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Terminator Salvation [PS3] (Yeah, late, I know)
Terminator Salvation was released in May 2009 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and is another of the movie tie-ins that seem to be saturating the shelves of games in recent years. Having read several awful reviews, I decided that I must experience it for myself, and attempt to be as positive as possible.
The graphics of the game are quite good, in places definitely keeping that “next generation” feel to it, and rarely did I find myself thinking that it looked more like an up-to-date PS2 game, which is more than I can say about some games that I’ve played this generation. The cover system works really well, when it decides to work properly, and it is a real shame that it isn’t consistent because it would make the game a lot more tolerable to play.
And now for what will consist of the bulk of the review, the negatives, starting with the thing that annoyed me the most, loading times. They are absolutely atrocious, following a mandatory approximately 1.5GB game data install, I would not expect a game to be taking upwards of 1 minute to be loading.
Now, this wouldn’t be a major issue, just a minor niggle, if you weren’t greeted with the same loading screen on restarting from a Game Over screen. The level has already loaded, so I don’t see what could possibly be taking so long!
Repetition. Repetition. Rinse and repeat, this game is absolutely full of it, the tactics for defeating pretty much every machine is the same, flank them, shoot a couple of times, then cower for about 15 minutes as the team-member AI stands around, picking it’s nose instead of doing something useful; either shooting to kill, or drawing attention away from the player so they can actually participate. The lack of enemy variety does little to help with this: ‘wasps’, ‘spiders’, ‘skins’, T-600s and motorbike-like enemies (vehicle sections only). Playing through the game, you will have faced off against the whole roster by approximately 1-2 hours in.
But I guess this could be considered normal, for some games, for all enemy varieties to be brought in by around half-way. I probably took longer than the average gamer to complete the game, but it still only took me around 6 hours of playing time.
Now, I’m not sure whether to class this under positives or negatives. On one hand, the fact that the game is so short always counts against it, but on the other hand, it minimizes the monotony and frustration that you gain by playing through the game.
The game also has no replay value. At all. Hard difficulty, the hardest on the game, is unlocked from the beginning, there are no side missions, nothing to collect, no reason to explore, no mini-games. After the main story line is finished, you can play it again. And that’s it. It would benefit from something else to do, anything. But I guess the developers either weren’t given enough time, or couldn’t be bothered, and besides, if they can’t get the main game right, what hope was there for additional content.
Another complaint I have with the game is the health system. It just didn’t make much sense to me. It fully restores, generally after a wave of enemies or after reaching a certain point in the game, which is fine, and makes sense. What didn’t make sense to me was the random gain and loss of health that seems to be littered through. During the vehicle sections, the vehicles have a nasty habit of losing the majority of their health in one game to bring about the “Game Over” screen.
Before I start going on a tangential rant about the game rather than reviewing it, I should conclude. An extremely broken game with pinches of fun and functionality, peppered with frustration and bad design decisions. Definitely one for those who spend their time looking to improve their gamerscores or increase the size of their trophy cabinets. Other than that, I can’t see why anyone would like or choose to put themselves through having to play this game. It works in places, but there aren’t many games that can get me to throw my controller to the floor at disgust at how badly it plays. Terminator Salvation is one of those games.
Review Score: 3/10
Terminator Salvation was released in May 2009 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and is another of the movie tie-ins that seem to be saturating the shelves of games in recent years. Having read several awful reviews, I decided that I must experience it for myself, and attempt to be as positive as possible.
The graphics of the game are quite good, in places definitely keeping that “next generation” feel to it, and rarely did I find myself thinking that it looked more like an up-to-date PS2 game, which is more than I can say about some games that I’ve played this generation. The cover system works really well, when it decides to work properly, and it is a real shame that it isn’t consistent because it would make the game a lot more tolerable to play.
And now for what will consist of the bulk of the review, the negatives, starting with the thing that annoyed me the most, loading times. They are absolutely atrocious, following a mandatory approximately 1.5GB game data install, I would not expect a game to be taking upwards of 1 minute to be loading.
Now, this wouldn’t be a major issue, just a minor niggle, if you weren’t greeted with the same loading screen on restarting from a Game Over screen. The level has already loaded, so I don’t see what could possibly be taking so long!
