Its Bad, but its not Charlies Angels Bad.
User Rating: 5.4 | Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines XBOX
I am a sucker for the stinkers. Anything that is 9.99 or under new at EB just calls to me. And at 7.99 brand new I just had to do it. I played it then I looked at the review and I can't say that I disagree this game is bad. Most of the game takes place before the movie does, the strong majority of the game is based on the T-800 making its way through all sorts of Terminators and getting into SKynets base and making use of their time travel device so you can go back and protect John Conner. I will be straight up and honest, the story is not even a factor even having watched the movie its often hard to figure out what you are doing, and alot of the missions consist of press button A to open door B. The Gameplay is just rough I found this game was very unresponsive to most of my commands and resulted in me taking a bit of a beating at times which was really a big pain. The games big saving grace is the selection of weapons is massive, I mean there was so many different guns and bombs that I found that it kept the game fresh for me. As bad as it was it kept me playing there were some levels that were hard but that kept me interested. The developers also mixed it up a bit adding a "Fighting Mode" which is very basic for todays standards but reminded me of the original Mortal Kombat on Genesis, Punch, Kick, Block and thats about it, and yeah it was bland but it did a good job of breaking it up a bit. Graphically, its bad but its consistant. I would rather play a game that has the same tossed together look through out the game, rather then a game that is very well done in one aspect and lousy in all others. I found the levels to be dark, which fit for the early part of the game, but that darkness held over when you reach the future and that was a bit distraction but that part of the game is so short it hardly mattered. I found the enemies and your teammates are not pretty to look at and hit detection when firing from some angles is off to say the least. Sound, it is what it is. Some aspects are very cool and this game make use of the surround sound in some aspects which added to the gaming experience, but some weapons sounded like a fire cracker going off yet drove a Terminator half way across the room. It was a mixture of good and bed and meh, which left me with a very underwealming package. The Replay Value is a funny thing, I beat this game and thought some of it was just horrid, but then in other aspects I found myself coming back and playing again. There are a few choice missions that ver very good and I have played three of four times and found myself playing through many of the bad missions just to get there, The first time through was a touch dry but in the end I can't complain for what I paid for it, it did the job. Overall, its a bad game, but it presents a challenge and I like that, This game is hard to begin with and the lack of ammo in some area's just adds to that level of difficulty, some players may find the challenge a bit too much. For the cost of a Rental you can own this game, and it has its moments, I wouldn't rush out to buy it but if you are bored and want a game you can crush in six hours, go for it. -Z
