GameSpy Review of Terminator: Salvation

GameSpy's Take

For the love o' Pete, does every single movie tie-in shooter have to suck? I know the game developers are pushed by the movie studio to release, release, release -- and that means they don't have time to polish -- but surely Terminator Salvation developer GRIN could have done better than this stripped-down, ugly-lookin' disaster.





Let's start with the good stuff: Christian Bale is not involved with this game. This is excellent for those of us who prefer our actors not to speak in a sub-vocalized growl. Salvation's cover mechanic is also good; the game's a third-person shooter in the same vein as Gears of War, and it focuses on a similar system of getting yourself ensconced in defilade to avoid enemy fire. Salvation features a particularly fluid way of moving from cover to cover, however: a mere tilt of the left stick and your guy who is definitely not Christian Bale, no sir, sidles his way right over. It's much more intuitive than the button-pressing systems of most third-person shooters.










Unfortunately, this is where the good stuff ends. Apart from a weak-kneed plot that goes just far enough not to impinge upon the movie's territory (and which will be utterly opaque to anyone unfamiliar with the Terminator universe), Salvation's gameplay is repetitive to the point of ludicrousness. Clocking it at less than six hours from start to finish, you'd think the designers would try to cram the short duration with variety and nonstop action. You'd think a lot of things, but then you'd be a dumbass, because this game's got less variety than a Communist supermarket. You fight the same few enemies on maps made of the same few textures over and over, and it doesn't help that said enemies are either incredibly easy (the wasps and spiders) or incredibly difficult (the terminators and HKs). Often, it all comes down to your character running from cover to cover, drawing fire while you pray that your A.I. cohorts flank the bad guys and hit them in their weak spots. Needless to say, this occurs about as often as an honest politician in Washington.





Sure, Salvation's got a co-op mode (although the developers didn't have time to include online co-op, so it's strictly split-screen), but that's of limited usefulness for those of us who don't maintain sadomasochistic relationships with our friends. And the few rail sequences suffer from wonky controls that were clearly designed for PC mice and not the console thumb-sticks that most people will play them on. The long and short of this one: Salvation is headed -- like so many hastily churned-out movie tie-ins before it -- to the dustbin of gaming history. Stay away.

The Critics Agree

Most of the inferior reviewers (whom, of course, you guys only read when I'm not available) agree that Terminator Salvation lacks depth and variety. They also generally feel that the game was shoddily put together.





"...its narrative, structure, and inattention to detail reveal this game for what it is: Yet another lazy cash-in on a 'blockbuster' film." -- Justin Haywald, 1UP.com





"This no-frills attitude runs throughout the whole game and reveals Terminator Salvation for what it is: a stripped cash-in attempt packed with dull, uninspired, and repetitive action." -- Chris Watters, GameSpot





"The videogame version has none of these things. Christian Bale has been replaced by a non-descript actor, the action is fairly tame throughout and the cutscenes are stunningly ordinary." -- Hilary Goldstein, IGN.com

The Critics Disagree

However, some of these upstart peons had the gall to disagree with my points, saying they found Salvation was at least a competently done game, with more value in the co-op and harder difficulty modes.





"...despite the poor presentation, there are some clever gameplay elements that make Terminator enjoyable." -- Hilary Goldstein, IGN.com





"There's something actually enjoyable to the constant-cover philosophy at work here... as derivative as most of the action in Terminator Salvation is, this little trick struck me as something that other Gears of War-style games could benefit from." -- Ryan Davis, Giant Bomb

The Word on Twitter

"why does the new terminator movie game look just like gears of war??" - BrandonbMK09, Twitter





"The game was good but SHORT.. as for the movie, it was def. different, it didnt feel the same as the other terminator films but good." - Broham25, Twitter





"Not even half way through the year, and I already have an award to give out. Worst multi-platform game of 2009 Terminator Salvation Congratz" - Kyaizen, Twitter

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