Terminator Salvation game review

 

 

Lesbian Gamers	Review
Title:	Terminator Salvation
Publisher:	Warner Bros
Developer:	GRIN
Format:	PS3
Lesbian Content :	None – but Blair Williams is nice!
by LesbianGamers

Terminator Salvation falls under a category of games that feature words that strike horror in every gamers heart “movie tie-in”. Yes a video game that ties in with a movie release will generally be a big pile of cash in, though this isn’t always the case. When you’re dealing with as huge a franchise as the Terminator, the developers really need to come up with something a little special, or gamers are likely to go a little Christian Bale in their reviews.

Let’s begin with the setting. As with the Terminator franchise, there are killer robots galore, though unlike the previous movies, they inhabit the post apocalyptic future we’ve come to fear, as opposed to traveling back to our time. You take on the role of John Connor in this bleak future setting, a resistance fighter and would be savior of mankind. Connor is played by Christian Bale in the movie, but not in the game where he is notably absent, replaced by a character model resembling Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect, chiseled, good looking and out to kick some ass.

Our hero is central to the story, which essentially revolves around him (you) finding his feet as the leader / savior type, rallying the troops and going on a suicide rescue mission. Sadly though, that’s about as deep as the story becomes, there’s no terminator in jokes, no real depth of character to be found, there is merely a linear point A to B metal bloodbath.

Controlling Connor is a simple task and the developers did do well to stick with a tried and true control method for the usual run and gun titles and herein lay Terminator Salvations one redeeming quality, its cover mechanic. Where all else seems fairly bland Terminator Salvation utilizes a cover system that – in any other big budget game – would actually be pretty cool. You can slide into cover so you’re hidden from enemy sight and use the thumbstick to choose the direction of your next cover leap, sneakily moving and sliding from one point of cover to another. This for us was one of the highlights of an otherwise average game.

Enemies in Terminator Salvation ranged from fairly tough to just plain stupid. There seemed little continuity with some enemies floating aimlessly in your gun sights as though half asleep, whilst others did seem to try and use clever tactics to never put themselves in a vulnerable position, meaning you do have to flank them to move on.

Character / machine models also ranged from fairly mediocre and repetitive to some fairly nice attempts at humanizing the bleak future. The post apocalyptic L.A. setting was dusty, sepia and fit well, but there was really nothing here that you wont have seen before and probably done to better effect. The sound in Terminator Salvation did a nice job of keeping you in the moment, though the notable absence of lead character Bale stuck out like a sore thumb. Bale’s absence however was tempered somewhat by the voice acting of another star of the film, in the form of Moon Bloodgood as kick ass resistance fighter Blair Williams. Rose McGowan also lends voice to the game, as the whiny character of Angie (she does not appear in the film).

Lesbian Content
Lesbian characters, well who can say. What we can say is there were more than a few butchies lurking here and there, but none were a patch on Blair Williams, John Connors sidekick for the story. Williams really could have led the story and they could have ditched John Connor altogether, particularly given Christian Bale didn’t make an appearance anyway. The game for us would probably have been better had Blair Williams taken on the lead role, but you can’t have everything. We should probably point out here – spoiler lite – that Williams did manage to die on us at one point, only to reappear as if my magic in the next level. This aspect of the game could be applicable to other areas of the title also, since it was jarring and felt like the developer had slipped up, more than a bit.

Overall we don’t want to bag Terminator Salvation too much because despite it being a cash cow to tie-in with the film release, we did actually enjoy playing it, despite its many flaws. The one unforgivable aspect however comes in the form of its length. We finished this title in around 5 hours, which sounds good if you’ve rented it as you’ll get to see it finished, but if you’ve just spent 90 bucks on it, is probably going to make you very angry. All up if you like the Terminator franchise we’d suggest this as a rental, given the length this would be a far better avenue than a full purchase, as there’s sadly little replay value.

Our L Word Rating:

The LG Straight Up Review:
Come wid me if you vant to play a game that lasts around 5 hours, has average 3rd person gameplay, a few female characters, including the lovely Blair Williams, sidekick to the non Christian Bale version of John Connor. Run, slide, shoot, bit of story, onto the next bit, run, shoot, bit of story, onto the next bit…. oh… it finished.

If you fancy your Terminator Salvation review in video format Gay Girls Who Game covered this title in Episode 53 (Season Three – Episode 9).

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