When I got the GBA version
of Terminator 3 to review, I expected it to be yet another thrown
together side-scrolling 2D beat em up created with no purpose other
than to make a quick buck off of a hot license. The GBA library is
filled with licensed games exactly like I just described, so I figured
it was a good guess. Surprisingly enough, T3 isnt a side-scrolling beat
em up and is instead an action shooter played from an isometric
perspective. It is, however, poorly put together and was obviously
rushed out the door to try and make a quick buck, so I wasnt too far
off. It is nice that Atari at least attempted to do something other than
the usual for a licensed game on the GBA, but a turd is still a turd no
matter what perspective youre looking at it from. Terminator 3 is a bad
game that should be avoided.
In Rise of the Machines,
you take on the role of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator as he fights
to protect John Connor. The story loosely follows the Terminator 3
movie, but it doesnt go very deep and doesnt have much of an impact on
the game. There are 12 missions in the game split between the future and
the present but the game plays exactly the same no matter where in time
you are.
The gameplay in T3 consists
of shooting several different types of enemy robots while tackling
various missions. The game was designed in an isometric perspective, so
exploring the levels is made a little easier than it would have been
otherwise but the combat suffers because it is somewhat difficult to
line up your shots correctly. When you do get everything figured out, it
is actually sort of fun going through the levels and blasting everything
in sight with grenades and shotgun blasts, but the novelty wears off
fairly quickly. The missions are usually nothing more than protecting
someone or fetching a keycard or other object, and this lack of
imagination in mission design coupled with the repetitive nature of the
combat means that the game becomes pretty tiresome after only the third
or fourth level.
There
are a few cool things that the game does, though. If you press the
select button, the screen goes into a red tinted scan mode so you can
find hidden items, people, and passageways. I also like that your guns
are assigned to one button while punches and explosives are assigned to
a different button. This means that you can do more than one thing at a
time and you dont have to think about it too much.
The biggest letdown with T3
on the GBA is just how simple and easy everything is. None of the
enemies pose much of a threat to you unless you just stand around like
an idiot and get shot, and even the bosses have easily recognizable
patterns that you can take advantage of. Some of the weapons in the game
are also ridiculously overpowered and nearly every enemy in the game
will drop ammo or health so you can just blast your way through the game
without any real challenge. Something else that is just plain wrong is
the fact that your punches do a huge amount of damage. You can literally
play through the entire game using nothing but punches. The entire game
can be completed in just a couple of hours and the repetitiveness and
overall simplicity of the gameplay means that Terminator 3 really isnt
worth your time.
The
graphics and sound in T3 are pretty disappointing. Special effects for
explosions or when an enemy robot is transported into the battle look
sort of cool, but everything else looks very rough. The levels lack
detail and all look pretty much the same. Character models for the enemy
robots actually look pretty good, but the Terminator are a mess and you
can barely tell who it is supposed to be. The animations for all of the
characters are just flat out awful and everything looks very stiff and
choppy. The sound is just as unimpressive. The robot noises that the
enemies make sound ok, but the guns, explosions, and music simply do not
get the job done. At no point will you hear anything that even resembles
the classic Terminator theme, which is a major letdown.
Despite
trying to separate itself from all of the other licensed games on GBA by
giving you a different camera angle and a couple of cool gameplay
additions, Terminator 3 is still a poor game that has quick cash in
written all over it. There isnt anything in this game that makes a
definitive This is a Terminator game type of statement so all you are
left with is an average shooting game shoehorned onto a watered down
version of the movies story. There are better shooters on the GBA that
are much more worthy of your time and money. Even though it has its high
points, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a disappointing game that
I wouldnt recommend for a purchase until you can find it in the bargain
section.
Eric Qualls (12/27/2003) |