Terminator Salvation Preview - Xbox 360

• by Sid Shuman
• March 19, 2009 00:00 AM PST

Hasta la vista, boring game sequels -- Terminator Salvation leads an assault of cutting-edge successors for 2009. GamePro has the world exclusive first details on this ambitious new sci-fi shooter that serves as a prequel to the Christian Bale film due out this May.

Destructible cover means that you have nowhere to hide from this Hunter-Killer -- keep moving, soldier!

Nuke-shattered downtown Los Angeles sprawls like a beached whale, its tangled corpse glowing the dull green of moss and disuse. It's been over ten years since Judgment Day, when three billion human lives were lost in a worldwide nuclear holocaust triggered by the rogue military intelligence called Skynet. Nearly wiped off the face of the Earth in the initial nuke exchange, the remaining survivors pull back from the brink of extinction and form a ragtag army to defend against Skynet's metal-clad army. In the opening moments of the Terminator Salvation game, the Resistance army launches a massive offensive on a critical Skynet communication center in L.A., hoping to strike a critical blow against the self-aware supercomputer. Though the Resistance greatly outnumbers Skynet's robotic forces, they lose the battle. Big time.

Skynet Rising

But what of John Connor, the supposed savior of humanity and future leader of the Resistance? "Connor is an extremely complex character at this stage in the Terminator timeline," explains Terminator Salvation development VP Cos Lazouras. "He's a guy that apparently knew the future, but he finds himself in a reality that is very different from everything his mother ever told him." Set two years before the Christian Bale film, the Terminator Salvation game finds series protagonist Connor plagued by doubt and mistrust. Far from being the leader of the Resistance, John Connor keeps a low profile in the war against the machines - at this point in time, he's a Resistance field combatant, not a high-ranking military strategist. From his position in the trenches of the war, Connor doesn't like what he sees. "This isn't the first time the Resistance has suffered heavy losses," Lazouras adds, "and these failures are becoming more and more frequent." This isn't the situation that Connor was expecting; in this future, Skynet's ultimate victory appears almost certain. "This is a very confusing time for Connor," Lazouras explains. "He's starting to lose hope."

But machines don't have hope to lose. As Skynet's awareness grows, it begins to construct regional facilities, systematically expanding its empire region by region while the human Resistance fumbles and frets over its options. Fearless, relentless, and utterly unsympathetic to human concerns, the artificial intelligence Skynet in some ways makes for the ultimate foe. As John Connor, your goal is simple: fight the machines, survive the war, and live on to lead the Resistance to victory. Sound easy? Not a chance.

You won't be able to (easily) outgun Skynet's new mechanized monsters. But careful teamwork, 360 degree flanking, and heavy firepower will expose chinks in this T-7T's armor.

Iron Curtain

Though Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter, the development team bristles at being compared to genre poster boy Gears of War. "I got a little frustrated, I guess, looking at some of the responses [to the game trailer that was unveiled at the VGAs]," Lazouras offers. "You know, there were cover systems in games before Gears of War," he adds with a halfhearted chuckle, adding that the final game will probably bear a gameplay style that veers closer to Call of Duty than Gears. "It's not just about getting behind some cover and letting your team do the dirty work," Lazouras elaborates. "Terminator Salvation has a very fluid cover system, and you have to constantly move around in 360 degrees to take advantage of the vulnerability of each enemy."

Accordingly, combat has received a tune-up to bring it in line with the vision of the films. Rather than repeatedly blasting armies of faceless soldiers from the third-person perspective, you'll butt heads with a metal menagerie that will make your skin crawl. The film version of Terminator Salvation will add several never-before-seen robotic foes, including revved-up Moto Terminators and a 30-foot behemoth called the Harvester. Lazouras confirms that the game will include "virtually" all of the new models introduced in the film, but will also add a host of new robotic terrors to fight, such as the spider-like T-100. Two-player cooperative play is also a heavy emphasis in Terminator Salvation. And though co-op is currently limited to split-screen play, the developer is hoping to add an online co-op component before the game ships this May. Watching the game in action, it's easy to see the promise behind the two-player experience; the Resistance soldiers must constantly flank, blind fire, and chip away at the slower but stronger Skynet forces.

But there's more than just third-person shooting. The Terminator films are known for their adrenaline-drenched chase scenes, and Terminator Salvation extends that tradition with a series of vehicle-based chase scenes. During one mission, the player is charged with shooting down a Skynet Hunter-Killer aircraft using a turret mounted on the back of a speeding pickup truck. This particular chase scene slams all across a dilapidated downtown Los Angeles, and impressively covers several miles of unique, varied terrain as you struggle to disable the aircraft's engines. These vehicle scenarios give Terminator Salvation natural highs and lows, nicely balancing out the slower pace of on-foot exploration and combat. Other missions will call for a stealthier approach as you carefully infiltrate Skynet facilities and avoid its robotic sentries.

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