Hard but fun.
With that in mind, the decision makers at Atari decided to go back to the drawing board and start all over again. As not only would it release another Terminator title less than 10 months removed from the debut of its last game, but it would also reuse the same materials, backgrounds, and characters that inspired it. And though some would say that it's a bit odd to essentially remake a game that you have just released, Atari was eerily confident that it could really have something interesting here -- and have something it did. Yes friends, for the first time in eight years, we have ourselves a Terminator title that's actually fun.
No longer the half-hearted Fugitive Hunter clone that Rise of the Machines was, Terminator 3: The Redemption is a surprisingly addicting mixture of shooting, driving, and hand-to-hand combat that's immediately reminiscent of the old PSOne classic, Die Hard Trilogy. But instead of breaking up the gameplay into three distinct experiences, The Redemption throws all of these dissimilar mechanical variations at you all at one tme. If there were a single primary element that players should expect to partake in most, however, it would have to be third person shooting with some slight hand-to-hand combat. Similar in execution to EA's Everything or Nothing or Red Entertainment's Gungrave, Terminator 3's gunning sequences do a great job of capturing the chaos and energy of an all-out war. The earlier stages specifically, throw out all kinds of Endoskeletons, Hover-Killers, and tank-like enemies with few reservations. While explosions, obstacles, and several other surprises continually impede your progress with little hints of mercy.
The hand-to-hand mechanic itself is pretty weak, though, and honestly doesn't serve much purpose except to steal the other Terminator's weapons for duel-fisted blasting. Granted, you can always pick up the surrounding objects and use those as impaling weapons instead, but when comparing that method of attack to the speed and efficiency of your gun, it's almost completely unnecessary. Besides, manipulating your free roaming target and taking out the surrounding invaders can be a whole lot more fun and will seriously test your reflexes.
Terminator 3's driving-based missions also take a rather prominent role in the action as well; and include a pleasantly fantasized physics engine that provides a strong sense of speed in addition to some truly killer jumping opportunities. Even better, is the sheer number of vehicles that players can take control of: be it a machinegun-converted pickup truck, a chopper style motorbike, a robot-controlled police car, or a state of the art laser tank, the choices at hand are pretty satisfying. And should players ever grow bored of the ride that they're in, they can always press a button when another vehicle is near to take control of that one instead. And usually, it's complete with its own speed limits, weight variations, and weapon types to differentiate it from the other transportation. bottom line good game buy it.