Transcript
Speaker: In the year 2020, a red panda in a talking sandwich began a podcast called Chat Tsunami. As the podcast grew, they began attracting the attention of the dreaded podcast bots. Now, in 2022, beginning their third season, they must make their way through all of the Terminator films. Wait, even Genesis? Yes, even Genesis.
Speaker: Oh, man. Well, Lisa's no birdemic. Welcome to Chatsunami.
Speaker: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Sad Tsunami. My name's Sad Tsunami and joining me today to discuss... Sorry, to discuss the world of Pokémon is none other than... Sorry Adam, sorry, what are you doing?
Speaker: Adam, you do know that Terminator Month is over, right? We ended Terminator Month. Negative. We only postponed the end. We're doing Terminator Resistance, y 'all! No! Oh! When I thought I was out, they dragged me back in. Little hand rose out of the foundry and pulled you back in. So this is, like, not a shout -out, but the opposite of that is a call -out to Myles Dyson. Myles, you doomed us all. Thank you.
Speaker: Thanks for nothing. But yeah, how are you doing today, Adam? I'm doing all right, thank you very much. I'm especially doing all right now that I know Terminator Mumfish is hanging around for a little bit longer. I wasn't ready to see it go. I wasn't ready to watch it drive off into the sunset.
Speaker: Yeah, I love it, man. I've been even watching a lot of bad films that we've had. We'll say bad, but you know, films of lowering quality over the last while, I've just enjoyed every second. Long may 10 minute a month live. Well, we still get some use out of the thumbnail. That's a plus. Have you paid good bucks for that, I presume, so get your money's worth? Oh, and this dollar. I was like, oh, and this pound. The sweat off my brew.
Speaker: So yeah, as you alluded to there, today we are going to be talking about a game called Terminator Resistance, which I'm going to be honest, I had never heard of this game before it came out. It didn't have a very high profile in fairness, it wasn't exactly plastered everywhere on the side of buses and billboards, so understandable.
Speaker: You know, I actually remember seeing a video of someone stabbing a terminator with the termination knife in the game, and they were doing a thing like, oh, how to kill a terminator. I remember seeing that and thinking, oh, right, that's cool. Someone's playing the old Terminator game.
Speaker: who gave it a thought? And then it wasn't until I was on Steam and it was like, oh here's all these games on sale. And then I saw Terminator Resistance, they're like, oh that's cool, what the old Terminator game on sale? And then I looked and it said 2019 and I was like, 2019? No way! How did I miss this? But you're right. Is that correct though in saying that this came out with like little to no fanfare?
Speaker: oh god yeah this kind of just like slipped out it came out i think it was in december 2019 as well so like i mean that is the christmas period but i think you know that tends to be like quite late in the christmas period to be released and i think it really did just like like a thief in the night it just kind of snuck out but yeah because i don't i think i remember hearing about this game being in development at some point
Speaker: But I don't recall seeing its release or being, you know, like being aware of it being released. It wasn't until, I don't think it was until 2020 that I became aware that it had been released and was out. And again, I didn't pick it up until I think it was last year, 2021 that I picked it up and played this game.
Speaker: I literally played it a couple of weeks ago because I had no idea and as I said I saw it in sale and I thought you know what for the price they were asking for I might as well try it and of course I'll save my opinions for the game for much later but yeah this game is like ironically enough it is like the infiltration unit of Terminator games.
Speaker: Adam, before we go on and get to the real heart of this game, what can you tell me about it?
Speaker: Polish -based developer of memory serves, though they have an office in Japan as well, and they've been quite active. We were just browsing through their gameography before we came on the app here, and it certainly is. There's a lot of games there, not a lot of games I recognized, I'll be honest, and not a lot of games that seem to have a Wikipedia page, but still seem to have a productive output in the studio. However, they've rose to some, I wouldn't quite say prominence, that's too much, but they rose to like some kind of fame in 2014 when they released the Rambo Trilogy, the video game, which
Speaker: to be kind wasn't very well received, generally. I'm sure if you type it into YouTube, you can find a lot of people mocking the video, raging out at it, laughing at it. It was very much going to be done in the style of something like House of the Dead or Time Crisis, almost in a way, but with Sylvester Stallone's polygonal face pushed on there and a lot of quick time events. So that wasn't exactly well received.
Speaker: and then I think when people heard they were making a Terminator game there's a lot of eye rolling and I think another reason maybe why this game sort of went quite far under the radar but this released we'll talk a bit more about this reception because its reception is a little bit divisive depending on what your profession was but now Teyon are currently working on a Robocop game called Robocop Rogue City due to be released next year which I watched a trailer I don't have use in your trailer for it Satsu but I quite like the trailer and I'm quite interested by it I'm a little bit excited actually for I have to
Speaker: after that I haven't played the Rambo game so I can't really speak to like how good they are at dashing hopes and dreams as aware of popular franchises but pretty good I think.
