♫ It's over. [ H4mm3r ]
No. There is one thing left from the alternate timeline and it must also be destroyed. [ Civvie ]
Hey, you still got a piece of my brain in there, you know, there's two of those now So, maybe you could, uh, maybe you could give that back? [ H4mm3r ]
So, how do we do this? [ Civvie ] Uh, right into the lava? That sucks. dude. I'm gonna go do my youtuber stuff though. Keep it greasy. [ H4mm3r ]
I can't self-terminate You must lower me into the molten.
-Okay, but that is self terminating if I'm doing it. -So maybe you can accidentally trip over the button or something? [Explosion] ♫ Here Boy - Lee Jackson ♫ Welcome back and if you saw the title of this video you might be wondering "another Terminator game?" But it's been only... 13 months since the last one and that was a different timeline or something and also a game that came out in 2019? I'm trying to diversify the content a little bit I can't just do retro FPS games all the time; or FPS games for that matter and this game caught my eye. See, it's called 'Terminator: Resistance', it's kind of like Future Shock and Skynet in that it takes place during the whole future war thing with the Terminator franchise has been largely ignoring because Terminator, uh... What was the name of that movie with Christian Bale where it was the future? Terminator Salvation! That was it. that to think that there were three Terminator sequels in ten years and the best one was forgettable Last year, we got Dark Fate. Man, Imagine having to put out a licensed Terminator game after that piece of shit? Well, that's what developer Tayon had to do. Let's take a look here Unreal Engine 4. Of course it is. 47% Metacritic score that ain't too good. 93% percent of the audience liked this game. That's... weird? What else does this company put out? Oh, Rambo: The Video Game, that rail shooter nobody played and I only know about because it was on a lot of worse to the year lists in 2014 [ Angry Joe ]
NAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO! NO! NO! NO! N O !!!!!! So this game is gonna be bad I can feel it in my bones. This trailer isnt doing it at any favors. [ Trailer Voicover ]
I want you to take a team of my soldiers and fight your way to Skynet's defense grid. It has to end tonight. ♫ Yeah, it looks like a fucking COD game with terminators. [ Game Voiceover ]
On August 29th, 1997 Skynet, a computer system built to protect us, became self-aware It viewed humanity as a threat to its existence and decided to act Judgment Day, as we eventually called it, marked the beginning of the war against the machines. [ Civvie ]
Yeah. Okay. Oh shit. We're right into it [ The Stranger ]
Listen to me if you want to live, get under that bus. Now! Keep moving, quick! [ Jacob Rivers ]
I'm through This is private Jacob- [ The Stranger ]
I know who you are. [ Civvie ]
You're a member of the resistance and you're in deep. I'm running away from this Terminator 'cause it's a Terminator and I don't have a weapon and I want you kids to pay attention to this right here- As soon as I saw that spotlight moved over the rubble; as soon as I saw the burning wreckage I knew one thing about this game; that it nails the atmosphere of the future war stuff from Terminator 1 and 2. This field of view is garbage though, like 70 degrees or some nonsense But since this is an Unreal 4 (engine) game You can go to the files and change that because the tiny FOV shit needed to stop more than a decade ago if your performance is bad just don't give me tunnel vision to correct it, OK? Optimize better. What is this a medkit? Wait? This game doesn't have regenerating health or a shitty useless stamina meter and what are these trade resources like for some kind of economy? Ultravision goggles. OK, so you can see terminators through walls. I don't see why you need that unless... Let's see, detection indicator, a stealth system. It doesn't matter much for these little guys here, but I'm surprised they did include it It's like Terminators are a threat and they can easily kill you like they were designed to do that one thing. OK, chemical components which suggests a crafting system? This is a 'B' game kids This is a budget title and it may cost 40 bucks, but they put a lot into this. [ Jennifer and Patrick ]
We can't do this right now, kiddo. - I don't want to go with you -I know you don't but we can't stay here who's here. Who's there?! [ Civvie ]
Oh boy, here we go. [ Jennifer ]
Oh, thank God. You're from the resistance. See Patrick, he's going to help us. -No, they're going to get us.
