This is a genuinely decent game

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

So I platinum’d Terminator this morning after owning it for a good month and not getting around to it. I heard a shitload of bad things and as much as I love Terminator, which is a lot, I just didn’t feel compelled to play it. Until yesterday. And in short, I’m glad I did, this game is great, it is by far the best Terminator game I’ve played (sorry Future Shock, I know you’re good but I don’t have a computer) and I’ve played just about everyone I can get a hold of from the NES to now. I can’t be fucked doing a full on review of it right now, maybe I’ll ramble later, who knows, but what I can be bothered doing is dumping a quick pros and cons list on here for any prospective players. 

 

First off, the game is clearly made by fans of the series for fans of the series, either that or they just did their research thoroughly. The game pulls deep from the Terminator lore, having you annihilate Silverfish Terminators pretty early on, these guys were a concept for T2’s future scenes but never made it into the movie, I think they were used in comics or something, but that alone was a deep cut to start off with so early on, then you run into, well this is sort of spoilery so skip a line or two if you want, but you’re in a Skynet base and one of the people, Resistance fighters, who are on a table having been experimented on, is clearly Robert Patrick, the actor who played the T1000 (cop Terminator) in T2, which is a nice little easter egg, stuff like that helped make the game feel authentic to the series, but nothing makes it feel more Terminator-y than the sound design. Holy shit the sound design, it’s as good as it felt playing the beta for the 2015 reboot of Star Wars Battlefront, the lazers, the score, the bullets, the metal...sounds, all of it, it feels so damn authentic to the Terminator universe, it is insane the level of detail and authenticity they have going here, which is why I believe the game is made by people who genuinely care about the series dearly, and after Last Jedi, respecting a decades old franchise when you come in and make a new chapter in its history definitely goes a long way with me. The visuals also pop, while nothing amazing graphically, the style and tone of the visuals are spot on to the future warfare we saw in 1984 and 1991 in T1 and 2 respectively. The bevy of different enemy Terminator types, smashed and ruined remains of human civilization, all of it, it really feels like a world that was fine one day and just got nuked the next. In short, the visuals and sound design are fucking superb and go together to make this by far the most immersive and detail rich Terminator game yet. 

 

I’m gonna segue into shorter dot points now

 

Pros

• Easy platinum, as I’m sure you know.

• The visuals and design are fan-fucking-tastic, 100% authentic Terminator style

• There’s 35 or so collectibles and you’ll easily find the 10 you need for the trophy, but I only had 16 or so at the end of the game, they’re decently well hidden and a fun little bonus when you do find one of the letters, offering insight into the lives of people before and during the future war.

• Ducking for cover, popping your head out, and firing a missile at an HK aerial is one of those holy shit “only in a videogame” kind of moments and it. is. Awesome.

• I absolutely love how (unless you max out the skill tree section) there’s no autoheal, though that being said, if you’re any good you definitely won’t be using many medkits.

• The game feels like what I want Fallout to be. I never cared for Fallout 3 or 4 despite multiple attempts to get into them and it always bummed me out because I love the post apocalyptic setting and style, I just didn’t give a fuck about anything in Fallout, this game is what I want Fallout to be. You heard it here first, “Terminator: Resistance is a better game than Fallout 4.” - Dylan, 2020.

• You’ll end up with a shitload of ammo most of the time, but when you run out, or don’t bother to pick up ammo, the game becomes sooooooo much better. Actually running from Terminators, ducking around corners and setting up traps and shit is crazy. When I ran out of plasma ammo in one of the outposts and there was one T800 left I had to lure him out, get him to run across the street and finally into the line of sight of my lazer trap I had setup, it was so good.

• T400, T800, T820, T850, the Silverfish, HK aerials, HK tanks, basic drones, T825v, T47, T808, and many more, the quantity of enemy types is matched by the quality, each looks and behaves distinctly, some have flamethrowers and shit, it’s awesome the amount of Terminators you’ll be crushing in this game.

• After a while I ended up actually giving a shit about the side characters too. I mean, I won’t lie, the dialogue was veeeeeery cheese a lot of the time and whatnot, but all their sidemissions and fetch quests, I ended up doing most of the not because I had to, not even for trophies because you only had to do 5 of them for a trophy, but because I wanted to. And with each side mission completed, each letter collectible found, you unlock more parts of the story, find out more about side characters, origins, random people, all of it, the way you come across more information about these people, and how it’s entirely up to you whether you want to or not, is really well done and I enjoyed it.

• I’m glad to see some Terminator stuff WITHOUT Arnie for a change. It’s been a while. Now I won’t lie, I would have loved for him to be the boss at the end or something, like the one last Terminator you have to kill but then he escapes into the TDE or something and goes back to ‘84, but I’m glad he’s not here, I am so sick of him being the hero in every one of these fucking movies, it worked so good in T2 *because* he was such a good bad guy in T1 and making him the hero in everything since (I’ve seen Dark Fate, he still ends up being the hero even after *that*) kinda really ruins it tbh.

