Terminator Resistance is a first person shooter, developed by Teyon and published by Reef Entertainment back in 2019. In true Terminator form, they are back. Terminator Resistance Complete Edition has been upgraded for next-gen and comes with two DLC modes, the Annihilation Line campaign mode, and Infiltrator mode.
Set in 2028, before the (future) events of the first film, you take the role of Jacob Rivers. Jacob is a member of the pacific division of the resistance and its lone survivor, now he is searching for other members of the resistance to warn them of the coming of the Annihilation Line, an army of Terminators systematically killing every human they find.
You begin the game running from a Skynet attack force and run into a group of civilian survivors. Once you have reached a safe place the group stops and you are asked to go back out and search for other survivors, your dialogue choices matter and will affect the game as it progresses so be careful what you say. If you choose to search for more survivors, you are given a pistol and head out again with one of the groups members. Here you will encounter your first enemies. Skynet’s forces are not only comprised of Terminators, which is good for you as they are hard to kill, while you on the other hand are not. That is not to say that the spider robots, armoured turret walkers, drones and other units are easy, their weapons will still drop your health quickly if you don’t kill them fast enough or take cover (tip, aim for the ocular lense). You can choose to try to sneak past some of the enemies if you wish, by clicking in the right thumb stick you will activate a type of night vision that will let you see Skynet units through walls and other objects within a short range, if you place the reticule over the unit a box with a few bits of information will appear, its name, weapon etc. There are a few times when keeping out of sight is essential and this mode will come in handy when avoiding patrolling robots.
Combat is standard for a FPS, in the beginning you only have access to normal human weapons and pipe bombs, just as in the lore these are less effective against Skynet’s forces than the plasma weapons you will get your hands on later in the game, but they do the job against the smaller enemies. The plasma rifle that you see Terminators wielding in the future scenes of the films can be used and has the same satisfying sound when fired, and it is also one of the best weapons I found when fighting T-600’s and T-800’s.
To be able to use the more powerful weapons you come across you will need to upgrade your weapon skill (level 3 of 5 allows you to use the plasma weapons), you gain skill points when you level up and can spend them on any of the categories within the progression system, some of the other skills include lock picking, crafting, toughness, hacking and many more. Toughness is one I invested heavily in early in the game to reduce the incoming damage I received, as well as weapons so that I could dish out more damage and use better weapons. Although all the skills are useful, crafting is one I would recommend. You can find crafting tables dotted around the ruins and you don’t have to search far when exploring to find crafting materials, things like metal scraps, pieces of fabric and chemicals can be used to make ammunition, lock picks, health items, bombs and even Terminator knives, the only weapon that will kill a Terminator in one hit (if you can sneak up behind one).
Trade resources will often be found in the same area’s as crafting materials, these will be things like bottles, boxes and containers and they are your currency. You can spend trade resources (yes thats actually what the currency is called) at the Resistance HQ and any safe houses you come across as well as sell any unwanted items. You have a limit to how much you can carry with you, your bag is a grid and the items in it take up differing amounts of squares rather than having weight values. Another of the skills you can upgrade is your bag space, so picking up large weapons to sell is less of a problem as the game goes on.
The story is very much what you would expect from a Terminator game and is predictable in parts, but that doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable. The story does not directly link to the films but it does do a good job of expanding on the post-apocalyptic world we only get flashes of in the films. The soundtrack and effects add to the atmosphere and immersion of being a resistance soldier fighting for the fate of humanity, though it does help if you are a big Terminator fan also.
The Annihilation Line campaign mode takes place after a particular event partway into the main campaign, so it is advisable to play the main story first before attempting this mode. You play once again as Jacob Rivers and team up with none other than Kyle Reese by order of John Connor himself for a mission to rescue survivors who are being held by Skynet. You start off with several skill points to upgrade yourself with, which is handy as the campaign is roughly half the size of the main campaign, otherwise the gameplay of the campaign is no different to the main game, everything works the same. The main difference is the number of T-600 and T-800 units that you will come across, in Annihilation Line they are far from rare and just as tough. Entire squads of Terminators make it difficult to stand in a straight firefight, you have to avoid being noticed or get filled with plasma bolts. I enjoyed this though as to me it gave a sense of the desperate struggle against the machines depicted in the films.
Infiltrator mode, now this was my favourite of the two additions. There is no story to it and cannot be saved, so it needs to be completed in one sitting, it is supposed to take about 45 minutes to complete. As you can guess by the name you play as a T-800 infiltrator with half its skin missing, your mission is to track down and terminate the Tech-Com commander. To find the commander you have to travel all over the map, killing humans along the way, looking for intel on where they might be hiding. When you begin you have no weapons and are standing not far from two humans that have not noticed you, as you walk up to them the game tells you that pressing the Y button allows you to grab people. So I grabbed the first human and used him as a shield against the second before throwing him into his friend, then picking up the gun he dropped and finishing them both off. Terminated. From there you can follow your map or just have a wander around the ruins, it can sometimes feel a bit empty though if you wander as you may miss things like resistance stockpiles, downed Skynet units and guarded resistance hideouts, all of which will be marked on the map for you to investigate. The map has a kind of fog of war feature so you cannot see every target all at once, but as you head to one target it does clear a fair way ahead and reveals one or more other targets.
When the mode starts, your vision is the red Terminator sight that we have seen when looking through the Terminators eyes in the films. You can turn this off by clicking the right thumb stick if you wish but personally I really liked it, and along with the machine sounds you hear when you move it added to the feeling of being a Terminator. Even when you heal yourself (with machine parts instead of medical items) it shows you rerouting power on the screen.
You can get your hands on plasma weapons within minutes of starting the game by picking them up off fallen Terminators you find or sometimes humans you kill, but in this mode it doesn’t really matter what gun you use as you only have fragile humans to face. I still preferred to have a plasma rifle though as to me it completed the experience of being a Terminator, though I did cheat on it with the minigun when I found one for a while.
While you are stalking the ruins and hideout’s you will come across doors that sometimes say breach when you approach them, if you press Y you will burst through the door, triggering a brief slow motion event as you have surprised the humans within, giving you enough time usually to shoot them all before they return to their normal reaction speed. It is such a small feature but it really adds to the idea that you are this killing machine that cannot be stopped.
Overall I enjoyed playing Terminator Resistance Complete Edition. Even though its gameplay doesn’t really stand out as its own thing, where it shines is in the details that help you sink into the future post-apocalyptic world we have only had a glimpse of previously, and make you feel like you are a part of the Terminator lore. I enjoyed the stories for both campaigns and I found the Infiltrator mode to be a great addition, but the soundtrack and effects are for me, the thing that really made it a good Terminator game.
