Terminator Salvation Xbox 360 Review
If the events foretold in the Terminator franchise are true, and Skynet is destined to rise up and destroy the human race, this game is definitely the first step in their takeover. If you're reading this review, it means my attempt to go back in time and prevent the Terminator: Salvation tie-in game from ever happening failed. This is Dylan Duarte. You are the resistance.
Anybody who plays videogames on a regular basis knows that movie tie-in games tend to be awful. There are exceptions to the rule, like the stellar Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but for the most part they're poor, shameful attempts to cash-in on a popular franchise at the peak of its hype. I rented Terminator: Salvation not because I thought it would be good, but because I hoped my love for the source material would outweigh any flaws the game might have had. In short, I was wrong.
This isn't going to be a very long review. There isn't a lot to complain about it, because there isn't a lot to talk about, period. Throughout the game, you'll amass a decent-sized arsenal. Weapons include your run-of-the-mill assault rifle, a shotgun, and various explosives. Each weapon is effective against a certain type of enemy. The shotgun is great for fighting off flying drones; you don't need to get close, because this shotgun is from the future and its range and accuracy rival that of the aforementioned assault rifle. Flanking the Spider-like walker will give you access to its backside, which is one giant weak spot.. Finally, T-600 models and the flying HKs can be made short work of with explosives.
I've just described the entire game, save for a few on-rails sequences. You'll fight the same handful of enemies repeatedly, making for an experience that doesn't deserve the term repetitive. A few times during the game we're teased with the prospect of a Harvester battle, but this never comes to fruition.
Limited variety in enemies won't necessarily ruin a game, but a lack of strategic options will. When battling a T-600, you have no choice but to bombard the machine with explosives. When battling one of the ground walkers, you can either fire explosives at their front or flank them and fire on their weak spot. There is absolutely zero room to be creative, resulting in the same situation happening over and over again for the entire six-ish hour game.
Combat aside, what really kills Terminator Salvation is the absolute lack of any feeling of progression. The story involves John Connor and his ragtag group of technophobics venturing across SkyNet territory to rescue a band of resistance soldiers in need of help. You'll fight some machines in some smoldering ruins, receive a broken-up distress call from the resistance soldiers, and then you'll take on some more machines underneath a freeway. While the environment changes around you, at no point during the game do you feel like you're getting any closer to your goal.
While the audio and visual presentation of the game isn't as bad as the combat and progression, it's not good, either. Aside from the relatively cool-looking post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, the graphics are bland and I'm convinced that the entire color palette for the game is just different shades of brown. The voice acting is poor, with Moon Bloodgood, Common, and others obviously phoning in their performances, and the John Connor of the game looks and sounds nothing like the John Connor of the movie, due to Christian Bale wanting nothing to do with the game. He made the right choice.
If there's anything redeeming about this game, I didn't come across it. Terminator Salvation makes me long for the days when move tie-in games were dull and uninspired, as opposed to offensively bad.
