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The Terminator is back. Terminator 3: Redemption is probably the game Atari wanted to ship last year, but was unable to for whatever reasons. I briefly played T3: Rise of the Machines and very quickly stopped playing. Thankfully, I wasn’t the poor chap who purchased the game. I am even more thankful that Atari released The Redemption, as I am a fan of the Terminator franchise and the game is a solid shooter.
In terms of story, Terminator 3: The Redemption plays out similarly to the way Activision handles the Spider-Man 2 game. The main plot is here: you as Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator character have gone back in time to protect John Connor, who will end up leading the human resitance in the future. You need to save him because Skynet has sent another robot to destroy him. Otherwise, the developers at Paradigm Entertainment added quite a few new bits to the story to increase its length. The story is told through a mix of film footage, computer generated sequences, as well as in-game cut scenes. The CG is good-looking, and though the in-game cut scenes aren’t bad, they aren’t particularly good, either.
Terminator 3: The Redemption combines third person action with driving and rail shooting. In the third person action missions, you’ll go around picking off as many enemies as possible with some hand-to-hand attacks, including short combos, in addition to the third person shooting. You’ll also be able to activate the Arnold’s scan mode, which switches the display and allows you to cause more damage for a short period of time. Shooting also takes place in the rail-shooting portions of the missions. Here, you’ll usually be on a car or helicopter and be charged with destroying the enemies coming at you. It isn’t anything revolutionary but remains quite fun as there is nothing broken with the game. The shooting is done via a laser gun, machine gun or shotgun, although you’ll find additional weapons for some missions.
It isn’t all shooting however, since you’ll need to spend quite a bit of time actually driving the cars. These missions are quite fun, although the vehicle mechanics are very simple at their heart. The variety of the car missions really works well with the overall game flow and allows you to control the more exciting portions of action movies. For example, in one mission you have TX on top of your car and you need to turn violently to get it off. Other missions have you ramming into vehicles to make items fall or the videogame design favorite of keeping up with someone else. The game best succeeds when it intertwines the different types of missions together.
One thing that may frustrate you in The Redemption is the game’s difficulty level. Atari tends to do this with games it publishes as they require you to know exactly what you’ll be doing before you’re successful. Although it is possible to go through the first level or two without dying, even the most skillful players will die near the end. Still, it never becomes an issue as you want to keep playing and prove to the game that you can do it since the deaths are never cheap and you can clearly tell what you could have done better to avoid your death.
Terminator 3: The Redemption increases its replayability by allowing you to go back to levels to get more “terabytes.” These allow you to increase Arnold’s scan mode features so it goes lasts longer and causes more damage, among other things. Paradigm also included a simple, mini-game esque co-op mode in which you and a buddy simply shoot at things as they come to you, like the single player’s rail shooting portions.
The game’s visuals do a convincing job and properly recreate the hectic world of Terminator 3. There is a lot of action going on-screen at any given time, including ridiculous amounts of fire and many, many enemies. The character models, particularly Arnold’s are solid, as are the many vehicles and other items you’ll find in the game. When T3: The Redemption really succeeds though is in the hectic chase sequences which really do bring the movie’s feel to your favorite console.
The audio is competent, as well. The sound effects are crisp and very loud, perfectly complementing the action that is going onscreen. The combination of the audio, in addition to the graphics, really brings the game to life. Otherwise, you’ll find good but not great voice acting from the rest of the crowd. For some reason, Arnold’s character is voiced by the man himself but in some cases sounds like a sound-a-like. All of this comes to life in full Dolby Pro Logic II.
Atari is taking a big bet with T3: The Redemption. The previous T3 game came out less than a year ago, and this one shares key similarities in terms of plot and overall atmosphere, though the gameplay is much better. I went into the game not expecting much but when I let go of my prejudice; I found that it was quite enjoyable although nothing particularly innovative. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Sep 17, 2004
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