Terminator Salvation Review

This blog wouldn't be a service to the gamer world if it did not spread the word on Terminator Salvation. I recently had the chance to play this game, and thankfully it was only a rental. 4 hours people, I repeat 4 hours people, is all it took to play this game all the way through on medium difficulty. Don't get me wrong the 820 G's were a nice welcome, but the experience was not worth them. Lets get into this review.

First the highlight. Singular. The controls, a basic duck and cover system is the key element here. With some elements of Gears of War 2 blended with a flank system reminiscence of Ghost Recon the robots never know what hit them. Spoiler: most robots weak points are their backs. Funny, they figured out time travel, heat seeking rockets, and laser weapons, but not how to put a piece of sheet metal over their battery packs. A simple fire sequence and limited weapon choice round out the average display.

Graphics, here is what I didn't understand. The game is about robots...not the background. So even though the setting is pretty, the robots look second rate. I just felt more time was needed to make the futuristic atmosphere pop. Not horrible, but not excellent either. Just blah.

Story, I guess it follows the movie, I haven't seen the movie. Pretty straight forward, best part it is over quick. Nothing exciting, or worth remembering.

You won't be seeing cool robots like him in this game.

Replay value : NONE. The split screen mulitplay is not even worth mentioning.

Random complaints. The game has a horrible health system. I simple red meter is slowly depleted until it starts flashing, then you die. No way to refill this meter, no health packs, and no recharges. After battle encounters the meter just fills up. That is another complaint I will get to. The health scenario wouldn't be that bad if you could save. No save option at all. Hell, you can't even tell when the game auto saves. There is no way to end the game and be confidant you just saved. I found a few times replaying a section or two because I thought the game auto saved.

Ahh the battle sequences. Basically this game boils down to this. Each stage will have about 5 to 6 robot battle sequence. You will run to each sequence, figure out where to duck and cover, flank the robots. Win battle, then run to next sequence. This would be fun if there was any variation. You get 8-9 gun variations, but nothing worth noting. A few handguns, machine guns, and rocket launchers cover the basic requirement. Sure you get the obligatory ride on the back of a car and shoot a turret stage, and those weren't really exciting either.

What really pisses me off is the $60 price tag. Checking tonight bestbuy.com still has this title listed at $59.99. I would be really upset if I had blown $60 bucks on this title. Games like this do more damage than good for the industry. A new gamer on the scene, who enjoyed the movie, could accidentally buy this and be completely discouraged from the genre. There are perfectly good movie video game cross overs, check out Wolverine : Origins.

At the end of the day Terminator Salvation is a rental if you have a rent one get one free coupon. The 4 hours of your life you won't get back, the hour of enjoyment you do get will not be worth it.

Thanks for reading.