6th Sep, 2022
The newest Terminator movie came out closely followed by a game named after it, which was the result of the collaboration between several developers. Despite its short length, it serves as a nice addition to the experience from the movie, and if you own an iPhone you'll also get to enjoy a very refined version of the game that completely blew people's expectations when it was later released on that platform.
Gameplay
You control a soldier in a squad fighting against Skynet and its Terminators, and the game is played from a third-person perspective. You'll see some familiar “faces” from the movie, such as various robots that you'll have to come up against – while the storyline and background plot have been expanded by introducing several unique opponents which haven't been references in any of the movies so far.
You'll have to interact with your squad in what unfolds into a very fast-paced and twitchy gameplay, with enemies constantly popping out from behind the trickiest locations, and there's an extensive and well-designed cover system that allows you to shoot from behind various objects without leaving your cover. There's no health system, instead the developers have opted for a regenerating health system, something which we're seeing in more and more titles lately.
There's also a multiplayer option, though only local, where you can play with one of your friends in a cooperative campaign that will take you through the singleplayer levels and pit you against some new challenges that you'll have to face as a team.
Graphics and System Requirements
The Diesel Engine has been employed by the developers of Terminator Salvation, and even though it hasn't proven to be a very popular one for some reason, it's used with great success here. The environments resemble those from the movie very closely and realistically, characters are lively and unique-looking, and the effects during combat will keep you screaming “Wow!” after every explosion.
The game comes with some very bearable system requirements too, and those of you who're playing on some older rigs shouldn't see much problem playing it at low-to-medium graphics quality settings. Some of the larger battles can strain your processor very heavily though, as the AI tends to be rather intensive at times and requires lots of calculations from your CPU when there are many enemies on the screen at once.
Other
Fans of the movie may find it slightly disappointing that the voice of Connor's character differs from that in the movie – and for a good reason, as Christian Bale (who played Connor in the film) isn't the one behind the voice acting for Connor in the game. Still, the voice actor has done his best to sound convincing, and if you're not paying so much attention to that it shouldn't even bother you at all.
Conclusion
A successful follow-up to a great and intense movie, Terminator Salvation can satisfy your desires to dive into some of the scenes from the film.