I was stoked to play Terminator Salvation actually I was so stoked that I annoyed our Editor in Chief just for the chance to review it. Well as a wise man once said, you should never wish for something in case you get it and boy did I get it. It is not that Terminator Salvation is a bad game it is just not a good game and it is also extremely short at three hours in length which is just a crime in itself.

Based two years before the movie you play John Connor who is leading a squad through the ruins of Los Angeles to save members of the resistance and kick some tin can Terminator butt. The game pulls this off well with plenty of action sequences which certainly lets you feel like you are fighting Terminators and that is a very good thing.

It is obvious that Terminator Salvation was built behind the Wanted cover system because if you just played Wanted and then played Terminator you will see that developer GRIN borrowed from their own work to quickly make this game. They are very similar in many ways, even the overall controls are similar but the in game actions and animation look a bit too similar to make me feel like this is nothing more than a cheap game mod. But this is not surprising as both games were also built by GRIN, who normally does a great job with their games, but it is obvious or at least it seems obvious they put more effort into Wanted Weapons of Fate.

The basis of the gameplay in Terminator Salvation is to use cover, pop-up and shoot and keep moving so you can flank and keep flanking against the onslaught of Terminators which always come against you. It is very simple and does not become any more complicated than that. There is no multiplayer other than a local Co-op mode which does not add anything to the game. The cherry on this gaming sundae is that the game is very linear so playing through it more than once is not required but the short time with it you will find it at least amusing if not fun.

With the running, using cover and gunning aspects there are on-rail shooter aspects where you shoot from the back of trucks and a train. These work well but are again like the rest of the game is nothing special or memorable and the on-rail segments are simply just time fillers and take almost no skill to pass.

Salvation’s graphics and audio are actually well done for the most part. The graphics could be better but portray the futuristic Terminator landscape and the Terminators themselves very well. The graphics are far from the best we have seen but for a quickie rental game they do their job well. Audio wise the game hits the marks with the music, voice work and sound effects. With a strong audio background from the movies I will say that if the overall audio was not as good as it was the game would have been an even bigger crime.

The value is non-existent because it is so freaking short.