Years ago, back in 1993 I played the best game of all time. It was a FPS set in the future war of The Terminator movie. You played a soldier fighting for the resistance under John Conner, undertaking various missions (it was one of the only truly mission based games I've every played) in truly huge (for the time) open air areas of devastated Los Angeles. It was made by Bethesda Softworks and called Terminator: Future Shock. Since then I've dreamed of the day they would remake it or another Terminator game would come along that was just as good. With the hype that came prior to Salvation, I'd hoped this game might be it. Imagine my crushing, crushing disappointment.

First of all it's short. I think it's probably the shortest, least value for money game I've ever played and could be easily completed in an evening or two.

The game is constantly interrupted by cutscenes, one after another. You play for a few minutes, then there's a cutscene (usually followed by the load screen), then another bit of action, then another cutscene and so on and so on. This was annoying, but it at least helped give you a feel for the characters and what they were trying to accomplish.

The levels are very small, linear and uninspired, and the battles are incredibly repetitive, with the same two or three types of robots attacking you over and over, requiring the same move-from-cover-to-flank-them maneuver over and over.

It uses a Gears of War style cover system which is essential to staying alive and a big part of the game. It works fine but personally I get distracted by the big green letter A and the words “TAKE COVER” at the bottom of the screen. I would prefer to be able to simply duck behind cover. There's an annoying green highlight around gun and ammo pickups, a red highlight around enemies when you have them in your sights, and a white highlight around NPCs when they speak. All of which combines to detract from immersion.

It uses the checkpoint save system, which is never welcome but is no surprise on a console game, and a health system where you automatically and completely heal after every battle. That's just stupid in my opinion and I can't tell you how much I hate things like that in games.

It's cool that you can only carry two weapons at a time, and ammunition is quite limited so you have to be careful, and switch weapons often. But it was stupid how a lot of the time weapons were liberally scattered around the place in completely illogical locations, like a Skynet compound where John Conner actually makes the comment “We're probably the first humans ever to set foot in this place.” Which begs the question why are all these guns laying around on the floor. Where did they come from?

The few good things I can say about the game is some of the robots are quite cool and look really good, like the T-7-T spider bot that you have to outflank to fire at it's unarmoured rear, and the aerial HKs. And of course the future war setting. I love this aspect of the The Terminator movies and think it's a perfect place to set a game. But this game doesn't really do it justice.

The graphics are ok and there's some nice lighting, and I like the drab, dirty, weathered look of the characters. But all in all it's a disappointing, shallow, uninspired game and is definitely NOT worth full price.

It should also be noted, just to make it suck that tiny bit more, that you can't turn vibration off in the game. So if you don't like vibration make sure you turn it off in your console preferences.

I did a review on here for Ghostbusters: The Videogame in which I raved about what a great game it was and how the developers truly did the license justice. The other side of that coin are the cookie cutter titles like Terminator: Salvation. This uninspired and substandard game only exists in order to take advantage of the movie hype, make as much money as quickly as possible from unsuspecting fans before rapidly making its way to the bargain bins and then disappearing.

Upon loading the game, I was immediately impressed by the outdoor environments which actually look half decent but that folks, is the only good thing I'll say about Salvation. The games major shortcomings quickly reared their heads and dispelled any notion that this might be a good game.

The game is incredibly linear and allows you to travel only a very, very narrowly defined path. Once you finish the game, you'll have seen and done everything this game has to offer so there's no replayability at all (in single player mode).

Combat quickly becomes repetitive as virtually every firefight consists of battling only 3 types of enemy, the T-600, Spiderbots and Flyers. So you'll enter an area with a conspicuous amount of cover provided, fight mostly Spiderbots and Flyers and then move onto the next area to take on more Spiderbots and Flyers and maybe a few T-600s before moving onto the next area and you guessed it, taking on more Spiderbots and Flyers. Yawnnnnn!

In order to break up the monotony a wee bit, the game has a few on-rails bits. You control only the gun while riding on a vehicle that travels a pre-determined course. I'm not a huge fan of this type of gameplay but I suppose it did inject some limited variety into the gameplay.

The plot is pretty forgettable. It's something about saving some stranded friends and destroying an important facility. I honestly didn't care or pay much attention… you won't either.

Graphically the game is acceptable which is surprising considering how lacklustre this title is in almost every other area. The outdoor environments, in particular, do a reasonably good job of rendering a shattered and war torn city.

The last major concern I have about this game is the length. It's very short and may perhaps be another indication of how it was rushed in order to coincide with the release of the movie. You could easily finish this in 1 session.

Terminator: Salvation continues the general trend of movie/game tie-ins not taking full advantage of the source material and having a slightly rushed feel about them in order to meet a deadline such as the theatrical or DVD release of a movie. As a full price title, it's a very poor value for money so if you really must play the game, rent it or wait for it to hit the bargain bins. Alternately, buy Ghostbusters: The Video Game instead and see how a movie license should be made into a game.

This game truly does live up to the name given to games based on movies. I will start with the positives. The game has its moments, a few of the weapons were fun to use, and a couple of the levels are a bit more varied than others and quite enjoyable, but thats about all i can say thats good about this game. The game is more or less an inferior version of Gears of War. It lacks in graphics and in storyline. The voice of John Connor isn't even done by Christian Bale, for crying out loud. The first couple of levels are the most fun, but the game is really badly rushed at the midway point. I was surprised at how small the last few levels were. Not much thought has been put into this game. It would have made a decent shooter for the original xbox or the playstation 2, but fails to impress on the next-gen consoles. Even the hard difficulty mode isn't at all that hard to beat. Overall, I highly recommend to stay away from buying this game, and to only rent it if you have nothing else to play.