“I’ll be back.”
Easily one of modern cinema’s most iconic lines from one of cinema’s most iconic SF action movies. A true classic that has since spawned multiple sequels, soft reboots, a television series and quite a few amount of videogames, with the iconic T-800’s skull-faced robotic visage the face of the franchise.
It’s also fitting to begin this review with that line since, as with the T-800, Terminator Resistance Complete Edition, Teyon’s officially licensed game for the franchise, has made a return to the Xbox Series of consoles. However, that’s not entirely correct since Terminator Resistance Complete Edition never really went away. Since its original release in 2019 on last-gen consoles, Teyon has spent the intervening years crafting two DLC expansions, refining the game and bringing it to the PS5.
Now, that enhanced edition of the game has “come back” to the Xbox Series machines in a complete edition that contains the base game and all of its DLC to, as with the PS5 versions, make use of the Xbox’s technology.
Set before the events of the first movie, Terminator Resistance Complete Edition throws us into a Skynet-ravaged future. That horrible apocalyptic wasteland only seen in Reese’s nightmare flashbacks is your home for this adventure. Players take on the role of Rivers, a lowly corporal in the Resistance cog seeking to take out Skynet. But after his unit is wiped out in a Skynet attack, Rivers finds himself marked for termination. It’s an illustrious list with John Connor as Skynet’s white whale so the question becomes, why is Rivers on Skynet’s radar specifically?
On the off chance that you don’t know what Terminator Resistance Complete Edition is (besides being a Terminator game), Resistance is a role-playing FPS set after Judgement Day. Terminator Resistance Complete Edition plays a bit like a stripped-back Far Cry title with a heavy focus on story and characters, played out across a series of large locations. There’s a variety of weaponry for you to pick up, plenty of metal to smash to dust, side-quests to do, a nicely small skill tree and other characters to invest your downtime in. There are also choices to make which will affect who lives and dies and which of the game’s endings you will get.
One of Terminator Resistance Complete Edition’s best aspects is how it ties into the Terminator mythology at large. Terminator Resistance Complete Edition itself takes place before the events of the first Terminator movie, while referencing locations and moments from the first two movies, and, essentially depicts how the events of the first movie came about. If you’re one of those people who like to see how flashback A ties into the overall story, then this is definitely for you.
Another area that Resistance excels in, is in the atmosphere. The future is bleak and oppressive and Teyon has done a wonderful job of evoking the desperation inherent in the situation. This comes across through the visuals, which feature wonderfully lit and modelled ruins. The lighting, in particular, is great with some startling scenes of devastated buildings and ruined freeways.
Combat is a little on the clunky side but very effective. You have an assortment of standard shotguns and automatic rifles, with incredibly useful pipe bombs, before graduating onto Skynet weaponry. Initially fighting the machines is a hazardous affair, especially since Terminator units are resistant to standard ordinance, but once you pick up plasma weaponry, Terminator Resistance Complete Edition becomes a lot more run and gun.
Stealth is also a viable play style, as simple as it is. The mechanics work and the developers have made great use of moments where hiding and running is a tense and terrifying experience. Sadly, once you pick up a plasma rifle, you can forego this play style completely as the difficulty takes a substantial drop.
The rest of the package is comprised of the Annihilation Line story expansion and the Infiltrator Mode DLC. Both of these tie directly into the main game and Terminator mythology overall.
Annihilation Line takes place about midway through the main campaign. Once again you’re dropped into River’s shoes and sent on a mission to save people from Skynet’s termination camps. The big draw here is that you’re partnered up with Kyle Reese on a mission that explains his dream flashbacks in the first movie. It’s a nice piece that continues the tone and style set forth in the main campaign but with a little more action.
Infiltrator Mode is one of Terminator Resistance Complete Edition’s best additions. You’re plopped into the cybernetic shoes of damaged a T-800- Terminator whose goal is to terminate a Tech Com Resistance leader. This is Terminator Resistance Complete Edition’s shortest mode with a 42-minute time limit primed for increasing your score by completing objectives and terminating the target before it runs out. There are no skill points to spend and there’s no saving here. If you die, it’s run over.
Finding the leader revolves around killing Resistance personnel and collecting Intel that unearths food caches, outposts and patrols. Once you have enough evidence, the Resistance bunker will be revealed. Playing as a Terminator feels as powerful and freeing as you expect with great strength and speed. Also, Terminator Vision looks awesome.
Terminator Resistance Complete Edition features enhanced graphical fidelity which includes higher-resolution textures, models and resolution and frame rates. Most noticeable are the much faster load times thanks to the Series machine’s architecture. One area that I do feel Terminator Resistance Complete Edition could have been improved upon is the character models which still look a little last-gen. Skynet machinery fares much better with the Terminator line of enemies, from the T-600 to the T-800 looking quite fantastic and movie accurate. That said, Terminator Resistance Complete Edition isn’t quite this gen beautiful, as lower-res textures and fairly sparse environments do pop up.
Terminator Resistance Complete Edition aurally benefits from being a licensed property as sound effects and music from the movies have been generously used and recreated here. From the sound of plasma weapons to the mechanical clomping of unskinned infiltrator units, to the movie’s excellent theme, the game just sounds great.
Terminator Resistance Complete Edition may be a little clunky in its gameplay but it offers a solid story that ties in nicely to the original movie. With great sound design, good lighting, a stealth system that works and a great atmosphere, it is one of the better-licensed video games around and a whole lot of fun.
Terminator Resistance Complete Edition Xbox Trailer
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