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Terminator 3: The Redemption First Look

Paradigm's new straight-ahead action game will put you in the shoes of the Governator himself.

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Last summer's theatrical release of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was followed up later in the year by two new Terminator games, one based on the movie itself and the other a multiplayer shooter clearly inspired by the release of the film. Despite the considerable critical derision directed at these games, Atari is at it again--developer Paradigm Studios is hard at work on a new T3 game called Terminator 3: The Redemption. We visited Paradigm recently to see how the game is shaping up and were pretty convinced that this new game is making much better use of the license than its dubious predecessors.

Terminator 3: The Redemption will re-create scenes from the film and add plenty of new plot material as well.
Terminator 3: The Redemption will re-create scenes from the film and add plenty of new plot material as well.

It's usually the domain of the movie-licensed game to adhere unflaggingly to the storyline of the source material, and Terminator 3: The Redemption will do this--for only half of the game. The storyline here is broken up into four acts that are split between the present day--which includes scenes of the Terminator and his charges, John Connor and Kate Brewster, trying to escape from the evil and voluptuous T-X--and the future, in which you'll play as an Arnold-look-alike Terminator in the midst of the human resistance against Skynet, the self-aware computer whose machines have taken over the world.

These future levels are entirely new, and the design team has worked with C2 Pictures to create some substantial original story elements to flesh out the plot of the game. The first act takes place in the future we know from the films, in which humans led by John Connor are fighting, and winning, against Skynet. However, the third act imagines an alternate future in which John and Kate were killed and the resistance was never organized. In this timeline, Skynet has full run of the planet, so the situation is obviously a lot harsher than before. This alternate future has given the game's artists license to create lots of new Terminator-themed machinery that doesn't exist in the movies, so you'll see plenty of new enemies, including some truly massive mechanical monstrosities, populating the levels of this act.

As for the gameplay, The Redemption is straightforward in its action presentation, and there seems to be a lot of variety spread across the game's levels, based on the handful we got to see. You'll spend about half of the game engaged in some sort of driving action, usually while firing a multitude of weapons from your vehicle. In the future levels, you'll ride in the resistance's beat-up old trucks as you lay waste to legions of endoskeletons and other enemies with your heavy weapons. You'll also be able to take control of some machines, such as the smaller "Future Killer" tanks, and drive those around as well (which, obviously, gives you access to some very different weapons). You'll do a lot of driving in the present day, too, in scenes taken directly from the movie. In one level we saw, you'll drive the familiar blue pickup truck through a desert area as you try to evade police and cut off the T-X. Another level re-creates a scene that has the Terminator driving a hearse and attempting to escape a blockade, with the threat of the T-X always present.

The Terminator's model, created from a scan of Arnie himself, will show damage during gameplay.
The Terminator's model, created from a scan of Arnie himself, will show damage during gameplay.
Yep, Kristanna Loken was scanned in order to create the T-X character model, too.
Yep, Kristanna Loken was scanned in order to create the T-X character model, too.

The other half of the game will see you engaged in both on-foot and rail-shooter action sequences. When you're controlling the Terminator on foot, you'll have one standard machine gun always at your disposal, and for extra firepower you can equip your other hand with a number of other found weapons, such as the machines' laser rifles or even old traffic signs. The Terminator will also have a number of hand-to-hand combo fighting moves that can be used to dispatch lesser enemies, such as the ubiquitous endoskeletons. In this mode, the model for the Terminator will actually show visible damage, first with new textures, which show the metal endoskeleton beneath his flesh, and then, as you take more damage, with actual changes in the model's geometry that reveal full metal limbs. Here, as in other modes, you'll have a "speak" button that can be used to make the Terminator (as voiced by Schwarzenegger himself) spout all kinds of catchphrases. The speak button actually provides a useful function, however, since you'll sometimes be able to use it to request aid, such as a new vehicle, from your human allies.

The aforementioned rail-shooting sequences will make up a pretty substantial part of the game--about one-fourth, according to lead designer Shawn Wright. In these levels, you'll just be doing the shooting--no driving or running around required. For instance, at the end of the first level we played, the Terminator climbed into a human-controlled helicopter and began mowing down Skynet's forces with a minigun. In this kind of sequence, you'll simply move your crosshair around and shoot at stuff, in the style of many old arcade games. Another level we played that takes place in the alternate-future timeline was sort of a cross between a rail-shooting and driving level, and it was described to us by Wright as being inspired by the old arcade classic Tempest. Here the Terminator was riding on a hovercraft of sorts through a giant exhaust conduit, moving around the outside of the pipe to avoid obstacles and firing at enemies all the while. From what we could tell, the game will provide a pretty nice amount of variety in its gameplay mechanics, and hopefully the levels will be presented in such a way as to keep you frequently doing something new.

There will be more to the gameplay in The Redemption than just playing level to level and finishing the game. As you play, you'll gain points based on your performance, called terabytes, which are so named because of the terabytes of information the Terminator's learning computer processes from his experiences. After a mission, you can put these terabytes toward upgrades to various systems, such as targeting, health, or your "termivision," which is a limited-use high-visibility view mode that looks like the red-tinted Terminator perspective you've seen in the movies. You'll be able to replay previous levels to obtain even more terabytes, and you can reallocate them to other systems in later levels as desired. In terms of replay value, the team is also planning to include a side gameplay mode called Techcom Force, which is composed entirely of original rail-shooting levels. These will probably be unlocked as you play through the main single-player game, though the exact design of Techcom Force is still being ironed out right now.

A variety of driving and shooting scenarios will make up The Redemption's fast-moving gameplay.
A variety of driving and shooting scenarios will make up The Redemption's fast-moving gameplay.

T3: The Redemption is still in a pre-alpha state, so its characters, backgrounds, and frame rate are still being worked on, but from what we got to see and play of the game, its look is evolving nicely to fit into the greater Terminator universe. The future backgrounds evoke what we've seen of that era in the films well, and the present-day stuff is accurate to the films too. Some of the principal actors in the movie, such as Arnie and "terminatrix" Kristanna Loken, were actually scanned in full 3D, and Paradigm used this data to build the characters' models for the game, so the characters look quite authentic. The inclusion of authentic Arnold-voiced Terminator quips gives the game a little extra punch for movie buffs, and many of the phrases that are used in the final game will be new to the franchise. The game's presentation is still shaping up, but in this early stage it looks like it's headed in the right direction.

From what we saw during our trip to Paradigm, Terminator 3: The Redemption looks like it's well on its way to making up for last year's subpar Rise of the Machines. The game presents a lot of different styles of action, and it moves at a rapid clip, so it should be pleasing to fans of both fast action games and the Terminator series. A combination of movie clips and CG sequences will be used to tell the story and flesh out certain aspects, such as time travel, that haven't been expanded upon much in the films. Terminator 3: The Redemption is due out in the third quarter of this year, and we'll bring you more on the game as its release date approaches. For now, check out the game's media page for the first footage and an interview with lead designer Shawn Wright.

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