Robots, guns, Sarah Connor, Skynet and Arnold Schwarzenegger ... these things bring to mind the Terminator movies, a series that has been wildly popular for more than 20 years. In 2009, Terminator Salvation, the fourth installment in the series, was released in theaters, and Terminator Salvation the game followed shortly thereafter.

Bridging a gap (not all gaps) between Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation, I had high hopes the game would be an exception to my stereotype of bad videogame movies. With what looked like a great cover system, the ability to play and destroy robots as John Connor — the famed leader of the resistance — how could it fail? The real question is ... does it live up to the hype of the movie? Or did the future leader of the resistance meet his end at the hands of an unruly PlayStation 3 with a grudge against humanity?

John Connor, the leader of the human resistance against the machines, is doing just that. At some point, Connor receives a distress call from a team that is stranded and fighting against machines. Connor — with his friend Blair — decides to go save them. So, they travel above and below ground to save the stranded team, meet people along the way and help them with their machine problems ... and that’s it. Not much more than that.

Let us just get it out of the way real quick: This game is NOT good, by any means. SO unfortunately, it does fall under the LONG list of movie games that fail. And to explain why, let me begin with the character models and graphics. Now, I’m not one to be too much of a stickler for graphics ... but come on. In a world of games in which characters move their mouths, this game decided it wasn’t important? In many cutscenes, I noticed that a character would be talking, but there were no mouth animations whatsoever. Some people may not find this important, but with the advancements made in videogames, it just doesn’t seem right to leave something like that out. Heck, even mouth animations that don’t sync with the spoken words are better than no mouth movements at all.

The character models also are dreadful. It is apparent that every human character in Terminator Salvation was made from the same body model. They all stand the same, walk the same, run the same, shoot the same ... and the enemies you are shooting at ARE ALL THE SAME! Prepare to shoot at the same enemies, constantly. It could be little flying robots, or “Spiders,” which are these big machines with multiple legs, or a Terminator, with skeletal body and all.

There are a couple more thrown in every once and a while during certain parts of the game (driving missions), but there’s not enough to really consider them enemies you fight constantly. Weapons variety is just as sparse, as you find yourself using an M4 for most of the game, with the occasional shotgun or rocket launcher tossed in for good measure. Grenades and pipe bombs are also used ... if you can pick them up. There have been numerous occasions in which a pipe bomb was near enough for me to pick up and using it would have really helped ... but I couldn’t seem to get it.

The most inexcusable aspect of the game is the length. Most games today, even the short ones, are usually 10+ hours. That doesn’t mean all of them but is a good portion of them ... this game can be beat in four HOURS! That is just an absolute crime, expecting people to shell out money for a game that will last no more than two play-throughs. I don’t know exactly what the developers were thinking, but this is just unacceptable.

Unfortunately, yet another game fell victim to a long line of games based on movies. What could have been good, using the story and ideas from an awesome movie series, was not. Unless you are an avid Terminator fan, I don’t recommend getting Terminator Salvation in any form, whether renting or buying. And even if you are a huge fan, I can’t recommend buying it, because it may ruin what you love. Like the Terminators from the movie, this game showed up with nothing ... .and I doubt it came through a portal from the future.