That’s not really the same. Large proportions, including several iconic sequences, of the original trilogy are set in space battles/missions that the X-Wing games are very deliberately apeing.
The future scenes in most Terminator movies (to be fair, I haven’t watched any after 3), and TSCC for that matter, are very short flash forwards. The movies are about infiltrators, not war fighters.
I’m not saying this game doesn’t capture the Terminator atmosphere, by the way. Just saying that if I were trying to evoke it, my go-to would not be the future war.
Parts of them are, are many people in the fanbase - myself included - have wanted a Future War movie - or game - for decades.
I tried playing Future Shock and Skynet, but those are way too much products of their time - I could not get immersed in them anymore, the age took too much of its toll.
I watched about an hour of gameplay video and these are my impressions:
There’s a lot to like about this game. There’s an RPG lite skill tree, there’s weapon modding/enhancements, NPC dialogues that can change outcomes, side quests that pop up while you are out, varied enemy types, varied missions and the story looks interesting. There’s also lockpicking (looks just like Fallout 3/4) and a hacking minigame.
On the con side, as even those who like the game note, the enemy AI is dumb as rocks. I watched a guy get surprised by a terminator who walked across a doorway so that he shot too late and the shot went behind the enemy, who continued on his walk like nothing happened. In additiion, you can stand and trade shots with many enemies which you really shouldn’t be able to do. Another the enemies should all be networked so that if one is destroyed or sees you, all the other in the area should come running but they don’t. The game looks fairly easy and I’m not the best FPS player out there. The graphics aren’t top notch either but tolerable.
All in all, I’ll definitely pick this up, but only when it goes on sale. The game play is too short, 8 to 10 hours for me. But despite it’s flaws it looks fun. After almost 1,000 reviews, it’s still sitting at 91% on Steam.
Actually one was :) But regardless, we’ve seen bit and pieces of that future and many fans would love to see a good movie and good game set in that era. That time period essentially set the stage for what we see in the most of the movies so it plays an important role.
Doing a FPS-type movie set in the current-day Terminator movie settings would be harder than doing this sort of future war stuff I think. You’d have to have environments that were faithful to contemporary LA, for example, and have the robots and the shooting and all of that. Much easier to have a wasteland and the license to make environments that don’t have to live up to reality.
So I bought the game at 25% off, along with a $5 Steam Holiday coupon, which is a fair price for me. I wouldn’t pay $40 but hit the sweet spot for me. My Steam review is as follows:
This is a fun game, one that is greater than the sum of it’s parts. It’s got a lot of RPG lite elements - simple crafting. simple skill tree, some simple dialogue trees, collecting loot, couple of lockpicking and hacking minigames, simple weapon upgrades, etc. And graphics are not AAA by any means and the AI of the terminators isn’t all that great. None of it, in and of itself is great, but it gets the job done.
Where the game really shines is the environment and music - they really capture what the movies have only hinted at - the gritty fight for survival of humans against Skynet in the bombed out ruins of America’s cities. The sound effects and music are great and really capture that feel from the movies. And the game is relatively short, I expect it will be around 15 to 20 hours for me because I like to explore and there’s lots of stuff to be found if you take your time. There’s also a nice variety of mission types, from scouting to being ambushed to hunting for supplies, etc. All that said, despite the game’s limitations, it’s jus plain fun, and that’s what really matters. If you’re not a fan of the Terminator universe, you probably won’t be able to overlook the limitations but if you are a fan, this is a very fun game, and you should probably add it to your collection.
Thanks for the review! I am looking forward to playing this out since Terminator is near and dear to my early teenage years. Still remember watching it over and over with friends on VCR.
I am 14 hours deep, doing all sidequests and enjoying it. It has flaws, mostly stemming from low budget and low experience of the devs, but it is undeniable that they love the first two films and do their best to punch above their weight. So it is surprisingly ambitious. Some screenies:
And finished! Just in time for christmas dinner. It is the 400th game that I finished. And I gotta say, I loved it. The ending gave me The Feels. What a wonderful palette cleanser after Dark Fate.
Getting close to finishing. I really wish someone would make a AAA version of this game. There are a lot of good ideas in this game, and it would be nice to see AAA polish and gameplay to flesh the game out even more so. Maybe it will do well enough for a sequel with a bigger budget.
Does anyone know how to use a sticky bomb? I put one in my #4 weapon slot but I can’t stick anything to a wall. What ends up in my hand is a detonator. So I do I stick the bomb to something?
Laser tripwire bombs work nice when you lure terminators into them though.
Sorry, I do not think I ever used it. That is one of the game’s issues, unfortunately the economy is so unbalanced that I just didn’t ever have to use some of the tools I had (e.g. I also never used slow-mo or the other injections.).
Yeah, I’m level 26 and I have over 2,000 plasma rounds (after selling off 400!). Definitely not balanced. But I got answer elsewhere - RMB to throw, LMB to detonate. It’s pretty cool, I just used a couple to take out two T-800’s and 2 small spiderbots.
Like you said, I don’t need to but it is fun just trying out different tactics. I think at the highest difficulty level stealth and explosives might be more important as I suspect enemies are bullet sponges at that point. Use bombs to weaken them, then use gun fire to kill any survivors.
Damn, I am in downtown LA at night and it is utterly creepy. Between the sounds, music and dead people and burned out vehicles, it’s just crazy creepy. Great atmosphere.
Heh, I enjoyed watching you play last time. If you do start playing again, be sure to be very diligent in searching. You can find free weapons before they become available in the store. I found a plasma sniper rifle, scoped level 1 plasma rifle and a missile launcher that way. There are tons of stuff laying around if you take your time and look for it but some don’t care for that - YMMV - but I enjoy hunting for stuff.
