Terminator Salvation

With its lean plot, unimposing terminators, and stilted replay value, Terminator Salvation doesn't have a whole lot going for it. It's also so unbelievably short that the price of entry simply can't be justified.

Terminator Salvation is too short to justify its cost, and its gameplay is unsatisfying too. A new disappointment in the genre of the movie-related games.

In the end, Terminator: Salvation won't have you screaming for salvation, but rather wishing you were terminated from playing this game. Wait for the next reboot if you're hoping for that perfect, all around Terminator game.

I've never played such a boring game as Terminator Salvation: The Videogame. The game is repetitive and the storytelling very shallow. It's a big plus that finishing the game will only take you about three to four hours. Even the very reasonable cover system can't let you enjoy this simple and boring movie game.

As gamers, we are well accustomed to the fate of movie-related games, which is why Salvation is such a disappointment. It has some solid combat, perhaps the best cover-system to date, and the foundation for a captivating plot, but the game lacks any sort of scope.

While there are some cheap thrills to be found in the title's rail-shooter segments and hardcore Terminator fans will no doubt want to rent the title just for the chance to go toe-to-toe with a T-600, I can't recommend Salvation as anything more than exactly that: a rental.

We've come to expect mediocre games derived from motion pictures, but Terminator Salvation is about as bad as it gets.

The game mostly consists of busywork. [July 2009, p.102]

An abysmal failure. No sense of excitement, fear or anything. [July 2009, p.76]

Terminator Salvation may please the fans while a complement to the film, but if you’re looking for a "shooter" that offers a good experience then choose another game.

Despite a competent basis, Terminator Salvation is bland, empty and anaemic, even by movie tie-in standards.

One of 2009's worst movie tie-ins proves boring beyond salvation. [July 2009, p.72]

After finishing the disappointingly anticlimactic game, I felt like I just read through a graphic novel side-story, but one that doesn't reveal anything new or interesting. From a technical standpoint, the game is passing, but its narrative, structure, and inattention to detail reveal this game for what it is: Yet another lazy cash-in on a "blockbuster" film.

As a movie game goes, it could have been pretty decent if there was a larger variety of enemies and of course the game was about 4 times the length. As is, we have another movie licensed game that fails to deliver the goods.

Salvation is headed -- like so many hastily churned-out movie tie-ins before it -- to the dustbin of gaming history. Stay away.

It isn't worth your time for the 30 seconds worth of fun that it produces.

So wasteful of its source material that it should be held up as an example of how not to handle this kind of production. [July 2009, p.101]

Terminator Salvation, in this form, should have never been shown to the public. The game is extremely short, linear and misses the action that made the films so much fun to watch. The gameplay feels stiff, limited and repeats itself. This game is one of the worst movie tie-ins we've ever seen. Not even the biggest Terminator-fan should buy this title.

The gameplay, whilst initially entertaining, quickly becomes tedious and incredibly monotonous after it has been rinsed and repeated over and over again.

No chance to have fun, loving the franchise or not. Disgusting tie-in.

The biggest issue I have with Terminator Salvation is that it doesn't even try. It's resigned to the idea that it is a shameless movie tie-in, and it's not going to try at all to do any better.

Salvation has "rush job" written all over it. There are so many problems and sloppy design that it hard to find any real value in the game.

Were your movements less plodding, the weapons a bit meatier, the enemies even basically tactical, the story and dialogue more than perfunctory, the environments remotely imaginative, or the co-operative mode online-enabled, Terminator Salvation would still be far too rough around the edges, far too short, and far too cynical to withstand much critical inspection, but as it is, it's rubbish on virtually every count.