Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360) Review
Posted by Todd Vote on 06.02.2009
411’s Todd Vote checks in with his review of Terminator Salvation. Is this just another run of the mill movie tie-in, or does Terminator Salvation.. ahem… Terminate the competition? Read on for a full review of Terminator Salvation
Terminator Salvation, the game acts as a prequel to the latest film in the franchise. The action of the game starts roughly two years before the film, and put you in the shoes of John Connor as he sets out on a rescue mission, going against Resistance Command’s orders. Along the way, Connor runs into several key members of the film, but takes certain liberties with the continuity of the movie. It’s just a couple of minor things, and really, what Terminator film hasn’t played with the continuity of the universe before?
Graphics
Graphics is one of the few places where Terminator Salvation will satisfy gamers. The Environments are huge, detailed, and accurately depict the post-apocalyptic world hinted at in the first Terminator films. Character models, while nothing spectacular, are easily identifiable, and move realistically. The design of the Terminators is also well done, as you can see the red eyes of the approaching T-600s as you try to blast them down. The detail in graphics is further evidenced by the cut-scenes, which I personally think are as good as any cut-scenes we have seen thus far on the Xbox 360.
Gameplay
The game play is similar to that of Gears of War, it is a third person shooter, which implements a cover system. You will move from cover to cover to utilizing another bright spot for the game, the radial movement menu. What this does, is once you reach the end of any particular piece of cover you are utilizing, and little menu will pop up and show you what other cover is available for you from this point. You simply highlight the direction you wish to move to and push the ‘A’ button . Connor will immediately jump to the new cover area.
I will give credit to the developers for trying their hardest to give the game some strategic elements, by having certain Terminators able to be taken down more effectively by using flank positions, however this falls flat when you realize that the cover you are given is always there to promote the flanking, and there is always the option to do so. The ability to flank the enemy would have been more special if it wasn’t so easily exploited. There are very few areas in the game where you are forced to stand your ground and take the machines down head up.
The T-7-T. One of the few enemies you will meet up with
This game is largely made up of moving from one area to the next, fending off the machines while an NPC does something they need to do, then you simply run onto the next area. Sure this sounds like the basic premise for all 3rd person shooters, but where this game falters is the absolute blandness that this task seems to take on in rather quick fashion. There are three types of Skynet machines you will come in contact with in these portions of the game, You will come across the familiar T-600, both with and without rubber skin. You will also come across the arachnid looking T-71, a quadruped Hunter Killer unit. Lastly are the annoying little flying Aerostat units. I like to call them the ammo zappers. They move around a lot, and shooting at them with anything other than a shotgun is basically wasting bullets. But you will find with a shotgun, these aerial bots are the easiest to dispatch. Yeah, that’s it. 3 enemies out of the entire history of the Terminator franchise, the developers thought it best to only put 3 different types of machines in the game.
The view from the HK Tank you hijack in the game
To break up the monotonous third person shooter sequences, the developers saw fit to throw in a couple of on-rails sequences where they put you into certain vehicles, one of which is a HK-Tank that you use to infiltrate Skynet. These rail sequences, while a nice break from the main action, again offer nothing really exciting. In these sections you get to shoot down a couple of HK air units, and some of them cool ass motorcycles from the movie. These on-rails sequences, while a nice break, never really add anything to the game.
Sound
The sound of the game is decent, using some voice work from a few key characters in the film, as well as some talent that I didn’t expect to see listed. For instance, Rose McGowan voices one of the NPC’s in the game. The only notable voice missing is that of Christian Bale, who doesn’t voice John Connor; that honor goes to Gideon Emery. Emery does a serviceable job, but Christian Bale, he is not.
Moon Bloodgood reprises her role of Blair Williams for the game
The music is done well, and you will instantly recognize the iconic Terminator theme. Actually you will recognize it over and over again, as it is the tone used to let you know that you are about to be in a fight with some machines. As a huge fan of the movie scores, this normally wouldn’t be a problem, but it is really over-used here.
Lasting Appeal
Is it possible for me to say that this game has absolutely no lasting appeal? Everything that needs to be accomplished with this game can be done in one play through on the hardest difficulty setting. Well, actually that isn’t entirely true. It can all be seen playing through on easy, but playing through the game one time on hard will net players an easy 1000 points. The game takes about 5 hours to complete, and after I finished I felt no urge to continue playing the game. For a full priced game, I would expect more.
It was almost as if the developers thought that being able to play the part of John Connor was enough of a selling point, and decided that they would just throw something together to capitalize on the new movie. The lack of work that went into the design of the game is evident in nearly every aspect of the game play, from the small variety of enemies you face, to the rather miniscule number of weapons you could choose to arm yourself with; I count 5 not including grenades.
Terminator Salvation is left with a solid foundation, that just doesn’t live up to it’s full potential. The Radial Movement Menu is about the best thing from this game that can be taken and utilized in future games. The option of having multiple points of cover to jump to and from is a nice mechanic that I would love to see used in other games.
Fun Factor
Once the initial buzz of “Hey, I just killed a Terminator” wears off, you are left with no desire to continue playing the game. If it wasn’t for this review, and the promise of an easy 1000 points, I’m not sure I would have been able to finish the game. It’s fun for about 20 minutes, then you realize that you keep running across the same 3 enemies, and the cover system, while unique in design is just not as fully realized as it could have been.
The 411 I am John Connor... but this is still lame
Terminator Salvation is a run of the mill shooter game, whose biggest selling point is that you get to play as John Connor in a post Judgment Day world. That may be enough to get people to try your game, but with as little effort as the developers seemed to put in the game, they can expect that same kind of commitment from the gamers. They might try it based on the premise, but that’s not going to keep them coming back to the game.
Graphics
8.0
One of the bright spots of a dismal attempt to cash in on a Summer movie, the graphics are decently done.
Gameplay
5.0
Repetetive, lacking variety. Why they chose against using more variety of Terminators, or even just more of the ones they did have is beyond me.
Sound
7.0
Decent voice work. The power of the iconic music from the films loses something when it is overused as it is in this game.
Lasting Appeal
3.5
Once you are done, you are done. There is absolutely nothing to bring you back to this title, unless you really enjoy killing Terminators that much
Fun Factor
4.0
It's fun for a minute, and the game does have a couple of bright spots in the control scheme and the enviroments, but that's not enough to save the game