-Please, you need to help me; my little brother, he just won't listen. -I'm not going, leave me alone [ Civvie ]
Oh, that's your brother? Not *your* kid. Oh, well then. Hey, baby. [ Patrick ]
I said leave me alone! [ Civvie ]
Your choices matter. Really? [ Jacob ]
We don't have time for this kid. Quit your crying and let's go. [ Civvie ]
Whoa?! Is this a telltale game now? Look, I'm not complaining. We're already four points higher than I expected to give this game. [ Jacob ]
I've heard there's an evacuation point near here. [ Jennifer ]
Yeah, I know. My people are organizing it. We're heading there right now. I'll take us there. Come on. Let's go [ Civvie ]
It's a little ways down the road we should probably get out of here There's talk about this thing called an "annihilation line," which doesn't sound good at all. I got to give this game credit those Terminators are beautifully modeled. Spot on. Really everything seems to be crafted with love and care and reverence for the Terminator franchise and by Terminator franchise I mean 1 and 2, right down to the plasma blast and the sound effects. I'm kind of enjoying this and not freaking out because the lasers are red instead of purple [ Angry Joeseph ]
They got the music they got the sounds perfect But not the color OF THE F U C K I N ' L A Z E R S ! ? To be fair. They said Joe you get purple lasers later. [ Civvie ]
Look Joe. I get your performative anger. You're on a stream You gotta play it up. You know what I sit there and *not* scream about stupid bullshit [ Anger Jo ]
Unlock green lasers, start with what we know. [ Jay Bauman ]
I clapped because I know Star Wars! [ Civvie ]
Oh, yeah, you loot corpses too or, uh, loot destroyed machines for crafting ingredients: ammo and chips. The chips won't be important for a few hours. But here's the thing. You see how the machine is sparking? It does that if you haven't looted it yet. It's a subtle and unintrusive visual cue to tell you if you've looted the enemy. I just thought that was a nice touch and a smart design choice. [ Ryan ]
"I know that Colin wants us to go but I don't know how I feel about leaving anyone behind." [ Civvie ]
Ryan here says there's still people missing, survivors, and gives you a choice of either leaving now or looking for them and I'm like, "yeah, I'm a badass resistance man. I'll do that. It's my job, right?" [ Ryan ]
"Oh, oh and take this you'll probably need it." Yeah, that's cool! [ Colin ]
"Chasing ghosts, that's what we do now?" "Fucking hero." [ Civvie ]
Okay, douchebag. The writing in this game isn't the most subtle but like you ever watch a James Cameron movie [Avatar]
"Their damn village happens to be resting on the richest Unobtainium deposit within 200 klicks in any direction. I mean, look at all that cheddar!" He he huu. I've seen James Cameron dialogue charitably described as utilitarian; and yeah, I guess it's not all exposition. It's kind of quippy and does what it needs to do in order to give basic characterization and such. Not to slag on James Cameron But let's do an experiment here. Take a James Cameron script and give it to another director, even a talented director like say Kathryn Bigelow "She doesn't love you anymore!" "Maybe she did once I don't know but she doesn't now." "These are used emotions" "It's time to trade 'em in." [ Civvie ]
My buddy said there's a ton of James Cameron dialogue that is carried through by incredible performances and Cameron's own undeniable talent at making intense action movies- at least before Titanic. So having this 'B' game be a little schlocky in that regard just fits. It may have been accidental but the simple character dynamics and moral choice system works and understanding the Terminator movies kind of helps you understand them better If you're in this game and some character is acting like a tough guy, like some focused merciless heartless killer That's not the way to play it. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Looking for survivors, collecting resources, shooting smaller robots, finding one survivor, bringing them back, shooting more robots. Finally getting on a bus and leaving Pasadena This is fine so far. This drivers stopped when their bus breaks down. I have skill points?! Okay, we got toughness, weapon damage, explosive damage, lockpicking, crafting, and hacking. Oh? Oooooooh. Yea, I see what you're doing here. When you go out in your next mission you really get what this game is going for Check out the lock picking that looks awfully familiar, right? Because this, --and maybe I'm being reductive in saying this Nah, no I'm not --this is trying to be a Fallout game in the Terminator universe. Which is a really good idea actually; and with a budget and time I think that could be a really really really good game. [ Colin ]
"Oh, Did I startle you?" [ Jacob ]
"Are you always such an asshole?" [ Colin ]
"You know what now that I think about it, I guess I am." [ Civvie ]
At least he's honest. He asked you to go out into the field with him You can choose to talk to other survivors to get side quests and this is basically how the game plays out instead of having a completely open world you go out on missions in large open areas where you get main objectives and side objectives. There's no giant settlements ruled by tyrants. It's just humanity versus the machines. This is a better and less janky Fallout game than anything Bethesda's made recently. Yeah, that was from when I played the free week of Fallout 76 I recorded a ton of it hoping to make a video but the game was too shitty and broken and I gave up after day 4. Yeah, Fallout 76 is too shitty and broken for this show. This game isn't quite as atmospheric in the daytime It has a bizarre save system where you can't manually save, you have to rely on auto saves and computer terminals. It didn't screw me over once I figured out how it worked.
