Terminator Salvation Notes

Made by Grin who it seems have saved up for a splurge or are making an awful lot of games very fast.
Seems that there are eight levels. You get an extra 180 points for playing on hard so hard it is. I might regret this, however, here we go.
StoryFirst cut scene shows the typical Terminator future war scenario, humans being cut down by legions of terminator robot ground troops and flying hunter killers. We watch Connor running around through the action, seeing a machine stronghold in the distance and nearly getting crushed by a falling human helicopter after it's shot down by the machines.We help the heroes escape from LA in trucks.The road is out so we have to go underground.We trudge through the underground and then out onto the streets for lots of firefights.Then meet up with a resistance commander who is in charge of the evacuation.A wounded man called Weston radio's for help.John is ordered to evac and leave the wounded men behind. He commits mutiny and goes off alone to try and save the men. Blair his friend joins him. The chopper they were going to evac on is destroyed anway, so it was the right choice.Escaping the harvester we go into the tunnelsWe are going to follow the LA river into skynet territory.We meet up with Dobkin and his men at a crashed chopper.Dobkin and his men salvage what they can from the chopper. We meet Angie who looks like she is in shock or combat stress.We go with Dobkin to a resistance supply cache.At the supply cache t-600's ambush us, we kill them with pipe bombs but Dobkin does not make it.As we progress we meet rubber skinned t-600's done up to look human, only they don't look convincing at all, only from a distance. Connor seems to know that they will encounter t-800 with real skin soon, Angie asks him why he knows this.We are going to a tower and eagle point, why i don't know, I thought we were going to save some wounded men.We go up to the top of the tower to decide that it's not safe, well whatever gave him that idea. John decides that we had better use the subway to get across LA to Eagle point.we get to union station.John tells David they are going underground and on the way, David tells him that they can't last much longer.In the tunnels we meet up with Warren and his gang of survivors that have been hiding down in the tunnels for years. They agree to give us help, however Warren tells John he will kill him himself if the machines have followed them down into the tunnels.We go back to Warren and sirens go off, the machines have followed us. We have to help Barnes defend the survivors long enough for them to pack up and make a break for it.We run back to the defensive position we saw earlier with the charges and wait for the machines to turn up.We hold off machine waves long enough for Barnes to get his charges working and then he blows the roof down on the terminators. The refugees escape on subway trains.After a long ride on trains and vehicles Warren tells us that skynet scans the area using a huge array that towers over the landscape. The only way to travel over ground without attracting unwanted machine attention is to destroy the array. John sets out to do it, Barnes decides to come along with John, Blair and angie.We fight through the suburbs to the antenna building.At the array there appears to be no guards at first.Inside John tries to take a hard drive and triggers an alarm, machines come and we have to defend Barnes while he sets charges.Once the charges are set it's a run to an elevator and escape. Angie sacrifices her life to use remote controls to move the elvator so the rest of the gang can escape.Once on the surface with all the communication jamming stopped John Speaks to Weston to reassure him that he is still coming. He contacts resistance command and asks for helicopter support on his resuce mission. The resistance think he's nuts until we see that John has manages somehow offscreen to capture and rig to his control a machine tank like thing.The survivors also turn up and give him a laptop so he can control the machine properly.Now John has to drive the machine up to skynet at eagle point and then blast the anti air turrets, find the trapped men and then escape, easy for a movie star.The tank gets the gang so far and then we go on foot into the heart of skynet in LA to find our men.We actually do find the men, I thought it was going to be a machine trap, but never mind. Weston's wounded are taken away and he joins us.Now we have with the aid of Weston to find the turret control room. Once we turn off the turrets we can get our choppers to bomb the place after they pick us up.Once into the control room Connor attaches the laptop to the computer and runs a program to take down the turrets and emp the terminators nearby. This allows an easy run to the chopper and the resistance come in and nuke the facility.This of course isn't the end of skynet but it's a big step for the resistance.
GameplayThe controls are standard, analogue sticks for camera and movement. Left trigger aims. Right trigger fires. A goes into cover, when you are in cover an icon appears showing you a 180 field of view with segments highlighted for available moving to new cover options.X reloads you gun.Pressing and holding B brings up an weapon selection Wheel.
Level 1Our first combat is against flying things called wasps.I pick up a shotgun to complement my machine gun.A few more encounters with wasps then a walking terminator turns up at T600. It seems to take an awful lot of punishment.So much so that I can't seem to kill it. I then realise that you just have to run away from it.We get into a building and meet some other humans. The choppers that were going to evacuate us as grounded due to far too much machine activity. The only way out is by truck. As the cut scene plays an Hunter Killer arrives, we are told to take it out using rockets.The hk flies around looking for a way to shoot in through gaps in the building and sends wasps in to get us. We can pick up a rocket launcher and it takes about four or five shots to kill it. A T600 comes after us and we make our escape to the next building across a sign which has fell as a bridge.Now we get an on rails vehicle section where we are gunning at wasps and HK's from the mounted gun on a jeep.We have to shoot a damaged engine, sensor pods and plasma guns off the HK before it crashes. A t600 arrives kills some of our men and takes their van and drives after us, we are now shooting at the van with the t600 driving. Wasps accompany it.Once the van is down we have more wasps and then it's level complete.
Level 2We make our way out onto the ruined streets, where we encounter more wasps then our first spider robot.You have to shoot the robots in what looks like their batteries at the back. They wander around shooting at people who fire at them, you basically have to get into a flanking position and let them have it. Sometimes the a.i. backup will shoot them for you but you can't count on it it seems.After a few skirmishes with the spiders and wasps we meet up with a commander type at an evacuation point. The people argue amongst themselves about the futility of it all and then wasps turn up.We have to go outside the building and survive for three minutes through waves of wasps.We now have to clear a landing zone for the choppers.We go out onto the roof and there are wasps and spiders everywhere.I find that rockets take out the spiders from the front and grenades are fairly effective.The evac chopper is destroyed and John goes off with Blair to save the wounded Weston.A harvester turns up, a huge robot exoskeleton.We have nothing that can kill this so we basically have to run for it into an underground tunnel.
Level 3In the tunnels following the river to skynet territory and the wounded men.Have foound a bigger machine gun, fires faster bigger clip.We see a helicopter going down in the distance and go to rescue the survivors.Spiders arrive in the way of our rescue.Once taken out we come to the crash site and find Dobkin and his men under heavy fire from wasps and spiders.More spiders and wasps turn up.Going with Dobkin to a resistance supply cache.A T600 turns up. We run from it a Dobkin makes a building fall on it to kill it.Or not as the case may be, Dobkin gives us pipe bombs and we have to try and take down three t-600's.This is fairly hard.Once two are downed with pipe bombs we retreat through a door that the terminators open up. We make a stand in a room where about four t-600's come into, loads of pipe bombs available and good cover though. Once that sis done it's the end of the level.
Level 4We fight on with Angie and Blair heading to eagle rock.Spiders and wasps as usual.We are now heading for a tower.We come across some terminators with skin pretending to be human, well at least until we show ourselves to them.The two giant rubber skinned t-600 took a lot of bullets each but tend to stand in front of your cover just hammering away, you can just blind fire and kill them.Mores spiders and wasps.More wasps and spiders, are you sensing a theme here.Just different fight boxes with wasps and spiders.We get to the tower block, which is falling apart.Inside the tower block we have a fight with an HK which is similar to the encounter on the first level, only this time we can get up on the roof and run around better.Now to the subways.We have two more fight boxes with wasps and spiders then just to mix thing up we have a pipe to climb and a two floor room with an emplaced gun. Wasps and spiders yet again though.We get to union station and the level ends.
Level 5The first area of the underground is rigged with recent explosives, who placed them, it does not seem to be machine work.We walk through a long section of empty station and subway.We have to find Barnes and then he asks us to follow him.Then back to WarrenMachines loads of wasps and spiders in a fight box. This time there are some t-600's in the mix.Now onto subway trains.We now have An on rails section where we ride the train and shoot rockets at terminator motor bike things and spiders. We get to a station and pick up survivors while defending the stationary train.Then on through more tunnels.We now are going in vehicles, dune buggy type things. We have school bus to defend also.We travel through the landscape shooting up all sorts of machines we have seen so far, this section is actually fun.
Level 6Out in the suburbs, overgrown and ruined.We meet the skinned terminators again, along with spiders.Another fight box with spiders, wasps and skin jobs.Now we can see the antenna in the distance.At this fight box there is less cover and the terminators actually encroach on your cover, which is a new thing, they have been politely staying out of your uncomfortable zone so far.
Level 7Inside the antenna buildings.Barnes places charges and the room floods with t-600's and spiders.As if this game isn't annoying enough without having to really worry about the dense partner a.i.Once the enemies are dead, sorry charges are places you move on through about four fight boxes with the usual suspects. Barnes keeps muttering on about the timer on the charges, I hope this isn't against the clock.Now we have an on rails section driving the terminator machine, it has guns and rockets.We have to hit turrets and incoming spiders and t-600's.Once we clear three sets of turret sites of all enemies we finish the on rails section.The place we enter looks like a factory, lots of t-600's and spiders.Usual fight boxes.
Level 8We fight to the control room, then have to defend the control room while the program runs to stop the turrets.Once that is done we have to escape skynet before the resistance drops some nukes.Basically we have to run for it past emp'ed terminators to a helicopter and escape.That is game over.

