Since the dawn of time, when men first walked the earth, countless prophets and clairvoyants have predicted the ultimate climax of the human race. According to these Neolithic nay-sayers and supposed fortune tellers, our civilization is one that is ultimately doomed. Although the manner in which our species will face extinction may vary, the end result still stays pretty much the same. Death, famine, pestilence, and some more death…all of these dishes spell for doom and gloom. For James Cameron however, creator of the original Terminator series, our dying hymn sways to a slightly different tune. In his opinion man shall meet its maker at the hands of its greatest creation…technology. And for once, Hollywood might not be too far from the truth. But much like the films, even in the darkest of times, there is a glimmer of hope.<\/p>\n
In the video game adaptation of the latest film in the series, Terminator: Salvation, the end has begun and man’s final fight battle is not going so well. Everywhere cities lie in ruin and countless bodies litter the streets. The time of eradication is nigh and the ruthless hand of the Skynet warlord knows no remorse. But from the ashes of our defeat, a small group of resistance fighters will rise to battle the machines and take back what is rightfully ours.<\/p>\n
You control the character of John Conner, an up-and-coming leader in the resistance regime and vengeful messiah of earth. It is your task to exterminate the hordes of bloodthirsty robot soldiers that stand between you and the Skynet supercomputer…or is it?<\/p>\n
The game is set as a prequel to the film and begins with your team having taken a serious beating at the hands of the very model of robot that has tried to assassinate and then protect you in the past, the T-1000’s. Your team is left behind to die…cut off from radio transmission and surrounded from all sides, with an improvement in the situation nowhere to be seen in the near future. The T-1000’s are armed with giant mini-guns and heat recognition technology…they kill everything in their path and unless you stay on the move your fate isn’t much different. With the powers that be making the final decision that the sacrifice of few is a small price to pay for the fate of many, Conner decides to revolt, and goes on a rogue mission to save his buddies.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that is the entire storyline of the game wrapped into one paragraph. There are no sudden twists or intriguing plot changes waiting around the next corner. It is a simple survive and rescue mission from start to finish, and your entire objective is mostly a point A to point B directive. After a mere 5 to 6 hours of gameplay, you find yourself staring at a credit list, making your own list… of game designers you’d like to assassinate.
As for the controls, they are rather simplistic, with an easy to use cover system allowing you to fluently move between objects, and a point-and-shoot aiming system allowing for quick kills. The spacebar allows you to hug against objects, while the right mouse button gives you a series of decisions from that vantage point, much like the Gears of War system.<\/p>\n
Precision aiming gets a bit tricky at times and the lack of a sufficiently powerful gaming rig (PC users) which is able to run the game smoothly, will lead to countless frustrated moments. Even after setting the sensitivity of the mouse and the graphics to a minimal, there are still times when the slightest twitch causes the crosshair to dance across the screen. With most of the objectives calling for precise aiming, this in its own essence is a shoot and miss scenario. The quick aim and fire does however keep the suspense level up, as you are able to pop up and fire at an enemy quickly, before returning to cover.<\/p>\n
With a destructible environment, this allows for some nail biting situations, as bullets cascade down on your position from all angles…the sky, the ground, nowhere is safe with robots such as the Hunter-Killer and Harvester about. Although battling countless waves of robot soldiers might sound cool, it becomes rather monotonous after a while.<\/p>\n
That is of course until you eventually face the dreaded…HARVESTER!<\/p>\n
Through the entire cutscene, with Conner running for dear life from the giant metal human vacuum, most gamers are mesmerized by the thought of “I can’t wait to finally take this thing on”…unfortunately this never happens. In a later cutscene, John, with the help of a monkey wrench and a few turns of the wrist, effortlessly turns the Harvester into his own personal pet. Yes, with nothing but a mere monkey wrench. Disappointment reigns supreme of course, as it does through most of the game.<\/p>\n
Fun Factor<\/strong><\/p>\n After tirelessly fiddling with the sensitivity settings, I eventually had to calm myself down. My anger was futile, as no matter what I did, the aiming system was horrible, and of course, precision aiming is required to take down the HK in the very first mission, making for a highly frustrating gameplay experience.<\/p>\n Visuals<\/strong><\/p>\n The visuals are more or less a topsy turvy egg…there are moments when it’s solid and just gorgeous to look at, and moments when your feel the corneas of your eyes start to singe from all the ugly on the screen.<\/p>\n Story<\/strong><\/p>\n If this was an actual prequel to the game, John Conner’s best option would have just been to tell his buddies sorry, go take a nap in a ditch and just let the world pass on by. The game plays off in the span of a day…and it just so happens to be the most boring day in the history of mankind.<\/p>\n Sound<\/strong><\/p>\n Once again, nothing that truly moves you…it’s all just so extremely bland and blasé. No Christian Bale doing voice-over work, no monumental explosions pealing the paint from your walls, no ear-shattering rip of gunfire…just war…plain old blasé, dull sounding war.<\/p>\n Originality<\/strong><\/p>\n Although the Terminator series has had a range of absolutely phenomenal films, the games have not experienced the same success. With titles like Redemption, Rise of the Machines and Dawn of Fate appearing on the Xbox and PS2, we expected the future titles to be an improvement. Unfortunately, we were wrong.<\/p>\n Bottom line <\/strong><\/p>\n Without a doubt, this game is so far from living up to its film counterpart, it’s obscene. We never doubted that it wouldn’t be the best title ever, but we expected a bit more than this.<\/p>\n Discuss Terminator Salvation<\/a> in the forums<\/p>\n\n\t\t