Terminator Dark Fate Analysis

The scene of the T-800 walking on the surface of a planet Earth devastated by the Skynet nuclear holocaust is one of those that is not forgotten. The machines have won. There is no one who can handle them. The end of times has arrived. In just a few seconds this scene conveys a feeling of pessimism and brutal helplessness, and I can assure you that Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance achieves something very similar; It makes thinking about victory almost like an unattainable dream. From the perspective of a realistic strategy game , you face that invincible enemy against which nothing seems to work… and against which you barely have the resources to stay standing. It’s literal. The first thing that surprises you about this new science fiction RTS is that ammunition and fuel run out . And if all this were not enough, if your troops die, with all their accumulated combat experience, their improved equipment and even unique abilities; If they die, it’s over. You lose them forever.

When this new Terminator game was announced, its creators assured that this would be an RTS with “complex and realistic battles” in which all our decisions would be “vital for survival and final victory.” It wasn’t marketing. In Dark Fate – Defiance you even face tough dilemmas about what to do and who to help in the middle of bloody battles in which the slightest mistake pays dearly. And what you decide will affect the course of the campaign; sometimes for better, other times for much worse. There’s a real sense of progress , of writing your own story in a ruthless post-apocalyptic world dominated by machines. And it is something that I did not expect to find in a video game of these characteristics, so the joy has been even greater.

Cross between Company of Heroes and Men of War

The first impression with Dark Fate – Defiance may be that of a Company of Heroes style game . Your troops move in squads, coverage is essential for survival, the scenario is destroyed !, and you must even conquer positions and defend them to the last consequences. This Terminator RTS is just all that, but with that point of realism that forces you to manage the troops’ ammunition wisely so as not to run out of bullets at the most inopportune moment. Sometimes happens. That’s why I have finished many of the missions by looting useless vehicles and then scrapping them to obtain the precious resources that allow us to move forward another day. That’s where supply shortages come.

The team at Slitherine Software wants you to feel totally helpless in this wild post-apocalyptic world knowing that you have everything to lose against the machines. That’s why story mode missions usually end the same way. Flees. Run to the evacuation point . Sometimes you will do it calmly knowing that there is no longer (much) danger; but on other occasions you will have to run while suffering a siege. Can you save everyone? This is a question that will accompany you throughout the game, because even between missions, survival is not guaranteed. Resources are limited and simply moving across the United States map depletes them quickly.

The action is brutally intense in Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance

Almost as if it were an RPG , in this campaign map you can buy better equipment to customize your vehicles, acquire unique weapons to strengthen your most powerful squads, and even unlock new abilities that boost their statistics or allow them to use new actions such as throw grenades or EMP pulses. The feeling of progression is perfect because there is real continuity from your first battle against the machines to the very end of the game, varying the allies, the enemies and even the dangers you face. It all depends on you, on how you act.

In a way it reminded me of the great Fire Emblem series from Nintendo, or also the challenging X-COM from Firaxis Games , and although it is something I like, I also warn: there are extreme difficulty peaks that can frustrate more than necessary by taking you to live situations of maximum risk with hardly any resources. Come on, there have been missions that I have embarked on with squads with hardly any ammunition praying to find weapons or supply trucks along the way. I wasn’t exaggerating when I told you that it’s a tough game, right? Which leads me to tell you about the wide variety of troops you can use to escape death. Not only do you have a lot to choose from, you can also change their weapons to expand your combat options, or ask them to stop using a certain type of ammunition to take advantage of it against more powerful enemies.

Between missions it’s time to resupply troops and buy new equipment.

Micromanaging troops is so important, and the battlefields are so large, that it’s easy to understand why the tactical pause option has been included . Otherwise the fight can be a real chaos because while you protect one position, you may be fighting to conquer another; And in between, your vehicles go from here to there transporting siege weapons or trailers with ammunition and fuel. The action is brutally intense in Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance, you barely have moments to rest, with a mission design that always looks for a way to surprise you… and also to push you to the limit. Because what will you do when someone asks you for help in the middle of a siege? Battles are full of moments like this, and it’s really exciting to see how, after doing something heroic, the game rewards you with a wave of additional troops, or perhaps the ability to call in air support to bomb your enemies. Every action has consequences in this RTS.

An RTS that sometimes gets too difficult

There is something that I don’t usually see much in video games and it is the idea of ​​retreating when you know that a battle is lost, and yet it is something very common in this Terminator RTS. There is no point in insisting on protecting an area if the result of that fight is going to be losing dozens of soldiers that you will never be able to recover. That’s why I like Dark Fate – Defiance so much. It is a non-stop fight here and there against a more numerous and stronger enemy that is gradually depleting your scarce resources and soldiers, and it forces you to think more and more carefully about which fights you are interested in getting into, and which ones you are not interested in. Sometimes it seems more like a survival game than a strategy game, because as I told you, in some missions I have ended up plundering resources for fear of, for example, running out of rockets to fight against the armored vehicles.

IN 3D GAMES

Everyone wants to copy Elden Ring and Dark Souls, and no one remembers one of the most difficult and highest-rated games of all time. Ninja Gaiden

The very design of the missions forces you to always play with the ” fear ” of what is to come, because you never know what new trick the evil AI Legion , which is the one that governs the machines, is going to surprise you with. This leaves us with memorable moments that make you vibrate with excitement, but sometimes it can also be frustrating when you have to deal with extremely difficult situations in the worst possible conditions. These difficulty spikes spoil the gaming experience , as they almost force you to load a previous game in order to better prepare for that unexpected moment. No one said surviving the Apocalypse was easy, but sometimes it’s too much. Especially if you add certain problems with the AI ​​of your allies, which can get “stuck” in elements of the scenario, taking longer than necessary to go to the designated points. Or even when it comes to protecting themselves in buildings, they expose themselves too much or take too long to comply with simple orders, which in such a difficult game can be very annoying.

But regardless of these setbacks, Terminator: Dark Fate Defiance proves to be a great strategy game with a lot to offer. The realism of its battles, the rawness of the combats and the hard decisions that it faces, or even its graphics , with those buildings collapsing because of the bombs, are details that denote the affection with which this game has been created. RTS, which even at the story level is not bad. Where it weakens is in its online and skirmish mode , as there is not much to choose from. While the campaign is full of shocking moments, you only have four maps to test your skills using the three factions in the game. What there is works well: they are scenarios with several control points that must be mastered to defeat rivals in 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 battles, and since the action is intense and fun, these skirmishes do not disappoint. The problem is that the AI ​​is somewhat passive, and once you have the artillery at your disposal, it is easy to crush the enemies without too many problems.

An RTS to match

Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance

By: Alberto Pastor

If you like strategy games and are a fan of Terminator, without a doubt, you will be very happy with this challenging RTS that focuses on realism to make you suffer in the fight against the Legion machines. Its campaign mode is really well designed, with missions that never cease to surprise and a good variety of objectives that even include infiltration sections, with decisions in between. Sometimes it’s too difficult and it doesn’t always explain well everything you can do (or the rewards you’ll get), but it’s easy to get caught up in the intense action of this game, which also has a good audiovisual section.

Buy Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance

5 things you should know:

1. The battle scenarios are very large and include multiple objectives
2. There are different factions that you can antagonize
3. Between missions you can replenish ammunition, fuel and buy new equipment
4. The game does not always explain the objectives well or what you can do in the game
5. Little content for Skirmish and multiplayer mode

Players: 1-4 players

Language: Voices in English, texts in Spanish

Duration: 20-30 (campaign)