Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Review - Atari's companion to the movie arrives.

You know it seems to me that whenever robots or monkeys are involved, something always goes horribly wrong. Be it an Ape going bananas in a rocket as it lifts off, stranding the crew on a planet where the damn simians have taken over, or a clumsy robot gaining sentience and trying to wipe out humanity. This is the only constant in our little known universe. That and the fact that videogames based on licenses are pretty much guaranteed to be utterly rubbish. Enter Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Arnold's swansong movie before trying to take over California and Atari's latest foray into trying to please us with expensive franchises. But before I tell you all about this game, I have to state that I have not yet seen the movie so I can't make comparisons regarding scenes and accuracy. So as long as you are okay with that, I shall continue.

Terminator 3 is a first person shooter where you take the role of... wait... the Terminator! Unfortunately you are the one siding with the humans and therefore must smash your fellow Terminators so that humankind may continue to do wrongs with both machine and monkey once the war is over. Typical FPS fare is present, move, shoot, collect proceedingly more powerful weapons, kill proceedingly more powerful enemies.. yadda yadda. Nothing particularly inspiring, but I've certainly enjoyed run of the mill shooters in the past, so it's certainly not impossible that Terminator 3 could be a most enjoyable shooter without breaking any new ground.

Graphically the game is a mixed bag. Certainly the Terminator endo-skeletons are very pretty. They shine and move with great menace, seemingly unstoppable in number and determination. The weapons too are very pretty although the projectiles that spew-forth are a little weak in execution and lack the punch that makes a good FPS weapon satisfying. The levels themselves are the worst offenders however. Mostly grey, they lack definition making it very easy to overlook doors and pathways that take you through the level, meaning lots of getting lost and frustration despite the in-game map. This kind of schoolboy error doesn't stop here. Enemies respawn through walls. Sure, the walls are made from rubble, but the execution of this is terrible and just further alienates the player by destroying any sense of solidity or believability. These are relics of the past that should have been done away with, but here they are in the 21st century. For shame.

The controls are something that console FPS's live or die by. Unfortunately Terminator 3 is being killed by its controls. Twitchy and just a little clumsy it makes precision aiming hard, navigation through tight spots annoying and further provides yet more frustration. The controls do have a saving grace however, a lock-on button. Which is the least the developers could have done as it makes-up in part for the previous wrongdoings.

Variety is thrown in using a fighting game boss mechanic. The view changes to a side on perspective. The Governator then takes on the boss, fist fighting to the death. Graphically this is a vast improvement over the FPS sections that make up the bulk of the game. However the gameplay takes a definite turn for the worse. Unresponsive controls begin the cascade of despair, then comes the laughable animations. Played a little slower they would look powerful and punishing, but instead they look like a Benny Hill chase sequence, albeit a more violent version. Although a nice idea, a little more attention to the basic mechanic could have saved this, but alas it is yet another reason to avoid the game.

Surely there must be something good? Well the biggest plus of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is that for every completed level, you are awarded with production stills of the movie which I believe are exclusive to the game. Something for Terminator nuts everywhere to get excited about no doubt, but for me it has to be the emulated versions of Missile Command and Centipede which can be found in the games levels. A nice touch, and once found can be played from the main menu. Being published by Atari certainly has its perks.

While by no means the worst movie tie-in ever, it certainly is nowhere near the greatest. The game's flaws could have easily been avoided with a little more attention and would have improved the game immensely. The saddest thing, however, is that included on the disc is a demo for Terminator 3: Redemption. The one section of a level provided proves to be more entertaining in it's 10 minutes than the entire Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines game. A bit of an own goal really.

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