiently regardless from where the threats are coming.

Terminator Salvation screenshot

Also, playing local co-op through the story is a good bit of fun. That’s because this game puts a premium upon teamwork. Most of the machines are largely indestructible, requiring players to work in concert. Consequently, playing with a friend on the couch is very fun, even though the split-screen presentation is a bit confining. Working together to set traps and flank the machines is a largely rewarding third-person shooter experience.

On the downside, playing alone loses a lot, as the friendly A.I. is decidedly less intelligent than that of the enemy A.I. Running around stages like a headless chicken, painfully waiting for your A.I. squad-mates to get their act together is often frustrating and tedious. This could have been easily resolved if other squad members occasionally played the baiting role. As it is, you’re going to have to drive all of the squad’s strategy. If the developers simply didn’t have the time to incorporate more complex friendly A.I., they could have at least allowed for online matching. In fact, the omission of online co-op was a major gaffe, as this game only shines when you are playing with another human.

Terminator Salvation screenshot

Mixing things up just a bit are a few on-rails segments. While these were enjoyable, they never managed to capture a sense of badassery. In truth, this complaint applies to the entirety of the game. While the machines’ impervious nature makes for an agreeable challenge laced with strategy, it also makes you feel like you’re toting pea-shooters. The game never really allows you to overwhelm foes with firepower and never conveys a sense that you’re damaging them. I would have liked to have been able to at least leave my mark upon the machines I shot even if it didn’t slow them down at all. Alas, enemies never deform under the weight of your assault until you’ve hit their weakness and triggered the death animation. This makes for a rather lackluster and weak-feeling experience, overall.

Fortunately, the visual presentation, in general, is nicely polished. Of course, there’s never enough action onscreen at once to really stress contemporary hardware. Still, the environments and characters are all well depicted and move fluidly. Also, the cutscenes are nice to look at though not particularly substantive. Sonically, the music is pulled straight from the movies, which complements the game properly. Despite voice work from Moon Bloodgood, the conversations being had between NPCs are humdrum and inconsequential. This is further exacerbated by John Conner’s character, which not only looks and sounds nothing like Bale, but is particularly unbelievable due to his mundane appearance and school boy, do-gooder tone.

Terminator Salvation falls into many of the traps that classically plague movie-to-game translations. Though the game features a few core mechanics that makes it a good bit of fun, it is painfully apparent the developers were faced with a marketing timetable that didn’t allow them to produce the game they had envisioned. As such, this is a game for hardcore Terminator fans only. Everyone else that is still interested in the title should simply rent the game and have it beaten in an afternoon.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
The graphics are never tested, but the overall look is polished and pleasing. 3.8 Control
The third-person shooter mechanics are standard and the cover mechanic is tight, but the lack of weapons-power is a bust. 3.4 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The music and voice over work are fairly conventional stuff. However, the John Conner character sticks out as unbelievable. 3.0 Play Value
While the game is fun, especially with a partner on the couch, the lack of boss battles, no online multiplayer matching, and only a handful of hours of content make this game little more than a solid rental. 3.1 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • New Installment of Terminator Mythology: Set two years prior to the upcoming Terminator Salvation film, players will get the opportunity to be John Connor for the first time and continue the epic fiction of the Terminator mythology.
  • Unrelenting Intelligent Robotic Enemies: Unrelenting and incredibly resilient iconic enemies from the Terminator franchise fight to the bitter end on land and in the sky. Designed to pursue the player by any means necessary, damaged or broken enemies will literally claw their way forward to inflict harm.
  • Advanced Destructible Cover Gameplay: Terminator Salvation the videogame will incorporate advanced cover mechanics which allows players to use the destructible environment as protection and strategically navigate through enemy entrenched territory. The cover mechanic’s multi-faceted design changes the way cover gameplay is executed.
  • Diverse Array of Advanced Weaponry: The player has access to a wide array of weapons including shotguns, fully automatic machine guns, huge mounted weaponry, grenades, rocket-launchers, and even a plasma firing Skynet tank.
  • Rugged Armored Vehicles Gun Fights: Pursue, attack, or evade enemies through post-apocalyptic environments on foot or inside rugged armored vehicles in extremely kinetic and extensive cinematic gun battles.

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