In depth review for Terminator Salvation.
In Terminator Salvation you play as John Connor, a guy that runs around with the same guns all the time shooting robots. I shouldn't be harsh to this game you know, I did kind of enjoy it until chapter 3. It deserves to be said that in this day and age there is absolutely no reason to insult our intelligence by making an overly simplistic game. People have an expectation to pop in a disc that's based on a franchise like Terminator and get some game –not this clunky, uninteresting piece of programming. Maybe I'm being too harsh but it is true. It's repeative. It's one big reapeat on it's self, every chapter! The gameplay gets broken once in a while with some on rails sections which is actually very good, even though short. Ok, let me start off by talking about the graphics. The first opening cut scene you get when you pop this disc into your console is actually very good. The graphics look great, it's fast moving and really wants you to start work at this game. It ends, and there is you in control of this slow moving character. Graphics change, there are several glitches in graphics, and further cut scenes prove that this game has not had the poloshing it needed. The mouths of the characters don't even go with the words spoken, the models are terrible, the voice acting is not very good, the only good voice acting their is Connor himself. Which isn't voiced by Christian Bale for that matter, he turned it down. Why I thank him for that he must have a good head for games. Imagion combining a bucket load of useless cutscenes with amazingly terrible character models and blurriness to make a crummy visual sandwich. It would taste horrible, wouldn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong but there have been a considerable amount of chase scenes in the Terminator movies involving everything from a SWAT truck to a motorcycle versus 18-wheeler. So why the hell are the only vehicle elements of this game of the on-rails variety where all you're doing is shooting stuff as you ride along? This would have been a great opportunity to pull off some cool open world type chases or vehicle missions but alas, no. You spend most of this game clumsily running around on foot. The movement is very slow, the slowest I have ever seen in a game. Honest. You run at 2 MPH, you can't even sprint. But I suppose that fits in with the amazing cover system. The cover system is the best part of this game. It's unique. While your team mates are fighting off some machines, especially the spiders, you can sneak around cover and shoot the hell out of them from the back, making them explode in a satisfying burst of blue electricity. Also sticking to cover makes the game feel your actually their, not like a first person shooter where you duck behind a barrel, this game makes you feel in it. Which is a posotive.
Another good note I would like to point out is the enviroments. They are varied, and look great. You don't have alot of space to move around in, but enough. You feel as though your in a open world, even though the game is track set. It does feel powerful on the gamer. But there's a sense of relentless action that these movies created because you have a human society fighting machines that just don't stop. Even if this wasn't a movie tie-in there are plenty (plenty) of games that have delivered action on the level of of intensity of the current Terminator sequel. So how come the developers couldn't convey that sense of action with this game? Perhaps they didn't see the film? Adding to the boredom is the fact that this game offers little to no variation in the gameplay. Sure the environments look good but that's it. Basically run (ha, run, snale run more like), duck, shoot and repeat. Annoying. You can carry 2 weapons at a time, and 2 types of greande. You can switch by going through a cool little navigation screen, moving the options around with your left controller stick. There is about 4 weapons in this game, 2 standard machine guns, a rocket launcher, and a grenade launcher. Oh and by the way, the 2 machine guns feel the same, look the same and produce the same amount of damage to a enemy. Bad isn't it? Although the rocket launcher is great to use, it has a sense of realism. You battle the same 4 enemies over and over again in this game, especially the stupid flying wasps which are so annoying, and more annoying because the weapon aim is so slow, a old granny could walk faster to the bingo.
With the evidence presented before you, it would seem inconceivable that you would want to play this game, but if you feel absolutely compelled to do so and are one of those people that think reviews like this are just unfair, you just go ahead and give it a go. Best of luck to you.
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Graphics: 3/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Story: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Enemie AI: 3/5
Online: N/A
Replay Value: 2/5