Speaker: Yeah, probably. It's like Rambo Terminator, especially Robocop, those are very much like 80s and 90s icons. They're very prolific series, so to actually mess with that is, how to put this, it's really balancing on life's edge really to say, are we going to make something good or are we going to piss off a lot of people? Sometimes it's the latter, sometimes it's the former. It's really the risk you take, isn't it?
Speaker: Well, that's exactly it. I mean, adapting like a film license, especially one that is very beloved. You're going to get eyeballs on your product and you're going to get people buying it, you know, because they love a particular franchise. But you are also messing with people who are probably very dedicated to that franchise and are not going to tolerate you messing with their franchise, whether that be with like, you know, changing canon or just making a bad game. So, yeah, you are. There's a lot of pros, but there's a lot of cons to following that route. I mean, how by wrong they can imagine changing the canon for Terminator.
Speaker: They would never do that, would they? No, they would never. No, never at all. I think in the history of the franchise, and this is something we talked about in the past four episodes, Terminator has always been consistent, hasn't it? It's never put a foot out of line. All of the films are equally beloved. I can't keep you going, sorry.
Speaker: What, out of principle? My body just shut down there. I just powered down. I was just like, no. I self -terminated rather than keep going. Rather than praise stuff like Genesis. Okay, see, before we get cancelled and the red -pandol lawyer hits me over the head for that, will we just jump to the transmissions and then go into this discussion? Let's do it. As I write up my legal papers and or my last well and taste of the money,
Speaker: We will be right back after these messages. Welcome to Chatsunami, a variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime and journal interests. Previously on Chatsunami, we've analysed what makes a good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs James Bond, and listened to us take deep dives into both the Sonic and Halo franchises.
Speaker: Also, if you're an anime fan, then don't forget to check us out on our sub -series, Chatsunani, where we dive into the world of anime. So far, we've reviewed things like Death Note, Princess Mononoke, and the hit Beyblade series. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out on Spotify, iTunes, and all big podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
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Speaker: So Adam, as your favourite part of the episode, what is Terminator Genis about?
Speaker: You're not going to make me describe that one again, don't you try and fool me again. I know your tricks Mr Satsu. Well, especially the romance options.
Speaker: I can't really describe those. So anyway, the plot of Terminator Resistance. So it takes place in 2028. So we're deep in the war between Skynet and humanity. It's not looking good for humanity right now. This is very much where we feel like we're at the apex of the Skynet's war against the Resistance and it's crushing. It's crushing all those who oppose it. And you take on the role of a Resistance soldier called Jacob Rivers, who is a sole survivor of his Resistance unit, which is wiped out in the city of Pasadena, which is not far away from Los Angeles. I know my American
Speaker: geography. However, just as he's about to be killed, Jacob is saved by a mysterious stranger. And then not long after that, he groups up with some human survivors and he's trying to make his way back towards Resistance Command and also gets involved helping them out. And eventually, you know, he links up with the Resistance and he's tasked with conducting missions against Skynet. At the same time, the mysterious stranger keeps appearing. And we also find out that an Infiltrator Terminator is out to kill Jacob, but we don't quite know why. As you play the game, all is revealed.
Speaker: How was that one? Yeah, I would say that's a pretty damn good debrief in there. Oh, and there's sex scenes as well. There we go. We'll get on to that, but not in the... I cannot believe that's a feature in this game. I was actually joking to you, and again, we won't go too much in depth.
Speaker: this part of the episode, but I was joking to you because I remember hitting the romance option and I was like, oh, I wonder what this is going to be, you know, a fade to black. And there's a lot of fade to blacks, but they fade in an awful lot. They were like, not to sound crude and apologies, but they were definitely programming with one hand that day.
Speaker: That was very surprising. I was saying to you off recording there that, do you remember when we were growing up in scandals like Hot Coffee and GTA? They were the things that were causing all the controversies that there was a potential sex scene, but low polygons and they're fully clothed and yet that was somehow the deal breaker for all these groups. Then you've got two scenes, not one, but two scenes, and this one and they're like, what are you going to do?
Speaker: how we moved on as a society. We'd really have. We truly love in a society. But yeah, we'll put that in the corner right now. We'll put that very controversial option in the game to one side. Let's talk about the positives of this game because I'm going to get the ball rolling here and just say the atmosphere in this game, the overall feel of Terminator is fantastic. Is it right to say that we're quite lukewarm about this game when it first came out?
