The One


Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Publisher: The Hit Squad
Machine: Amiga 500/600/1200

 
Published in The One #50

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

If ever there was a film tailor-made for conversion, it was Terminator 2. The box-office smash was full to the point of overflowing with special effects and action sequences, so much so that the game couldn't fail to be a smasheroo too. But, as you know, life's never that simple.

It's typical of Ocean's old approach to film conversions before the likes of Robocop 3 and Hook, i.e. string together a few simplistic subgames, each supposedly representing a set piece from the film, resulting in an unsatisfying mish-mash of game styles. Terminator 2 has eight such sub-games: three beat-'em-up, two puzzle, two 'driving' and one scrolling shoot-'em-up. None of them are particularly outstanding and some are just plain boring.

The presentation is nice with okay-ish digitised sequences popping up between most sections and the music conveys the hard, industrial feel of the film very nicely. Unfortunately Ocean couldn't use Arnie's face in the actual game, so what we are supplied with is a rather squat, cartoony caricature of our Austrian hero with the rest of the in-game graphics failing to impress at all.

I could live with the aforementioned graphics if there was at least some gameplay hidden in there somewhere, but sadly (you guessed it) there appears to be none. The beat-'em-up sections consist mainly of rapidly stabbing at the fire button and the player never really feels as if he is in control of the main sprite at all (partly due to the fact that it moves soooo slowly). The driving sections are yawnsome and the scrolling shoot-'em-up is just abysmal. The game also suffers from being far too easy and I think the average player will complete it within their first ten goes (at the most!).

Overall, this is a really disappointing game which could have been the conversion to end them all. Given Ocean's recent film tie-in successes, I think that this is one game that would've been best left forgotten. Even at this budget price it doesn't warrant a purchase unless you're a collector of duff, dull film conversions, and if that's you then you are a very sad man indeed.