“Arni” promised the terminators would be back, and he was right. Terminator Salvation sees the fourth film hitting the cinemas, and along with it comes the official video game. The debate whether this is a sequel or prequel (with all the confusing time jumping and all) is still up for debate, but can this famous franchise be reborn on our home consoles and PC’s?
In Terminator Salvation, you play the role of John Connor, the prophetic leader of the resistance who battles Skynet machines in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The game takes place 2 years before the events of the movie, where Connor finds himself torn between his duties and rescuing fellow resistance fighters from a Skynet stronghold. In your rescue attempt, you’re joined by familiar faces from the movie and some new ones who help you on the mission. The plotline avoids unnecessary complexity, which is a good thing as it’s all about killing robots which serves as a good enough reason to play this game.
The campaign can either be played single player with an AI partner (Blair Williams for those who’ve seen the movie) or split-screen co-op where your buddy will take on the role of Blair. You travel around a derelict LA while fending off Terminators and other new surprises. The game is relatively linear in it’s design, yet there are some really diverse levels which allow for team mates to split up to take advantage of different angles in combat.
An important feature in Salvation’s combat is flanking. Most Skynet machines contain weak points on their backs, in which they must be distracted and flanked in order to hit them. Thankfully, an awesome cover system is implemented where you can jump from cover to cover with ease and maneuver around your enemies. The AI holds down some fairly good distraction, but playing and flanking with a friend is no contest as blowing some Terminators up with a friend is priceless.
You get a wide assortment of weapons from M4’s to rocket launchers to shotguns and heavy machine guns. Most guns will do what’s needed to bring down any enemy, but getting the right combination helps a lot, as the AI is pretty intelligent. Terminators will scan and locate you when attacked and the T-600’s will even move around objects to put a robotic foot in your ass while pummeling your cover with a mini-gun. It’s great as it creates the authentic grading and fear that these robots created in the films.
There is some great variety to the gameplay as you also get to man a vehicle turret while trying to kill Mototerminators (watch the movie) and you even get to use some Skynet machinery yourself, unfortunately its brought to a sudden halt due to a really short playtime (around 5 hours), which is a bit of a shame considering how addicting killing robots is.
Salvation is a really good looking game. The levels are detailed and unique which captures the post-apocalyptic atmosphere with broken, burning buildings, falling paper and overgrown plants. The character models look great and carry really smooth animations, and yes, the Terminators look scary and awesome as they should. There are some silly lines here and there, but overall there is solid voice acting and fantastic audio. There’s no Christian Bale likeness or voice to John Connor, but it’s all much of a much when you get to kill robots with your friends.
Terminator Salvation is an awesome action game. You’ve got everything you need here – guns, robots, explosions and over-the-top heroic antics. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect, but it’s a fun weekend jam with your friends. There’s no Christian Bale here, but it’s not hard to look past it, because there is a really solid shooter here which is begging for some attention, so if you can bite the bullet with the short length, there’s some serious fun to be had here.
[starreviewmulti id=1 tpl=20]
