Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance

Outstanding game, but needs an infinite campaign where you take the army you have from the main campaign and simple roam around Texas hitting Legion bases, attacking and defending strategic locations, helping Movement and Founders which then join the Resistance because you struggle the whole time trying to get veterans and top grade gear to then have it end.
So yeah great game, just wish there was more to the "fight back"

Never thought a Terminator RTS would be that awesome. It has a good mix between arcade and realism, your choices matter, and you keep your soldiers squad / vehicles from mission to mission (pretty rare for a RTS).
Gameplay can be compared to Command and Conquer or Act of War, but more realistic. No base building but a map between mission to manage your army.
The game is hard even at lower difficulty, it is not a walk in the park,you have to focus on the game or you will lose, you can't just casually play and send all your unit on attack and hope to win.

This game, despite it's INCREDIBLE frustrations at times, is SO FUN.

This is a masterclass in story, character development (even if they are a tad cheesy) and fun gameplay mechanics.

First off: THE BAD- This game is really really unforgiving, especially at first. I am admittedly playing it on hard, but you blink for a second and sometimes a vital squad or asset is toast. Honestly though, the unforgiving nature of it is also slightly a plus in my book. I'm an Army infantry / Afghanistan vet and this really does bring a level of realism that some people might find unpalatable. Regardless, quicksave will fast become a welcome friend in this game.

On to the good: The combat is incredibly satisfying. This game gives you tons of opportunities to plan assaults and defenses under pressure. There are only a few annoying missions where you have to escort convoys, but those aside, the tactical nuance is actually surprising. This game REALLY brings to heart the fact that you're a resistance fighter in a beleaguered human resistance force. You don't have unlimited ammo, fuel or resources. You have to consider these things. It also forces you to constantly consider who you're sending forward on an assault or recon, and who you're leaving behind to defend supply assets. You have to pull half-strength units off from the front line consistently and replace them with fresh troops. The fighting is intense and satisfying. Be in against the machines (Legion) or various criminal human elements, the weapons systems feel organic and realistic. Damage to vehicles is in varying levels- sometimes you'll damage a tanks reloading system, sometimes you'll destroy it's engine, and if you're lucky, sometimes you'll get a catastrophic kill. Again, this all fuels the sense of realism.

In between each mission you have an opportunity to upgrade troops and vehicles and purchase more with "Goodwill Points" - but you have to balance this all with the fact that humans need to be fed and vehicles / weapons need maintenance, ammo and fuel. This is reflected in a "supply points" system that is somewhat unforgiving, if not realistic. Keep in mind, SUPPLY POINTS OVER EVERYTHING ELSE, and you'll be fine.

I'm a HUGE Terminator franchise fan, and this feels great in that world. As aformentioned, the characters are a touch one sided, but there are a lot of fun surprising moments in the story arch, and I really enjoyed it overall.

This game rules. If you like challenging RTS games and like Terminator, you're gonna love this.