Repetition. Repetition. Rinse and repeat, this game is absolutely full of it, the tactics for defeating pretty much every machine is the same, flank them, shoot a couple of times, then cower for about 15 minutes as the team-member AI stands around, picking it’s nose instead of doing something useful; either shooting to kill, or drawing attention away from the player so they can actually participate. The lack of enemy variety does little to help with this: ‘wasps’, ‘spiders’, ‘skins’, T-600s and motorbike-like enemies (vehicle sections only). Playing through the game, you will have faced off against the whole roster by approximately 1-2 hours in.
But I guess this could be considered normal, for some games, for all enemy varieties to be brought in by around half-way. I probably took longer than the average gamer to complete the game, but it still only took me around 6 hours of playing time.
Now, I’m not sure whether to class this under positives or negatives. On one hand, the fact that the game is so short always counts against it, but on the other hand, it minimizes the monotony and frustration that you gain by playing through the game.
The game also has no replay value. At all. Hard difficulty, the hardest on the game, is unlocked from the beginning, there are no side missions, nothing to collect, no reason to explore, no mini-games. After the main story line is finished, you can play it again. And that’s it. It would benefit from something else to do, anything. But I guess the developers either weren’t given enough time, or couldn’t be bothered, and besides, if they can’t get the main game right, what hope was there for additional content.
Another complaint I have with the game is the health system. It just didn’t make much sense to me. It fully restores, generally after a wave of enemies or after reaching a certain point in the game, which is fine, and makes sense. What didn’t make sense to me was the random gain and loss of health that seems to be littered through. During the vehicle sections, the vehicles have a nasty habit of losing the majority of their health in one game to bring about the “Game Over” screen.
Before I start going on a tangential rant about the game rather than reviewing it, I should conclude. An extremely broken game with pinches of fun and functionality, peppered with frustration and bad design decisions. Definitely one for those who spend their time looking to improve their gamerscores or increase the size of their trophy cabinets. Other than that, I can’t see why anyone would like or choose to put themselves through having to play this game. It works in places, but there aren’t many games that can get me to throw my controller to the floor at disgust at how badly it plays. Terminator Salvation is one of those games.
Review Score: 3/10
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Terminator Salvation [PS3] (Yeah, late, I know)
Terminator Salvation was released in May 2009 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and is another of the movie tie-ins that seem to be saturating the shelves of games in recent years. Having read several awful reviews, I decided that I must experience it for myself, and attempt to be as positive as possible.
The graphics of the game are quite good, in places definitely keeping that “next generation” feel to it, and rarely did I find myself thinking that it looked more like an up-to-date PS2 game, which is more than I can say about some games that I’ve played this generation. The cover system works really well, when it decides to work properly, and it is a real shame that it isn’t consistent because it would make the game a lot more tolerable to play.
And now for what will consist of the bulk of the review, the negatives, starting with the thing that annoyed me the most, loading times. They are absolutely atrocious, following a mandatory approximately 1.5GB game data install, I would not expect a game to be taking upwards of 1 minute to be loading.
Now, this wouldn’t be a major issue, just a minor niggle, if you weren’t greeted with the same loading screen on restarting from a Game Over screen. The level has already loaded, so I don’t see what could possibly be taking so long!
Repetition. Repetition. Rinse and repeat, this game is absolutely full of it, the tactics for defeating pretty much every machine is the same, flank them, shoot a couple of times, then cower for about 15 minutes as the team-member AI stands around, picking it’s nose instead of doing something useful; either shooting to kill, or drawing attention away from the player so they can actually participate. The lack of enemy variety does little to help with this: ‘wasps’, ‘spiders’, ‘skins’, T-600s and motorbike-like enemies (vehicle sections only). Playing through the game, you will have faced off against the whole roster by approximately 1-2 hours in.
But I guess this could be considered normal, for some games, for all enemy varieties to be brought in by around half-way. I probably took longer than the average gamer to complete the game, but it still only took me around 6 hours of playing time.
Now, I’m not sure whether to class this under positives or negatives. On one hand, the fact that the game is so short always counts against it, but on the other hand, it minimizes the monotony and frustration that you gain by playing through the game.
