This time Terminator fans traveled some years after the events of T2 where John is laying low with his future wife, Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) and this time the Terminator, aka Arnold Schwarzenegger, is set on protecting them. Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Kristanna Loken, Claire Danesįor Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the franchise returned for the first time without director James Cameron.Unlike Arnold's short but sweet performance in the first film, the Terminator Salvation game's length leaves you wanting much more. Unless you are a hardcore fan of the Terminator franchise, I'd suggest renting only. If there had been more content, four-player co-op, and online support, the game might be a worthwhile purchase. There is the germ of a solid title here, but it is so underdeveloped that it is clear the game was pushed to shelves to coincide with the movie. The brevity, odd plot points, and lack of online co-op all point to a rush job. Why they didn't bring it back for the final fight makes zero sense to me. It's like playingPac -man, but without the ghosts chasing you! There's no big bad boss at the end the huge harvester you may have seen in the trailers makes only a brief appearance as a background object. That is all: there's no timer or anything. An inexplicable plot twist disables all the Terminators, and you just have to walk out of the building. The end battle is one of the most disappointing of any game, ever. The last four (unchallenging) chapters were cleared in record time, just over an hour, since we never died at all. I would estimate that the first five missions took us maybe three hours, and that is with several restarts. There are nine chapters, and the last half especially are extremely short. Unfortunately, the whole Terminator Salvation experience is quite short. Overall, the co-op feel is fairly strong. If something goes wrong and a player dies, their partner can revive them at any time. It doesn't always work smoothly, and the Spiders will ping-pong back and forth between targets, but it's still a good feeling when you take one down. However, if one player can distract a Spider for a while, the other can sneak around and hit the exposed battery pack, conserving life and ammo. They are almost impervious to bullets from the front, requiring one of your short supply of rockets or pipe bombs. One example is fighting the Spiders, which are literally everywhere. Managing ammo and weapons between the two of you allows for some good interaction. Opportunities for teamwork are everywhere, and in this aspect, Terminator Salvation is enjoyable. A few computer controlled allies keep you headed in the right direction, but are not much help in a fight. One person plays as John Connor, and the other is Blair, a female squadmate. Terminator Salvation supports two player local splitscreen play. A handful of rubber-masked "skin job" Terminators round out the mix of opponents There is anocassional Hunter/Killer aircraft, particularly during on the rails vehicle levels, but the lack of variety in opponents is underwhelming. Upright humanoid Terminators are the most difficult to defeat, wading through the carnage right toward you until destroyed. Spiders, highly armored and deadly, are extremely tough but have an exposed battery pack on the backside. Flying wasps are extremely annoying, and difficult to kill unless you have the shotgun. Throughout the course of the on-foot sections of the game, you fight a handful of different enemies.