App Shelf Blog - iPhone Reviews: May 2009

Catagory: Games, third-person shooter, action adventure
Price: $9.99
App Store Link: [Full] / No Lite Version

Review: Love it!
Replay Value: Once through w/ unlockables & achievements for replay (Medium Low)
Recommendation: If you're willing to drop the cash, get it. This game is exceptionally well made with truly premium price quality gameplay. The biggest complaint seems to be overall content, adding up to approximately 3-4 hours of total gameplay.

After months of preview shots, Terminator Salvation finally makes its way into the App Store. The game places players in the role of John Connor, Marcus Wright, Kyle Reese, and even the classic T-600 skeleton (the latter as an unlockable game mode) as they form the Resistance against Skynet in a exceptionally detailed post-apocalyptic world.

Terminator Salvation is one of those games that proves iPhone has real potential as true game system. Gameplay and graphics are brilliantly smooth and detailed. The game offers four possible control setups, including virtual d-pad and accelerometer options. Default setup has controls using a virtual d-pad for moment and touch-screen for directional look and aim (the defaults worked so well, I found no reason to change them). A more refined version of the Brothers In Arms controls might make a good comparison.

In addition to having everything you'd expect from a third person shooter, Terminator Salvation employs both a smart cover and smart targeting system that are very useful. First, for cover, players can run close to any barrier or wall to instantly duck for cover, popping out briefly only when the fire button is pressed. Smart targeting also cuts down on the frustration typical of many shooters; simply get the crosshair within a reasonable distance of your target and your gun will autolock on it.

Overall, the developers did a great job immersing players into the Terminator Salvation themed environment, including in-game cinematics (unfortunately with text instead of voice-over). Really there's not a lot to complain about here accept for a few nit-picky details except maybe the length of playtime and price. Yet even with that said, gamers expecting this kind of quality from an app need to start expecting to pay a little more out of pocket; quality doesn't typically come cheap.