Jumped into this game super excited for a new RTS and one that allows you to level up/equip your squad units. I've played similar RTS games in the past and there's just something about being able to manage the inventory of your squads, what their loadouts are, and have them specialize in different tactics. I wish more RTS games adopted this style of game play.
BUT
There are some issues I do have with this game.
1. Fog of war and unit sight range is REALLY really weird and not helpful at all. Sometimes when your unit finally sees an enemy, it's usually to late to try and get a sneak attack in. This was a really big issue early on in the campaign while I was still learning what units are most effective (ANYTHING THAT HAS ATGM OR TOW LAUNCHERS) But eventually you do get used to it and work with it even though it could be much better.
2. An add-on for unit sight, ELEVATION IN THIS GAME IS THE WORST I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED IN AN RTS. I would use sniper squads a lot, especially once they had laser sniper rifles, but one of the biggest issues I ran into was making them go prone, then suddenly they can't attack the units 100 yards from them cause there's a slight little hill in their way. This happened SO many times that it just became something I kept laughing at. Now I don't mind the elevation but PLEASE give us some sort of indicators for Line of Sight. Like a light red or green beam going from the units to where your mouse is pointing so you know "Okay, they can't hit that, let me move them closer".
3. Squad AI will have you questioning why humanity even deserves to survive. Sometimes when using a heavy weapon squad, if you go prone in a field to engage a target, your Heavy Weapon unit will start deploying his gun. But then I started watching as his two buddies, who just had basic rifles, were crawling their way across the field to engage the target. Why!? I just want you to shoot the big gun, your little rifles aren't going to do anything against a tank. But they'll give it their best. Another thing about Squad AI in this game is that random barrels/pallets placed outside of buildings will sometimes cause one or two of your units from a squad to get stuck there. And if you don't realize that in time and you moved that squad across the map to a new location, the AI will just stay stuck OR (and this was great) a single (1) unit from a squad got stuck in a building and I didn't notice it when moving them to another building across the map. Well.. That single unit decided that the best way to get to the building it needs to go to, is to go out of bounds on a map you're not supposed to go out of bounds on and almost cost me the entire mission. Again I just had to laugh.
4. Tutorial is..unique. They spread it out across multiple missions so you don't get overwhelmed with info, which I really appreciate! I can't tell you how many times game tutorials go too fast or have too much that I just decide to completely ignore it and figure it out myself. But in this game there were situations where that information would've been helpful a mission or two ago. Like fighting units inside of a building? I would just sit vehicles outside of the building or have my units occupy a nearby building and watch them duke it out (It takes forever). Then the next mission is like "HEY YOU CAN TOTALLY BREACH AND CLEAR BUILDINGS" which, honestly, is one of my favorite features in this game. But yeah I could've used that info a lot earlier.
5. Smoke is insanely OP for both sides. It's great when you're using it, but when enemy tanks are able to keep a wall of smoke up with however many shots they have is a bit much.
6. Ally's will STEAL YOUR VEHICLES. If you're on a mission where there are allied units running around, don't ever leave your vehicles unattended. These little assholes will steal your fancy vehicles with all the upgrades you purchased and then you just gotta accept it.
7.Personal opinion of my but.. the dialogue is really annoying sometimes. Like SO much insubordination going on. Especially for a group that was founded by old army/police forces
8. Units can go into ambush mode but I wish vehicles had that same ability. I mean the whole point is you're supposed to be doing hit and run tactics in the beginning and I think it would be cool if you could set a vehicle to ambush and it'll like, play dead on the side of the road until an enemy passes.
9. These last two are tips for those of you that do decide to try the game out. Ammo might become a problem sometimes, especially for your ATGM units who only have 4 rockets. Throw them into abandoned vehicles on maps so they can replenish some ammo that way you can save the supplies in your vehicles if you really need it later on.
10. Mount Taylor mission? Save a lot. Like after every single time you progress the quest line. Don't do what I did and completely forget the first two times playing it.
But all in all, I'm giving this game a positive review. Because it IS a fun game. I love the progression and units that carry over from mission to mission in the campaign, I wish there was a separate game mode with just that feature, where you can travel around the map and do skirmishes while leveling your units up. Hopefully in a future DLC if they decide to sink more time into this game, which I think they should. Give this game a try and see if you like it.

The game is hard, you have a persistent army throughout campaign and if you lose a rare/important unit like a tank you could be screwed on the next mission.
But the stakes are high and that makes the game interesting. The post apocalyptic world is awesome and highly detailed. Dark Fate is a pretty bad movie but that doesn’t matter, this is a well made game with a lot of strategic depth to it.
Besides, trying to hold off an unstoppable onslaught of machines in a rusted out Abrams tank will never not be awesome

This is a very fun game but it really needs some sort of procedural mode that you can explore and fight all around the world map. ya know, scavenging and recruiting units while trying to slowly dislodge the terminators from the region. something free form. the campaign ends up feeling way too short and most of the fun units and tactics you don't get until the last mission or two if you're lucky. something free form where you start with limited units and can recruit or train new units with resources with the only goal being to push the enemy back would give so much more depth to the entire system. Also, it kinda sucks that founders units are only available through mission rewards and finds, not for purchase

Really great game! I wanted Terminator rts since I was a child in the 90s and now I finally got it! Reminds me of an old hidden gem called Soldiers of Anarchy, which was a post-apocalyptic strategy as well with very similar game mechanics. Simply put, as the game progress you gain more troopers and vehicles for your resistance army. Every unit that survive the mission can be used in the later missions. But the bigger your army gets the more resources it uses. To maintain balance you can either buy resources in the settlements (on the tactical map), scrap vehicles that you found or disband your troopers. Your personnel also gains experience which unlocks slots where you can put new abilities. You can even rename your squads which is a nice touch. No base building but you can deploy defensive platforms (after you buy or find some). The game is quite tactical and you must choose carefully what to do. Like using the correct weapons depending on what type of enemy you are attacking, covering your units behind the buildings and so on.
Im glad we finally got a great Terminator strategy game and I absolutely cannot wait for the upcoming conquest mode that has been announced! After that it will be 10/10 for me! (Ok, 9/10 since it's Legion and not Skynet :)