When I finished Terminator Resistance on the PS4 back in 2019 I walked away from it feeling largely satisfied with how well it nailed the atmosphere of the Terminator future war era that the original few movies hinted at so well. I also rather enjoyed the handful of new characters that were solely invented for the game, yet fit perfectly into the 30-year-old setting. What Terminator Resistance lacked in gameplay variety and general execution, it made honorable strides at making up for with its clear love for the IP and its ability to neatly slide into the lore of the franchise without stepping on the films’ toes too much. It also left me with the distinct feeling that, had it taken the spectacle and excitement of the last few missions and spread that out among the other 75% of the game a little better, it probably would have been received much more positively. While its new expansion Annihilation Line doesn’t quite get the memo on that, it does largely deliver a sharper, more poignant romp in the same storyline that takes far less time to get going than the main campaign did.
"Familiar characters like Baron and Jennifer are immediately reintroduced in the story along with a slightly more calculated rendition of Kyle Reese, with whom you spend much of the 4-ish hour campaign. Along with them, a few new characters also spring up, and they fit into the world just as well as anybody else does."
After a brief opening stealth section, Annihilation Line‘s main objective of hitting the ground running becomes readily apparent, as you’re given a healthy bounty of money and experience points to get yourself leveled up and armed to a respectable degree. Your experience doesn’t technically carry over from the main game, but this initial jolt of resources will more or less get you to where you were in the mid-point of it, which is about where Annihilation Line’s story takes place anyway. This is an advantage that the expansion wisely takes advantage of by arming you with plasma weapons and throwing you into the fray with hunter killers and T-800s within mere minutes of starting it.
This was a huge relief to see, as the first few hours of the main game were significantly dragged down by its excessively slow build-up to those Terminator moments that everyone bought the game for. Even if it’s been a while since you’ve played the main game, not to worry, as it’s streamlined approach to crafting, leveling up, and general gameplay should still fit like an old glove – which is to say the same progression systems and over-arching gameplay mechanics are largely here. Lockpicks, crafting, stealth, hacking and combat all feel basically identical, except of course for the initial slog of not being able to do anything. Just as well, it’s mostly the same enemies you’ll be blowing away too.
Familiar characters like Baron and Jennifer are immediately reintroduced in the story along with a slightly more calculated rendition of Kyle Reese, with whom you spend much of the 4-ish hour campaign. Along with them, a few new characters also spring up, and they fit into the world just as well as anybody else does. None of these characters deliver any monumental moments, but much like the performances of the main campaign, they are mostly pretty serviceable for what the writing requires of them – which isn’t much. Seeing that it takes place within an already established story, this tale doesn’t really get much of a chance to have much of an impact on the overall lore.
"Much like the main game, Annihilation Line’s visual presentation hits you with that double-edged blade of really nailing the general tone and atmosphere of the world but also falling decidedly short of the texture quality and visual effects that you would expect from a modern first-person shooter."
Instead, the story here is pretty standard Terminator fare, and while I expect most Terminator fans will be about as happy with the story here as they were with the base game, I would have really liked to see something different emerge from all of it. The first and foremost job of any story-driven expansion is to deliver a comparable experience to its host game, and Annihilation Line certainly accomplishes this. But after two years of feedback and a somewhat bullish $15 price tag, something more substantial to differentiate this story from the base game would have really helped make it more recommendable in a general sense. As it is, the story and major gameplay loops largely add up to more of the same – limiting its appeal to pretty much only those who were planning on getting it anyway. There’s nothing horribly wrong with that, but it is a bit disappointing to see its expansion end up with this somewhat unambitious story.
Much like the main game, Annihilation Line’s visual presentation hits you with that double-edged blade of really nailing the general tone and atmosphere of the world but also falling decidedly short of the texture quality and visual effects that you would expect from a modern first-person shooter. Granted, I don’t think it would be fair to expect Teyon to totally overhaul their engine for the sake of a 4-hour expansion, but it is something to be aware of for newcomers. Characters’ facial animations in particular, that felt middling in 2019, aren’t faring any better at the end of 2021. Nor are the blurry textures in some of the environments or the rudimentary lighting effects. That said, it doesn’t interfere much with your ability to enjoy the experience, especially if you have already played Resistance and aren’t expecting anything more.
Where it excels the most is in its audio design. Across the board, sounds, music, even the somewhat dry deliveries of most of the dialogue all fit in this universe so well that it should bring at least a grin to the face of any Terminator fan. Exchanging plasma lasers with proper Terminators among the decimated bluish-grey concrete while familiar retro synth melodies rumble in the background is a video game experience that Terminator fans have been wanting for literal decades prior to Terminator Resistance’s launch, and while developer Teyon’s take on that combat is a bit unwieldy at times, the sound design surrounds the entire affair from all corners so well that the overall experience can still add up to an admirable depiction of the source material when it’s really cooking. And thanks to a much better sense of pacing here than in the base game, it’s arguable that this is a better representation of the game’s strengths overall.
