Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance

Finished the campaign 30-40 minutes ago. It was a tough bout'. Won't spoil anyone for the story and what happens, but it definitely has an open ending and has a "cliffhanger" so to speak.
All of the missions were largely solid, though a few stand out as very problematic:
-> Cartel Mission (Infiltration). Very tedious and a lot of downtime & back and forth. You can cheese it immensely with C4 charges but I'm not sure this was the intended way to beat it by the devs. Suggest reducing the downtime by simply giving a faster vehicle and give more rebel reinforcements.
-> Integrator Side/Bonus Mission. Again, won't spoil anything BUT please reduce the amount of Legion spawns in that mission. It's way too much and the only way to adequately beat it is with cheese. Also some of the story make up of that mission doesn't make sense. Also please remove the mines or provide a way to adequate -detect- and -remove- mines.
Those are the only two missions I've had the biggest issues with due to the mechanics not being fleshed out. Now for some genuine feedback:
1) Campaign is awesome. I love the setup and I love the liberties you guys have taken with it. It's really suiting the style and the universe. The mission variety is solid and fun. I half-expected the campaign to end in the Oklahoma mission. Real good stakes and setup.
2) The music is superb (albeit in some cases repetitive).
3) The atmosphere is solid and the traversal on the campaign map is solid. Takes a bit of thought. You don't really need to have a massive army, but a specialised one with veterans. Keeping people alive with veterancy has proven much more useful than more units.
4) The combat is solid, however while I'm aware of the RNG aspects for accuracy, there isn't a lot of information present in the game. How much damage is being done by what weapons and so forth. No need for numbers, just 'low/medium/heavy' and subsequent references to armor. A lot of the stuff is basic knowledge if you have army knowledge and gun knowledge IRL, but it should still be properly descriptive for everyone.
5) Actual game mechanics are legit awesome. The ammo/fuel/specific damage and repair is superb. The ability to scavenge the map before leaving is amazing.
7) Allow to gather dropped weapons either by Supply Truck or by Technicians. I've missed so many upgrades just because of the rudimentary mechanic of not having the right unit to actually pick up the weapon.
8) Add more bonus areas and missions in the Campaign map. That could be something to be done with future DLC but having more additions there as areas for you to explore and grind some resources/fight the machines, would be awesome.
9) To have an option that shows all range indicators for weapons constantly (not on the minimap but in the actual game). I know when you however over a weapon-type you can see them even in the open world, but they are vague and you have to hover on the weapon.
10) Introduce a Supremacy mode similar to Battlesector. It's going to help for the longevity of the game.
11) Expand on the factions and make some playable. (Skirmish) Integrators as one. Also please introduce more integrator vehicles as they are barely touched and used if you don't snipe/flame up the crew/vehicle.
12) This obviously goes to the above but add more maps and more modes.
13) Map editing and potential mod support will help greatly with the longevity of the game.
Those are the main points that I wanted to share with both the Devs and the other folks that bought and are still playing the game.
The game overall is very solid and I found it really enjoyable. Will take a bit of a break to play something else (Pacific Drive :>), but I am definitely planning on getting back to it with a higher difficulty campaign, in the coming weeks. It's really a hidden gem and a really well done RTS in the Terminator universe.
Has a similar vibe akin to Terminator: Resistance, which is a big plus. Overall, I'd give it a 8/10. Some improvements need to be made and some additions, but what's there really works and it's really awesome.

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.

Terminator Defiance is THE RTS any fan of the Terminator franchise have ever been waiting for, and it comes out in a masterful bang!
Destructive environment, badass Terminator sound effects & glorious visual effects, precise tactical gameplay & the ever expanding rush of adrenaline the campaign can provide if you choose to play it in true "movie" panic mode, this is one of the best RTS I've played.
Right there in the pantheon of personal favorites along Company of Heroes!
An amazing experience with a outstanding campaign that changes massively based on your choices and performance in battle, as well as offering massive replayability with an efficient economy on the world map.
A huge warning, this is branded as Dark Fate, but in truth, this plays like the best Future War Terminator 2 universe they could have made. Way above the film's world in both depth, immersion and credibility!
Defiance & Resistance are the 2 sequels the franchise needed, thanks for continuing the story as it deserved to be treated.
Slitherine and the original dev team did a wonderful job, and I dearly hope more is coming, this game deserves it!
Don't hesitate, throw them all your wallet & lunch money!! They need to keep working on it!

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 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.

The most brutal 1990's type of save scumming is required. The difficulty is completely ridiculous. 9/10

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"