Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance

The game is so f***ing hard and I'm a fool for playing it on hard difficulty and yet I am enjoying every single angonizing moment. Hol' up gotta reload the game cause some units spawned in a unexpected location.
But for real tho, it is a hard game, it is similar to Syrian Warfare in terms of difficulty, so go for story mode for your fisrt playthrough and you should pause the game constantly just so you don't get a squad killed because you were focused on something else also quick save...a lot.

Surprising amount of depth for a game based on the Terminator franchise. Mechanically, it's somewhere between Men of War, Company of Heroes, Wargame, Jagged Alliance 2, Ground Control, World In Conflict and Act of War. Probably closest towards Men of War in terms of scale.

All your units have ammo for their weapons, with vehicles having directional armour and components, as well as fuel, spare parts for field repairs, and an ammo pool for infantry to rearm from. Infantry squads also have ammo, and can equip a variety of support weapons. All of which persists between missions, from the very beginning; Ammo, fuel and spare parts are replenished from a limited supply; you need to actually acquire special weapons to save them.

Infantry casualties must be replaced between missions from the civilians you rescue during them or from disbanding other squads - with additional squads and new vehicles being awarded for completing side objectives or just found in the missions. Vehicles must be crewed by troops trained to do so - who you can freely dismount at-will if you need to crew another vehicle or avoid making one a target; many can carry passengers with a specific number of seats rather than squad slots. In the same way, buildings are garrisonable and have decent destruction. Projectiles are physical and must actually connect with their target to do damage. Armoured vehicles are very resistant, if not impervious to small arms.

The game certainly has its flaws; it's a little unpolished on the interface/controls/responsivity side of things. There are balance and pacing issues, with the 3rd mission being a huge difficulty spike - and pulling your attention six different ways at once. Make sure to get that Bradley going the second you have control over it, and, and start pulling your squads back to the central bunker and other defensive positions within the base before the game prompts you to; use engineers to set up mines in every choke-point behind the initial frontline. Get your armour crews to the southeast corner as soon as you can afford to give up the repair bay/supply depot area. In general, the more squads you manage to pull out, the better off you'll be for the rest of the campaign.

Most weapons are purely lethal to infantry, and it's hard to go through any given mission without losing a few from each squad. Vehicles can die just as quickly, and armour facing doesn't seem to account for much on the scale of things. The maps consist mostly of a lot of open ground which even the machines' most basic armoured vehicle will dominate - you're pretty much forced to crawl anywhere there's an enemy presence, to get in range before engaging and to do so safely. Unless your name's Sun Tzu I'd recommend against playing on the hardest difficulty.

Most special weapons types can only be used by specific squad types, when the majority of them are something that - while they might not be proficient with, they could probably figure out and put to use if it came down to it.

There's only 2 infantry formations - tactical blob, and line - and wider-spaced variants of each. There's been a few situations where a staggered column or wedge wouldn't have gone amiss - but more than anything else, I wish it had a more CoH or MoW-style cover system, where troops conform to the terrain features at least as much as their formations.

Skirmish mode is very undercooked with only 4(?) maps, with a couple having versions for both modes. The domination mode ends the instant one team or the other controls all the points, which are themselves captured just as quickly with a unit standing on it.

What I like most is that past the first 3 missions, you get a lot of choices to make - speaking to characters to get quests within the mission, and multiple ways to complete the main objectives - with side objectives being meaningful and consequential.

Voice acting ranges from decent to hammy, but never offensively so. Unit barks are good and convincing, as well as informative - and you can even overhear conversations between troops like in CoH. The game has a decent notification system for when a squad runs out of a given ammo type, takes a casualty or is wiped; ditto with vehicles being immobilised or having their weapon knocked out.

If you like the Terminator franchise or just the idea of real-time-tactics with a metagame against a robotic enemy, it's a pretty easy recommend.

Insanely cool combat. That's what the game offers. It only has 4 skirmish maps, which is painful, and the campaign is human only, but bloody hell is the combat in this game impressive. It's extremely faithful to the source material, with hyper-realistic combat (think Company of Heroes where crews, engines, and individual weapons can be disabled). Everything just "feels" right. There is no base-building, you requisition units to appear directly off the edge of the map and send them in to capture various points.
If you just want skirmish, I'd wait to get it on sale. I'd love to see a paint the map type campaign eventually and more skirmish maps, but it scratched the itch to see cool terminator battles for now, so it works for me.