Speaker: Yes, certainly initial critical reception to this game was lukewarm to pretty disdainful. If you go on Metacritic, the critic Metascore sits at 55. I was reading extracts of a Eurogamer review to you, which is a one out of five star review. So people were not initially very positive towards this game. That has subsequently changed. It seems to be quite a sharp divide between critics and the general public when it comes to the game. But you're completely right in saying initial opinion was not
Speaker: The only thing that I did note amongst fans of the game, critics of the game, something that everybody seems to universally agree on is the fact that this game gets the tone right. So although it mainly focuses on Terminator 1 and 2, there are kind of small cheeky nods to Terminator 3. Did you notice that just with the T -850s?
Speaker: Oh, of course, yeah, they appear as enemies, aren't they at points? Yeah, they're a lot like beefier and stronger. The cores don't explode, I don't think. Well, sort of if you shoot them, but they're nuclear explosions. Yeah, there's no nuclear. It is so bizarre seeing this game, seeing what they've directly lifted from Terminator 1 and 2. And believe me, they lift a lot of iconography, a lot of scenes
Speaker: and things, but sorry before I go on gushing about that, what were your impressions of the game, like the positive impressions? Yeah like I 100 % agree with you and I think it really nails the atmosphere and tone of especially those initial terminators. Kind of something that we talked about when we were talking about well the later films like post Terminator 1. A lot of the kind of future scenes and stuff didn't really have the kind of hopelessness
Speaker: that I felt Terminator 1 was so great at conveying about this feature. But I feel like Resistance really nails that so well. This does feel like humanity is on the brink right now. It really does feel like Skynet is winning and there seems to be very little that humanity can do but just try and click on for another day, another hour. And so I was so impressed with that.
Speaker: feels again like you're part of a resistance movement. A criticism that I've levied quite a long later films is that to me these future scenes feel more like conventional war rather than the kind of scrappy resistance that was portrayed in Terminator 1. I felt this game much more goes back to that room. There's still elements, some big battles and things that are more like conventional war, but it really does feel for a large part like you are just a plucky resistance member, literally scavenging everything you can find to craft things to try and fight back against the machine. So I 100 % agree with that. I was
Speaker: really really impressed with what it did tonally and with his atmosphere and everything. What I quite liked as well is that I quite enjoyed, I thought the game was pretty good at like varying its intensity and the scenarios. The game is an FPS and so you know the bulk of your time you are shooting things as you do in most FPS games.
Speaker: I felt like the game is able to blend bigger action set pieces with more slower pace stealth and scavenging sections and you've also got some moments of downtime where you're getting to know characters and things. I don't know how you feel about this, but I thought the game was quite good at that and it didn't just pick one lane and just stick with it. It kind of switched lanes and I thought that was a good choice and I liked that.
Speaker: Yeah, it was quite surprising that they didn't treat it like a conventional Call of Duty game, because, I mean, don't get me wrong, we will talk about the negatives later on, and I think it bests the gameplay's kind of mediocre. I was getting a lot of
Speaker: home front flashbacks when I was playing it thinking it's an okay one. That is something I pointed out to you that this is one of the rare examples because usually when you get like a movie tie -in game it's usually because they're tied to like a movie or something that's what brings it down.
Speaker: But ironically enough, I feel as if it's the opposite in this case. I feel as if the fact it is attached to the Terminator name actually elevates it and makes it that much better. And I totally agree with the pacing of this game. The pacing is absolutely fantastic in this.
Speaker: you know, you've got moments where you can decide to slow down, be dark, sneak by enemies, there's a particular moment where, oh god, I was actually really terrified because there's a particular scene where you have to sneak through a hospital which, if you're a horror fan then you'll know that asylums and hospitals there can do your genetic
Speaker: pieces for horror and you have to sneak through a whole lore to rescue these resistance fighters. It's very daunting. I'm not gonna lie, it was very scary because at that point you only have weapons that don't kill terminally, they can't hurt them.
Speaker: you can get a shotgun that knocks them over or you can throw grenades at them. And I remember the first time I was playing through it, I had very much a Sarah Connor from T2 moment where I ran round the corner and then all of a sudden this T800 came round the corner and I was like, no!
Speaker: They did slow motion back. There was also a moment as well where I got caught behind a door and this terminator, it kept smotting me but because I was crouched down, it couldn't hit me. So I was whacking it with the pipe. I was like, get back, get back. And it wasn't doing anything. And the terminator's looking down as if, what are you doing? They're like, get away, you vain, you vagabond. But I thought moments like that were absolutely fantastic.
Speaker: And I like the fact that they don't introduce the laser weapons right away, because the laser weapons are the only things that can actually destroy T -800 models. And can I just say, what a relief it is, and again, this is going to make me sound like a psycho, but what a relief that terminators are back to terminating again.
