No salvation for GRIN's insipid movie-tie-in.
The game revolves around John Connor, who teams up with Blair Williams, Barnes and Angie Salter. Set between the events of Terminator 3 and the latest installment in the series, the game pits the Resistance in an attempt to rescue stranded survivors across the city and attempt to destroy the machines. The story is abysmally dull and never does anything interesting. The cut-scenes are poorly compressed and feature technical issues. The 2016 setting of Los Angeles is suitably grim and dilapadated, but the story delivery is poor. It doesn't help that characters are very uninteresting. Connor doesn't really have anything interesting to say but, then again, neither do the rest of the cast. This just has cash-in written all over it. The in-game menus are barebones, the dialogue is terrible and there is no suspense or fear in the game, which is disappointing.
The visuals are actually decent, but way wide of the current mark consistenly set by the blockbuster releases. The art direction is good and the lighting is sufficient. The character models are awful and the in-game cinematics are poor. None of the characters lip-synch, which is just inexcusable for a game released in 2009. Animations are okay, as are the textures, but some are muddy and blocky, and there is pop-in. The environments are decent, but indoor areas appear repetitive. Enemy design is decent. T-600s look good, as do Spiders. The illuminous red light emitting from a Spider is great, as are the visual effects of downed enemies. There is also some screen-tearing but, overall, the game looks okay.
The sound design is undoubtedly the game's strength. While voice acting is underwhelming, the sound effects are good and the soundtrack is solid. Guns sound great and the sound effects of a T600 or a Spider are solid. The effects can sometimes repeat too frequently, but they are the game's highlight.
The gameplay is where the game goes downhill. Firstly, the controls are decent but aren't the best around. Some actions don't respond to their respective button prompts and switching weapons with Triangle can often require two to three presses. The enemy AI ranges from ok to abysmal. The Spider robots appear all too frequently in the game and represent the most repetitive aspect of the gameplay. Connor must traverse cover and shoot the electricity supply on the Spider's back, which becomes tedious after the second Spider fight. The T-600s are slightly more problematic. They are deadly accurate (as are all other enemies; always seeming to deal damage even when you are in cover) and can melee the player. They must be taken down with RPG rockets and by shooting their supply on their chest. These battles get old and are never interesting. The AI behaviour is somewhat laughable. If you shoot at one of the machines, more often than not every enemy is aware of your location - regardless of whether they were in your line of sight. T-600s usually just stand there and fire at one position for five minutes before you have fired your fourth rocket. Yes, sometimes it will take over three RPG shots and three shotgun clips to defeat a single T-600. Annoying.
This doesn't help because of the level design. While early chapters involve grounded cover and building interior, later chapters introduce vertical cover and ascending stairways. This gives slightly more options for combat, but you are always given a strict radius to fight, otherwise the game will end if you wander off the beaten path. Cover is always placed so that you can immediately predict another fight against half a dozen Spiders and docile T-600s. The last couple of chapters are actually decent and full of well-designed terrain, but I wish GRIN just developed the game with a little more effort and care.
The actual gunplay is standard fare. Sometimes, Aerostats will appear. These are flying insect-like robots that have mini-turret attachments. They swarm in numbers and are annoying. Killing them is easy. Connor has access to five weapons. Five. That's it. A shotgun, machine gun, LMG, grenade launcher and RPG. Ok, once you get past that ridiculously limited arsenal, you'll find that the weaponry handles well and the shooting feels good. It's just a shame that the shootouts are shoehorned into levels for the sake of adding time to the campaign. The pacing is horrid, predictable and mostly, not that much fun. One major disappointment was the Harvester. This huge, devastatingly powerful machine is seen early on in the game, setting up a potentially memorable encounter. But... that's the first and only time you see him. This is baffling, because it would have been a standout moment in the game, and would have actually been fun. At least there is an HK sequence, but even that is rushed and is over in a flash.
The overall gameplay revolves around the cover system, which seems as though it is the main focus of the game design. The system is solid and features a great radial menu that lets you choose where you are taking cover using the left stick. This system is actually really good and would benefit games that have lacking cover mechanics. Firing from cover is fine, but sometimes you can get hit while clearly behind cover, and it's also frustrating when a T-600 one-hit kills you with melee - somehow reaching you when you are behind a concrete pillar. Squad AI usually takes cover but will sometimes stand there and shoot aimlessly. Worst of all, they will shoot from cover at nothing. This means that Connor is the only one shooting at the machines. The squad AI is pretty useless anyway. Not once did I see my squad defeat a T-600. Only at the end of the game did this happen - only when dozens of soldiers were involved.
Mission design is based around boring objectives like covering Barnes while he defuses a bomb or hacks a machine. Unfortunately, these missions happen more than once, which is repetitive. Also, the game splits up into different cinematics every time a new objective is given, which kills any - if any - momentum the game has. There are also some vehicle-based sections which are awful. Aerostats chase you, you destroy them. T-600s and Spiders in the streets, destroy them. Repetitive cycles of objectives ruin these moments. One bearable moment was defeating a HK while on a turret, but even that was underwhelming. Defend missions are even worse. Sometimes you will overwhelmed by enemies and have to shoot them while also defeating on-foot enemies. These always result in my vehicle being destroyed, which is really frustrating. Another annoying feature is that the game always enters a loading screen after every chapter or checkpoint, which is really aggravating and breaks any immersion, if thats possible (hint: it's not).
The game has zero replay value. Seriously. You are getting a campaign that will run from three-and-a-half to four hours depending on difficulty, and that's it. There is a co-op feature, but it's dull and is easily overshadowed by other co-operative games. There is no multiplayer, no collectables or unlockables. You're given a 4-hour campaign for £60 (inevitably cheaper). That is outrageous. Save the money for something better.
Terminator Salvation may be appealing in name, but it certainly isn't in practice. The game has a non-existant story, awful gameplay and laughable content. The visuals and sound design are saving graces on an otherwise dull, tedious and repetitive experience that will benefit from never being remembered ever again. A poor shooter that lives up to the reputation of movie tie-ins.
SUMMARY
Presentation 3.0 - Barebones menus, bad cut-scenes and an awful story.
Graphics 5.5 - Some of the environments look nice, but everything else is lacking.
Audio 5.5 - The voice acting is poor and the sound effects and underwhelming, but the music is classic Terminator.
Gameplay 4.0 - The cover system is fine, but the AI, level design and gunplay are tedious.
Replayability 1.0 - A 3-5 hour story. An absolute joke.
Overall - 4/10