Terminator Salvation

Reviewed by Coxster
Played on Xbox 360  

Love them or hate them, there is no getting around the fact that the good old movie tie-in is here to stay.  Terminator Salvation is the latest one that tries to give you the thrills (and Gears of War cloned gameplay) of the latest movie starring Christian Bale.  Even though you play as John Connor, there is no accurate modelling of Christian Bale or even his voice acting so right from the start you feel a little let down.  Word on the street is that Batman Bale wouldn’t lend himself over to be rendered in virtual form.  Whether this is due to the fact that the pay check wasn’t right, or that his may feel that he is such a huge actor that being in a videogame is beneath him is anyone’s guess.  I have to say though that without CB on your screen, the game doesn’t feel one hundred percent authentic.   

Humans 1, Robot scum 0

At least this game is actually set before the events of the movie and I like the clever way that studios are approaching movie tie-ins these days.   Often a game will try to recreate the situations found in a film and end up being largely forgettable.   While that may be the case here, at least you have a good back-story that leads you up to the film.  Wanted did it, Wolverine did it, now it’s Terminator’s turn and I think with studios taking this approach they are doing the right thing.   

As I mentioned before, Salvation wishes it was Gears of War.  It’s a game that is all about blasting those very naughty machines to kingdom come using any guns and cover you can find.   Set in LA after Skynet blows the crap out of everything, it’s up to John Connor to lead the resistance and show those overgrown toasters whose boss.  The AI of the machines is almost on par with Forrest Gump’s level of intelligence and really makes you wonder how the hell they won in the first place, mind you one need only watch the IQ’s at the Fox News Network to see that maybe they could be humanity in a fair fight, so even though the AI isn’t brilliant, it does a good enough job because the robots that you come across are loaded with a brutal arsenal.   Without any cover or tact, you’ll have your arse constantly handed to you and due to the fact that the checkpoint system isn’t the best I’ve seen, constantly restarting becomes a chore, so you have to take advantage of your surroundings.   If you’ve played Gears of War, you’ll know what to expect, but don’t expect it to play as tight.  There is no roadie run, no awesome melee, no reload mini-game, it’s just bare bones third person action that does enough to be playable, but hardly exciting.  

Prepare for PWNAGE!!1!!!

There is plenty of action in the five to six hours that it takes to beat the game, and there are harder difficulties to master, but the incentive to replay Terminator Salvation isn’t really there.   You can take this bad boy online and play with a buddy and for the most part it works well enough, but because you can do this with much more exciting action games already it really is left up to those that love the Terminator franchise to make it an option that you’ll even consider playing.   

The graphics aren’t terrible and there are actually some levels that look pretty nice, but the character models and some clipping issues with the cover system do hurt things a little.   As we have said there is no CEEBEE, your squad mates lack any major characterization (apart from one or two team members) making them all blend into a big crowd of rejects from Killzone 2.    There are some terrible choices with regards to boss battles that never play out to the epic proportions you were expecting because they have been built up during the game, ending in some disappointing conflicts that would’ve been amazing if they were utilized better.   

Terminator Salvation isn’t a bad game by any means, there are actually some fun battles to fight, but overall it feels like the developers were ticking boxes on the movie to game checklist, rather than aiming for innovation.  Given to a crappy developer though, and this game could’ve been as forgettable as the Rise of the Machines was. As it stands the game passes, but just barely.  

Overall:

- No Christian Bale!
- Some nice graphics and some bad graphics. 
- Far too short to justify the price tag. 
- Replay value is minimal.
- Gameplay is solid for the most part if a little generic in some places
- Some good boss battles, some really bad ones.
- NO CHRISTIAN BALE!
- Co-op plays pretty well.
- Almost nil replay value.
- Does well to cover events before the movie
- NO CHRISTIAN BALE!