Speaker: As you said, the whole tone of the films going forward was very obsessed with being more action -oriented, throwing people around. There was no, you know, that visceral violence or action. There was nothing to say, oh, we should be terrified of this. But
Speaker: in this game it's like you are genuinely terrified to come up against a T -800. If you actually get caught by them it's like an instant death and I thought that was quite a cool addition. I T -1000 % agree with you on everything you said there. It was so great to see these machines become scary again and
Speaker: and certainly at least initially I think they lose it a little bit towards the end because when you get more powerful weapons you can pretty much start to mow them down so they kind of lose that but certainly the first half of the game and you're completely right about that hospital bit like that terrified me. I remember playing that and having a mix of excitement but also just fear at this bit and it really took me by surprise and I'd been enjoying the game up to that point but I did not expect to get that kind of reaction while playing it so I was so happy.
Speaker: to see that I'm so impressed with what they did there it pays great lip service to the original films but what I like as well is that it feels able to kind of do its own thing too it doesn't feel like so beholden to t1 and t2 that like it can't like chart its own course and I think it does very well between staying in that universe and staying true to it but also feeling able to tell its own story you know and
Speaker: As much as the story does intersect, especially towards the end with the stories of Terminator 1 and Terminator 2, but I'm okay with that, but I'm so happy that they felt able to tell their own story and actually make their own additions to the lore. And one thing I absolutely loved, who were saying it, but there's a thing they talk about, they mentioned quite a few times in the game, especially early on. They mentioned a thing called the Annihilation Line, which is just this line of T -800 just marching forward and just killing and destroying everything in their path.
Speaker: Just as a symbol and an image, I thought that was so amazing. I could visualise it straight away, and I was like, that is exactly what I imagined Skynet would do. Create a line of T -800s and just send them marching forward. I thought that was such a clever and amazing little addition to the lore. I really like how this game blends itself with the existing lore, but feels able to add new elements, which I think it does really well.
Speaker: Yeah, that was something that the film seemed to fail at quite a lot. And again, I'm no movie producer or writer or anything, so take my words with a grain of salt. But it seemed as if, as I've said before, it seemed as if T2 was like the kind of template going forward. They always had to have the wacky terminator with the bigger and badder weapons and the abilities.
Speaker: And then he had John Connor running for his life, he had to have John Connor interwoven in some way. But it was never a case of John Connor was there, but he was in the background. Even with Salvation they tried that, but they still made him quite a central character. They kept cutting back to him every five minutes and you're like, oh great, it's a John Connor story. Get down, lighting man. You know, that kind of thing. Yeah, it just, it seemed as if they were putting far too much focus on John Connor.
Speaker: and slight spoilers here if I feel spoilers for the ending, but we get name drops for John Connor, but we don't actually get to see John Connor until the very end. Can I just say, see that scene at the very end where you walk out with him and he does the thing he does from T2. Remember he walks out and then he gets the binoculars and he looks out into the distance. I was fanboying so hard at that. It's so well done.
Speaker: Oh it's glorious, isn't it? And can I just like point out as well something that I don't think we've mentioned yet is the sound design for this game. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, especially going back to that hospital level, especially for that. It just builds up the atmosphere. It's just fantastic because it's not, I mean I'm struggling to think of soundtracks in Terminator now, but it's not like that kind of rock tune. It's like more of the kind of 80s synthesizer music.
Speaker: It's quite industrial at points, especially at points of action. You get almost like a kind of machine banging. It almost reminded me a little bit of the Goldeneye film soundtrack at points in some of the noises and stuff, and I thought it was really effective for that. Can I posit a potentially hot take? Maybe you don't think this is a hot take at all, but can I do that? Go for it.
Speaker: So I think, outside of the theme song for Terminator 2, which I think is the best, I think Terminator Resistance's version of the Terminator main tune is probably my second favourite of all time. Yeah, I can see that. I love it. And it does have a slightly more rock vibe to it, because it's got those kind of electric, the when a wailing electric guitars, but I really adore it. There were points after I finished this game, I would just sometimes just boot it up if I was doing something else, just to go onto the main menu, just to listen to it. I love it so much.
Speaker: I mean, when I was playing it last night, I think I spent the first couple of minutes just going... I totally agree with you. It's just so impactful. Don't get me wrong, the other films and things, they have their own versions and now it's a terminator thing, but for this one, it does throw you back into T1 and T2 when you first heard that soundtrack and you think,
Speaker: This is Terminator. This is the soundtrack. So completely agree. I think the theme is absolutely fantastic. But are there any other positives? Yeah, I don't think the story's amazing. I don't think it's groundbreaking. But I think it's pretty decent. I think it builds well.