• Competent gameplay. That’s not much of a point, but I mean, hearing everyone go “it’s from the people who made Rambo, how much can you expect?” well, you can expect a very competent, well made first person shooter, with decent enough graphics (PS3.5 quality imo), and some good fun gunplay. There’s a lot of variety in the gameplay too, stealth sections, action sections, long winded go and find stuff in a car park sections, it never really feels like it’s doing the same stuff too much.

• The levels in this game are very big and decently detailed, there’s a lot to do in each level and the placement of enemies is well done too, the levels feel real, especially when you get to parts that aren’t as fucked from Judgement Day. The level design and size is great and it’s always big enough that you feel like there’s some real ground to cover, but never daunting enough that you wanna give up or get a fast travel mod or something.

• John Connor is back (for the final act) and he doesn’t steal the show, but he also doesn’t get unceremoniously killed 10 minutes into it and replaced by someone new with largely the same premise anyway, it’s almost like you can introduce new characters and storylines and not have to literally kill the old one as well. Crazy.

• The theme from Terminator 1 playing as you hear plasma blasts everywhere around you, as you make the final charge into Skynet, mowing down Terminators with ease with your upgraded phase 2 plasma rifles, holy shit I know I want them to be huge and scary and menacing, but god damn if that wasn’t a highlight of the game, it felt like the victory the movies always talked about, except you got to be there, it was badass.

• Look I enjoy Terminator 3 a good deal, I even saw Terminator 4 twice at the movies back when I was young enough that that was a good deal of money to me. Terminator 5 can just be left forgotten about tbh, and Terminator 6, despite its many flaws, was also a deeply enjoyable movie (when you ignore the flaws) and I liked it just fine. Buuuuuut, this game, even with its questionable dialogue and delivery and not really that much of a deep story, is a better follow up to Terminator 2 than anything else released this millennium. 

• Performance of the game is good, no real bugs or hiccups or crashes or anything, and I love that even more because it has no patch, no day one patch, no update, no bullshit, slap the disc in and play, no internet required, as it should be. And in this day and age, in 2020 now, being able to buy a game, jam the disc in, and just go, is *definitely* a bonus.

• Also liked, sound design again, but in the later levels where there’s a lot of metal flooring and stuff, hearing your own footprints make that metal sound and having it sort of echo around creates a sense of claustrophobia or fear it’s a Terminator, I don’t know how to describe it, but I definitely had to peak around a few corners a couple times because of what I heard. Seriously, the fucking audio design and quality in this game cannot be overpriased, it is the bee’s knees ridgy didge Terminator. 

• It’s not a phone game. I never bothered to play Terminator 5’s game because it was on phones and I just couldn’t be bothered with it, I fucking miss console based movie tie in games hardcore, and this is one of the best ones for me, right up there with the greats, like Spider-Man 2, Scarface, and Stuart Little 2. Masterpieces. 

 

Cons

• Loading times are a bit trashy, it takes a while if and when you die to respawn, though you probably won’t be dying all that much.

• Difficulty is piss easy after you unlock any decent guns and also, once you get plasma weaponry (maybe about halfway through) everything you’ve earned before is useless really. Or at least not really worth using, because you will *always* have way more ammo than you’d ever use.

• Dialogue is proper cheesy and very poorly delivered at times, never bad enough to take you out of it, but like, it ain’t great.

• All the stuff you find is kinda useless. You will pick up soooo much shit and you can use it for crafting (ammo, medkits, etc.) or upgrading your guns (the gun upgrading stuff wasn’t cool enough to warrant a pro point, but I should mention I like what they did), but your backpack will inevitably get full and you will have to sell or drop it, and the problem is if you sell your stuff you’ll end up with around 50k like I did and a bunch of shit left over, only to find there’s nothing to buy because you can just find guns on dead enemies that are better than anything humans will sell you.

 

Anyway. The game is really fucking fun, and as a loooooong time Terminator fan, I remember staying up late and paying for the movie pack to watch Terminator 3 when I was like 6 or 7, I was so excite when it came out, like I can say long time because “long time” usually just means anyone who remembers the world of Terminator when it was just the two undisputed great movies. Anyway, as a long time fan, I can say I was thoroughly, and surprisingly, satisfied with this game, and strongly recommend it to any fan of the series.