"Terminator Resistance: Annihilation Line is hard to recommend to anyone who found the base game unappealing. The same complaints about Resistance’s somewhat mushy movement, generic progression systems, and boilerplate mission structure could all just as easily be levelled at this expansion. But at the same time, so could all the adulation for its outstanding portrayal of the dystopian future from the Terminator franchise. The characters still work, and the vibe still feels right."
Terminator Resistance: Annihilation Line is hard to recommend to anyone who found the base game unappealing. The same complaints about Resistance’s somewhat mushy movement, generic progression systems, and boilerplate mission structure could all just as easily be levelled at this expansion. But at the same time, so could all the adulation for its outstanding portrayal of the dystopian future from the Terminator franchise. The characters still work, and the vibe still feels right. Considering that, along with the better pacing and not really getting in the way of everything else that made the base game shine, it’s an easy recommendation for those that are already poised to pick it up on PC or their PS5’s. I would have really liked to see Teyon flex what they’ve learned from Resistance a bit more here and extend the reach of this game, as I truly believe it’s a quintessential example of a diamond in the rough. But as it is, more of the same with some conservative tweaking around the edges isn’t an inherently bad thing.
This game was reviewed on PC.
Terminator: Resistance Annihilation Line Review — Back To The Future
I feel that critics were a bit too hard on Terminator: Resistance when it launched a couple of years ago. The visuals may be dated and much of its ideas were borrowed from other games, but it was a compelling story that delivered what it promised: a faithful, brutal rendition of the future depicted in some of the Terminator movies. Annihilation Line is an expansion campaign that operates as a standalone side story separate from the main game. It isn’t all that different, but it’s another four to five hours of satisfying Terminator-blasting with more characters and lore that fans will enjoy.
Annihilation Line picks up right after the Hunting Grounds mission in the main game. Jacob Rivers has just defeated one of Skynet’s new Infiltrator models and the Resistance has started studying it. None of what occurs in this expansion is mentioned in the main game, but that can’t really be helped. It begins with Jacob dreaming of a childhood memory: he’s tagging along with his father as they go to dig up an old time capsule buried at his high school. But Terminators attack and the two are separated. Jacob wakes up and learns that John Connor has requested that he join Kyle Reese and two others on a special mission.
Reese and his squadmates, explosives expert Ferro and resident hardass Evans, show up and head out to make contact with another Resistance group to find the civilians. They learn that the civvies are being held behind the Annihilation Line, which designates the part of the country that Skynet has already completely overtaken. Reese, Ferro, and Evans all get a good amount of screen time, and are decently developed here, much like the other characters in the main campaign. The story even has a couple of twists and turns, with particularly memorable ending moments. If you liked the story in the base game, you’ll feel similarly here. It’s pretty good stuff.
Mostly more of the sameThe gameplay in Annihilation Line is pretty much exactly the same as Terminator: Resistance‘s midgame. You don’t get any violet weapons and have to make do with red ones, which are more than up to the task of taking out everything you come across. You start out with one of those weaker plasma rifles that isn’t all that great against Terminators, but it doesn’t take long before you get a sniper rifle and can start killing them with ease.
Honestly, though, this is just like the base game. You go to a few largish areas filled with rubble and enemies and follow markers to complete missions. There are also a handful of side missions that you can choose to take on, including some more instances of destroying Skynet bases. If you just wanted a few more hours of Terminator: Resistance, you’ll find with Annihilation Line. Not that it’s all totally familiar. Missions do contain some elements that you didn’t see in the base game, such as attacking a Terminator assembly line. There’s nothing here that’ll blow your socks off, but the content here is perfectly fine.
There are some new enemies too, although they’re T-600 Terminators. They don’t carry plasma weapons, but the stronger versions can’t be knocked down. The T-600s tend to carry Gatling guns and are mostly as dangerous as the T-800s. There’s also a couple of encounters with a Centurion. While there are plenty of stealth opportunities here, there are a lot of intense action scenes where you fight alongside your squadmates. Before the credits roll, you’ll have put down a hell of a lot of Terminators but, again, that won’t come as any surprise.
Are you dumb?Of course, the issues from the main game persist. Terminators have zero interest in self-preservation and simply walk around in the open while you shoot at them. Even though you have a squad, once you become vulnerable, enemies will stop attacking your teammates and focus on you, which is pretty annoying. A boss battle against a giant enemy especially aggravated me, as I fought it alongside a bunch of NPCs. But every time I hopped out of cover to blast the thing, it ignored everyone else and focused solely on me. It would have been nice for some adjustments to be made on this front.
One thing that’s worth mentioning is that you don’t get to take any aspects of your main campaign character into this. When Annihilation Line starts, you’re level 13 and you have a pre-set loadout and no skill points distributed. This isn’t a big deal, as it does track with the main game (and you couldn’t have expected to bring an endgame Jacob Rivers into the middle of the story anyway). But it is a bit jarring to suddenly have to pick your skill paths again, as well as find all new upgrade chips and weapons to get yourself in fighting shape.
