Source:
https://scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2096965/game-review-terminator-genisys-future-war-mobile-tie-wont Culture
Game review: Terminator Genisys - Future War mobile tie-in won’t revive franchise
The Terminator Genisys film all but killed the cult franchise, but this bizarrely timed release of the tie-in mobile game will do little to excite already disillusioned fans
Terminator Genisys is a free-to-play mobile tie-in game, in which players must pick the side of the humans or the Skynet artificial intelligence network.
Plarium
2 stars
The Terminator Genisys movie came out almost two years ago. Everything about it was mediocre, from the terribly misspelled title, to (spoiler alert) John Connor as the bad guy, Sarah Connor’s non-stop sarcasm and even Schwarzenegger as an elderly terminator. It all but killed the franchise, but here we are, a good 700-plus days since it hit cinemas, with a tie-in mobile game.
What’s the point of releasing this obvious cash-grab when there’s little cash left to grab? We have no idea. Future War (available for Android and iOS) is a free-to-play Combat Strike rip-off, in which players must seemingly pick the side of the humans or the Skynet artificial intelligence network.
You then start to build up an empire, constructing bases and buildings, as well as getting your many army units together. It’s your standard click-and-wait formula, the kind that any major movie franchise selects when they’re churning out a middling tie-in. The ultimate purpose is to fight it out in multiplayer or player-vs-player battles – but you can’t control any of it, as the fights are all automated and success largely depends on how many troops are on your side.
The Terminator game may not feature a strong story line, but it does deliver on the visual front.
There’s no story, no real goal - apart from building more, battling behind-the-scenes and then doing it all again in Sisyphean fashion.
Having said that, the game looks decent, so developer Plarium obviously spent some time and money on it. Visually, the settings are straight out of the Terminator art book, and character models aren’t bad, if not wholly realistic. The possibilities and budget were definitely here, but as is to be expected with mobile gaming, creativity in the game play concept wasn’t a high priority.
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The Terminator series is in a sad state – a brilliant concept that went from dark sci-fi cult flick, to family fun action masterpiece, to ever worsening sequels that missed the point of what made the original so great.
Genisys was by far the weakest film, and this bizarrely late tie-in does nothing more than remind us what we’re missing.