Hallelujah! Finally there is a Terminator game that doesn’t stink on ice. Not to say Terminator 3: The Redemption is a great game, but it is playable and somewhat fun. I rejoice because it is not the train wreaks that Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines or Terminator: Dawn of Fate were. The addition of vehicles, better level design and absence of severe glitches put this Terminator well above any other game in the franchise.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the story by now, but just for those one or two who are not – here goes. Terminator 3 is part of the continuing story about efforts by Skynet machines from the future to kill a man in the present, John Conner, who will one day lead the fight that eventually brings about their defeat. They first sent a simple Cyberdyne Systems Model T-101 Terminator (played by the Govinator Arnold Schwarzenegger) back through time to kill Conner’s mother and prevent his birth. The humans sent a Tech-Com human soldier back to protect her. Having failed, the machines next sent an advanced prototype T-1000 terminator back to kill Conner as an adolescent. The humans sent a reprogrammed T-101 to protect Conner – once again successfully. In this third installment, the machines have sent back a T-X Terminator and the humans have sent back another reprogrammed model T-101 series T850 to protect Conner and his wife-to-be, Kate Brewster, in the present.

As the game opens, the Tech-Com forces have captured the T850 and reprogrammed it. They then have to get it to the time displacement facility to send it to 2003. Unlike the Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines game, Redemption actually balances the story a little better. While ROTM spent fully 75 percent of the game getting to the time displacement chamber and only the last quarter in the past, Redemption gets the player to the Skynet bunker pretty quickly and puts him back in 2003 where the vast majority of the movie took place.

Redemption is, at its heart, an arcade game … all action. Most of the action is in the form of a third-person-shooter. Mixed in is a bit of hand-to-hand fighting, an on-rails shooting mechanic and just plain driving.



When operating in third-person mode on the ground, Arnold plods along knocking off machine adversaries mainly with his gun and occasionally with his fist or a handy road sign. Gunnery is fairly straight forward with an aiming reticule that locks onto targets as it passes over them. Hand-to-hand combat is not quite so elegant, with two buttons performing the limited combinations available. Hand-to-hand combat seems to yield more damaged foes that can then be stomped to release their energy and recharge your own, so I guess it has its place.

The most exciting portions of the game are when players get to climb into a vehicle and race about kicking butt. The missions and routes are always established, so players don’t just get to wander around running down and shooting things all over the level, but it is still pretty exciting. At times in a vehicle the player will have to handle both the driving and the targeting and shooting simultaneously. (It’s a neat trick that I never achieved with any great deal of finesse.) Other times the player is put behind the driver with a weapon to destroy enemies. At these times the game goes into the on-rail shooter mechanic and all the player has to do is enjoy the ride and shoot bad guys. Lastly, the game will challenge the player to just drive fast.

All of these elements come together in the well-constructed levels that make up Redemption. Considering that the play mechanics are pretty diverse, the level design makes them flow together rather seamlessly. There is little question about where to go. There are some alternate shortcuts to take, but you don’t really have the opportunity to get lost. If you’re looking for an exploration game – forget it. That brings up a couple of the real problems with the game: it boils down to just destroying everything in your way. There is nothing to solve or discover. Playing the harder levels to their end will require some restarting and memorization. It can get a little frustrating at times. In the longer levels it becomes a pain.

As far as presentation goes, graphically the game is pretty good. All the characters look very much like their movie counterparts. Since the game is played from a third-person perspective, you’re always seeing the Terminator and get to observe what happens as he takes damage. Clothes tatter and his endoskeleton begins to show through as he’s hit. Audio is very good, though they did not get Schwarzenegger to do the voice work this time around. The handful of canned quips from the Terminator during combat do get a little old after a bit.

Control is tight and responsive. The only real issue is the aforementioned simultaneous driving, targeting and shooting scheme. Of course I think most players will master it well enough to make it past areas the skill is needed in. Even I made it and I can’t pat the top of my head while rubbing my stomach.

One other small gig on the game: it is a bit short. A skilled player with some dedication could probably blast his way through the entire game in a day. And with no incentives to play through again, the value of the game goes down considerably.



It is great to see at least one respectable Terminator game. It is not the best game out there, but it is the best Terminator game the fans of the franchise have ever seen. Let’s hope the next one is even better.



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