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.

- - - - -
Intro :
Disclaimer, I was in the Beta which is how I got this review out so quick. Gonna keep it short and stay light on spoilers here because I think the story is something you should get to experience yourself.
I’ll address the elephant in the room first, yes this game is set in the Dark Fate Timeline, but i don’t think you should let that affect your judgement of it. This is a very Authentic Terminator Experience, as far as atmosphere goes you really feel like an underdog in a post apocalyptic war with all of the odds against you and the Characters are quite likeable with their own personalities.
With the Persistent Army, general atmosphere, the closest game I could compare this too
would be Homeworld 1, which being one of my favourite games is big praise for me. This is a great RTS and a good Story based game, with your choices throughout actually affecting the story in various ways both in gameplay and dialogue.
- - - - -
Tactical Gameplay - :
Cover and positioning is key here, placing infantry into buildings or vehicles, but also using the terrain to your advantage. The game won’t give you little shield pips that show you were covered like in say Company of Heroes, so you have to actually look at the terrain and think for yourself ‘is this cover? Will this protect my squad?’ The second mission shows this off a little bit
Like in Homeworld, you can be pretty sly, capturing enemy vehicles and weapons will give you a great advantage, not only providing you with more firepower but you can sell them off to settlements and bases providing you with more money to either buy new infantry squads or to upgrade or provide new skills for your existing units. This also makes you consider how you approach enemy units, do you use an ATGM to take out an enemy tank, or do you take it on with less powerful weapons hoping to disable the vehicle so you can capture it for your own forces, putting your squads at greater risk in the process.
- - - - -
Strategic Gameplay - :
Your army is persistent, it sticks with you throughout the entire game. Your units level up and you can give them various upgrades, from new weapons to different upgrades for your vehicles like improved engines, armour or new features such as a Missile Launcher for your Bradly being added on top of its already existing weapons.
You have two main resources to consider during the campaign, Goodwill Credits and Supplies. Your Army takes supplies to move from location to location, so you need to balance how many units you have with how many supplies you have, do you bring a bunch of Technicals or a Tank for example? This is imo the most difficult aspect of the game, though there is a skill that can mitigate a units Supply Cost .
The coolest part of the strategic layer imo is customising your units, giving them upgrades, new weapons and so on.
- - - - -
Units :
Your main units in this are Infantry and Ground Vehicles, though each major faction has an aircraft of their own
Units generally stay pretty useful throughout the Campaign, though the different factions have different uses / playstyles for their vehicles and infantry. This means that Humvee you got in Mission 3 can stick with you right until the end and still be effective right up to the end.
Units have Skills that can increase their effectiveness too, which makes the game feel kind of like an RPG at points. Each unit levels up as they gain experience, incentivising you to keep them alive. You can spend your Good Will Credits at certain Settlements and Bases to Train your units, gaining skills that can improve them in various ways.
The game has Hero Units, but they don’t work like you might expect. They are quite powerful, but only if used right, they can die just as easily as anyone else and unlike in other RTS they won’t respawn or revive if killed, they’re just dead. Keeping them alive can affect the story and mission objectives, so you have to balance using powerful ‘hero’ units or not risking them.
- - - - -
Story :
The Story is very good imo, the characters are generally pretty likeable and the fact you can affect how the story progresses. I want to avoid spoilers here, but you should think about what you do and how you do it as things can affect the story and your objectives in ways you might not think. With my favourite character being a hero unit you unlock in mission 4 called ‘Kondo’.

There is an in game encyclopaedia which gives info on units, both gameplay stuff and lore info which is brilliant. I love when games have this kind of feature. I do wish there was info on Weapons and Upgrades lore wise but we get plenty of lore as is.
- - - - -
How can the game improve :
The biggest way I think the game could be improved is just to add more of what we have, more upgrades, more units, more missions and so on.
The second biggest and perhaps more important than the first is a map editor, this was game changing for Starship Troopers: Terran Command and would be great here, allowing the community to keep making maps and missions to keep the game alive even after players have finished the main campaign.

Cosmetic Customisation for units, this is pretty low priority but being able to choose the paint colour of our units would be nice or adding decals / flags and such.

The premise of this game is interesting in the way it is pitting regular modern human military units up against a robot army that is totally not Skynet. While this game may look like a regular RTS, it is not. There is an excessive amount of micromanagement for things like supplies and ammunition that can literally make or break your gameplay experience. I believe that the base game itself does need more development.