The Terminator film series is one of the most iconic sci-fi spectacles to ever grace cinema. Not only does it tell the struggle between man and machine with extreme set pieces, it examines the value of human life and how our flaws give us an advantage. For loyal fans, Terminator Resistance is the best thing to ever happen to the franchise since Judgment Day.
Where Things Left Off
Over the years, Terminator has been milked to death with a wide range of merchandise, additional films, and even a two-season-long TV serial. Of course, given its setting and story, it has also been expanded to video games.
Unfortunately, practically everything that has come out of Terminator since its 1991 Oscar-winning sequel has been met with rather poor reception. This is primarily due to a consistent failure to continue the story in a meaningful way after the events of Judgment Day, in which the war against the evil AI supercomputer Skynet is averted.
By definition, Judgment Day is the original date set for which humanity is nearly exterminated by nuclear war, with able-bodied survivors meant to work in factories to develop more death machines to carry out the purge.
Not even James Cameron himself, the series creator who returned many years later to help make Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), was able to salvage the story in a way that excited audiences like back in the day.
Where Things Stand Now
Terminator Resistance, a 2019 first-person shooter developed by Polish studio Teyon, is the key fans have been waiting so patiently for to unlock more of the franchise’s potential. This is in spite of the many other video games based in the same setting that have preceded it.
Rather than tell the story as if Judgment Day is inevitable (Rise of the Machines/Sarah Connor Chronicles) and show the war happening anyway (Salvation) or attempt to completely rewrite the general narrative with a confusing plot (Genisys), Terminator Resistance magically inserts itself into the timeline set by the first two films.
What Is Terminator Resistance?
While ignoring every single form of media that has been released since Judgment Day, Terminator Resistance is, in fact, a prequel set before the 1984 classic. Taking on the role of Jacob Rivers, a human resistance soldier working under John Connor in 2028, the player attempts to survive in the future that had yet to be prevented.
This first-person shooter adventure game allows fans to live out the very first moments in which the humans encounter the Infiltrator Terminator units, designed to look, smell, and breathe just like the people they were designed to destroy.
With stealth-based mechanics and high difficulty, the game challenges players to truly think like a resistance soldier, slipping past enemy lines undetected and rarely engaging in direct combat.
In between the various missions, you can engage in multi-branching dialogue with a wide variety of NPCs at your base, who also have their own personal stories to tell along the way.
True to the Terminator slogan of “No Fate But What We Make”, you will make critical decisions that affect the outcome of the story as well as its ending. This is designed to encourage multiple playthroughs.
Every single weapon featured prominently in the Terminator franchise appears in Resistance. This includes the R95, V96m, the M79 Grenade Launcher, and even the 45 Longslide, amongst others. What’s more, the game introduces some new weapons of its own but in a way that respects the setting and its rules.
A satisfying progression system allows you to eventually get strong enough to go head-to-head with the machines, symbolizing the growing confidence of the humans as they successfully complete missions designed to cripple Skynet’s empire.
There’s even DLC that lets you play as a Terminator, with the events leading up to the mission to travel back through time and murder Sarah Connor.
Resistance Is Terminator At Its Very Best
If you’ve ever wondered how Kyle Reese made it back to 1984, how humans responded to machines that looked just like themselves, exactly what John Connor was dealing with after August 29, 1997, or matters related to the time displacement field, this is the game to answer all your questions.
Although it doesn’t add anything new to the genre of first-person shooters, and can even feel stale in terms of a game at times, it’s the harmonious blend of gameplay and story integration that makes Terminator Resistance shine so bright.
Terminator Resistance is a game that deserves a proper adaptation to film as the true successor to 1991’s Judgment Day. It is the ultimate love letter to fans that covers every single plot hole left behind, all while adding to the story in the most intelligent ways possible.
Terminator Resistance is a first-person shooter developed by Teyon and originally released in 2019 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. An enhanced version was later released for PlayStation 5 in 2021.