Terminator 3: The Redemption Xbox Review

Title: Terminator 3: The Redemption .............................................. Publisher: Atari .............................................. Developer: Paradigm Entertainment .............................................. Release: Spetember 7, 2004 .............................................. Xbox Live: No .............................................. ESBR: Teen ..............................................

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back again in yet another Terminator 3 game for the
Xbox. The other previous Terminator 3 game for the Xbox console has honestly not
really been worth playing. It had many bugs in the gameplay and not such hot
graphics. Luckily Terminator 3: The Redemption
is overall a bit of a better game with somewhat better graphics and gameplay,
but is it really worth your money?



Gameplay



When you first start up the game and start a mission you will see that you play
as the Terminator. The Terminator (incase you haven't seen the movie) is
actually a robotic machine created by a fictitious company named Skynet. The
name of the machine is actually called the T850 model is made of metal
surrounded by living flesh. Because you are a machine you are able to do many
inhuman like things through the game such as active "Scan Vision" which allows
you to inflict more damage on what you are attacking, and other things such as
upgrades to your machine.



While playing through the game you will pretty much always be on foot or in some
sort of vehicle taking on the action of the numerous levels. When you are on
foot you can either choose hand to hand combat or use a variety of weapons. If
you are in a vehicle your main weapon is usually a turret mounted on the
vehicle.



If you are foot your main weapon of use is your gun. You usually only have one
rifle, however it is possible to find others in the game and begin using them.
Also there are a total of six guns that are used in the game. Here is a list of
the usable guns while you are on foot:



G365 - This is your typical assault rifle with armor-piercing rounds.

M249 - This is a much more powerful weapon then the G365 and is usually mounted
on a tripod. However, because you are the Terminator you use this weapon with
just one hand!

Shotgun - This is just your usually pump shotgun and even comes with a cool
flipping animation in the game.

M37 Machine-Gun - This is one of the most powerful weapons in the game and comes
in handy several times throughout the game.

Plasma Rifle - Similar to the plasma rifle in Halo, only you can't charge this
one up.

Plasma Missile Launcher - This is the most powerful Skynet weapon and can cause
devastating damage when in the hands of the Terminator.



If you feel it is necessary you can also break out your moves and go into hand
to hand combat with the enemy robots. There are a number of moves that you can
perform on them by using certain button combinations. It is also possible to
pull things such as road signs out of the ground and use them as weapons against
the other robots. However, the enemy robots know this little trick as well.



On just about every stage you have the opportunity to play the level on both
foot and in a vehicle. There are also a number of different vehicles in the
game. When the Terminator is inside of a vehicle it enables you to get places
much faster and most of them even have mounted weapons. Now, how the Terminator
is able to drive the pick up truck and stand in the back of it manning a turret
we are not sure, but it is possible throughout the game. Although sometimes you
are both driving and shooting other times you will be with another character and
they will be doing half of the work. For example, if you get into a helicopter
you will be able to use a machine gun while someone else flies around.



Here is a list of the vehicles used in the game and some more information on
them:



Police Motorcycle

Top Speed: 114 MPH

Armament: None



Black Hearse

Top Speed: 108 MPH

Armament: None



Pickup Truck

Top Speed: 45 MPH

Armament: None



Tech-Com Truck

Top Speed: 74 MPH

Armament: Plasma Cannon and Missile Launcher



Tech-Com Car

Top Speed: 89 MPH

Armament: Plasma Cannon and Missile Launcher



Tech-Com Helicopter

Top Speed: 127 MPH

Armament: Minigun



Your health in this game is measured in your power. Although it does not really
happen that often it is possible to regain a large amount of your power in a
level. You can regain part of your power by doing things such as shoving a road
sign pole into a robot's face, or even getting electrocuted by a downed power
line. It is also possible to damage your vehicles to the point were they will
not work anymore. However, when this happens you always have the chose to
commandeer another vehicle.



Another good way to keep your power inside yourself is to frequently buy
upgrades when you can. At the end of each round you will be awarded a number of
terabytes that you can use to buy upgrades for your machine. The upgrades
include recharge, vision time, vision damage, and vision
charge. Recharge allows you to regain more power at down or
overcharged power lines. Vision time allows you to be in vision mode for
longer. Vision damage makes your damage while in vision mode much higher,
and lastly, upgrading your vision charge allows you to use vision mode
more often.



Graphics



The overall graphics of this game are just above average, and thankfully better
then previous Terminator games. Mainly objects in the environment are not well
detailed but the amount of different objects and objects that react to you
playing is really in-depth and give a nice feel to the game. For example, when
playing in the future the environment looks extremely different then it would if
you were to go outside today. There are also a few things that you can interact
with whether you are on foot or in a vehicle. If you are in a vehicle you can do
such things as shoot gas trucks that will explode and can be used to your
advantage. There is always a lot of things happening on the screen at once and
the game never seems to slow up or lag a little because of the number of things
happening. In many other games this is a big problem and can get a little
annoying. Luckily throughout the entire game I was not able to notice it even
when driving huge tanks over a bunch of robots and firing at oncoming airplanes.



Overall



Even though you might be tired of Terminator games and Terminator movies this
game might be worth a try because it is pretty different from the other
Terminator games. The gameplay is much better then what was seen in the previous
game. The graphics are in improvement as well and you can interact with many
things in the environment. Overall, Terminator 3: The Redemption is well worth a
rental, or at least hearing Arnold say a few of his short lines such as
"Terminated." and "I don't think so."

6.7 Overall Score  Fun 7  Gameplay 6.5  Graphics 7  Sound 6  Replay 5

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Xbox Core Rating System