Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Score: 50% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Atari Developer: Black Ops Entertainment Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: First Person Shooter
Graphics & Sound: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines's graphics were probably supposed to look something like its movie counterpart, yet somewhere in the transition from movie to game, something went wrong. The locales look bleak, but not in a post apocalyptic, machine dominated sort of way. Instead, it looks more like the old Skynet game that came out on the computer all those years ago. Explosions are weak, what little interaction you can have with the environment is unconvincing, and most of your enemies move more like dolls than robots. The sound isn't as bad, but it definitely isn't quite up to the standards that other games in this genre have set. It almost saves the action from a very boring fate, because the sound is the only thing making those horrible explosions convincing. The music is instantly recognizable, and probably the best aspect of the bells and whistles.
Gameplay: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines gives you control of Arnold the Terminator from his capture and reprogramming in the future, and brings you through the story of the movie as he travels back through time to save John Conner, an act that will actually cause him to never have been made, except he keeps on living even after he saves John, hmmm. Oh it's not worth it. The reason for creating this game seems to be similar to the reason for creating the third Terminator movie; somebody wanted to make money. T3 is wholly uninspired in both level design and everything it encompasses. Each level is full of robots to shoot and levers to pull, and the occasional gun turret to hop on and shoot more mindless robots. This scheme works for some games, but not for T3. The gameplay quickly becomes boring, and also starts to seem that the only reason it's there is so you can unlock all of the special behind the scenes stuff about the movie and the developers. If you're lucky enough to unlock Missile Command and Centipede, you'll have more fun spending time on those games than you will on the one you actually paid for.
Difficulty: The more difficult aspects of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines come in the form of trying to navigate around the horribly constructed levels while you try to follow vague goals. You're given the task of getting out of some place, and you're expected to know you have to shoot a pile of rocks for half a minute to get there. There isn't even much challenge to fighting besides seeing how fast you can pull the trigger. There is no semblance of AI, even though the machines you are fighting are supposed to have broken their programming and taken over most of the world.
Game Mechanics: The controls in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines are some of the worst in any FPS. It's too hard to hit anything, so you have a faulty targeting system that locks your crosshairs onto the nearest enemy. This becomes a problem when your screen is full of hunter killers, and also moves your screen so fast that disorientation is a common side effect. I doubt even hard core fans of the Terminator movies will like this game. I know, because I'm one. The movies should have stopped at number two, and the games should have stopped after that first Super Nintendo title. Here's to hoping this game doesn't give rise to any sequels.
-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications AKA Andrew Horwitz
SX Superstar 007 Nightfire