Man this was a surprise gem for me. I always wanted to see the future war in T1/T2 Realized in its harrowing tone rather than what salvation was and this delivered in spades.

Is it jank? Yes- God yes. Its very apparent that this was made on a shoestring budget with the animations and models which actually adds to its charm. What ISNT charming is the fact that there's not an FOV slider on PC and its so zoomed in to where any attempts of using an FOV tool just messes up and makes the weapon models disappear. The reason? turns out they had to force to have it like this on console to get around covering up the sex scenes not showing any nudity, which is fucking weirder not seeing shit than to see janky sex cutscene in its fullest, its a damn bizarre reason to not have something as simple as that. Also this next point isn't an FOV problem, but I did notice moving throughout the levels, sometimes the Level of Detail or the level having to load in terrain as you move towards another location. Which would be smart on cutting corners in terms of optimization, but it was so distracting and stuck out like a stubbed toe while trying to get myself immersed into the game.

Looking past all of that jank? An actual good terminator game with some heart poured into it. Teyon really redeemed themselves after Rambo (which now i wish they hadn't done because they more than prove their worth with 80s action classic adaptations with this and Robocop, which i cannot wait to try.) Story's very, very simple, playing as a soldier named Jacob rivers whose platoon was wiped and you need to get back to the resistance and meeting survivors along the way.

Yea nothing to write home about, but the survivors are actually refreshing and made me actually care about each of them and their backstories, actually had me doing their (very brief) side missions willingly just to build up the relationships with them even further. And the best part? these actually matter to the ending! That's right! Your actions actually matter! Though don't get too excited, its less "Fallout"/WRPG where dialogue choices matter (Most of 'em are the survivors explaining their backstories except the ones near the end) since its more like CoD Black Ops 2/Cold War where its a linear domino effect of small things can affect the outcome a bit. and it actually makes sense for the story, because without spoilers, it actually goes full circle with not only its own story but also Terminator/T2 as well. Even gives some clever recontextualization to the first 2 movies, where if you play this then rewatch those with what little info/lore they have here, it makes things go full circle a bit. Certainly more so than T3, "Genisys" (which is still a retarded name for any movie much less Terminator) and Dark Fate where they tried to leech off the first 2 while also making them pretty much pointless by the end. This, on the other hand, not only respects those movies but also its own story by not just SOLELY rely on those. There's fan service in here, loads of it, including getting to see the .45 longslide in the Infiltrator mode or the technoir music playing on an abandoned boombox, but its more endearing than eye rolling like other types of modern adaptations do.

The gameplay I'd describe a mix of metro, fallout and far cry with the outposts you'd have to destroy. Having to sneak your way past little robots with miniguns, aeriels that have a big ass spotlight looking for you in the shadows, robot spiders, turrents, scout drones, and of course, the T800s and also the "T-850s" which are the infiltrators. If you try to bum rush the last ones without explosives or plasma rifles, its over. Even with the pipe that you use as a melee does jack shit to enemies except the little spider bots, which kinda makes it useless tbh. It fits the overall desperate survivor aspect but damn i gone through 3/4ths the game without even melee-ing enemies.

This alongside lockpicking, like copy and pasted straight outta dying light type of lockpicking, not even the other types in games where its very intricate, Hacking, where its literally frogger but can be bullshit in certain levels, Crafting, Scavenging through boxes, Even exploding trucks and going through certain areas really make you feel like a Survivor going through some shit. Of course, this being a survival game, You progress throughout the game via a skill tree. Even with the hacking and lockpicking separated into 3 levels, Easy, medium and hard in the skill tree. and really, you should spend your skills on the hacker class because that would save your ass. You can hack into turrents and outposts that you'll get to destroy and try to get really creative on how to execute. Hence why i made the Far Cry comparison.

Thankfully, Unlike FC, It ain't open world so it wont get too repetitive as those and while its pacing starts really slow, it really starts to shine when you get into skirmishes during the 2nd/3rd act. Its one of those games that only gets BETTER as it goes on than worse.

This isnt without its faults though, the injections like slow mo, endurance and super speed are damn near useless and i only used those when i didnt have medkits around. Another aspects that's more useless the more you play is the gunplay of actual guns. Other than the rocket launchers and maybe the shotgun, the rest you can literally ditch after you get the plasma rifles because those are more versatile and useful than to waste kinetic bullets on machines that are invincible to those. Which had me question why the hell am i keeping the M4, Uzi, M1911 (I sold that immediately after getting the uzi and sharing the same ammo), etc. when those are literally useless. Like there's no special bullets for those, nothing. Which makes sense given you know, Terminators. but really after the 1st act, there's NO use for them. There's more use for plasma rifles and explosives like the C4, Tripwires, grenades, dynamite, etc. than those guns. Speaking of, I hate that instead of putting C4 into the throwable explosives column, its an actual weapon you have to replace 1 of your 4 weapons with. Same with the "terminator knife" which is a knife with electricity that you can use only in stealth killing T-800s. That only makes me question, Why not use that as a melee replacement and switch between that and breaking down barriers with the pipe? Hell, the inventory system is definitely needing improvements just on having to manually select the different types of grenades or medkits/injections every time you run out of one instead of just, oh i dont know- automatically switching to them after you run out like it does anyways when you put both of them into their respective columns.

That being said, I'd had a helluva time with this game by the end. Especially the final level giving you that feeling of triumph with the theme hitting just right with my ass having a shit eating grin when it started playing mowing down T-800s with finesse. That and the infiltrator side mode which lets you play as the infiltrator that was in the bunker killing survivors in T1. What a nice touch. Alongside being able to throw humans into each other with ragdoll physics like in the movies was a nice touch too. And the game teasing me by giving me the .45 longslide and the minigun, actually making regular guns actually useful in combat because you're shooting humans than nearly invulnerable machines. Though its 45 mins total and you only have 1 life like a roguelike, i still had more variety in the combat than i did with the main game where i felt like the only weapons that were worth a damn were red and violet plasma rifles.

Overall, I'm glad to play this game even with those various flaws and all, it may not have a "fuck-you AAA Ray traced, photorealistic nose hairs and pores $250 million" budget, but Teyon has really made something special in spite of everything. If you love terminator, i highly recommend to at least TRY this. Just remember to use the FOV unlocker thing if you're playing on PC. Cant wait to try the annihilation line story DLC and their Robocop game.

Reviewed on Mar 24, 2024


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