The game also has no replay value. At all. Hard difficulty, the hardest on the game, is unlocked from the beginning, there are no side missions, nothing to collect, no reason to explore, no mini-games. After the main story line is finished, you can play it again. And that’s it. It would benefit from something else to do, anything. But I guess the developers either weren’t given enough time, or couldn’t be bothered, and besides, if they can’t get the main game right, what hope was there for additional content.
Another complaint I have with the game is the health system. It just didn’t make much sense to me. It fully restores, generally after a wave of enemies or after reaching a certain point in the game, which is fine, and makes sense. What didn’t make sense to me was the random gain and loss of health that seems to be littered through. During the vehicle sections, the vehicles have a nasty habit of losing the majority of their health in one game to bring about the “Game Over” screen.
Before I start going on a tangential rant about the game rather than reviewing it, I should conclude. An extremely broken game with pinches of fun and functionality, peppered with frustration and bad design decisions. Definitely one for those who spend their time looking to improve their gamerscores or increase the size of their trophy cabinets. Other than that, I can’t see why anyone would like or choose to put themselves through having to play this game. It works in places, but there aren’t many games that can get me to throw my controller to the floor at disgust at how badly it plays. Terminator Salvation is one of those games.
Review Score: 3/10
Terminator Salvation was released in May 2009 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and is another of the movie tie-ins that seem to be saturating the shelves of games in recent years. Having read several awful reviews, I decided that I must experience it for myself, and attempt to be as positive as possible.
The graphics of the game are quite good, in places definitely keeping that “next generation” feel to it, and rarely did I find myself thinking that it looked more like an up-to-date PS2 game, which is more than I can say about some games that I’ve played this generation. The cover system works really well, when it decides to work properly, and it is a real shame that it isn’t consistent because it would make the game a lot more tolerable to play.
And now for what will consist of the bulk of the review, the negatives, starting with the thing that annoyed me the most, loading times. They are absolutely atrocious, following a mandatory approximately 1.5GB game data install, I would not expect a game to be taking upwards of 1 minute to be loading.
Now, this wouldn’t be a major issue, just a minor niggle, if you weren’t greeted with the same loading screen on restarting from a Game Over screen. The level has already loaded, so I don’t see what could possibly be taking so long!
Repetition. Repetition. Rinse and repeat, this game is absolutely full of it, the tactics for defeating pretty much every machine is the same, flank them, shoot a couple of times, then cower for about 15 minutes as the team-member AI stands around, picking it’s nose instead of doing something useful; either shooting to kill, or drawing attention away from the player so they can actually participate. The lack of enemy variety does little to help with this: ‘wasps’, ‘spiders’, ‘skins’, T-600s and motorbike-like enemies (vehicle sections only). Playing through the game, you will have faced off against the whole roster by approximately 1-2 hours in.
But I guess this could be considered normal, for some games, for all enemy varieties to be brought in by around half-way. I probably took longer than the average gamer to complete the game, but it still only took me around 6 hours of playing time.
Now, I’m not sure whether to class this under positives or negatives. On one hand, the fact that the game is so short always counts against it, but on the other hand, it minimizes the monotony and frustration that you gain by playing through the game.
The game also has no replay value. At all. Hard difficulty, the hardest on the game, is unlocked from the beginning, there are no side missions, nothing to collect, no reason to explore, no mini-games. After the main story line is finished, you can play it again. And that’s it. It would benefit from something else to do, anything. But I guess the developers either weren’t given enough time, or couldn’t be bothered, and besides, if they can’t get the main game right, what hope was there for additional content.
Another complaint I have with the game is the health system. It just didn’t make much sense to me. It fully restores, generally after a wave of enemies or after reaching a certain point in the game, which is fine, and makes sense. What didn’t make sense to me was the random gain and loss of health that seems to be littered through. During the vehicle sections, the vehicles have a nasty habit of losing the majority of their health in one game to bring about the “Game Over” screen.
Before I start going on a tangential rant about the game rather than reviewing it, I should conclude. An extremely broken game with pinches of fun and functionality, peppered with frustration and bad design decisions. Definitely one for those who spend their time looking to improve their gamerscores or increase the size of their trophy cabinets. Other than that, I can’t see why anyone would like or choose to put themselves through having to play this game. It works in places, but there aren’t many games that can get me to throw my controller to the floor at disgust at how badly it plays. Terminator Salvation is one of those games.
Review Score: 3/10