I have to say, I’m surprised by the breadth of Annihilation Line. It’s actually a substantial expansion and not some lazily made filler that tacks on a couple of hours of rehashed content. It’s probably about 40% the length of the main campaign, meaning that players will likely find that it has a worthwhile amount of gameplay. Granted, it’s still fun to snipe Terminators, even if I hate the way they move just enough to mess up your sniper shots. I still really don’t like how long the game makes you wait between rounds when using that weapon, although it’s so overpowered that I completely understand why that’s the tradeoff.
Simply put, if you want to spend more hours playing Terminator: Resistance, especially alongside Kyle Reese, Annihilation Line is a good purchase. It’s a bit of a bummer that no one got the rights to Michael Biehn’s likeness, but he kind of looks like him if you squint. There’s enough content here to get your money’s worth and the story and characters are certainly interesting enough to see to the end, so I’d say Teyon once again did a pretty good job. Now we just need to continue to wait patiently for that RoboCop game. Your move, creeps!
Terminator: Resistance Annihilation Line DLC Review
Terminator: Resistance felt like a game released out of time. In a reversal of the time travel shenanigans that form the central plot of the film series, the game was a throwback to the days of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation – a single player licensed game with no monetisation or games as a service aspects. While it didn’t exactly blow critics away, it has garnered a pretty large cult following due to offering an oddly nostalgic experience and, more importantly, feeling like a real love letter to the Terminator franchise.
Having been recently tidied up for a PS5 re-release, Terminator: Resistance has been able to reach a new audience and developer Teyon has seen fit to bring out a whole new DLC campaign to entice previous players back to check out the shiny new features.
– ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW –
There is a long tradition of Terminator games going right back to the home computersof the early 90s. Unfortunately, aside from some simple arcade fun most of these have been disappointments, with the likes of Terminator 3 and Terminator: Salvation providing games as underwhelming as the films on which they were based. Resistance stood out from the games that preceded it by having a genuine sense of heart (although the less said about the sex scenes the better). Most striking of all was the magnificent final level that saw an assault on Skynet’s base set to the fantastic original Brad Fiedel score. Fighting off hordes of Terminators whilst that iconic synth track was playing was one of my most memorable gaming moments of 2019.
For those of you who haven’t played the original game (or who have forgotten they played it), Resistance is an FPS game with adventure style missions in semi-open world environments. Exploring the levels often results in side missions that offer more XP and equipment as well as providing extra lore and character interactions. The RPG aspects work pretty well, with different specialisation paths whether you want to go in all guns blazing or take a more sneaky approach. The basics of the gameplay are pretty generic but they fit the setting well and offer up enough options for customisation and loot to keep things interesting.
Graphically, things do look much sharper than the original release. I played Resistance on PS4 back in 2019 whilst I fired up the DLC campaign on PC. At first I was surprised that it looked very similar, just with a better framerate and faster loading times. Looking through the video options revealed that a film grain was applied by default. This does fit the 1980s vibe but also detracts from the work Teyon have done to smooth the visuals. After checking out the environments and lighting I chose to put the grain back on as it was a nice nod to the VHS era when I first watched the films (although it’s not as strong an effect as that makes it sound). Character models are functional but are perhaps the clearest sign of the lower budget of this game compared to it’s AAA competitors. Fortunately, most of the time you don’t need to look at the fellow humans so this only really becomes an issue during the conversations between missions. Terminators and machines are well designed and look like they’ve come straight out of the future sequences in the films.
The DLC campaign, Annihilation Line is set roughly halfway through the main game, but is accessible as a stand-alone option on the menu, thankfully meaning you don’t need to have a save game file from the right point, just in case you’re on a new platform. It does, however, have some nice ties to the wider lore of the series as you are sent on a secret mission across the dreaded Annihilation Line under the command of Kyle Reese in order to rescue the inhabitants of a colony that has gone radio silent. This seemingly routine mission soon becomes more complicated and more personal for both Jacob Rivers and his newfound team. While the narrative isn’t going to win any awards it does manage a few surprisingly emotional moments.
The core gameplay here is identical to the main game, with the only exception being that there are none of the super high-power plasma guns available here. This suits the timeline of the main game, but did lead to me wasting an upgrade point on unlocking the ability to use them. This small oversight is a microcosm of the links between the two campaigns though. In simply moving the entire skill tree across, there are several options that are completely unnecessary and it’s a shame that a DLC-specific skill tree wasn’t put in. Some of the story points are also predictable, given the involvement of characters who have parts to play later in the main game, though there is still time for some tragic turns.
While most of the DLC is simply extra content of the exact same kind as the main game, the new campgin opening features one of my pet hates: an instant death stealth section. You play as a young Jacob Rivers having a nightmare about one of his first encounters with the titular death machines. While this plays a part in the wider narrative, it’s an annoying way to begin the campaign. Fortunately this is pretty short and not overly difficult. It could, though, probably have just been a cutscene. The final parts of the DLC don’t quite live up the awesome conclusion of the main game, but the ultimate boss fight is good and features a lovely callback to the old Terminator 2 Arcade Game from the Mega Drive.
– PAGE CONTINUES BELOW –
0 Comments