Terminator Salvation

Rage against  the machine!

With the inevitable Terminator Salvation movie comes the inevitable Movie based game. Whilst there is potential for movie-tie-in games can be decent (like Escape from butcher bay), many of them are bad.

Sadly despite the competent graphics suggesting otherwise, this one falls into the latter category due to poor programming and some terrible design choices.

The most minor of these is TS's insistence of adding lots of dull and needless cut scenes during the most exciting moments to break any sense of fun you may have. A good example would be the escape from a gun ship at the start of the game, but it's so frequently fragmented by cut scenes that  it makes the fight seem a chore.

The control mechanics in the game are functional but cries out for extra features or refinement. For instance, a sprint function would make moving into or between cover a lot safer and easier. The current speed that Conner goes is somewhere between a brisk walk and a  jog that's simply isn't fast enough to make a dash for vital cover or even run away. TS's system of moving between cover is ok but doesn't always work properly. Another is a lack of proper aiming when throwing grenades as its more or less trial and error. All these features aren't essential, but they would go a long way towards making the game slightly more enjoyable.

From the minor niggles of needless cut scenes and lacking control mechanics, we move to more bigger issues  of the game play itself which can be described as tedious and bland. This is due to a small enemy roster and some repetitive action. Depressingly, the majority of the time is spent shooting wave after wave of flying drones and spider bots.  Exoskeletons and human disguised exoskeletons make an occasional appearance, but it's more a frustration then a welcome change  as they take an astonishing amount of damage taking at least 2/3 shots with the RPG or grenade launcher and being practically indestructible against bullets. There are On-Rail shooter sections and they're genuinely entertaining, but again its ruined by so many pointless cut scenes.

The biggest problem is the frustratingly woeful friendly AI that does a horrendous job of doing anything. It simply fails at so many levels, as you can't rely on your team mates to  offer any assistance taking on the machines forcing players to do everything single handed. The problem is absolutely game breaking as the game involves squad based team work like GoW. The most common enemy, the spider bots, require you to flank behind them to destroy their battery packs. Therefore you need to rely on your female friend Blair to provide support for you to flank and take them down. All too often the crap AI refuses to do anything remotely helpful instead opting to hide behind cover even when no one is shooting at her. Result? Skynet's robots pin players down with ease and it's at this point all the game's problems combine to ruin the game.  In this situation you  can either:


A: use the few  grenades / pipe bombs in indirectly eliminate the enemy but since most engagements frequently have multiple waves, using all your grenades leaves no guarantee of freeing yourself. You'll probably a waste a couple because you can't aim your grenades properly

b:use Blind fire or pop out of cover to shoot. But unless you carry RPG's or M60s, the damage you'll inflict will be minimal, so you need to get behind them so...

c:...Break cover in the vain hope of getting into cover to get to a better position, but the  imperfect cover system  won't always give the cover you want. You manually bolt for it and risk taking damage or die.

d: Pray that Blair does something (or skynet gets bored) and draws enough fire away from you to do something. But this may never occur. It's at this point you wish you can order the AI to forcefully attack particular enemies or even just blind fire.

e: Give up or get a friend to coop join in split screen for some the repetitive action. Ideal for console gamers, but for a pc gamer it's a function that will be rarely used. If online multiplayer was implemented instead, it might have some replay value.


It's such a disappointment that TS is in this sorry state. The Developers clearly had the right idea of making TS into a 3rd person squad based shooter with similar mechanics like Gears of war.  But the game has so many critical flaws that it turns what was potentially a good game to a less then mediocre one at best.  To top things off, the game lacks longevity and replay ability as once you've completed the main story, that's it. Nothing to unlock, no multiplayer. My recommendation? Best to save your money or buy the one game that TS tries hard (but fails) to imitate: Gears of war.


3/10

One word review score: (S)crappy.