Review: Terminator Salvation

Today I’ve got Terminator Salvation for Xbox 360. A 3^rd Person shooter published by Evolved Games, it was released on May 19, 2009 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC and is rated T for Teen.

The lowdown: Despite not having any online play, and only local coop for the campaign, the gameplay and story line can provide excitement, even on harder difficulties. It is however, a very short story, having only 9 levels.

The fact sheet:

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

In Terminator Salvation the videogame, based on the Terminator Salvation film from Warner Bros. Pictures and Sony Pictures, players assume the role of John Connor, a soldier in the resistance, battling for survival against the far superior forces of Skynet.

Terminator Salvation the videogame is an intense action-packed third-person shooter featuring concentrated armed combat against all of the Skynet enemies from the film and new killer machines specifically designed for the game. Taking place two years before the events of the upcoming film set in a post apocalyptic, decimated Los Angeles, players will be lead through a visceral, story and character driven gaming experience.

Featuring intense third-person action, Terminator Salvation the videogame will take combat to the next level with iconic enemies, cinematic fight sequences and advanced weaponry, drawn directly from the film, as well as an innovative, multi-layered cover mechanic.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• New Installment of Terminator Mythology: Set two years prior to the upcoming Terminator Salvation film, players will get the opportunity to be John Connor for the first time and continue the epic fiction of the Terminator mythology.
• Unrelenting Intelligent Robotic Enemies: Unrelenting and incredibly resilient iconic enemies from the Terminator franchise fight to the bitter end on land and in the sky. Designed to pursue the player by any means necessary, damaged or broken enemies will literally claw their way forward to inflict harm.
• Advanced Destructible Cover Gameplay: Terminator Salvation – The Videogame will incorporate advanced cover mechanics which allows players to use the destructible environment as protection and strategically navigate through enemy entrenched territory. The cover mechanic’s multi-faceted design changes the way “cover” gameplay is executed.
• Diverse Array of Advanced Weaponry: The player has access to a wide array of weapons including shotguns, fully automatic machine guns, huge mounted weaponry, grenades, rocket-launchers and even a plasma firing Skynet tank.
• Rugged Armored Vehicles Gun Fights: Pursue, attack, or evade enemies through post-apocalyptic environments on foot or inside rugged armored vehicles in extremely kinetic and extensive cinematic gun battles.

This game was very quick and very easy. Doing a complete play-through on Hard took around 4-5 hours. Some levels (such as the last one) were as short as 5 minutes, including cinematics. Supplied with 2 weapon slots, grenades and pipe bombs, it was fairly simple to defeat all of the enemies with the proper weapons.

Since a large portion of the game is about ducking into cover, quick reloads and running away aren’t really necessary. The only enemy which was somewhat difficulty is the T600 (The Terminator). However, if you have the right weapons, you can quickly neutralize one. The game has 3 basic enemies: the Terminator, Aerostats (small flying robots), and T-7-T’s (Spiders). A combination of the Aerostats and Spiders make up most of the levels, with more Terminators prevalent as the story progresses.

A small variety of weapons (such as an assault rifle, a shotgun and a rocket launcher) are available to switch in and out of your 2 weapon slots, provided in an interesting interface for the B button. The controls are similar to any other platform shooter; LT to aim, RT to shoot, X to reload, etc. There are also several levels in which you are riding in a vehicle, shooting anything from other vehicles to stationary turrets.

In battle after all the enemies are cleared, your health regenerates. Playing in coop also adds some other features. Your partner has the ability to revive you, and if you run out of ammo, you can run up to them and gain a full clip (they don’t lose any ammo). Having a partner makes it much easier to defeat spiders, as one person can distract while the other shoots (Playing in single player has allies, but they’re just not as effective as another human player). With only the 3 real enemies, there aren’t really any boss battles either, just onslaughts of Terminators.

There are 9 levels in the single player campaign. To start, I played the first level through on Normal by myself to get a feel of things. After the first level, I went ahead and played a few more levels on the Hard Difficulty. After hitting level 4 or so, I decided to try coop play, which worked as well as any game with a multiplayer campaign. Like most games, it is only 2 players. The one thing that surprised me however, was that it was local only. This confirmed the fact that there is no Live play in this game at all. No multiplayer, no online coop, not even DLC. (Why put Live compatible on the box then?)

For those achievement lovers out there, you will love this game. Each level provides you with 80G for simply beating it on any difficulty. Beating it on Normal gives you another 100G, and Hard gives you an additional 180G (they can be unlocked together in one play-through). All of the achievements are story-dependent. I was able to capture all 1000G for the game playing through once on Hard. (Note: If playing in coop, you must play the levels in sequential order to unlock the achievements (starting at 1)) It’s definitely one of the easier games to get a full 1000G in.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a decent game, there just isn’t anything other than the short campaign, and the coop feature for it is local only. The graphics and visuals are comparable to any current game on the market. The cinematics help the story flow over the course of the entire game and very simple menus make navigation easy, as well as allowing for easy customization of options and settings (I’ll let you check out the loading screen on your own!).

Pros

• Thorough Campaign and Storyline
• Local Co-op (No Online)
• Variety of Level types (3rd person, vehicles)

Cons

• No multiplayer/online play (as well as no DLC)
• Short levels
• Very easy, even on ‘Hard’ difficulty
• Occasional freezing

Single Player Rating: 5/10

Multiplayer Rating: N/A