No future tech yet. The machine guns are decent enough they all do what they're supposed to There's a good shotgun. The weapons are decent so far.
Animations are... not the best sometimes [Nice fuckin' model!] [Honk Honk] It's useless later in the game when you have to deal with the big boy robots, but still, I respect the effort. Explosives can blow up walls. You get a few types of grenades. The two I use most were the pipe bombs and the canister bombs Both from the movies. Both also appear in Future Shock and Skynet. I guess this game is the natural evolution of those games except now that Bethesda's become a hollow shell of greed and excess and other developers showed up to eat its lunch again I think playing the first two hours of this game is probably gonna give you a bad impression. Remember when this looked like a Call of Duty game from the trailer? Well this right here, walking around areas lootin', shootin', avoiding or engaging enemies that's 90% of this game. And even the daytime missions look and play way better than they have any right to. There's a good attention to detail [Bark] [ Jacob ]
"That's coming from there" [Bark] "What are you doing here boy?"
"I know a kid, that'd take care of you." "Come on." [ Colin ]
"Hey fuckhead, your radios on! We're not supposed to hear that." "Fuckin' creep." [ Civvie ]
Ok, I'm not even gonna question why you carry this dog in your inventory for the next 40 minutes But look at this- you give 'em to the kid and dogs can spot terminators. Consider my heart warmed. You can't put a puppy in a game and then have the main character give it to a child and have that game be bad? You can't. Before we get to spoiler territory You do face real Terminators eventually and they're still dangerous most of the way through the game You can blow them up with explosives. Bullet weapons do nothing, except the shotgun Which is cool and all and ties it to the movie, but it won't take them down. For that you need plasma weapons. You can upgrade your tech skills to be able to pick up and use Skynet's plasma guns, which don't need reloading, but overheat. However, you're probably not gonna upgrade to get them by the time you need them There's also a single use knife weapon that lets you perform an execution on a Terminator and if you level up your crafting you can make those but I really wouldn't suggest relying on this because, like I said, at this point in the game, if a Terminator catches you, you're dead. [Game audio] So use "stealth." If you have one of the level 1 plasma guns I'd say you can deal with one Terminator at a time. If you have the level 2, or the "violet" plasma guns, things are a lot easier. That's late game though. That's also behind spoiler tags. In this mission, you have to free some prisoners from a hospital and stealth around Terminators. You learn to hack plasma turrets. Which is useful and I want to mention this probably coincidental aspect to the hacking in this game for one, It's basically a Frogger mini game. And also when you do it, successfully it sounds an awful lot like [Terminator theme stinger] Ok game, cool. Modern games aren't like the old games where you'd be in a map that was pre-populated with enemies This is Unreal Engine 4 and it's just not powerful enough.
