Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance Review – A Bit Much at Times

While AAA strategy games might now be considered a thing of the past, the genre is still thriving when we take a look at the AA and indie space, where we often get an incredibly wide variety of games to play. Along with that, the genre has also hit something of a sneaky renaissance, with several developers trying their hands at employing some experimental game design in their real-time strategy games (like the horror vibes of Alien: Dark Descent).

In a similar vein, we now have another take on the genre with Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, which along with being an interesting take on the real-time strategy genre, also manages to prove that even movie-licensed games might be seeing something of a renaissance. In fact, considering games like Alien: Dark Descent and RoboCop: Rogue City, AA games based on movie properties have managed to thrive. The question, ultimately, is whether Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance also can live up to its contemporaries when it comes to actually being a fun game.

The best way to describe the actual moment-to-moment gameplay of Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance is that it can be a bit much at times. The game prides itself on having an incredible level of realism, and when it comes down to all the different things you have to keep a track of and the logistical nightmare that fighting a never-ending horde of robots becomes, realism is a surprisingly apt word to describe it.

"Speaking of broken down equipment, even the vehicles have several things to track aside from just their ammo."

For context, you’re not just going to throw down some buildings and pump out soldiers to fight in your war. Rather, the campaign will give you a limited set of squads, and sometimes even vehicles, that you will have to work hard to keep alive. As you go about completing various objectives in the campaign’s levels, you’ll also soon start to notice that you actually have to keep track of your squads’ equipment and munitions. Just about every weapon your units are equipped with has a very real chance of running out of ammo, especially if you find yourself engaging with an enemy squad from a disadvantageous position.

There are a number of things to keep a track of in Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance. Just about every squad has several small statistics that you will want to get a hang of. For example, regular rangers don’t seem to ever learn how to drive, so you can’t really have them man a turret or get into a tank to mow down some enemies. Rather, you’ll have to look for units that are specifically trained in driving to be able to do things like that. Similarly, Engineers are not only experts at most vehicles, but they also have a knack for repairing broken down equipment.

Speaking of broken down equipment, even the vehicles have several things to track aside from just their ammo. For instance, they can, and depending on the length of the level, likely will run out of fuel, and it’ll be up to you to find a fuel tanker somewhere on the map and drive it up to your position and start the slow refueling process. Even vehicle health has quite a few layers going for it; enemy fire can take out your weapons—preventing you from firing—or your engines—stopping you dead. While any such damage taken by a vehicle can often be repaired by its driver, you don’t really want to be stuck in the middle of a road as a horde of Skynet’s finest giant robots is marching up to you.

"Just about every squad has several small statistics that you will want to get a hang of."

While all of this minutia you have to keep a track of might sound tedious—and at first, it really is incredibly tedious and overwhelming—it starts getting quite easy to get into the groove of things. On a gameplay level, keeping all of these things in mind lends to some intense moments, and rewards the use of clever tactics and setting up smart ambushes. All of these aspects also lend themselves quite well to really putting you into the shoes of a desperate human trying to survive against a robotic force that wants nothing more than to eradicate your species. Things like having to count your bullets and being worried about the faulty engine in your truck would be real problems in such a situation, and Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance’s use of these mechanics does quite a bit to add on to the desperation all of the human characters in its story are facing.

Speaking of story, the one in Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance isn’t particularly good. The title is one of those cases where the theme of its setting does a lot more to uplift the experience than any actual writing or characterization. Things start off simple enough; after a failed attempt at fighting off Skynet’s forces in Atlanta, the remnants of a group of soldiers bolstered by local police, referred to as the Founders Force, have to retreat, and over time, rebuild. Fast forward to ten years later and you’re put into the shoes of a new commander in the army, tasked with a simple recon mission. But then, as you might expect, things start going horribly wrong.

Aside from its bland characters and predictable story, the fact that Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance already has an established ending owing to the fact that it’s set in the Terminator universe takes quite a bit away from what should otherwise be pivotal and dramatic moments. It’s difficult to care for any of the struggles of the Founders Force because we know they’re going to fail anyway. John Connor isn’t here yet, and even if you take the events of Terminator: Dark Fate into account, there still isn’t enough to latch on to.

"It’s difficult to care for any of the struggles of the Founders Force because we know they’re going to fail anyway."

Despite my misgivings about the story of the campaign, however, I do believe that the campaign itself is an incredibly enjoyable one, despite its difficulty. It’s definitely a challenging experience, and the third mission in particular might catch many players off guard, especially if they aren’t used to how RTS titles typically do the “defend this base against overwhelming odds” style of missions. The difficulty, however, can be changed whenever you want, and when in doubt, lowering it is always an option.

A similar level of difficulty is also present in the game’s multiplayer and skirmish modes, and to see any real success in these game modes, you’ll have to get intimately familiar with the various unit types at the disposal of your chosen faction. Thankfully, the campaign itself does quite a good job in teaching you this kind of stuff, and while you don’t get any hands-on play with Skynet’s forces during the story, you at least get to learn about their strengths and weaknesses by being on the business end of their guns.

Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance is a game that often feels like it’s trying to do just a little bit more than it should. From its emphasis on paying attention to minute details like camouflage levels, bullet counts and engine conditions, to its emphasis on deploying clever tactics and using just about every tool at your disposal, Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance can often be an overwhelming nightmare. Considering its setting, however, the feeling of dread as your demolition unit misses its last attempt at taking down an enemy tank often makes dealing with the game’s complicated systems worth the trouble.

This game was reviewed on PC.