Developed by Paradigm Entertainment and published by Atari in 2004, Terminator 3: The Redemption is based on the Terminator 3, the film, while adding in some new scenes as backstory. Gameplay is mostly third-person shooting or driving, interspersed with pre-rendered cut scenes and on-rails shooting sections.

After what seems like 50 different company logos, Terminator 3: The Redemption starts up with a pre-rendered cut scene showing the T-X fighting John Connor‘s rebels. She is knocked out with a single blast of a new weapon the humans have… Before getting up and killing them all…

Terminator 3: The Redemption then shows the T-X time-travelling back to the beginning of the T3 film, and you stay in the future. After that, you are introduced as an ‘Arnie’ T850, working for the humans, and must fight your way through to various objectives. Usually to destroy them.

Enemies are skeletal T800s, Hunter Killers, and every other piece of hardware Skynet can throw at you, and the gameplay includes some beat ’em up moves for you to use during close-up encounters. Special button-presses to do certain attack moves (the game will prompt you usually), or you can pick up certain items to use them as weapons. When they’re available, you can also press ‘Y’ to use gun emplacements, to mow a bunch of attackers down.

The driving sections – the parts where you’re on the back of a pickup, firing a large gun – are really quite exhiliarating, especially when you’re having to lock-on to the engines of a fleeing Skynet ship, while everything is attacking you on the road… Surviving the first driving section, and getting to the chopper, is a relief, but even then, you haven’t yet competed the level and gotten to the first checkpoint…

You’ll of course have to face-off with the T-X at certain points in the story, which flip the game into more of a beat ’em up for a while, and if you can remember all the special moves, then quite a good one.

Probably the most annoying aspect of the game is having to keep your powercells charged. A T850, having to charge its batteries? Okay, syeah. If you run out of power, though, it’s game over, which is pretty weird. I found it quite annoying and unnecessary. To keep the power topped-up you either need to charge at a station (or a power fault), or kill enemies using special moves for instant powercell recharges. At first I was struggling to get anywhere, then realised that I could get free power-ups by battering T800s with road signs…

Terminator 3: The Redemption also has a cool two-player cooperative mode, which is on-rails but still great fun to play now. The single-player campaign is challenging and long enough to still be fun too.

Overall, Terminator 3: The Redemption is a decent game in the Terminator VG franchise. Not among the best, and not among the worst, and with some appeal as a fairly mindless and enjoyable movie-themed blaster/driving game.

More: Terminator 3: The Redemption on Wikipedia