Speaker: and I kind of like its ending. I think as you kind of mentioned briefly, but I'd like to just cosign and say I like that you get a mix of kind of more conventional weapons of laser weapons. I feel it's a good mix and it's nice to have both. And I think as well, I think one last thing I'd like, actually, one thing I quite enjoyed is I quite enjoyed like exploring some of the environments. I thought some of the environments were quite cool to just like explore around and just scavenge supplies and stuff. And again, I don't think the game plays any great shakes, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. It kind of like immersed me in the world, I thought. And just as a final point, I'd say I think the finale is really, really
Speaker: I think it's so epic and I think it's really awesome. I was watching a clip of it today before we started recording and I was like oh it's such a good, it's so well done that like I think the music, they do another kind of version of the Terminator theme and I think it's great and it just feels epic as you're like smashing your way towards the time displacement unit and everything is like a huge battle and I really like that. I completely agree with you there, the fact that when you're fighting through them and you hear John Connor's voice through the radio and he's like
Speaker: they've sent a Terminator through. They've sent another as you're like hopelessly fighting against them. And I think they get the Terminators off here, they get the original T -800 from Terminator 1, they get the T -1000 and then they get the Infiltrator from the beginning of the game. But I totally agree in regards to the world building. That is something they actually do really well. As you said before, this story isn't amazing, you know, it's not going to
Speaker: low anybody's socks off any time soon, if in the future they still have socks. But at the same time, I did like exploring and actually picking up the letters. They were kind of scattered all around, and the one criticism I would say with that is there was like a ginger's have no soul joke thrown in there, and I was like, really?
Speaker: It's 2019, why are we still making Jungers have no Soul Shokes? Well there is, there's literally when you go to the, I think it's before you'd call and find the Infiltrator for the first time. Which again, that's done really well because that Infiltrator is creepy as hell. It's just like, it's very much like Arnie in the films.
Speaker: It's tall, it's muscular and it just keeps walking towards you. It's so well done. Yeah, I did like seeing the letters from different people and them saying, I'm gonna make it. And then you turn round and the body's there and you went, oh, you didn't make it at all, did you?
Speaker: I mean, I did like some of the characters. Going back to the core cast of this, there's a lot of very slight warning here. We're probably going to dive into some very serious topics here, so maybe skip ahead a couple of minutes. But yeah, there's some very serious topics they deal with here, but I never felt as if they did it in an insensitive way. Did you feel like that?
Speaker: Yeah, I didn't, I didn't feel like anything was put in there for just shock value or yeah, as you say, like done it appropriately. I felt they did enough to like hint, you know, or to like state some of the more nasty elements, but didn't like linger on it overly. You know, it was just kind of presented and it was like, it was about to pause and be like, Oh God.
Speaker: I really liked some of the environmental storytelling. One bit that I really enjoyed was, oh, I forget the level now. I think it's where you have to go and take pictures of the lasers. It's like missile defense thing. I don't know if you remember the level I'm talking about. Oh, no, I do. Sorry. Can I just go off on the side tangent? Yeah, of course, yes.
Speaker: There's a particular side objective where you're supposed to take a picture of the T -47, I think it's called. I remember I turned round the corner and I saw a spider, you're one of the small spider robots. I remember getting a picture of shooting that and I thought, oh that's cool, the T -47's just a variant of the spider.
Speaker: It wasn't until I walked round the corner and I saw this hulking Pacific Rim looking over at me and I was like, well shit, that's not. That's a T47. Oh no. So yeah, I had to make a beeline with my brown trousers onto the building next door. That was terrifying. It really knows how to keep you on your toes but sorry.
Speaker: No, that's amazing. I think actually this place is actually not far away from where that T -47 is. You can go visit Jennifer's old house where her father was, and Jennifer's one of the main characters that you kind of meet and you bond with throughout the story. And like Emma said, you can visit her, I think it's her father's house anyway, or stepfathers. I can't quite remember what the relation is.
Speaker: And you kind of hear from her. She doesn't like, I don't think she outright tells you, but she kind of hints at the fact that he kind of went mad, you know, with everything that was happening. And like, she took her like step -brother and like escaped because she was scared. And then you can like, as you go in the house, you can kind of see, you kind of get a sense of his mental state from that. And I thought it was really well done. And it's a bit, I found a really memorable bit that kind of stayed with me. So I thought they did some of those moments really, really well.