 

However, the 100 dollar asking price was ridiculous and it is not worth that much, if it was open ended and you could just keep going forever in an open world like Fallout, I’d love it so much more and gladly give it my hundred bucks, but what you get isn’t worth 100 unfortunately. If you got it for about 30 or 40, so 30/40% of the standard RRP in your country, I’d say it is totally worth a runthrough. In the end it probably took me 10 hours or so to burn through the story and a decent amount of side missions, I know you can do it quicker, and I know you can take longer, but I would say 10 hours is a pretty good average playthrough kind of time. 

 

In short. This game is one of the better movie tie in games I’ve played, and one of an increasingly small amount coming to consoles. It’s competent, it’s detailed, and it’s clearly made with a level of love and respect for the franchise that is palpable. This game is an absolute love letter to the franchise and its fans, and for the right price, should not be missed by anyone who loves the series. It is safe for people who dismiss anything that came after T2 as it doesn’t undo anything, and it’s safe for people who have been following the entire franchise as nothing it does undoes anything else and it fits perfectly well, yes, even including with the alternate timeline bullshit from Genisys. 

[reiner-]

Holy shit that took forever to read.

A really thorough review.

I would have to agree and disagree with you.

As it had a AAA price tag then I expected a AAA game but it was far from it. 

Like you said the price was to high. If it was a third of the price then I wouldn't have whinged about it and accepted it's flaws.

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

1 minute ago, reiner- said:

Holy shit that took forever to read.

A really thorough review.

I would have to agree and disagree with you.

As it had a AAA price tag then I expected a AAA game but it was far from it. 

Like you said the price was to high. If it was a third of the price then I wouldn't have whinged about it and accepted it's flaws.

Oh boi trust me, that's my quickie take, thorough would be a good 20 times that. Well not 20, but at least a good 2 or 3 times. 

 

But yeah. I think the price is the biggest problem for me. If this was a digital only game and dropped at 30/40 odd bucks (ie 25 or so USD) when Dark Fate came out, I'd have been all over it. Even as it was, it was 100 digital and I had no interest, I thought it was digital only and I was content to wait on a sale, but then I bought it on disc the second I found out about the physical release, because I figured if it was as shit as people said, I could at least return it.

 

Well, I'm still going to return it, because $100 is too much and the Christmas gift return thing ends in a few days, but had the game been a decent price, I'd have proudly kept it in my stack. 100 bucks for any game is too damn much, but it's especially too much for a single player game of 10 hours or so that has no real replay value and nothing after the credits.

[reiner-]

Yeah good call returning it.

Usually I read a review or watch some gameplay before purchasing a game but this time I took a gamble and just bought it.

This is why I don't gamble.

[Property_Damage]

100 dollars??

like american dollars? Hang your head in shame, good day sir!

 

thats it, thats my contribution here!

[Pumpkin Head Cthulhu]

Is it first person only or can you switch to third?

[Solid-Fisch]

Longtime Terminator fan here too (actually even wearing a skynet shirt while writing these lines). Was always hoping for a game to the series that keeps it's legacy's worth. One day in the nearby future, when the price has dropped down to 20 bucks, I'll be there. Liked your review. So long. No fate. 

[Ashbo]

Some review

On 04/01/2020 at 3:10 AM, Super-Fly Spider-Guy said:

I can’t be fucked doing a full on review of it right now, maybe I’ll ramble later,

 

LMAO! You sure did ????

 

I started this last night and being a fan of Terminator (mainly 1 & 2) I was expecting this game (not by much) to be decent. Salvation was shite imo and that’s the last one I played.

 

Erm, for me honestly, it’s not great based on my first 1-2hrs I played. It should be better, because well imo it’s Terminator and i’m pretty sure one day hopefully we get a really good one, but Salvation from years back was baaaaad (this is better though)! It is a low budget game, so yeh it’s to be expected, despite me expecting more lol.

It reminds me a little of last years Metro Exodus, just not as good (mainly the derelict environments and dialogue). The texturing and graphic dropouts are that of a PS3 game which are noticeable and at times I just laugh at. You can do side missions, upgrade your character, craft weapons etc so you could prolong the game (if you really want to) but the guns are pretty op which makes the crafting etc a little pointless and you can just brute force through everything.

Fortunately I borrowed it off a mate for 1). An easy  and 2). I genuinely wanted to try it out as I just fancied some mindless cyborg killing.

I wouldn’t pay over £40 which is it’s retail price in the shops over here (UK) and I think it’s even more on the store and they charge you like a wounded rhino. If you have a receipt for this game, don’t lose it! 

[Vive_ut_vivas]

Thanks man this conviced me to buy the game, I was in doubt as many people I know were saying it was very bad.

But since I am a Terminator fan I really wanted to buy it so now I will. It helps a lot knowing the game is decent.

[FawltyPowers]

Pro's: It's an easy platinum

Con's: It's piss easy

[Solercide]

Thanks for the review i will be buying it now, last Terminator game i played was 3 on the PS2 and that was a ton of fun.

