The Terminator: Future Shock

The Good
Best thing about this game is, that it's a Terminator game, where you actually get to destroy a lot of, and all kinds of terminators. Also it's quite fascinating to experience the future, we all know from Terminator movies. Some weapons are quite refreshing, at least was for the time when the was made. The game engine is not really that bad, even if it does have it's faults. It had "full 3D" engine before Quake, so it could be called a pioneering game. Intro look cool, especially the nuclear strike.

The Bad
First of all the title says "The Terminator", so you know that the game is going to suck, or if not suck, at least inhale a lot. I really don't believe there are any Terminator games that aren't total bull (and there aren't that many Arnold movie based games either, that were actually good).

Secondly, even if it is kinda fun to destroy terminators, it's just not believable. Most enemies can be destroyed with the steel pipe, you get in the beginning, and the rest are too difficult to destroy with any weapon (not counting flying Terminators, like Hunter Killers). Enemies take too much hits, which is just wrong. If the gun is powerful enough, the Terminator should go to pieces with one or two hits, and if there isn't enough power, no amount of shooting should be efficient. As we all could see in the movie (all of us who's actually seen the movie, but no one else should find any interest to this game), Terminator could take endless amount of hit's from bullets, and it does nothing, but then a gun that's powerful enough, does the trick instantly, not after 15 seconds of shooting. If this game was suppose to be a good Terminator game, the Terminator would be fast, and bullets would make the slow down. But shooting at enemies (which are too scarce by the way) 15 second each, is just awful. Just imagine if doom had like 1/20 of it's enemies, and they all were Barons Of Hell. Would that be fun? I don't think so. Also there are too much enemies, that are only seen in the game, and aren't recognizable from the movies. Why not just infiltrator Terminator? why not just fight Arnold clones, since there are too few enemies anyway? This game would have been much more fun, if there were friendly NPC:s, which you could confuse with infiltrators. But no, that would have make the game somehow original, and would make more like Terminator. It actually would have been fun, if every once in a while you would have been persecuted by a model 101. But no, you just walk around shooting unrecognizable robots, that are scarcely scattered around, and take 50 million hits each, but can still be killed with steel pipe. Enemy AI doesn't actually save much, as it only know to attack when ever player gets too close (too close is sometimes WAY TOO CLOSE). Does that sound like good use of The Terminator licence? I don't think so.

In Terminator movies, scenes about the future were most thrilling. Well ,at least to me they were. They were like freak circus, with oddities. But does that mean it's a good Idea to put in a game. Well maybe, if the game is strategy game or something with a lot of action. But wondering around in 3D future, with very few enemies, is not fun at all. Anyone who has even little knowledge of game designing, could make levels with unrecognizable landscape and very, very simple ruins. That takes about zero creativity and only little effort. Only good things about this games world are gas stations, which give some clue that it used to be a city, and not just dark grey desert with brick walls scattered around. By the way, if gas pups explode when get shot by few bullets, why didn't they explode or burn in the intense heat of nuclear explosion? Nothing really looks like anything.

Why are there no other people? What is our hero doing alone in the field? Shouldn't he have at least a backup? I don't remember in the movie, soldiers wondering mindlessly alone, just looking for another place to go. What I do remember, are intense battles between terminators and humans, but non of that is seen in the game.

Even though some weapons are bit fun, most of them are just boring. Almost all weapons are too powerless, and fighting is always just long rapid fire. Well. Then again, shotgun is much more powerful on terminators, that assault guns or explosives. Even though in the movies, terminators were quite tolerant for intense heat, they are too easily killed by molotovs. But it's too hard to get them hit anything.

The gameplay itself if bad too. Controls are awkward and your character sometimes gets stuck on nothing. All that, combined with the fact that in most levels you have to jump on platforms, makes it quite awful to play. All bad things at controls, are exponentially increased in driving sequences. Little comfort is that, there isn't too much driving in the game. Oddly though HK-flight works quite well, though there is no explanation given, why does a computer driven machine have a cockpit and manual controls, as it was designed to be used against humans.

The ending sucks too.

The Bottom Line
A hardcore die hard etc. Terminator fan might find some redeeming factor for this game. Rest should just avoid it like it was a sex offender.