Attic of the Underdogs

Terminator: Skynet

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Review by Underdogs:
The final, and very disappointing, finish to Bethesda's Terminator series of 3D shooter that began promisingly with The Terminator in 1989. Just how disappointing is the game? I'll leave it to Games Domain Review's Chris McMullen, whose criticism of the game strikes a great balance between sarcasm and professional writing that I'm unable to match :) Here goes...

"Well, I have to admit, when I first played Skynet, I was stunned. Utterly gobsmacked. 'This', I thought, 'is groundbreaking stuff'. To what am I referring? The gameplay? The graphics? The intricate level design? No.. in fact as far as Skynet goes, none of these are particularly remarkable. What's unusual about Skynet is that you actually begin the game with some decent weaponry, instead of the usual pop-gun that other games such as Quake or Duke Nukem 3D start you off with.

There are about ten different baddies you'll have to deal with as you make your way through the levels, and you can split these up into three types. There's the small ground-based baddies, like the terminators and the raptors, which you can take out with a couple of well aimed rockets. Then there's the pant-cackingly scary hunter-killer robots. These take more than a couple of hits to turn them to scrap. Finally there are flying HKs, which while not being very strong, have a nasty habit of flying just above you and shooting you in the back.

But as a counter to this, there are twenty different types of weapon you can use; you start off with about five, and pick up the rest as you go through the game. Some of the weapons, however, are almost identical to each other, using the same ammo, and having slightly differing damage and speed ratios. You'd think this'd be a good thing; you'd have to consider what you were up against, and pick the right weapon for the job. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work this way. It's nearly impossible to remember what a weapon's advantages and disadvantages, without referring to the manual, and this isn't an option when you've got a twenty foot psycho robot baying for your blood. And even if you do know which weapon you want, some weapons can only be picked by pressing a key repeatedly; for example, pressing '3' will bring up the automatic rifle. Press '3' again, and it brings up the uzi. Press '3' again and it brings up the machine gun. There's no simple way of going to the weapon you want, and in the heat of combat you don't want to hang around. Perhaps you could say 'Oh, hello Mr Terminator.. can you just hold on for a few seconds while I changemy weapon?... Argghhh... guess not.'

Average Rating:8.51 [597 votes]
Genre:Action
Designer:Todd Howard & Morton Mørup
Developer:Bethesda Softworks
Publisher:Bethesda Softworks
Year:1996
Software Copyright:Bethesda Softworks
Theme:Licensed, Cyberpunk
Multiplayer:Internet
Related Links:CD Mag review , Games Domain review
More Info:Mobygames | The Web
System Requirements:DOS
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