timeline specified in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Future Shock depicts 1995 as the beginning of the nuclear war, not 1997. Throughout the game the player is surrounded by a post-apocalyptic environment. All around is death and decay, scattered with pockets of deadly fallout and the remnants of a shattered society. Reception Tal Blevins of GameSpot wrote, "The game world itself is well thought-out; you can enter nearly every building to search for weapons, ammo, and med canisters as the familiar adrenaline-pumping Terminator soundtrack echoes in the background. [...] The graphics, music, and sound effects are superb. [...] Looks aside, the real beauty of Terminator: Future Shock is its smooth control system." Phil Bedard of Computer Games Magazine compared the game to Doom, "but with some things thrown in that make it different." Bedard praised the music and stereo sound effects, but wished the game had been done in high resolution. He criticized the difficult character controls, occasionally slow gameplay caused by a large number of objects in the game, and the lack of network play. A reviewer for Next Generation said the game "is impressive in its ability to immerse the player into the post-apocalypse world of 'Terminator'" and sets itself apart from other first-person shooters with its freedom of exploration and destruction, but is ultimately "more frustrating than fun." He explained that the freedom of movement necessitates complex controls which are difficult to adjust to and require the player to routinely move their hand back-and-forth from the movement keys. He also found that the dark color palette makes it hard to see enemies. A reviewer for Maximum called it "a slick, professional blaster that sets new standards in the movie to game license wars". He cited the "tangible and involving" environments, the varied mission objectives, the player controlled vehicles, the storyline, the mouse look control, and the variety of weapons, and said that the game's only weakness is the lack of multiplayer. T. Liam McDonald of PC Gamer called it a "damned fine game in many ways," praising the graphics and sound effects, but he was critical of the awkward controls and the difficulty in aiming, as well as the lack of multiplayer. Simon Cox, writing for the UK-based PC Gamer, praised Future Shock as a scary game and "one of the most atmospheric and believable shoot-'em-ups ever". However, he also considered the controls difficult to use at first.