James Cameron's The Terminator is a foundational film for me, astounding me from a young age and spurring my desire to become a feature film director. An unexpected commercial success, sequels were inevitable and have been a mixed bag on the whole: Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgment Day is without question one of the greatest action films of all time, but everything after that has varied from average to downright terrible. Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate was the former, an unimaginative film that achieved bare minimum competence. One might remember the marketing push production studio Skydance Media made in the gaming sphere: Carl, Dark Fate's T-800 unit, made his way into Mortal Kombat 11. Sarah Connor and a Legion Terminator showed up in Gears 5. There was a mobile game. What makes Dmitry Babkin's Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance particularly strange is that it was released in 2024, half a decade after Miller's film proved itself to be a critical and commercial failure. There is very little market demand for a real-time strategy game based on a mediocre film, and yet developer Slitherine (most likely developed by Cats Who Play in actuality, whose name was removed from the project due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine) released the game into a market skeptical of licensed games and dominated by other RTS heavy hitters.
Strangely, Dark Fate - Defiance is better than the film it takes its namesake from. Not a direct adaptation, but rather a spin-off taking place in the same world setting, the game follows an up-and-coming commander leading his own guerrilla crew against the forces of Legion and numerous other factions. Normally, you'd expect a licensed game based on a well-known franchise to target mass-market appeal, but the developers are instead gunning for the hardcore strategy market. This is to say that Defiance is brutally difficult, even on normal settings. I would often spend upwards of two hours on a single mission, constantly reloading prior saves as my poor tactical decisions left my men machine-fodder in a ruined building. There's a rather immense amount of decisions to weigh, as Defiance allows you a great amount of customization for what you want your militia to consist of, such as the individual weapons, perks, and armor of each squadron. You'll need to, because they fall like paper otherwise. This does lend the game an appreciated survivalist atmosphere, which is perfect for Terminator's future war setting. There is a shocking amount of depth and nuance to the game design, and call me a masochist, but there's a part of me that liked being absolutely crushed time and time again only to finally emerge victorious by only a hair. That being said, it can be downright excessive at times, and there's a degree to which I don't want every single play session to last me three hours. Consider this a problem of pacing, as the game severely needs some breather levels, even considering that some of the tougher ones are optional. The game is also, very obviously, an independent title, as there's a weird lack of polish for a developer whose expertise goes as far back as 2017 with Syrian Warfare. Selecting all of your troops isn't as convenient as Halo Wars, for example: there's no button you can press to select all of your units, leading me to waste time selecting all of them by dragging my mouse in a game where time is often essential. Sometimes it feels like when I order my units to do something, I have to order it multiple times for them to actually execute it. While I won't "blame my losses on lag", so to speak, I wouldn't be surprised if this contributed to them. Finally, performance in Defiance can often be downright terrible, which is sort of inexcusable given I am far above its recommended specifications. I understand that RTS games are not exactly known for running particularly well, but dropping down to 30 FPS is absurd.
Dark Fate - Defiance was always going to be an uphill battle regarding its visual presentation for me. The version of Cameron's future war that Miller and production designer Sonja Klaus crafted for Dark Fate was generic and drab. While not bad by any means, it was a far cry from the horrifying blues and neon purples of the original duology. Defiance, then, was never going to not strike some ire within me as a lifelong Terminator fan. I cannot fault the developers. Defiance's art direction is a fairly faithful recreation of the film's look, although I will say that I think too much of it takes place during the day, when much of Terminator's hellish future atmosphere comes from its everlasting nights. Graphically, the game isn't bad by any means; Legion's units, especially the hunter-killers, are richly detailed and fearsome. Level destruction adds a lot to the game's atmosphere. One feels like a badass when your tanks break down a fence, but fears for their life when Legion's own bust down a wall. Lighting, in particular, is a highlight; stark shadows cast over the battlefield both day and night. This is all backed by an energetic score from Eduard Lisin, better known by his professional alias EDLISE. EDLISE pushes you into the atmosphere with pulsating, acidic beats, electronic undulations, and the rusty moaning of a post-apocalyptic guitar. He doesn't try to replicate Junkie XL's score for the film, nor Brad Fidel's iconic score for the original duology, outside of a solid cover of his iconic "Main Title - The Terminator". It took some warming up to as I played the game, but I eventually got into the groove of it and am currently bouncing my head to it as I write this very review.
The final thing I'd like to touch on is the game's writing. Writing in a strategy game? Not only is that more likely than the uninitiated would think, but there is a genuine attempt from writer Vitaly Shutov to craft a world with serious consequences for your difficult decisions. Unfortunately, the scenario itself is fairly bland and I would argue somewhat unfocused. The player spends way too much time fighting factions that aren't Terminators; the Mexican Cartel, in particular, is a fairly bizarre focus of the game. Now, I'm not naive; I understand that in the broader Terminator world setting, human beings are not a unified force and won't always get along. However, the excessive emphasis on this aspect takes me out of the atmosphere. That being said, there are some interesting worldbuilding flourishes, such as the Integrator faction: slave-trafficking, merchant transhumanists obsessed with Legion technology, and the desire to overcome the limitations of their flesh. They remind me somewhat of the Omar from Deus Ex: Invisible War. Although the script does try to introduce some nuance into the plot, with themes like how one cannot trust any faction that demands unquestioning allegiance, the characters themselves are all flat archetypes that I hardly care about. Protagonist Lieutenant Alex Church is unfathomably noble with zero character flaws outside of his inexperience. Sergeant Mason is either the reluctant second-in-command or Church's faithful worshipper. Jessica Kidd is a no-nonsense action girl with nothing else going for her. It's all servicable at best, but one could frankly skip all of the dialog with reckless abandon outside of the major choices, which admirably affect gameplay.
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is a surprise. While not without many flaws, such as poor pacing, overcooked difficulty, a lack of polish, dull writing, and frankly, the fact that it is beholden to follow Dark Fate's conventions, it does shock with its nuanced and complicated militia management and challenging yet fun mechanics and level design. A very solid graphical presentation and pulse-pounding soundtrack bolster it too, granting it some atmosphere that its holdover art direction isn't capable of delivering alone. Honestly, if you're looking for an RTS to kick your ass, Dark Fate - Defiance would be right up your alley, and it is one of the better
