A short and boring tale of Connor's suicide mission, Salvation fails in capturing the essence of the true Terminator.
The story picks off about two years before the events in the film, approximately 2016. John Connor, the leader of the human resistance against the rogue AI SkyNet, fights a brave battle against the Terminators. After a while, he receives a distress call from his friends who are trapped in SkyNet territory. Connor decides to go against the orders and rescue them, and supported by Blair Williams, he sets off for the impossible feat. The story is awfully predictable, very short, characters are underdeveloped and shallow, and the ending mocks the player in the face. It's that awful, and hopes are that the film does not capture the same essence of the game's horrible storytelling.
The gameplay mechanics are a sturdy Gears of War: Connor moves around, takes advantage of a smartly programmed cover system which, in fact, is not that smart, as sometimes you can crouch behind one wrecked car, but another one rejects you. Other than that, no pretensions, vaulting from cover-to-cover(Or as Grin likes to call it, "Cover chaining") is decent.
The enemies we fight are not diverse, and almost always tend to look smart while they are not. We'll meet T-600-s, T-650-s who are coated in rubber skin, T-700-s or the "Spiders", who are impervious from the front and flanking them is crucial, and the Aerostats, or "Wasps", which best describes them - Flying, quick and common enemies, who are more of an annoyance than a threat. Taking down most of these foes screams for teamwork, and that's why the game has a handy coop system which works just fine, especially when you're stuck with 3 Spiders with no grenades and beg for a partner with brains who could flank them.
There are several on-rail segments when you have to escort a vehicle, man a giant robot or just save your own butt. The dynamic action and fast pacing make these moments pretty memorable, but even they become boring after understanding that even the vehicle's trajectories are scripted. All of this mediocre gameplay is crowned with an absolutely funny completion time, which beats Wanted's five hours single-handedly. It's a mere four. That's right, and with a partner in coop, in turns into an even funnier 3.5.
And the graphics repeat the success of the gameplay process. The models and textures may look at least decent, and there's a nice Depth of Field system which may just be an advantage of the Diesel Engine(Wanted: Weapons of Fate). But the animation, that's what makes this game horrible and boring. Even weapon swapping is made by teleporting the gun into Connor's hand, which century is this? Even the fluid cover system makes the movements look comic. The cutscenes are horrible, facial animation is almost absent, but if you look closely, the jaw actually moves up and down!
The same goes for artistic design, which absolutely fails to capture the essence of a post-apocalyptic world. The game somehow does NOT immerse you, while your brains understand that some sceneries are labored on. The Terminators, however, look and move great, and sometimes it is creepy when you are emptying a clip into a 600 and he continues to move forward, bullets bouncing off, Gatling gun starting to rotate.
About the sound, well, voice acting seems good, although some minor characters seem bored of their life, even when they're talking about infiltrating a SkyNet facility. Connor sounds authentic, but he doesn't save the script. The music is well synchronized with the action, and consists of the original score of the films. What really pisses of however, is the awfully boring gunshots which scream Wanted. There are notable absent statements from the robots(Something like, "target acquired"), but probably the older models were not that talkative.
All in all, Salvation turned out to be a salvation for bad movie games. Wanted was definitely better, in terms of gameplay, continuity, and pacing. However, diehard fans will find it fun to complete the game in coop, enjoy it for a few hours, and then be glad that nobody in the closing moments said, "I'll be back".