By Elias Dounis on September 21st, 2004

When Arnold Schwarzenegger made his face known to millions upon millions of people with the docudrama Pumping Iron, no one could’ve expected that an independent film based on the 1976 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest would soon help propel “The Austrian Oak” to movie stardom as an action star with films like Conan the Barbarian, Predator, and, of course, The Terminator. Almost twenty years later, Schwarzenegger has become one of the most recognizable faces in bodybuilding, cinema, and even politics, to many being a hero and a role model. Because of this, when I discovered that his image and likeness were being used in the current generation videogames based of James Cameron’s Terminator films, I was thrilled and eager to get my hands on the games. To my dismay, the last home console effort based on the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines film was a huge disappointment. However, Atari’s latest Terminator 3 effort, Terminator 3: The Redemption, by developer Paradigm Studios, is one of the more enjoyable action games I’ve played all year.

Terminator 3: The Redemption is a mixture of three action-oriented gameplay types, on-foot third-person shooter combat, vehicular chaos, and on-rails shooting scenarios, with one of each type sometimes comprising an entire level, or, as experienced in the latter half of the game, a mixture of two. Anyone who has played Electronic Art’s James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing should feel right at home, since T3: The Redemption even features a similar lock-on

In the game, it isn’t always immediately evident on how you must complete all of its missions. As a result, you’re going to have to play them over and over again in order to realize what to do and how to approach them. Eventually, you’ll even learn in what order enemies will appear onscreen and memorize the entire layout of each of the game’s levels, something which is often a characteristic of classic Arcade games. However, T3: The Redemption isn’t overly difficult, but it may come off as being so due to the many times you’ll be playing levels over and over again. Some players may find this frustrating, but the fact that progress is usually made with every attempt, things are prevented from getting difficult to bear. Of course, it also helps that levels are enjoyable enough that you won’t mind playing them over multiple times; although, I must say that the game could’ve benefited greatly from a mid-level save feature because it is a tad bit annoying to restart a larger level over again after successfully accomplishing a previous mission goal.

The Redemption is also very straightforward. All of which it asks of you is to make it from point A to point B in one piece, along the way blasting away everything that lies in you path. For the most part, that’s what the on-foot and on-rails portion of the game demands of you, brainless shooting, while the vehicle-based scenarios feature a bit more color. Often enough, players will be chasing some sort of large vehicle or craft, whether it’s a crane truck or a massive futuristic harrier, with a motorcycle or a fast-moving futuristic tank of sorts. The more interesting scenarios of this kind are experienced in the earlier half of the game, with

Speaking of damage, I’m rather impressed by the amount of damage shown on Schwarzenegger’s character model while playing the game. Throughout the play of a single level, with the more and more damage done to Arnold’s character model, it begins to show visually as he loses pieces of clothing and as his skin chars, which reveals his robotic endoskeleton, little by little. However, this is just the beginning of the visual splendor found in the game, because there’s not much to complain about graphically aside from a few rare moments of slowdown, the use of small sprites in later areas of the game, and a handful of textures that look a bit iffy at closer perspectives. Of course, you may be thinking that these negative graphical aspects just mentioned are a big deal, but trust me when I say they’re not. The game’s impressive character renders of Schwarzenegger and the beautiful Kristanna Loken, each level’s highly detailed surroundings, and the game’s great visual effects are very pleasing to observe. If you were to assume that the game had excellent presentation values simply because of its commendable graphics, you’d be correct, but thankfully it doesn’t end there. The soundtrack, sound effects, and voice-overs used in the game are just as commendable. While

Seeing how the game is very straightforward in terms of level design and whatnot, there’s just so much you can do before things begin to get tedious. Luckily, it never gets to that point, but what is sacrificed in return is the game’s length. T3: The Redemption isn’t a long game. What stretches out the length of the single-player experience are the many times you’ll be playing levels over and over again, but even then you’ll only be getting a good ten to fifteen hours out of the game. Sure, there are upgrades and the earning of cheats, but the truth is that these upgrades made to Arnold’s Terminator model aren’t significant enough to change the gameplay experience much at all or add any real replay value, and the included cheats aren’t anything special either, since most of them become available when the game has basically been finished. However, T3: The Redemption includes a cooperative multiplayer mode in which players play the roles of soldiers part of a human resistance fending off SkyNet machines in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the near future. This multiplayer mode is basically a handful of on-rails missions, but despite not being all that lengthy, this co-op mode is extremely entertaining for what it is.

When everything is all said and done, T3: The Redemption is an extremely enjoyable action game. There’s never a dull moment; it keeps you entertained from start to finish. That is, unless you’re a player who cannot stomach gameplay situations that, at times, can be frustrating. If so, T3: The Redemption may not be your game. However, those willing to enjoy what the game has to offer will surely find many things to like about it, but as mentioned the game lacks the replay value to keep players coming back after the adventure is over.