Terminator: Resistance (PS4)
Bethesda’s take on the Fallout series has a very specific flavor to it, one that you rarely see replicated. Those post-apocalyptic first-person shooters have a lot to loot in the devastated wasteland and feature gunplay that is relatively slow and not totally reliant on reflex. While Fallout 3 and the games in the series after it offer a lot of content that can even be experienced in drastically different ways, sometimes you want a specific form of play but don’t wish to wait on the developer to put out something new in that series’s style. In a strange turn of events, a licensed game based on the Terminator franchise turned out to be just the kind of small experience that you can snack on between the big meals of Bethesda’s heavy-hitting role-playing games, even though Terminator: Resistance is far, far humbler in scope.
When it comes to the exact apocalypse this game takes place after, we turn our attention to 1997, when the fictional Skynet defense network became sentient and turned against its human masters, bombing the world and beginning to manufacture robots for the express purpose of wiping out all of humanity. The game itself takes place in 2028 though, the human resistance managing to hang in there even as Skynet continues to innovate in its human extinction campaign. The game immediately establishes how bleak the future is by having you start in Pasadena, California, the famously sunny city now a grey wasteland of scrap that Skynet is sending its Terminator androids into to sweep up. You play as Jacob Rivers, the only man to survive an attack from an all new weapon developed by the robots, a machine that can disguise itself as a human being.
Taken in by a group of scavengers, Jacob sets out to reconnect with an organized resistance against the machines and alert them of this terrifying new development, exploring the wastes of Californian cities to both take down Skynet’s forces and help the people still eking out a living there. Admittedly, the main plot of the game is a bit plain, a linear push to take down the machines that is robbed of most its twists and dramatic impact if you’re even mildly aware of the premise of the Terminator series. Still, the dramatic irony doesn’t weaken characters figuring out about the flesh-and-blood robot we’ve known since 1984, and since the game keeps its attention mostly on its own characters, we don’t know their specific fates in the same way we do for someone like the resistance leader John Connor. The game uses this to interesting effect, as when you chat with some of the main characters like the scavengers who helped you or the tough as nails Commander Jessica Baron, you can impact their ultimate fates. It’s not too hard to go on the right path to the outcome you want so long as you take the chances and the clear dialogue options that show you’re interested in the characters and their lives, and these detailed side stories about the characters and how they’ve handled living in this specific world are the true story-telling highlight of the game. Seeing how characters like the elderly nurse Erin and the young boy Paul handle this dire situation in entirely different ways adds some much-needed texture to the world, although the notes you find in the wasteland and things like the remains of the dead do also establish the setting well during their brief intersections with your adventure.
While the course of events in the game is mostly linear and your influence on them is limited to a few key points, the areas you explore during the game have a good sense of limited openness. The areas aren’t so sprawling that you spend a long time traversing empty ground, but when you’re on your way to an objective, there are often damaged buildings to explore, side paths with goodies, and even areas devoted to sidequests that can be given to you by other characters or discovered organically. Because the scope of the areas devoted to action is appropriately limited, you can usually expect curated enemy encounters in your path, so whether you’re gunning for the main objective, searching a house for a barking puppy, or attacking one of the enemy’s mechanical fortresses, you will have some combat to break up the moments of exploration.
Terminator: Resistance has tapped into the enjoyable scavenging found in games like Fallout as well by littering the remains of human cities with plenty to scrounge up and recycle for some use. Ammo and health are of obvious use, even if ammo is mostly rewarded for killing robots to encourage frequent encounters and smart bullet use, but the many drawers, cabinets, chests, and so on will also contain materials for other purposes. There is a mild crafting system in the game that can let you create not only things like ammo, but hard-to-find items like lockpicks and weapons such as explosives and the Terminator-killing electric knife. Diligent looting will probably overload you with more junk than you can reasonably use, but the game’s currency is called “trade resources”, so popping open a fridge and raiding it of bottles and other valuable junk will let you purchase items when you stop at the safe spots between missions. Money can also became a bit too abundant if you scour the wastes too much, but there’s still some satisfaction in having the areas so full of little diversions on top of the battles and sidequests that provide more substantial play.