 

Anybody in the UK here Argos have it for £27.99

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4493163?istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=30f62ea9-9626-4cac-97c8-9ff3921f8558&istItemId=iipxwirtr&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59158|acid:532-198-3455|cid:598901029|agid:24337555730|tid:aud-641224041017:pla-840157538093|crid:86938602290|nw:g|rnd:7810094053038367071|dvc:c|adp:1o1|mt:|loc:1006624&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=598901029&utm_term=&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=24337555730&utm_custom2=532-198-3455&gclid=CjwKCAiA3uDwBRBFEiwA1VsajL7zu_S9GfuHL7xZ4bhEPRjh8h0BxAZkyy8qaqUgH1s1iwaQG2CTURoCIoEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 

[Ashbo]

14 minutes ago, Solercide said:

Thanks for the review i will be buying it now, last Terminator game i played was 3 on the PS2 and that was a ton of fun.

 

Anybody in the UK here Argos have it for £27.99

 

 

That’s still expensive imo. £15 or less would be a better price for people to hope for.

[ImAPirateSoSueMe]

On 1/10/2020 at 7:15 AM, Ashbo said:

 

That’s still expensive imo. £15 or less would be a better price for people to hope for.

Now that’s just being cheap. Lmao majority of budget titles go for $40 USD so that’s fine.

[BUNDZOOT]

Sorry i have to disagree with any recommendations of this god awful game, avoid until its £5 at least for anyone who wants an easy platinum, for any genuine Terminator fans this will just lay another brick of robot dung over the franchise.

[melodicmizery]

i had no clue this even came out. im going to get it if/when the price is low. i really liked the ps3 one that came out years ago, it was fun and a fast plat.

[Ashbo]

1 hour ago, ImAPirateSoSueMe said:

Now that’s just being cheap. Lmao majority of budget titles go for $40 USD so that’s fine.

 

Lol! Fair do’s man. I’d say for those in the UK, wait for a generous sale!

[Barto2]

Just played through the game and would agree that the game was fun!! 

[Nightstream88]

Thought about getting it sometime, but Physical copies seem to be pretty expensive for some reason and game is only a month old may have to go digital with this one if I do get it.
Still looks like it would be better than terminator salvation easily at least.

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

yeah I wanna play it at some point, but completion % is a bit high.

[Warmachine0341]

On 2/25/2020 at 2:36 PM, Nightstream88 said:

Thought about getting it sometime, but Physical copies seem to be pretty expensive for some reason and game is only a month old may have to go digital with this one if I do get it.
Still looks like it would be better than terminator salvation easily at least.

It’s better than salvation sure, but even at the recent price drop to 40 bucks digital, it still feels too expensive. I’m playing it because I like the franchise, but as a game, if you don’t love terminator, I wouldn’t pay more than 20-30 dollars at most

[Bliss]

10 minutes ago, Warmachine0341 said:

It’s better than salvation sure, but even at the recent price drop to 40 bucks digital, it still feels too expensive. I’m playing it because I like the franchise, but as a game, if you don’t love terminator, I wouldn’t pay more than 20-30 dollars at most

Yep. I’m holding off for a bigger price drop as well. 

[Bizzy_Montana_]

I can only confirm that this game is actually decent, it's one of these "middle-shelf-games" Jim Sterling sometimes talks about. 

 

My advice would be to rent it from a video / game store for one day or get it when on sale. 

 

For many people there's no replay value, but the game sure enough entertains you sufficiently to finish it in one long session. 

[Nitro]

I guess different strokes for every folks but this game is absolute garbage and deserves to be found in a bargain bin. I don't know if the OP has played any games on the PS4 if he thinks these graphics are outstanding, they look like they were ripped straight from the PS2 or early PS3 days. 

Moreover, the game itself is boring as shit. I stopped doing side quests because all they were was a bunch of fetch quests like Getting the kids chalk to medical supplies left in a city. It's very very repetitive and uninspired. The levels are bland and there isn't a lot to do in each level. There a a few side objectives (see previous point) and then what? Locked doors? Hackable lasers? A bunch of terminators to kill? Struggling to see all the things to do in the levels. And put your cons on top of that, it's just crappy.

But hey, at least it only crashed on me twice.

 

Wait for a sale guys, not worth it right now.

[Cthulu-72]

7 hours ago, NekoRave said:

The games $16 right now for those waiting for a sale its super cheap

 

 

$21 CDN, that's good enough for me. This looks like it will be a fun one.

[Shipwreck24273]

Just got the plat and seriously, it’s a good game. I really enjoyed my play through and wouldn’t have minded at all if I’d have had to do a second. Definitely worth adding to your list when it’s on sale.