Speaker: And it's the fact as well, it doesn't pressure you to learn more about these characters or do these side missions, but if you're a fan of the story, much like ourselves, then it really pays off. And I think one particular character that I really love, but again,
Speaker: this is going into quite deep themes here, but is the character of Erin, who I honestly, I thought initially this was going to be a very stereotypical, oh look at me, I'm a hardass, I don't take poop from nobody kind of character. You know the kind of character I mean, Adam. Oh, I know exactly who you mean. Yeah, and then when you get to find out about her, you realise that she was actually part of the Terminator camp,
Speaker: camps where they, for whatever reason, they herd them in and they, for whatever reason, whether it's word experiments or whatever, they basically, eh, it's just as horrible as you said in some of the previous episodes, there's a lot of links between that and the Holocaust, the way that they herd them in, they brand them, they treat them basically like cattle. And the way she actually recounts her time in the camp
Speaker: It's horrific, like for example she talks about a robot called, well they called it Nurse Ratched, which first of all the name's really clever but they say how it had like this rubbery skin with a permanent smile on it that was supposed to be friendly or that's what the robots thought and she speaks about a woman who was pregnant and apparently being pregnant is like a one -way ticket to getting ground up
Speaker: by the machines, which I thought was horrific. And then she talks about how she took that baby with her husband and managed to escape the camps by hiding in a masquerade. And going back to what I was saying about Homefront before, that's how you use a setting really well and not for shock value to say, right everybody, into the masquerade for Essex.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Press X to dive into the mass grave. Obviously we don't see that fortunately, but the way she recounts it, it's just, it's harrowing, it's horrifying. And then we realise that although she doesn't really care for her husband on the outside, you can certainly tell that she has obvious feelings for him, and he is quite like a gentle soul, and then when you actually find him later on, it's just a shame he ends up
Speaker: spoilers but you find his body and later he's written saying that he's going to wait for her and if he doesn't see her he's going to go to Mexico and it's just tragic. It's really like there's glimmers of hope but you can definitely tell there is hardship in this universe, especially with Commander Baron's character. That really took me off guard. Were you the same?
Speaker: Yeah, because I don't think you'd expect that from her character. Her character very much when you first meet her, a lot of the time as you're getting to know her, she really does appear like the kind of military hard -ass drill sergeant. There's no sympathy or empathy really, it's just like a stony exterior. But you begin to peel away at those layers and you see a very vulnerable person underneath who's gone through incredible hardship of their own prior to becoming this commander of the Resistance Union. You can kind of see how that kind of stony personality has developed. So I thought that was kind of very
Speaker: Well done. Yeah, I agree. Like I think I think a lot of the most of the main characters are pretty well developed and like you do kind of want to get to know them more and that that works well for the games like downtime sections. You do want to like spend a bit of time and just potter about and get to know people talk to them and you know also as well like find the things they're looking for you know and everything you kind of want to like go out of your way to find things for them whether it be tools or like
Speaker: I'm on a guitar at one point, maybe I'm getting confused with another game now, but you can find a puppy as well to give to the young boy Patrick and stuff, so I think it's quite well done. What I will say is I did find that really weird when you do get the puppy, and it makes no noise, and you go through all these action scenes getting shot at, and the puppy just says nothing. The puppy's like, yeah, I'm going to stay out of this. I wish my dog was as quiet as that, that'd be amazing.
Speaker: Yes, same, I mean come on. Although I have to admit there was one funny moment when you go into Commander Baron's base. I remember there was like two dogs sitting at the entrance. I remember I went in later on in the game and there was only one and I got really sad and I was texting you and I was like, oh no, one of the dogs has died and then I turned round and it turned out that the dog was just sitting at the desk and I was just like, never mind, you got a desk dog. It's fine, it's fine. False alarm, false alarm.
Speaker: and that really panicked me. I was like, no, not the dog, please. No, I think they really treat the serious themes with a lot of reverence and not to go too deep into the command abandoned story because it is very grim and it definitely showcases the horrors of humanity even at the darkest hour. It doesn't just
Speaker: suggest that all the bad things are done by the machines. It's also a small group of people as well. It's haunted all around. So overall, I do agree. It sets the whole tone of the game. It really flashes out at the characters. But speaking of flesh, will we go into the negatives of the game? There are some, so we do have to touch on them. Indeed. Was that a pun?
Speaker: I mean, what, your flesh comment? No, your touch comment. Oh, my touch comment, yes, yes, yes. Move on before I do something very inappropriate, let's go. Well, we'll just get this point out of the way first. Yeah, go for it. So, throughout the game, first and foremost, it is an FPS. You know, you run from point A to B, you do side objectives and things, but also they decided to add, like, a kind of fallout system, so, you know, you can hack things, you can, which I think is cool, by the way, that game of Frogger that you have to
Speaker: I think it's great, but, you know, you hack things, you have conversation trees, you have romance options, you have lockpicking, that kind of thing. I thought it was really well done. But then they added a romance option which, although it is new,
Speaker: in a video game, you know, you've got them at Skyrim, Fallout, really any RPG, like inserting the RPG here that's going to have a romance option. But they decided to go one step further and have a hot coffee slash rumpy -pumpy scene. I've had two of them throughout this game. And don't get me wrong, you don't see everything fortunately, but
Speaker: from what you do see, it's basically like it feels like you're having a fight with a puppet. You know those old goosebumps where it's like the night of the living puppet, it's like you wake up and there's this puppet on top of you trying to beat you to death? The kind of glassy expression. I'm gonna borrow a phrase from our playthrough of Heavy Rain, the, oh, oh, oh yeah, did this need to be in the game?
