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Terminator 3 Redemption

Terminator 3 Redemption Review

Information
Reviewer: Andy Carmichael
Developer: Paradigm Entertainment
Publisher: Atari
Reviewed: Xbox
Genre: Action
UK Release: 24th Oct 2004
Article Date: 11th Nov 2004
Difficulty: Hard
Retail Price: £19.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 77%

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Pros

Fast

Dramatic

Hard

Cons

licence showing its age

Screenshots

27 of 35

Let’s face it, the Terminator films are never likely to carry off any end of year gongs for most innovative picture. Similarly, Atari’s new console title sticks to the third person action script in almost every way imaginable, a hybrid of just about every game you’ve ever played in the genre. Yet it does so with such pace and on screen drama that it deserves better than a tired old re-hash of movie clichés. If you see the phrase ‘Hasta La Vista’ during this review feel free to terminate your interest.

The plot of Terminator Redemption follows the story of ‘Rise of the Machines’ quite closely, namely your good guy T850 fulfilling the ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ role of trying to safeguard John Connor and friends’ future. They’ve taken a bit of a gamble in hoping there’s still enough fans left to care following the woeful reception accorded the third movie and the unlikely future for the series unless it involves ripping up the U.S constitution and mounting an assault on the White house. Still it doesn’t do the Governor’s image much harm to be seen taking on villainous all comers, and bar the odd foot soldier here and there it’s the one-man army going into battle once more.

Effectively, the game is a third person actioneer, making impressive use of vehicles and weapons, wrapped in a ‘Terminator’ skin. This could easily be the next Bond license, a Vin Diesel effort, or a cop chase movie. It’s a sum of multiple parts encompassing arcade action favourites – driving, shooting and similarly driving whilst shooting. At the start of the game you need to walk about twenty steps to get into the fray – that’s pretty much the last time you’ll have to think, from there on in it’s reactions all the way. That’s not to suggest this is a mindless shoot up, far from it, you need to employ a wealth of actions to stay on course in some two handed manoeuvring that could lead to a severe case of arthritis. At times you’ll be on foot facing the cannon fodder of the Skynet complex, suddenly you’ll receive the call to man the 4x4, a swift turn of fortunes and you may need to commandeer one of the enemy transports, before winding up on the other end of a beast of a cannon mounted on the side of a helicopter. This is all within the first breathless level. Things get even more tasty once you meet your T-X nemesis. Sure these are scripted events – you can’t avoid taking to the skies for example, but the odd hidden move to pull off and an action rate in tune with your firepower ensures you have little time to stop and admire the view.

One area you do have to consider is the setup of your equipment. Weapons are acquired en route, but power upgrades and scan vision time can be enhanced by gaining points, with the player needing to prioritise. It’s limited strategy, if it can be called that, but it does give an incentive to maximise level score and offers an option that other similar shooters often omit. There’s only one difficulty level and rather than seeing your man bleed and die (as we know he doesn’t) he loses power. This power can be charged back up at certain points during the level but you need to keep a sharp eye out for these – it’s very easy to shoot past them on the rail like circuit and this could potentially prove terminal. This is without doubt one of the trickiest third personeers I’ve played – I’m not sure if it’s the volume of activity on screen, the relative feebleness of some of the weapons (your hand to hand combat whilst being a nice idea is pretty ponderous), or the large damage sustained by major hits (vehicle explosions, end of level bosses) but I needed a number of repeat efforts on each level – and there are no easy checkpoints. That said there is a real coin-op feel about the game and it is quite an addictive affair that implores you to give it just one more shot before lights out.

The regular employment of cut scenes at the end of chapters is well done, and advances the story across the various locations (it also buys you some time to recover from the breakneck pace.) Graphically, these are good efforts – as you really have the right to expect from a big screen license – and the twist to the story is that you fight across three different time spans within the Terminator universe. The main character himself is a pretty good rendition – at first I thought it was a little wooden, until I realised who it was attempting to emulate. The sound would be good – the general noise level and sounds of battle are decent enough, however the stilted Arnie-speak is truly awful, those hackneyed one liners repeated to boredom. Sadly, no-one could dispute this is faithful to the movie, it’s a shame they never considered a Darth Vader style body/voice separation.

Whilst it is easy to pick minor faults with the environment or licence the underlying gameplay – the real heart of the matter – is excellent. Being a fan of the series will obviously help with some of the more subtle touches - if an armoured killing machine charging through multiple levels of chaos can ever be considered subtle. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a trip to see this kind of fare at your local Odeon – lots of noise, lots of effects, dialogue kept to a minimum – it’s a real rollercoaster of a ride (damn, that’s a cliché if ever I wrote one.)

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