The enemies in Terminator: Resistance are often slow-moving robots who rely more on hitting hard when they do land a shot rather than being tough to avoid. They also tend to lean more towards taking plenty of shots to take down, so skirmishes often involve moving around an area to hide behind debris when reloading and poking out to land your shots. When things begin, you mostly face off with foes like large mechanical spiders and flying drones, your assault rifles and shotguns at the start suited for taking down these foes with a bit of a fight. However, the iconic metal humans of the Terminator franchise aren’t bothered by bullets, meaning the early game uses them a lot for stealth sections. Stealth already helps a lot in getting the drop on foes and you can even sneak by and hack a turret in a Frogger-inspired minigame to have it work for you in a fight, but having the Terminators start off menacing really makes them a foe you’re eager to turn the tides on later. The shift from powerless to powerful is a bit too fast, but the enemies can still put up a fight even as you get deeper in. While a level up system determines what perks you can get such as better proficiency with weapons types, more health, and so on, the game does at least keep the strength of your opposition paced well that you won’t really be overpowered even if certain enemy groups go down easy. The bosses and massive robots especially are more resilient to make sure you’re still needing to rely on the same careful approach to combat to succeed.
The weapon offerings mostly involve the expected FPS staples: pistols, sniper rifles, shotguns, and automatics. SMGs and a rocket launcher are also present, but there’s almost a strength curve to the weapons once you start to handle Skynet weaponry yourself, the laser guns often stronger but sometimes having downsides. An automatic laser gun might overheat quickly but doesn’t need reloading if you space the shots properly, and the laser sniper rifle will turn everything red, hurting general viewability despite highlighting enemy shapes well. This is quite similar to an option you usually have though to single out targets, the game allowing you to activate a special lens that turns the world green but will help you locate enemies, a vital tool if you want to be stealthy or are worried about something like the well-hidden Silverfish enemies that are used like living mines. Throwable explosives and other options exist as well, and the power curve actually leads to trying out new tools as the game progresses so settling into a single set of equipment isn’t a concern. However, there is a rather pointless weapon customization feature for laser weapons. It’s mildly complicated despite having a very small impact on how well the weapons work, and its one of the points where Terminator: Resistance feels like the budget title it technically is.
While the environments are good for looting and action, the world of Terminator: Resistance is held back by graphical concessions. When characters talk their models often look rather cheap, and the dogs found in the game brazenly show off their lower polygon count. It doesn’t look jarring, but it certainly feels like you’re looking at something from the PlayStation 2 instead of PlayStation 4 at times, which is a shame when other elements like the world design and character stories work to immerse you into this setting. The developer certainly had their priorities right though, focusing on an enjoyable gameplay loop and the right touches to make sure the game is enjoyable mechanically and has interesting people to meet, it’s just very easy to find the points in its design where things would have been greatly improved with a higher budget and longer game experience.
THE VERDICT: Terminator: Resistance is like a diet Fallout 3. The Terminator franchise’s dark future is a more limited wasteland than its inspiration, but it hits many of the same notes that make that game great. Terminator: Resistance’s locations have plenty to find both in regards to loot and quests, the characters you meet are fleshed out pretty well and do wonders for the world-building, and the gun combat never settles into one style for too long, new enemies and weapons rolled out at a good pace to avoid stagnation. It’s not going to set the world on fire thanks to the necessary restrictions in this budget title’s design like a short and somewhat basic main plot, inconsistent visuals, and weak elements like gun customization, but it hits the right notes to ensure it’s still a fun first person shooter that does what it can with what it’s able to put together.
And so, I give Terminator: Resistance for PlayStation 4…
A GOOD rating. I’ve said it before, but if you’re going to make a licensed game and either don’t have the budget or manpower to make something truly great with it, one of the best methods to still turn out good is to transplant the franchise into an effective gameplay style we already know people like. Fallout’s post-apocalyptic survival shooting style is easily turned into a Terminator game with a bit of elbow grease, and thankfully, the game isn’t completely a bare-faced style stealer. It wants to develop the world of this bad future and it uses character conversations to do so, it makes its wasteland truly dreary, and it fills the area with remnants of what once was that are a good fit for nailing in the threat of Skynet while providing loot to keep you active and exploring. The action evolves at a good pace so new weapons are frequently added, your perks unlock at a nice rate, and new robots enter the fight that mean even the new stuff you’re equipped with won’t invalidate the threat foes pose. Location and conflict variety with optional interesting content keep this otherwise straightforward plot interesting, and a lot of the bosses and foes fill their roles fairly well.
If Terminator: Resistance had been given a bigger budget, it could have smoothed out the jagged polygons, added more to the main story thread, and made attempts at more robust customization like the weapon modifications into a meaningful addition to the game, but the important parts are solid where it counts. It’s a plucky little licensed game that wants to have the same depth as the bigger games but makes the allowances it needs to in order to avoid overburdening itself or stumbling over things it can’t pull off. It may not be unique due to its origins, but it’s a still a fun blend of a preestablished gameplay style and a franchise that fits that formula well.