Speaker: We did it! I mean, there was literally one scene of that in Terminator 1. Did they really need to have that much influence from the first time? The answer is no. They really didn't need to. Again, in concept, it's fine. It's a thing about video games. I've just kind of accepted it.
Speaker: To go that much detail, I thought was probably was a bit excessive, but I've seen worse. And so I'll say there's a there's a game called right to hell retribution out there. If you want to see some some truly amazing video game sex scenes, I would I would highly recommend looking up that game. If you want a good laugh, you're right. They don't add anything to the experience. I don't think they made it to detract from it. They're just sort of funny. It's just funny to look at and stuff. But also at the same time, if my partner had walked in, I definitely would have like slammed the remote and turned the TV off.
Speaker: there's that blend. It's awkwardly funny to be honest. I mean it's that moment as well that when you're playing it, basically if you've earned the trust of both love and trust, which can I point out that you can romance both of them. There you go, exactly. You don't have to commit yourself in this game.
Speaker: polyamory, not just for terminators. Well, Carlo had his love of drapes and platonic relationships, so I'll have so many questions about it, don't get me started. Let's move on. It doesn't detract, but I do remember when you talked to them and
Speaker: there's a particular dialogue option and it's got like a wee tiny heart beside it and I remember clocking that for the first time and I was like oh that's nice you know we're gonna have a romantic scene he's gonna kiss her and you know fade to black and then it kept going I was like a Victorian I was like oh my goodness is that her leg is that an ankle I was like oh no again I was looking at the door thinking if my partner walks in right now I'm gonna be so embarrassed you don't understand this is a game about terminators
Speaker: Now I do agree. It's a bit awkward to put in, but speaking of awkward and changing the subject, overall I would say this game, it was gameplay wise, is quite mediocre. Would you say there's anything new that this game does? Honestly, no. I don't think this game brings anything new original to the table. I mean, I can't think of one thing. The gameplay is pretty bland.
Speaker: I think it's functional. I don't think there's anything majorly wrong with the gameplay. It all works. It does what it says on the tin, but there's nothing here that when I was playing it, I was like, oh wow, that's a new feature. That's something that I've not seen, or I'm like, oh wow, that's something that the game has done really, outside of its tone and atmosphere and stuff, purely gameplay -wise, there was nothing that I was like, oh wow, that's something that I've never seen done that well before in a game. It's just, it's fine.
Speaker: I don't think it's bad, but on the same hand I do not think there's anything spectacular or particularly noteworthy gameplay -wise. Why did they have a camera on the Night Vision goggles? That's something I don't understand, because I get for reconnaissance to kind of pad out the game, but see after you take a picture of the T -47, you take a picture of, like, the missile sites? That's really it, isn't it? You never really use it again.
Speaker: No, no, as a camera, it's got like a detection filter, hasn't it, though, where you can like brings up terminators and stuff, doesn't it, memory serves? Yeah, it does. But then it brings up the Canon logo right underneath it because it's like you're constantly got this reticule at one point in the game. Once you get it, you've got this huge circle in the middle of the screen saying, did you know you could take a picture of a terminator? Is there like research points again? I'm trying to remember it because this game has a skill system to where you can like upgrade different skills. Does that factor into it or?
Speaker: Not as far as I remember, no. Not for the camera anyway, or the features of it. That seems pretty pointed, isn't it? Yeah, so I don't quite know. I get why, and it's a kinda cool feature, but as I said, brown trousers when you're trying to photograph a T47, it's like staring you down, and you're like, I don't wanna be here anymore.
Speaker: They cheese! Well you know the certified selfie? Does the T -800s are chasing after me? I was like oh I don't want to play anymore. The other thing I will say is I don't think the stealth system is very good but there's a clip of me running away from the anchors. I can't remember if it's got an official name but you know they're like armored spiders. Yeah I think that's what they call it. They've got armored spiders in there.
Speaker: and I got cornered in a garage and I was kind of joking with it and I was hiding behind a car and I was like, oh, don't kill me, Mr Spider! Ha ha! And it managed to spot me and then it decided to blow fire everywhere. Jesus! It honestly took me off guard because that was the second time I was playing through it and I was like,
Speaker: did not realise they did that. So that was fun, getting my hair singed off and that was like, thank you Terminator, thank you for that. But yeah, the style system is quite rubbish. What was also rubbish, and it's kind of fixed later on in the game, but it's like, if you get into a skirmish with a group of terminators, or even lower class ones like the Scout Droids and the
Speaker: I think the silverfish are the coach. If you get into a firefight with them, terminators from other areas of the map aren't going to come get you, if that makes sense. You know, it's just you're kind of in your own like wee bubble. And I mean, I played at the more easy difficulty, so I don't know if this is different in hard mode. Maybe I'm just showing my true colors here, but did you feel that way about the stealth system?
