Grin strikes again. After juxtaposing the terribly under-realized Wanted: Weapons of Fate with the stellar Bionic Commando reboot, the Swedish developer’s set its sights on the game tie-in to Terminator: Salvation.
At a glance, Salvation has everything going against it: it’s a licensed movie game and its star is nowhere to be seen. Where is Christian Bale? He’s a professed gamer (he once starred in a Pac-Man cereal commercial—really), yet he’s M.I.A. And after Grin’s movie-game track record with Wanted, which was terrible, there doesn’t seem to be much to look forward to.
Instead of Bale, you get a John Connor look-alike in a standalone mission-cum-prequel to the film. And unlike the Wolverine game, Salvation earned a Teen rating, so really it’s just bunch of guns going off, blue explosions and bullets ricocheting off metallic bodies.
Yet, throughout the game I actually found myself having fun. I wasn’t expecting it and it certainly isn’t perfect, but there’s just something about Salvation that’s more enjoyable than I would have imagined.
Maybe it’s that all the weapons seem to have the right heft and feel, or maybe it’s John Connor’s infectious idealism (Gideon Emery, who replaces Bale, may not hold a candle to Bale himself but he does a pretty good job for the game).
Or maybe I just appreciate the challenge. Salvation definitely has “cover shooter” written all over it, but 99 percent of the time you’re up against SkyNet machines that will slaughter you instantly if you try a head on assault. You also don’t have the practically standard regenerating health you see in a lot of other games.
Not only is this a hell of a lot more refreshing than simply taking repeated potshots at average strength enemies until they’re dead, it’s also “realistic,” since taking down a goddamn chain gun packing cyborg probably isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do.
I’ve got two complaints with Salvation though. One, it’s really short. Two, it doesn’t do enough with the Terminator IP. There’s the cyborg T-600s, 700s and a possible mention of 800s, but they all look almost exactly the same.
Aside from that, there are two kinds of small pesky airborne enemies, HKs, which look like giant assault helicopters (think the Hind from Metal Gear) and variations of four-legged attack drones. That’s pretty much it.
Where the hell are all the crazy machines from the film? Maybe Grin thought the game would be too hard with all the crap. Salvation isn’t worth $60, but the guilty pleasure factor and co-op mode make for a good purchase when the price drops. Check it out—you might just be surprised.