I've never played this game before, but I think I know what's going on.
In Level 1, Kyle Reese breaks into the Skynet compound and sends himself back to 1984.
In Level 2, Kyle has just stolen some clothes from the department store and is being attacked by a whole bunch of police helicopters. That's not in the movie, but whatever. So, he's killing gang members, who presumably have it coming for living a life of crime, but why is he shooting police officers? Then he rescues Sarah from Arnie in the bar.
In Level 3, he's breaking out of a huge police station, which for some reason has a lot of criminals running around in it, and again shooting police officers. I guess it's worth taking a few innocent lives to save the savior of humanity, but couldn't he try to avoid it? How many games are there where you're supposed to kill cops? Okay, so once again he rescues Sarah before Arnie can get to her. Why is this game all about Kyle?
Okay, so Level 4 skips the exciting car chase (what?) and goes right to Arnie having his flesh barbecued off and he's chased them into the factory. Surely at this point the game is finally going to be about Sarah Connor after Kyle sacrifices himself. Nope. Kyle runs through the factory, and the limping Terminator keeps popping up everywhere. Why are there so many freaking Terminators? Okay, so there's a big exciting boss fight now, right? Nope, just avoid Arnie until you can find the helpless and cowering Sarah, and the press crushes the Terminator, presumably activated by Buddha. It wasn't Sarah, so some higher power must have decided to save her.
So... did I enjoy watching this movie? Well, that's an obvious no. Sarah is an NPC in a game about a movie that is kind of about her. The levels are linear and seem to be very short, and it looks like you're just supposed to follow the path and occasionally stop to shoot bad guys, some of whom are good guys. Kyle never fights the Terminator at any point. I know he mostly fled from the Terminator in the movie -- firing shots to slow him down and doing enough damage to force Arnie to perform some home surgery on his eye -- but have you ever heard of an action video game without a boss fight? Other than the first level, every level ends when Kyle reaches Sarah. No big boss fight with Skynet or a Terminator in 2029, no big gun fight in the bar, no manufactured boss fight in the police station, and no duking it out in the factory. Just get from Point A to Point B and you win. Not even a boss fight in the final level. I'm just amazed by this design decision. This game is sometimes too faithful to the movie (no boss fights), and sometimes not faithful enough (Kyle wiping out the LAPD instead of Arnie).
I didn't care for it. I think this game failed as a Terminator game, and the people who designed it should have to sit in a corner and think about what they've done.