Getting into cover besides your partner a.i. is a fairly glitchy affair.Grenades are a bit of a problem, there is one grenade button, and two grenade types, there is also a grenade launcher. So you can be firing normal grenades and run out, only you have pipe bombs as well, instead of just chucking them when you press grenade you have to actually select them first, so you can have 2 pipe bombs and five grenade launcher grenades, but once you have chucked two normal grenades then you can't just tap the grenade button to start chucking pipe bombs, in the heat of battle you have to hold B and then move the analogue stick to the weapon you want. You end up doing this just to see if you actually have any pipe bombs or grenades and end up dying just to see what your inventory is.There are ridiculously long loads between dying and getting restarted which is one thing that really nags me in a game.Also when you die you are asked if you want to continue or quit back to the menu, options which are uncomfortably close and flash instead of being a different colour.Not only long loading screen you get sent back to the start of unskippable in game dialogue scenes after each time you die.You health does not seem to regenerate until you complete certain sections of the games own design.When reloading the game from a switch off you have to navigate around four menus to get back to where you left off, first rule of game design, people want to get to where they left off usually straight away when they load a game up. So one button press should be all it takes. No menus no navigating them, just one button to get going. Of course this should be the menu, highlighted, not some obtuse thing you can't get out of if you want to go to the options or extras bits.

First days Play 1hr 47mins then 55 mins
2nd days play 3hrs 30mins

total 6hrs 20mins

1000 achievement points.