Firstly, let’s address the elephant in the room, yes Terminator: Resistance is from publisher Reef Entertainment and developer Teyon, the same pairing that was responsible for bringing us the 2013 abomination that is Rambo: The Video Game. Thankfully however, unlike that Rambo game, Terminator: Resistance actually offers something at least to the franchise that it represents and in terms of gameplay, it plays nothing like Rambo, which was an on-the-rails shooter, that oddly had no motion controls, nor was it PlayStation Move compatible. Terminator: Resistance is a free moving, more traditional FPS, which is an improvement in my estimation. So now that we’ve addressed those concerns, let’s talk about the game itself.
Terminator: Resistance is based upon the first two Terminator movies from 1984 and 1991, two of my all-time favourites. The game takes place about 30 years after the Judgement Day when the advanced A.I known as Skynet became self-aware and brought forth its own apocalypse to wipe-out the human race, for which Skynet consider us to be a threat to their existence. You play as Private Jacob Rivers and for reasons currently unknown, Skynet has marked you for termination, however, as a member of a Resistance Division, you will take the fight to Skynet and its army of Terminators and not only will you fight for our very existence, but maybe you might also discover why Skynet considers you to be such a threat and marked for termination.
In terms of gameplay, this is a run of the mill FPS, it doesn’t do anything game changing, but on the flip-side, it doesn’t do anything to poorly either. In all fairness, the FPS combat is competent enough and as a bare minimum, that’s all you can really ask for and that’s fine in my book. However, Teyon have thrown in a crafting system that allows you to create ammo, pipe bombs, lock picks and much more. You’ll be able to craft items from the many items you’ll find scattered throughout the game and then by visiting the designated workbench. Terminator: Resistance also features side-quests given to you by NPC’s and not only will you earn bonus XP to spend on your skill-tree, but you’ll also build up a relationship with these NPC’s and they will react to the choices you make with them, which will ultimately shape one of the multiple endings that you may receive upon finishing the campaign.
Along with the combat and NPC interactions, the game will encourage you to approach certain sections using stealth and in the most part that’s OK and you will need to use it when you first encounter the T-800’s. However, if you get caught, it’s not the end of the world, because if you have the correct weapons, you can shred down almost any enemy, even a T-800 with a trusty plasma rifle, it also helps that enemies have dumb AI, which is quite ironic all things considered. But should you attempt to take on a T-800 with a standard firearm, you will get gunned down with ease. You can also hack technology such as plasma torrents, which is particularly helpful if you are about to be ambushed. So if you see a torrent, if you can, sneak up on it and hack it, because the chances are, its placed there for a reason. You can also hack electronic doors and likewise, lock-pick certain doors, akin to the likes of Fallout.
Speaking of Fallout, quite possibly Terminator: Resistance’s weakest aspect is its visuals. The character animation isn’t great, the world is very grey and brown, the textures are blurry at close inspection and it looks like a last-gen Fallout 3. I know visuals aren’t everything, but for a game to release so close to the end of this console generation, I expect it to at least look better. But then I suppose when Rambo: The Video Game released in 2013, it looked like a last-gen game then and I guess Terminator: Resistance is no different this time around. However, I will say that the cut-scenes look decent and when its presentation is wrapped up in the original movies license, accompanied with the iconic Terminator soundtrack, Resistance’s presentation at least feels like a Terminator game crafted with love and in all fairness, Teyon are not a AAA studio.
All in all, Terminator: Resistance is possibly the best Terminator game ever made, though that isn’t really saying much. Its gameplay is uninspired, the visuals are bland and its dialogue is cheesy, but despite its flaws, you can tell that this game is crafted with love of the franchise and quite surprisingly, it’s still rather enjoyable. There is no chance that this game will ever win any awards or any particular high praise, but it somehow manages to generate a certain level of charm that you can’t buy. If you’re not a fan of the Terminator franchise, I don’t think you’ll find much to appreciate here, but if you love the franchise as I do, there is some fun to be had in Terminator: Resistance, just go in with low expectations and if you can, and hold out for the inevitable sales before purchasing, because in my humble opinion, it’s a game not worthy of its £49.99/$39.99 launch price.