Review by Colin Edmondson Name: The Terminator - SkyNET Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Format: CDROM Available: Now Requires: O/S: DOS 5.0 upwards Processor: 486 DX 66MHz RAM: 8MbGraphics: VGA CD-Rom: Double speed Soundcard: Most popular cards supported Tested on: O/S: Windows 95 Processor: 200MHz Pentium Pro RAM: 64Mb Graphics: Matrox Millennium (4Mb WRAM) CD-Rom: Panasonic 4X Soundcard: Soundblaster AWE64
The Terminator - SkyNET
One of my personal all-time favourite games was Dark Forces which took the - then relatively new - first person perspective 3D shoot-em up idea, added a plot with missions and some fairly tricky puzzles to create an Adventure element to the game and then based it all around a Star Wars theme. Brilliant!
In many respects SkyNET follows a very similar recipe based on another successful movie; The Terminator. Once again you're presented with a sequence of missions with specific objectives and plenty of mindless violence. It's not a bad effort at all but I'm afraid that I'd be hard pressed to say that it really justifies comparison to Dark Forces.
First Impressions
Perhaps my initial expectations were too high but I was quickly brought
down to earth because try as I may, I just couldn't get the high 
resolution mode to work on my system. The read me file suggests
installing Sci-tech Display Doctor if problems are encountered - but hey!
come on folks this is 1997!!!! I can't think of a single game which has
given me similar difficulties for years now, so this sort of thing is
unforgivable nowadays in my humble opinion. I'm using a fairly
straightforward system configuration with one of the most popular
graphics cards around (Matrox Millennium) so I fail to see why this
should be the case.
Presentation
The manual is nicely done - I particularly liked the sequence of newspaper cuttings, pages torn out of notebooks and sundry snippets at the beginning of the book which serve to set the scene and establish the storyline. Essentially SkyNET is a fully automated global defence system developed by a Silicon Valley company called Cyberdyne Systems. By eliminating any human intervention in a military confrontation, lives would be saved and errors eliminated. Eventually of course the computers and machines got ever more sophisticated and learned to think for themselves. They (the machines) figured that things would be much simpler in the long run if humans were eliminated altogether -so nuclear missiles were triggered around the globe.
In the game you play the part of one of a small band of survivors trying against all odds to disable the SkyNET system.
The Game
My experiences with other releases over the past couple of years have
taught me that SVGA resolutions of 640x480 and above can really transform 
a game so I guess it's only fair to say that had I been able to get this
title running satisfactorily in high resolution mode, my thoughts on the
game may have been a little different. Having recently been playing
QuakeGL with a Diamond Monster accelerator, 320x200 graphics just didn't
cut it for me.
As with most games of its genre, there's a fair range of different weapons (good to see that they're really different rather than just progressively bigger, better and more powerful as this always adds something to the game) and a variety of power ups, armour, ammo etc to be collected as you progress through each level.
Controls
SkyNET works best with a combination of mouse and keyboard. I tried configuring a joystick as I found the mouse control a little unnatural at first but even though I tried recalibrating my MS Sidewinder joystick a couple of times I couldn't achieve adequate control with it so I gave up and resigned myself to getting used to the mouse & keyboard combination. Basically the mouse buttons fire (guns & grenades respectively) whilst mouse movement determines the direction you are looking in. To move in a particular direction you have to look there first (with the mouse) then move forward by pressing a key on the keyboard. It sounds a bit weird and it is at first but with perseverance, it's quite effective.
Missions
There are just eight missions in total and although they're all fairly 
large, this isn't a game which is going to keep a keen gamer going for
weeks on end. It's also fair to say that whilst there is a distinct plot
and each mission has its own objectives, they aren't for the most part
terribly difficult puzzles to solve.
Some of the missions give you the opportunity to drive a jeep and fly a 'Hunter / Killer' (HK) which adds a bit of extra variety to the game. At the end of the day however, this is first and foremost a 'shoot em up'. If that's your cup of tea SkyNET is good fun. If you're looking for something a little more cerebral, you'll probably be disappointed.
Multiplayer
It's all here! If deathmatch is your thing then SkyNET has it; decide at the outset how you want to score (points, kills , lives or time are the main options available) and away you go.
Its nice to see that Bethesda Softworks don't require a separate copy of the game for each network player - one CDROM is sufficient for up to 3 players and a second copy will allow 6 to play together on a network.
Internet
I don't suppose many jaws will drop open when I say that there's some
more information to be gleaned about the game by going to the official
internet site at: http://www.bethsoft.com
There's a downloadable demo to be had for the asking - I'd always recommend anyone considering a game purchase to put up with the lengthy download times and judge for yourself whether it's a game you're going to like or not.
Conclusions
A reasonably enjoyable game on balance -but nothing here which pushes 3D gaming to new levels and a few flaws which just aren't excusable particularly for a 'me too' game such as this. It's price helps to sweeten the pill - retailing at less than twenty quid in the UK definitely makes it one of the cheaper releases of late but there are better games around. If you just can't get enough of this kind of game you'll probably enjoy SkyNET, but in the company of games like Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom & Dark Forces, theres not enough to give SkyNET the edge from any angle.
================================== Rating: 5/10 (Not Bad - Not Good!) ==================================
Colin Edmondson for Game Over!
