Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Terminator: Salvation is set a few years before the summer movie of the same name. You play as John Conner who is part of the human resistance against SkyNet. You get word during a mission that some other resistance fighters are trapped close to SkyNet's main fortress. You are compelled to go and rescue these poor souls that have a better chance of surviving a direct missile strike than fighting SkyNet forces. Salvation is a third person shooter much in the same vein as Gears of War that makes use of an impressive cover system as you try to out-think and out-flank the most deadly robots ever created.

What's Hot
The Terminator saga blends all sorts of story elements together and it has a large following. The game feeds into the larger universe that fans of the franchise crave. Think of the Salvation game as a side story that fills in some of the gap between Judgment Day and Salvation the movie. You can play multiplayer and having a friend definitely improves the game because the partner AI is worthless.

The one thing that is really outstanding about Salvation is the cover system. There hasn't been a cover system like this created for a game yet. It is very flexible and you can precisely pick where you want to find the next chest high wall that will serve as your next safe area from SkyNet fire.

What's Not
While Salvation fills in some more of the Terminator universe, the story is weak and not exactly the most exciting mission you could possible take on. There isn't a compelling reason to go and save the three resistance fighters from the beginning, and by the time you get there, you'll feel like you ultimately wasted your time trying to get involved with a shallow story. The dead fish voice acting doesn't help matters. Oftentimes, a lame story in an action game is forgivable if the action is loaded with intense and incredible moments. Sadly, Salvation can't even muster that.



Throughout most of the game, you fight the same three variants of enemies. They boil down to flying machines, spider-like machines and the instantly recognizable endoskeletons. The first time you come across each type of SkyNet enemy, you'll feel a rush because they look imposing and scary. That rush quickly fades because the enemy AI isn't balanced at all. It is near impossible to flank and your squad, during the single player campaign, is about as helpful as a team of vegetarians at a steak eating contest. When you play with a friend, the game becomes too easy with another human brain at the controller. Salvation can't find that all important middle ground that keeps the gameplay engaging. Salvation is both too easy and too hard. The upside about multiplayer is you won't have to look at the long loading screens as often as you do in the single player. No matter how many people are behind a controller, there are so many glitches that it makes it hard to enjoy any redeeming moments.

One of the most obvious and painful glitches to watch are the areas between the shade and light areas, which start blinking uncontrollably. Other glitches include game crashing bugs that freeze up your console from continuing any further until you restart and lose some progress. Salvation is a short game, so you don't have to worry about losing too much progress. It will take a handful of hours to complete and seeing all the problems that occur, that isn't a bad thing necessarily.

Final Word
Salvation has "rush job" written all over it. There are so many problems and sloppy design that it hard to find any real value in the game. What could have been an explosive action game fizzles out before any fireworks can start. Save your time, energy and money on this one.