There have been many attempts, some more successful than others, to adapt the Terminator films into video games. From Bethesda’s 1991 DOS game to Terminator: Resistance in 2019, the Terminator franchise has been part of gaming for most of its history.
One genre not generally associated with The Terminator is real-time strategy. However, that’s changing with Slitherine’s announcement of Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance during the publisher’s Home of Wargame’s event on December 14.
According to Slitherine’s Marketing Director Marco A. Minoli, the publisher’s audience includes a lot of gamers in their 30s who grew up with science fiction franchises such as Starship Troopers, Terminator, and Battlestar Galactica. Hoping to capitalize on their shared fanbase, Slitherine approached Skydance ahead of the studio’s announcement of the film Terminator: Dark Fate, released in 2019.
Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance is in development by Russian studio Who Play in close collaboration with Skydance Media. Minoli notes that while most IP holders take a hands-off approach to licensing, the film studio’s been highly involved in Defiance’s development. This collaboration is to make sure the game fits in with the Terminator franchise in the future. This is part of Skydance’s larger plan to spin Terminator off into other projects, including a Netflix animated series.
The RTS takes place between the “present-day” depicted in Terminator: Dark Fate and the Legion-controlled future of 2042. Players lead a group of ex-US military personnel known as “The Founders,” one of several factions fighting the Legion AI. Other factions include groups known as The Resistance and The Cartel, who are playable in Defiance’s multiplayer. However, the single-player story focuses on The Founder’s efforts to defeat Legion. The story is mostly linear, with the player progressing from one zone to the next in a set order. However, players will decide which other human factions to work with. Doing so changes both the story and which units’ players have access to.
Speaking of units, players won’t be gathering resources and building bases like in Age of Empires or Command and Conquer. Instead, Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance emphasizes unit placement and positioning, similar to Slitherine’s Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock. Defiance allows players to position units in buildings, taking control of individual floors. Buildings can also be destroyed during combat, creating a dynamic battlefield similar in concept to the XCOM games.
That’s not to say Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance focuses exclusively on urban combat, as the game also features plenty of wilderness maps. Either way, the gameplay Slitherine showed off looks promising, being partially reminiscent of the Company of Heroes series. While the film Terminator: Dark Fate wasn’t quite the shot in the arm the franchise needed, Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance might be a great way to bring the world of Terminator to the RTS genre.
Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance releases for PC in late 2022.
Source: IGN