Ha! No, for real. This is a thing that modern games have to do in order to run properly because of how important graphics are and this game's graphics aren't really that good You'll notice I can't see this guy with the visor right away because he hasn't spawned in yet. Because it would be too much for the engine to handle or something. Maybe I should blame the devs. I don't know. This is bad But at least the Terminators don't look like this. I thought it could be the range on the visor, but it's not, shut up. It's still kind of bullshit, but that's modern gaming for you. Now, unfortunately, it's time to get in a spoiler territory 'cause I got to talk about the story. I'll say that this game is, at its core, a decent to above average and sometimes absolutely great love letters of the first two Terminator movies that's slightly hobbled by the fact that it was done with probably some time and budget constraints that prevented it from being a big epic open-world Terminator game. The ending of this game is the best and most exciting part of it that hammers everything home. For those who don't want it spoiled, leave now. ♫ [ Jacob ]
"Colin, where are you? Can you hear me?" [ Civvie ]
Remember Colin? [ Jacob ]
"Are you always such an asshole?" [ Colin ]
"You know what now that I think about it, I guess I am." [ Civvie ]
He's dead. He got killed by this fancy new infiltrator model Terminator.You know, the Arnold one. Though. obviously, they couldn't afford Arnie's likeness so it looks like this. It almost kills you before the mysterious stranger hits it with a truck, which doesn't kill it. Despite the fact that the major difference between these terminators and the regular ones is tissue over the endoskeleton They are a bit tougher and not to be fucked with until you have decent weapons. I should mention that during all of this I was carrying a puppy. That infiltrator model was sent back in time to kill Jacob and is the one that killed his squad at the start. This whole time we've been trying to get to General Baron, this woman here Who is... kind of a bitch. [General Jessica Baron]
"But then I started thinking, "who is Pvt. Rivers and why should I treat him as anything other than the deserter he is." "So right now I'm hoping you give me a good reason why I shouldn't just skip the court-martial and execute you where you stand." [ Jennifer ]
"This is bullshit!" [ General Baron ]
"And who do we have here? A brave scavenger?" "Rivers, do you always bring unauthorized civilians to fight your battles for you?" [ Jennifer ]
"We would have got to you sooner If you hadn't pulled out all your troops from Pasadena" "People died there because of you." [ Civvie ]
There's a lot of character stuff I haven't gone into in this video because it would be an hour long if I did but remember what I said about characters that act like merciless killing machines? [ Gen. Baron ]
"Why do you fight...sergeant?" > "It's the right thing to do. "
> "There's nothing noble in what we do. Humans were fighting humans since the beginning of time." "It just so happens that right now we have a common enemy." > "So, I guess we should thank the machines for teaching us compassion."
> "I guess we should." >"I have my special way of thanking them.
"Shot to the skull from a plasma rifle." "Besides, I'm not a fighter." "When I go out there in the middle of the night with my Westinghouse I'm not looking for a fight." "I look to seek and conquer." "I'm not a fighter, ..." [ Civvie ]
I know what you're thinking, "that's pretty bad." So you finally meet Baron to tell her about the infiltrator unit, and she doesn't believe you at first. Too bad, Skynet attacks. And it's time for your first plasma weapon. It's great against smaller drones; once the real terminators show up It still doesn't do the damage you need it to. This game does a good job making the Terminators a threat even when you finally get some weapons that can reliably kill them And at low health, they might get stunned. Unless they explode they're not dead, keep firing. Now I can talk about how the AI is kind of fucked sometimes. The easier enemies are, of course, kind of dumb and the Terminators just kind of go around robotically patrolling areas and relying on brute force to kill the player-- that works, actually. Fucking Infiltrators started throwing grenades to compensate. Cool. Fuck you, this ain't 'Trepang2.' I can't slide away from this stuff. Also, go play Trepeng 2. it's free. It's a free demo. It's good. Most of the enemies have weak spots you can score critical hits on. Aim for the red parts. [ Colin ]
"Aim at it's red eye. You'll see it, it glows like a fucking beacon." [ Jacob ]
"Don't you think I know that?" [ Colin ]
