Year: 2025
Platform: PlayStation 5
Genre: Action
Review Date: 10/14/26
Rating: ***

A delightful love letter to the side-scrolling action games of the 90's, with tight run-and-gun action and gorgeous 2D pixel graphics. At its core, it's a retelling and extension of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," featuring Sarah Connor, John Connor, and the Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 cyborg. The game shifts between Sarah Connor in the pre-Judgment Day timeline of the 1990s, and John Connor in the post-Judgment Day timeline. Just like in the movie, John sends the T-800 back in time to save himself from Robert Patrick's relentless T-1000, and offers multiple endings based on how you choose to deal with Miles Dyson. The game references Reese going back in time to the 80's to protect Sarah, but sadly doesn't follow through with any levels from the original film.

The game starts off strong and is a ton of fun to play. The present-day and post-apocalyptic worlds look fantastic, the gunplay and melee action are tight and well-balanced, and the soundtrack is incredible. It's unfortunate that the music isn't available to purchase or download anywhere. Sadly, the game becomes less enjoyable as it wears on, and while I appreciated its attempts to introduce different types of gameplay, those deviations also turned me off. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, a motorcycle chase with teenaged John is infuriating and nearly forced me to rage quit. After that, having Sarah try to break out of a mental hospital did cause me to rage quit with its instant death stealth gameplay.

Reportedly, the game is super short and can be completed in less than an hour, but I gave up only halfway through due to the difficulty and frustration wall. The first five levels are great, but it goes downhill after that. I was amused that you get to play naked Arnold in one level where you beat up a bunch of bikers and steal their clothes, but I was disappointed that you don't get to see his junk flop around. I'm pretty sure if I had more time, patience, and focus, I could get through the hospital level and continue the story, but by then I had lost my enthusiasm and was just annoyed. The game doesn't have a level select option, so if I want to try again, I'll have to start all over from the beginning and go through that stupid motorcycle chase again, which I don't want to do.