I think there is no need to particularly explain how we all relate (more precisely, are accustomed to treating) to games based on films and TV series. The universe of “Terminator” in this sense, should have been more fortunate – one of the first games in the film franchise was actively developed and promoted by Bethesda Softworks. The most striking of that time was, perhaps, the 1995 shooter The Terminator: Future Shock, which was even compared to Doom. It was led by the then novice game designer Todd Howard.

It is not surprising that no one expected anything good from Terminator: Resistance either. Moreover, in 2014, the Teyon studio had already noted another game based on the famous film franchise – Rambo: The Video Game, to which reviewers gave 1 point out of 10.

What came before? Or after?

Resistance is the 1984 prequel to the first Terminator and the sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The game ignores all subsequent pictures, and even more so purely event-like in no way refers to “Dark Fates”.

The action takes place in 2028 in Pasadena, near Los Angeles, and we play as Resistance fighter Jacob Rivers, who turned out to be the only survivor of the entire Pacific Division – it was she who was sent here to help civilians.

The story is built according to the canon. Moreover, not only in the first two films but also in the novels of William Visher, the screenwriter of those pictures and friend of James Cameron. John Connor, the cybernetization camps, the creation of a time machine, and the storming of the SkyNet center are in place. There are a bunch of movie references – this includes not only similar music, information from numerous notes, canon types of terminators, and plasma weapons, but even the opportunity to see Robert Patrick, who plays the main villain in Doomsday, at one of the locations.

And most importantly, there is still the same key motive that moves the whole story – SkyNet begins to hunt for our hero and sends the first “infiltrator” over him, one to one similar to a person. That is, this is actually the future Schwartz, then sent to kill Sarah Connor. And in the same way, the insidious AI believes that our hero will play a huge role in the war.

Terminator Resistance was not a critical breakthrough, but the Terminator game received a lot of positive feedback from players. The developers promise an original story with more than 4 hours of new content, which will allow you to dive deeper into the world of “Terminator”. Chronologically, the expansion takes place in the middle of the original campaign.
The Resistance has just defeated the first spy, but the main character has no time to rest – an order comes from John Connor to investigate the events at the Northridge Outpost.

Players will have to fight side by side with the iconic character of the franchise, and they also promise to meet with characters that are exclusive to the DLC.

Terminator: Resistance “Annihilation Line” DLC was released on December 10 on PC (Steam) and the next-generation PlayStation 5 consoles. Owners of a physical or digital copy of Terminator: Resistance for PS4 can update to the PS5 version for free.

A little about what awaits you:

In this 4 hour adventure in Lines of Annihilation, you once again find yourself in the role of Jacob Rivers. This time, you are fighting alongside renowned resistance hero Kyle Reese. Together with him and other soldiers, you cross the infamous line of extermination to find a lost settlement. Find out what happened there and if there were survivors.

In the post-apocalyptic world, you will meet new areas as well as more characters. You will also encounter new killer robots such as the T-600 from Terminator: Atonement.

Of course, the main problems of the game remain. Terminators are not interested in self-preservation and just run around the street while you take them off. Even if you have a squad, once you become vulnerable, enemies will stop attacking your teammates and focus on you, which is quite annoying. The boss fight against a huge enemy was especially annoying for me as I fought him alongside several NPCs. But every time I came out of cover to blow it up, he ignored everyone else and focused exclusively on me.

It’s worth noting that you can’t take into account any aspect of your main character from the main campaign here. When the Annihilation Line begins, you have reached level 13, you have pre-installed equipment, and you will not receive skill points. It doesn’t really matter as it matches the base game. But it’s a little discouraging when you suddenly have to re-select your skills, as well as find all the new chips and weapons to upgrade to get yourself into battle form.

I must say I’m surprised at the breadth of the Annihilation Line. This is actually a significant expansion, not a lazy hack to add a couple of hours of content. This is likely around 40% of the length of the main campaign, which means that players are more likely to find that it offers worthwhile gameplay. Of course, shooting Terminators is still fun, although I get bored after 1.5 hours of playing.

Simply put, if you want to spend more hours playing Terminator Resistance, especially alongside Kyle Reese, the Annihilation Line is a good buy. There is enough content here to pay your money back, and the story and characters are certainly interesting enough to be seen through to the end.

The visuals here are absolutely phenomenal, but not for the reasons you might think. The textures are pretty low resolution, and character models will use it most of the time on a PlayStation 2 or 3, and to me, that’s the opposite, it’s an absolute commitment to creating the look and feel of the product that it represents. This is very similar to the scenes of the future war from Terminator 1.

If you’re still unsure, you can use the recently uploaded gameplay trailer to get a more detailed picture of the DLC:

This review was completed thanks to a PC code provided by PR.