Right away you’ll have access to bazooka’s to blow machines apart. You can only carry two weapons, so your initial best combo is the shotgun and the required bazooka. The shotgun makes quick work of the Aerostats, which are small flying machines. The rockets are meant for Skynet’s Hunter Killer which is attacking the building you’re in. When you’re done you’ll want to stock up on rockets for the next board. You’ll be able to shred through Spiders in no time. When you run out of rockets, you’ll be forced to use the tactics the game intended. You’ll need to position yourself away from your teammates so when they fire on a Spider (T7T) or a T600, that enemy will turn on them and return fire. That’s when you need to fire on the weak spot in their armor and take them out. Your enemies will be tough though, so there may be some going back and forth when you’re able to fire on them because you too will attract their attention.
A couple of tactics that might help with the spiders:
If a spider comes close enough to your hiding place, a quick grenade over the wall will dismantle it quickly enough.
If you are just fighting one, see if you can lure it in close. When it is, shoot it in the red eye to dismantle it and run around the back. You’ll be able to take it out with out before it boots up again.
Through out the game you fight a nice variety of enemies. In the beginning its Spiders and Aerostats and then as time goes on you encounter T600’s more often. This part may or may not be a spoiler, but its unfortunate that its not said in the game booklet or Terminator Salvation’s website, but you do fight several Hunter Killer’s, as well as terminator motorcycle (I can’t find the name for it).
What I liked about it is the game-play graphics. Very crisp and I personally prefer this style. I enjoy the fact they evened out where you have the battles. You fight the machines in dilapidated urban areas outside and in buildings. It then takes the fight underground a short time and then into warehouse style buildings. I get bored constantly playing underground or tunnel type warfare which a lot of games seem to end up doing and it feels endless. I don’t like or care for the animation cut scenes. They can’t be skipped and they seem rushed. The detail should also be better. The storyline is interesting enough.
The weapon selection and amount of weapons is a little disappointing. The auto-shotgun would make sense to have in the game. Don’t get me wrong, all of the weapons (except the M16) give the satisfaction of getting the job done. Out of all of them, nothing is as effective as the rocket launcher. So you’ll want to stock up as much as possible when you come across them.
The controls are not hard to get used to, but I feel there should be a jump button or something to hop over cover. The game currently gives you the ability to hop from cover to cover quickly. Almost like the mechanics in Gears of War, but you have to already be in cover to initiate this to move to another spot.
Over all I like the game, but I’m not to sure about the replay value on this one. The game can be finished pretty quickly and it seems if you want to tackle the hard setting you are going to need a friend in co-op.
I give this game a 4 out of 5.
