Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

"Hasta la vista"

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a joke of a game. However, there is no vindictiveness or bitterness in that statement; it is merely a fact. I have played bad games before that have struck a raw nerve, but T3 was not one of them. Why? I actually don't quite know the answer to that question, but I'll do my best to explain over the next few paragraphs.

T3 follows the events of the movie (oh, the surprise!) that came out a few months before the game. Having watched it a long time ago I did not remember the plot very well, nor was my memory refreshed by the game. The first major problem in T3 cropped up in the form of the presentation. The cutscenes are a mixture of CG and live-action sequences, as well as the good old-fashioned in-game ones. However (there always is the magic 'however'), the in-game cutscenes, for a start, were laughable, to put it succinctly. I would often walk into an area and the camera would cut away to a cutscene, leaving me to wonder what was coming up. With my curiosity and excitement at boiling point, Arnie would relieve me of the horrendous suspense by... flicking a switch! Yes, ladies & gentlemen, the developers took the idea of 'in-game' cutscenes to a whole new level. Almost every relatively-major event has its own cutscene(s). If the developers had put in as much effort in the game itself as they did in the cutscenes, this would be a very different story (literally and metaphorically).

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Staying on the topic of cutscenes, the CG cutscenes were an interesting feature with a lot of potential, but they were implemented too awkwardly to stand any real chance of success here. CG sequences are a tricky beast, as they can either come off really well or really badly owing to their neither-here-nor-there nature. In T3, the developers fall short of their goal - far short. The same can be said of the movie footage, which felt disjointed as it would play at completely arbitrary moments.

"Well" - I can hear you say - "so what if the presentation isn't that good? It's substance that counts anyway, right?" I couldn't agree more, but the problem here is that T3 has neither style nor substance. For a game about war and machines and guns you'd expect the action to be fast and furious, right? Wrong. The action in T3 consists of running from point A to point B, and sometimes doing tasks X and Y along the way. As soon as you start the first mission, you will notice a fault: the sensitivity. The sensitivity is either too high or too low, with no option of hitting the sweet spot right in between. This makes what should be a relatively straightforward game frustrating at parts.

Thankfully, in a bizarre (yet clever) move, the developers must have realized at some point the flimsiness of their aiming system and decided to rectify it by... including a lock-on system. Instead of devoting some time tweaking the aiming system, the developers just went for the easiest possible alternative, which was to include an auto lock-on. This makes an already short game easier and shorter, which might actually be a blessing in disguise.

Speaking of the game's length, you will probably finish it in one sitting. Apart from the aforementioned auto-aim, the game also scatters health and ammo liberally and includes the option to continue from certain checkpoints. The AI further helps with its idiocy, as all it does is move around in slow circles until it's destroyed. The battles with other Terminators sprinkled throughout the game are lame and pathetic, as all that has to be done it to mash the attack buttons over and over again. It's almost as if the developers wanted to make sure you quickly finished the game...

Staying true to the old adage of saving the best for last, I now move on to the graphics. They're horrible. That's the best way to describe them. No matter which time period or place you're in, the settings look the same and boy do they look bad. You will see the same ruined buildings and rubble dozens of times, as the game's colour palette is strictly confined to dark, earthy colours i.e. brown, black and grey. The weaponry is actually decently animated, as each rifle has its own unique design that reminds you of what this game could have been. The machines also stay true to their silver-screen counterparts, bearing strong resemblances to the machines from the movies. But that's where the positives end. The human characters are hilariously animated (as you will see in the cutscenes), although I found some comic relief much appreciated.

The sound will also be on the receiving end of the 'mute' button after a while, as all it consists of is the same 'pew-pew' laser sounds and poorly-executed orchestral music. Arnie sounds as interested doing his voice-overs as I am when doing biology. You can't really blame the man for being reluctant to associate with this game. And you also have to feel for the poor saps that proudly trumpeted their names in the credits. Because T3 is a shining example of the quality of movie-based games and a testimony to all that is wrong in our world today. Unfortunately, there are some things in life which you just can't terminate.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 01/20/09

Game Release: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (US, 11/11/03)