The Terminator
Sega CD
Nostalgia Factor:
I've played many different video game versions of The Terminator over the years, but never the Sega CD version. Why? Because I didn't own Sega CD growing up. It's kind of hard to play a game for a system you don't even have.
Now that I have the means to play this game, I decided I should check it out. I have only heard positive things about it. Time to jump in.
Story:
This game does a fairly good job at retelling the events of the movie, but of course a ton of action is added, otherwise the game wouldn't be very long. Much of the game takes place in the future, with Kyle Reese fighting Terminators and infiltrating Skynet to gain access to the time machine. The rest of the game takes place in the 80s, following the movie as Kyle Reese runs from the cops while protecting Sarah Connor from the Terminator. The game ends with Sarah crushing the Terminator in the hydraulic press.
In between stages you are treated to grainy full motion video scenes from the movie that push the action along. Being a big fan of the movie, I enjoyed these FMV scenes. They may not seem like much by present day's standards, but these would have made me lose my mind as a kid.
Gameplay:
For some reason I came into this game expecting it to be super hard. I don't know why. But while it is definitely a challenging game, I wouldn't say it is too scary or intimidating. It is very straightforward. You run forward, you shoot any enemies that appear in front of you, and you keep running. The levels in this game are very vertical, where you have to go up or down, in addition to left or right. They are like big mazes, full of power ups and health items.
It takes about four or five shots to defeat each enemy. Once you defeat a Terminator, they are gone. There are no respawning enemies in this game. This is super awesome. It definitely adds a strategy element to the game, as I found myself moving forward slowly and making sure I was clearing out all the enemies permanently.
Once you pass about five stages or so, the game moves from the future to the present day. You control Kyle Reese as he shoots hobos and saves Sarah Connor at Club Noir. The rest of the game is protecting her as the Terminator chases you. It's the 80s, so you can't just shoot the Terminator with a laser gun and defeat it in five hits. Whenever I'd see him, I'd immediately lob some grenades at him to knock him down. Then run past him real quick.
The game ends similarly to the movie. Reese shoots the Terminator with a grenade launcher while Sarah Connor crawls away. After three hits, the Terminator blows up - and his upper half crawls after Sarah and gets crushed in the machinery. While Kyle Reese just stands there and watches. I guess he survives in this timeline, huh?
The Terminator is very generous with health items. You take a lot of damage as you play this game, so these items are much needed. As I said before, levels are big and maze like, and definitely worth exploring. There are no continues in this game, so you want to make sure you have as many extra lives as humanly possible. The game is easy in the first few stages, so this is your chance to rack up those extra lives. You are definitely going to need them.
The game itself is fair in its difficulty... for the most part. There are some questionable jumps and some poorly placed instant-death pits. Enemy placement can be quite awkward, too. I wish shooting in all directions was a little easier. There are some specific areas that can suck up literally all of your lives, which is why it is so important you stock up on them. The helicopter battle is one such area. My god. I burned through ALL my lives on this my first time through it. And the area at the end of the game where you have grab the grenade gun and save Sarah. Ugh. So annoying. I died so many times. Not gonna lie, I made a save state right before this area and kept reloading it over and over again when I'd die. Otherwise I'd have run out lives, and I would have had to start the entire game over again. No thanks. I'd already done that twice.
That being said, I really enjoyed this game. I even came back to it the night after I beat it and played through it again. It has such charm to it. Tough, but rewarding gameplay. Great graphics. Great music. I expected the game to be "just okay" and it ended up impressing the heck out of me.
Graphics:
The game does a good job taking you through the locations from the movie. The night club, the police station, the factory. Even the bleak future stages with the machinery and the skeletons look great. Characters look great too, and are well animated. Stages are intuitive and well-designed. The look of the game really stays true to the source material, which is great to see. It's like a comic book version of the first Terminator movie.
What makes the game even more impressive is how immersive of an experience it is. The title screen looks like it was pulled straight from the movie. There are FMV scenes in between each stage that explain what is going on. These scenes might look a little primitive and grainy nowadays, but honestly: it works. This is one of the most immersive 2D platformers I've ever played from this era of gaming.
Sound:
The music in this game is AWESOME. The title screen uses the classic Terminator theme - and it is a great rendition of the song. I've played a ton of Terminator games in my life, and I don't remember hearing the Terminator theme in any of those games. It really got me pumped to start playing.
The heavy metal music from the stages is rocking. It is very intense. When you're blasting your way through those early levels with that music blaring in the background, you feel like a total badass. It is perfection. That being said, there is a stage later on in the game that has this super cheerful music that feels very out of place. It's a noticeable shift in tone that stood out to me on both of my playthroughs.
Overall:
What a pleasant surprise this game turned out to be. I came into it with the expectation it would be a run of the mill shooter, but it is so much more than that. Great presentation, music, graphics, custscenes, gameplay, great everything. It is the complete package.
It is a challenging game, but not so hard to the point where you want to rage quit. It is a little annoying that there are no continues and no password feature to be found here. You have to start from the beginning of the game each time you play this. So it is a time commitment. And I wish there weren't so many cheap deaths.
If you are a fan of classic 2D platformers, you should definitely check out the Terminator. If you're a fan of the movie, you need to check it out as well. It manages to be a ton of fun to play while also being a very immersive Terminator experience at the same time. This is not a perfect game by any means, but I have to say that I really, really liked it. This gets an easy recommend from me.
THE GRADE:
A-
For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click
>HERE<
No comments:
Post a Comment