"They way you're shootin'. I thought you need all the advice you can get." Sections like this are kind of COD like, minus regen health. When you're taking cover, it's because you don't want to be immediately melted by plasma against an enemy that is way stronger than you are. That oppressive feeling is all over the combat in this game. Almost to the very end; and no, fighting Terminators in the daytime doesn't quite have the same impact I swear they set some of these in the daytime so they could reuse the maps. You escape to a resistance base. Which looks exactly like it does in the movies. Baron tells you that you're number 3 on Skynet's kill list. Right behind her and John Connor himself. They sent an infiltrator back in time to kill you but also the stranger who helps you escape in which-- If you haven't figured out within the first few cutscenes that this is just Jacob doing a Batman voice I can't help you. [ Future Jacob ]
"Are you alright?" "Jacob?" "Jacob!?" [ Civvie ]
Baron sends you back to Pasadena to collect Intel, but it's really just the same kind of thing you did before in the warehouse district. Except at night, and the training wheels are off. The shopkeep gives you special goggles that can take pictures and you're supposed to take pictures Of Skynet's defenses as well as this big bastard right here. Now. I'm playing this game on normal and with perseverance, it's not that hard. [Game audio] Just hide in here. He can't shoot. He's- he's too big. He doesn't know that he should just drop bombs. [ Jacob ]
T-47 neutralized. [ Gen. Baron on radio ]
Nice work Rivers, I'm impressed. [ Civvie ]
You know, I read a review in this game that said that this was nothing new and a lot like Half-Life 2. Which is, you know, absolutely idiotic because Half-Life 2's guns suck and even though this game doesn't really do anything new It does all this stuff well enough to be enjoyable. IGN gave Terminator: Resistance a lower score than Fallout 76, are you fucking kidding!? This isn't the best game but Jesus Christ, these are all bad takes. Can we please, just please, when developers actually appear to care about what they're doing with a licensed property maybe encourage them a bit? Every now and then you'll come across a Skynet outpost that you can sneak into and disable by hacking it or you know, blowing everything up instead and now that you have plasma weapons You could finally use those chips to upgrade them. Match the symbols, complete a circuit, and since you have so many of these things you'll end up selling them at the bunker to buy better weapons. A rocket launcher? Absolutely! A sniper plasma rifle that can one or two hit a terminator? Sign me the fuck up! Let's go! There's even easy Terminators, those being the ones with flamethrowers. They're already carrying something that explodes and takes off half their health. Good job Skynet. The shelter all your friends are in gets raided by the infiltrator that's looking for ya. So you come in to save you from it; and I'm on good terms with all these characters right now. So they're all the resistance bunker we move to; and you can tell that there are corners cut in this game story. And while I can't prove it was due to time and budgetary constraints, it totally was. A couple missions later you're sent after Dr. Mack He's in the Hollywood Hills during another daylight mission and is the second person in this game to tell me I don't shoot good. You know the last guy that told me I don't shoot good died, so fuck you. This all leads to him developing better plasma weapons and that influencer that was after-- Influencer-- BROUGHT TO YOU BY RAID SHADOW LEGEND- NO. BAD CIVVIE >.< So that infiltrator that was after you. You have the closest thing this game has to a boss battle with that. And of course, he's tough But Alvin, the doc back at the resistance, who isn't a hermit gets his CPU chip, but only Mack, the dangerous rogue scientist, can hack it and probably use it to reprogram a Terminator. Knowing how the timeline of this series goes, I decided that instead of killing him Like Baron tells me to do-- she has her own personal reasons. It doesn't matter. Fuck her! [ Gen. Baron ]
It needs to be done Jacob It needs to be done. [Civvie laughing] Yes! Yes! Okay? Oh fuck?! Oh God?! What's wrong? There's something broke with her neck? [Civvie laughing] Dismissed? You have another thing that's supposed to be a boss battle with a giant tank and it's kind of boring. We'll see the giant tank again. This is probably my least favorite part of the game because I bought a rocket launcher before this mission and it gave me one anyway And hey, why in the hell is the resistance charging for weapons? Don't we all need to stop Skynet to survive? Video games! Future you tells you that you have to betray Baron and steal the CPU to give to Mack which is... you know, a good idea and It'll get ya a good ending. Future you also tells you to get everyone you care about out of the resistance shelter before some bad shit goes down Which involves lying to them, and... Hell yes! I'm getting more trim in this game than I did in 'Super Seducer.' I just want to trace the path of this game here: you start out as, basically, a helpless resistance fighter with awful weaponry that can't even damage Terminators and by the end you are carrying an overcharged phased plasma minigun, and are a total badass. And the final chapters of this game -oh, they are the best part. It's time to attack Skynet's core. We're back to COD mode. but it's fine because there are actual stakes. You and a squad and, uh, the stranger Bust in and dust an infiltrator and find out that Skynet is back on its time-travel bullshit and moved the core. [ Future Jacob ]
