Terminator: Salvation review

I really wanted to love this game. It is based off a great movie, and has some great elements, but is consistently short. This hurts the game badly in the long run.

The game only has one option at first, to start the campaign. You pick a difficulty, and your off. The game is set in a ruined version of L.A., and follows John Conner's journey to rescue a group of men trapped behing enemy lines. He meets new friends (many who appear in the movie), and defies his superiors to save three men, because he believes that every life is sacred. The plot works as a prequel to the movie, and does a very good job of setting up the characters. It is a strong point for the game.

The gameplay itself is also very good. The game has a heavy focus on using tactics such as flanking to defeat your enemies. If you try to defeat the enemy head on you will lose every time, as the games main enemy, the spider, is heavely sheilded from the front, but has a exposed battery on the back. You have to work with your team to surround it and take it down from behind. Also, the variety of weapons in the game work differeently on different foes. The flying aerostat, for example, can avoid assult rifle blasts, but fall to a shotgun quickly. You will have to use your weapons wisely to succeed.

All of this flanking is done by the use of a clever new cover system that allows you to quickly move between covers with minimum exposure to enemy fire. It is intuitive and fun, and the areas are set up to allow you to chain cover hops together to get behind the enemy.

The rest of the game is quite good as well, and has some of the best tactical shooting I have ever played (even better then Ghost Recon).

The graphics are quite good, and the enviroments are consistantly well done, and immerse the player into the game. The AI is good, and the controls are response. The game looks like a sure hit.

Then it ends. After 6-8 hours of playing, the main plot is over, and you have no options, but to turn up the diffuculty and try again. While the game warrants a second playthrough, their is nothing else to do in the game. The levels are all linear, without any side objectives or easter eggs. There are not even any special acheivements, only ones for finishing the levels. The games appeal is basically over.

The game has one more hook, though. While it lacks any online play (Despite what the box says; it lies), it supports local 2 player co-op. This adds greatly to the replayability, and is very fun. The 2 player is the games best feature.

Salvation is a good game that was spoiled by a limited time frame. If the game had been released alongside the DVD release, it could have been awsome.

7.5/10 Great gameplay, short length. Worth a rent or used purchase. Only worth full price to terminator fans and co-op fans