Video Game Review: Tie-In For McG’s ‘Terminator: Salvation’ as Disappointing as Film

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Video Game Rating: 1.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Come with me if you want to be frustrated. Video game tie-ins for movies are notoriously problematic and poorly received. Every major movie gets a video game (we’ve reviewed “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” in recent weeks and will give you our opinion of “Up” soon) and most of them suck. Even by that standard, “Terminator: Salvation,” based on the McG film with Christian Bale, is a disappointment.

Like the previews for the film itself (also a disappointment - read our review here), the advanced clips and screenshots for the game version of “Terminator: Salvation” looked promising. What a great example of how great marketing can hide a shoddy game.

Terminator: Salvation
Photo credit: WB Games

With no voice work from the cast of the actual film (which includes Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Anton Yelchin, and Moon Bloodgood) and a story that only relates to it in the loosest of ways, one of the worst things about “Salvation” is the lack of competent storytelling. This is a movie tie-in that barely ties in.

Terminator: Salvation Photo credit: WB Games

The games attempts to serve as a prequel to the film, as the player guides John Connor through some machine warfare before the events involving Marcus Wright, Kyle Reese, and the rest of the far-more-interesting action in the actual movie. The screenplay for “Salvation” has problems but the film plays like a video game, which makes the decision not to actually transport its action set pieces to the tie-in all the more baffling.

The game is set in the year 2016 as the Resistance wages a losing battle against the increasingly deadly machines of Skynet. John Connor receives a distress message from abandoned soldier David Weston and takes a loyal group of fighters to rescue him. Along the way, he faces the same series of easily-vanquished machines at a disarmingly repetitive rate and travels through environments that look interesting from a distance but are also uninspired.

This is as by-the-numbers a shooter as you’ll play all year. A decent cover system, only a handful of weapons, a few enemies - repeat. None of it is remotely memorable or difficult. It almost feels like a demo of a longer, more interesting game, something made even more prominent by the fact that you’ll finish it in under four hours. One thing for trophy-hunters, this may be the easiest 100% title you’ve ever played.

Terminator: Salvation Photo credit: WB Games

“Terminator: Salvation” is a rental at best, but even then you may want to rent two games so you have one as back-up for after you zip through this title or get frustrated enough to return it early.

What’s so frustrating about the gameplay? The load times are ridiculous and often, the cut scenes are dull and far too prominent, and the graphics are simply weak. But all of that could have been forgiven if the game included a well-designed shooting mechanism. Shooter fans like myself can forgive a LOT in the name of unleashing metal hell on waves of enemies.

But even that element of “Terminator: Salvation” feels like it was underdeveloped. I hated the weapon choices and how to switch between them and aiming and shooting in “Terminator: Salvation” feels like trying to fire a shotgun while you’re wearing mittens. The camera jerks for no good reason and shooting feels anything but smooth. It’s awkward and annoying.

Is there anything to like? Being a gamer raised on James Cameron’s original “Terminator” films, there is a quick, kinetic thrill from finally getting behind the trigger as John Connor, but that’s an inherent power in the franchise that has very little to do with the game itself. Action junkies and hardcore fans of the franchise should rent the title just to be completist, but everyone else should wait for the next shooter. Heck, even the next movie tie-in will probably be better.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com