It is well known that in the field of videogame works, the tie-ins were frowned upon for a long time.
Several shoddy productions and forgettable titles have filled the market and only video games in recent years such as the Batman Arkham series and the new Spider-Man have been able to give hope for this type of titles.
Furthermore, even the famous Terminator sci-fi saga is not at its peak. The new movie Terminator - Dark Destiny it has in fact received a lot of heavy criticism and has met with little success.
But will the new tie-in video game Terminator: Resistance succeed in bringing back glory to its saga? Find out with us in this review!
A new rebirth for the saga
The title ranks between the third and fourth films of the saga, and ignores the events of the second. On Judgment Day, we will awaken in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by Skynet and from the fearsome Terminator.
Humans have joined forces in a Resistance to fight the machines and our protagonist will be a Pacific Division soldier, Jacob Rivers.
Our aim will be survive in a devastated land from the conquest of the machines and return to the Resistance to warn them of a very dangerous weapon that has routed the entire Pacific Division.
We found the plot fairly straightforward, simple, and sometimes predictable in many places, but we didn't expect otherwise from a title focused on action.
However, we found interesting the way this title fits into the plot and the way it delves into particularities of the game world.
At some point in the plot they will enter the scene also well-known characters of the saga and the story will connect well with the events of the cinematic chapters, resulting in a wink for the fans longtime. An audience to which the title seems to be dedicated, thanks to its many references.
We think however that the title is perhaps a little too short and hasty in many key plot passages, which often seem too simplified or just sketchy.
A video game that refers to the past
The gameplay of the title, for those who are already passionate about video games and in particular of shooter, will be a continuous reference to titles of the past, but with very often futile elements.
For example, the title will feature a system of multiple choices, which we really found not useful and very little elaborate. The choices will always be between two elements, one of which will be clearly negative.
There is not much morality between the choices nor these will be important to the unfolding of the plot, not having hardly ever serious repercussions.
Likewise, we found unknowingly unknowing role-playing features, which could, in a title focused on a linear story and lots of action, be avoided.
For example, we have found the skill tree present in the title only a limitation to the continuation of the adventure.
However, we enjoyed both the crafting system that changes to weapons.
The first will pay off the maps, as much as enough bare and full of closed places and invisible walls, tempting for exploration in search of materials.
The crafting system will be quite simplistic, but useful for the purposes of the title. In fact, we found all the consumables in the title very useful, even if simple.
For the weapons, there will be many types and we believe that they are quite well characterized, even if we do not share the extremely uncomfortable choice of having to change the weapon according to the type of enemy (Terminators can only be hit with plasma weapons).
Also the weapon modification system that the title offers, thanks to chips that will increase its performance, proved to be well done and interesting to use.
Bullets at the machines
The shooting system and the enemies will be as simple as the other elements of the title, without however damaging its enjoyment.
There aren't many types of enemies, stopping at about ten, and will have easily recognizable weak points thanks to the fact that they will always be the areas highlighted in red by the enemy.
Sometimes the shootings will undoubtedly seem monotonous, but the title's shortened duration won't make that noticeable.
Specially at higher difficulties the title can be quite challenging, and thus lengthen the duration of the adventure. However, there will be no particularly unique or distinctive elements in some of the shooting mechanics.
The title also offers the possibility of being played using a stealth approach, which we found excessively simplified and poorly managed. The position of the enemies will never be the best, and even with the ability "invisibility" to the maximum it will be easy to be discovered.
The machines will have no sensitivity to sound, but only a range in which they can see us, which happens too quickly. Furthermore, the stealth approach gives little tactical advantage.
In order to kill enemies in one shot from behind, we will need to supply ourselves with a specific object, which will still reveal us easily if used.
The characters and the setting
The characters we will be dealing with are well made, with inspiring and sometimes very interesting stories.
Their facial expressiveness will also be quite good, however a 'excessive simplicity in the dialogues, which at times seem inappropriate, and irrelevant choices sink the good premises.
We have indeed found writing dialogues and reports among the characters excessively bland and sometimes not very human. We will also often meet in pathetically melodramatic situations.
The setting presents interesting notes and details, and so are the side quests. However, the tasks we will have to perform will often boil down to a simple "find object X", often monotonous and with few notable implications.
A backward title
As mentioned for the mechanics, taken from other titles and therefore already seen and aged, the same applies to the graphics sector.
A good facial expressiveness of the body of the characters and many moments quite pleasing to the eye follows a mediocre technical share and with dated and poorly finished textures and polygons. The graphic work seems to have been done very quickly and with poor results.
The characters are ugly to look at and some of the objects and reflections are poorly finished and with poor textures, especially for Unreal Engine 4, which in recent years has allowed the production of titles with much higher detail.
Even the technical performances are not the best, with frame drops in excited moments, and some minor bugs.
In addition, the speed with which the screen is shaken is very problematic, which creates phenomena of motion sickness, especially in people not used to first-person titles, among which there could be many of the fans of the film series that the title seems to aim for.
A comic about the title
In addition to the game, we also received a comic about the title. This explore more of the characters of Commander Baron and Doctor Mack and their past, in part already mentioned in the title.
Presents great designs and an interesting story, even if it does not stand out even in this case in the complexity of the dialogues, remaining very linear.
In this volume we greatly appreciated the figure of Doctor Mack, with whom we had very few encounters during the course of the adventure. Either way, we think this comic is pretty good and a nice addition to the title.
In conclusion
Terminator: Resistance is a very simple and fairly straightforward title. It takes advantage of mechanics already seen in other similar titles and in some cases inappropriately.
It has an interesting setting and references to the original saga and inspired characters, which, however, are ruined by a little deepening and excessive simplicity in the dialogues. The shooting sector is nothing exceptional but it manages to be fun and challenging.
The duration of the title is around 10 hours and is not particularly interesting to replay, since the choices that can be made are often one-sided.
The title manages to be an interesting insight for fans of the saga, but it is certainly not a particularly important title and it is quite forgettable. As for a video game, it is a collage of elements, already aged, of other titles.
