Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation is a video game that consists of 7 releases
Reviewed on May 21, 2009
It's not a poorly made game, but Terminator Salvation is too simple and too fleeting to recommend.
By Ryan Davis
Video posted by drewbert on May 22, 2009
This review is for the
X360
release of Terminator Salvation.
These little flying machines aren't hard to kill, but they can be annoying in numbers.
That barebones feel starts with the story, which is, well, kind of nonexistent. It's more about basic motivation than character development or specific plotting. You play as John Connor--who, here, looks a bit like a poor-man's Commander Shepard--and while you're ostensibly on a mission to save a guy named David from something Skynet related, it all boils down to constantly running towards or away from murderous machines.
Terminator Salvation is a product of our post-Gears of War world, and it strips that cover-based third-person shooter formula down to its basest elements. The game is, essentially, a series of brief firefights against small packs of those murderous machines. The places that the firefights take place in always seem highly contrived, with bits of cover conveniently scattered, usually in some sort of semicircle configuration, around the area where your enemies will eventually stroll in, hunker down, and start firing away at you.
It would seem that, at this point in the Terminator mythology, Skynet hasn't diversified production much, as you'll encounter a whopping six different types of enemies over the course of the game. Probably the most interesting of the bunch are the spidery T-7-Ts, which are too heavily armored for you to take head-on. This requires you to rely on your constant AI companions to distract them as you sneak around by hopping from one piece of cover to the next and blast away at their tender and exposed backsides. It's the most tactical thing you'll do in the game, but the game is generous to a fault with the tactical advantages. There's always ample ammo, you're regularly given the higher ground over your enemies, and the machines very rarely stray outside of their designated attack areas.
These rubber-skinned T600s are as close to Arnold as the game gets.
The individual firefights can be fun, but the game never lets itself build up any momentum. Almost every enemy encounter takes place in a small, contained area, and they're usually bookended by a short cutscene. There are numerous sequences where you'll literally walk from one cutscene to another, without any action in between. The game mixes things up with the occasional on-rails sequence--you'll man a turret in the backs of trucks, subway trains, and dune buggies--but these are even simpler and more straightforward than the rest of the game.
In addition to not offering a terrific amount of variety, Terminator Salvation is a short experience, too. Playing on the normal difficulty, it took me a little under five hours to see the credits roll. There's no real reason to revisit the game once you're done, either. There's a split-screen coop mode, but no online option, and both the PS3 trophies and the Xbox 360 achievements are based entirely on clearing the individual chapters. If you play it on the hard difficulty, you can get everything in a single play-through.
Terminator Salvation ultimately just feels too small for a $60 game. Even the environments, which consist mostly of war-torn streets and boxy, brownish interiors, give you little sense that there's a world outside of the path that you're on. It's not a bad experience, but what it offers is so simple that it would feel repetitive if it were any longer. As it is, it doesn't do enough to justify a purchase.
40 Comments
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Terminator Salvation
(X360)
I bought Terminator Salvation yesterday around 4:30pm and finished the game by 8:00pm that night. It lasted about 3 1/2 to 4 hours and I'm disappointed. That game is too short. All the achievements are level based so there's not real challenge in getting them. You play, or I played ... |
5 out of 7 found this review helpful.
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Too small to justify purchase, but is a decent rent.
(X360)
Terminator Salvation is another generic third-person action game. It shouldn't take anyone much longer than five hours to finish, and with the lack of value this game offers, Terminator ultimately feels too small for a full-priced retail game. Terminator does offer some cheap thrills, but they are few and far ... |
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
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You've got to be kidding me
(X360)
This is one of the worst games I have ever played. I am playing it on hard difficulty. Playing it this way will insure I have every achievement by the end of the game. The achievements are level based and the only other 2 achievements are beating it on medium ... |
1 out of 5 found this review helpful.
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General Information
Edit
| Game Name | Terminator Salvation |
| Platform(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
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| Themes |
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| Original US Release |
May 19, 2009
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release | May Q3 2009 know the real date? |
| Aliases | |
| OFLC |
OFLC: M
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| CERO |
CERO: B
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| ESRB |
ESRB: T
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