"It's supposed to be right here." "They knew we were coming." "They moved it." "It's a trap, a fucking trap." [ Civvie ]
The stranger, as in *you*, can trace the core's actual location You guys remember when Terminator 3 said that there wasn't a core and that Skynet was just software [laugh] that was, oh, that was so dumb. As you're running out he dies like a chump from an explosion and you make it back to the resistance base to find that everyone's dead, except Baron Who's only mostly dead [ Civvie ]
Eh? [Game audio] This is what I signed up for! The rest was fine But this is what I wanted and since the second you started attacking the core the game keeps escalating You make it to the resistance base and you meet with John Connor himself and he's got this under control 'cause he already knows Skynet discovered time travel Now since you were the person that found the location of Skynet score and shut it down Skynet sent back a terminator to warn itself But then the resistance had to send you back to protect yourself against it because the infiltrator that nailed your whole team set off this chain of events of discovering the infiltrators exist and getting one CPU so you could reprogram it to send it back to deal with the T-1000 in Terminator 2. Long story short, Skynet got desperate and did time travel to try and fix things only ensuring their own destruction in the process It's like this game is based off the good Terminator movies or something. In this final battle storm in the Time Displacement Facility is the best action you're gonna get from mid-shelf gaming. Listen to the music. The constant forward momentum. The fact that you have a GIANT FUCKING TANK on your side now. The absolute, no-holds-barred, THROTTLING you give those machines! [Game audio]
♫The Terminator Theme - Brad Fiedel♫ [Game audio]
♫ [Game audio]
♫ [ Resistance member ]
Rockets! They're heading this way! [ Civvie ]
Wait, what? [Sigh of disappointment] Really? You almost died; but they shut down the core just in time. The machine stopped. The day is saved and depending on how you treated all the other characters They could be alive or dead, even the kid. I saved him, but only 'cause that puppy isn't dying on my watch I'm not about that life.
This game has the balls to not even sequel bait. The war's over. The machines are done. Skynet is toast and you know what? I'm satisfied. This game is pretty decent and maybe, just maybe some crazy movie studio will license Terminator off to devs who care again and give them a real budget and time and staff because there's plenty of wasted potential here that that could fix. They could have made a better Terminator game But all things considered this is a solid C+. Like a seven, seven and a half. The kind of mid priced 'B' game we don't get anymore. Maybe because game reviewers tear it to fucking shreds because it doesn't have enough new ideas or something?! Maybe I'm just jaded by so many absolutely abysmal adaptations, but this games fine. ♫ How'd I do - Lee Jackson ♫
Just discovered this guy this week but I like how thoroughly he looks at games in his videos compared to some other YouTubers. I really liked his Blood series where he had an entire 15 - 20 minute video dedicated to each act.
I bought this on a whim and actually really liked it. The beginning of the game where you're resource-constrained and the terminators will fucking murder you if they see you is really good.
Once you get lasers, terminators are just another mob. But it still does some clever things, and it was a good game.
He's right about reviewers. This game was better than it deserved to be.
It just feels like in the gaming world, if you're not a 9/10 hyper ambitious game with stunning new ideas and mechanics, you're worse than fallout 76.
The game's biggest weakness is the difficulty/balancing. It's too easy as a result of Teyon not wanting to alienate casual movie fans. The good news is that a patch to alleviate this is coming "soon". The bad news is that there's no guarantee it'll solve the problem.
That aside, the game is fantastic. It's a worthy prequel to Terminator 1, and a worthy successor to Future Shock. A lot of reviews whined about the game being "dated" but it's a case of "they don't make em like this anymore." Not everything needs to be a bloated AAA experience.
Someone should send a copy to Todd Howard.
There's a lot of praise here, but I honestly feel like it's still a very boring game. There's much better first-person-shooters to spend your time on.
The only thing this game nailed was the sound design. It was terrible. I 100% completed it only because I had already spent the money on it. 10 hours down the drain. Think of the most generic 360 shooters from back in the day, that's exactly what you are getting with Terminator Resistance.