Speaker: To me, it felt basically the same as most of these stealth systems in, like, FPS games. These games aren't designed as stealth games, you know, they're shooting games with stealth added, so the systems are never great. There are definitely better ones out there, I think, but I also think there's worse ones that I've played. I agree with you that, again, it's nothing to write home about. It can be frustrating at points, but, again, it's just kind of vanilla to me, the stealth system. It's just, it's what I expect.
Speaker: from an FPS game like this now. I expect there to be a self -system with the detection mechanic and it functions basically the same as this, so it's just what I expect now and the game delivers that. It doesn't exceed my expectations in that regard. I think
Speaker: Maybe my major criticism against the gameplay is that I think towards in the kind of back half of the game, and especially probably like the last quarter to last third, I think you become very overpowered, especially when you start getting hold of like some of the laser weapons. And then you gain the, there's like a system where if you collect chips from like fallen terminators and like other fallen like Skynet machines, you can combine them together to like buff your weapons. It can make you very powerful. And there's some weapons
Speaker: There's particularly like a laser sniper rifle that I think kind of breaks the game a little bit to be honest because if you upgrade it enough you can destroy T -800s with a single headshot. To me that's when they lost any sort of fear and like always lost when I could just stand a distance away and just snipe their heads off and that was them done.
Speaker: There is a terminator knife as well, but at least you kind of have to craft that. I feel like you have to get up close to a terminator and behind it to use it. So at the very least I'm like, okay, well, that's slightly more difficult to use, but this knife rifle just becomes a bit of a joke to just cap the T -800s from like a safe distance and then just progress forward. So I think that would be my major criticism against the game is that I just feel you get far too overpowered by the end.
Speaker: It actually reminds me of, I don't know if you've seen the right letter in media reviews of Star Wars. I don't think I have now. No, there's like a scene in that where they're criticising, I think it was Attack of the Clones, and you remember the scene where it's like Obi -Wan and Anakin, they're like in this stadium.
Speaker: and they don't have the lightsabers. The guy who made the video, he was commenting on what they're gonna do now, you know, they're gonna have to find creative ways to fight and everything. And then these two random Jedi throw them spare lightsabers. And he's like, oh no, don't give them lightsabers. That's almost how it feels in this game where it's like, oh, we're gonna have to fight against the annihilation line. We're gonna have to
Speaker: it's like you're right as soon as you get the lasers. That's it. And especially the purple lasers. That's it. That's just in -game relief. You becoming overpowered and becoming the Terminator as of there, but the only time I think that's acceptable is in the finale.
Speaker: when you're rushing with John Connor's heart of the Resistance as it were, pushing through with the best that humanity has to offer and I think that's really good. But yeah, no I totally agree kind of previously. It's not great. One other thing I want to point out is the reveal of The Stranger. Were you disappointed? Am I just going to be sitting here in self disappointment?
Speaker: I think unfortunately you're going to be sitting here in a self -disappointment because I don't think it's anything amazing, but I kind of like, I kind of liked it. Again, yeah, as I say, like I wasn't like, oh my, it wasn't like the ending of Bioshock Infinite Hero. I'm like, what? And it just blew my mind. I was just like, oh, okay. Like I was like, that's kind of neat. I kind of liked it. I thought it tied it nicely together. But yeah, and I kind of like the choice at the end. It kind of, it does give you, it did make me pause a little bit at the end before making the final choice, but I will agree like it's nothing, it's not going to like, it's not going to knock your socks off.
Speaker: by any stretch. I suppose it's kind of a little bit predictable. It's not even the reveal that gets me after Matt, because after Matt I didn't really think about him as the stranger until later on in the game, because after Matt I thought it was either going to be John Connor or Kyle Reese, because I think that's how ingrained having one of these characters in this scenario has been in my head.
Speaker: you know, with salvation you have the coyotes being this teenager that's, oh look at me, I'm coyotes too, don't I? So I thought genuinely they were going to bring him in. Fortunately though, they don't. But it's more the reveal to me when you ask John Connor and he's like, how do you put this nicely? He's like, yeah, you're the stranger. Anyway, let's go shoot some terminators. And he just like walks off and you're like, what?
Speaker: The hell? That's like a big reveal with a big plot point and it's like, we're not going to spend time in this. It's like, no time! Terminators to kill! That's actually a fair point. I forgot that was how it was revealed to you. Can we even ruminate about this for like two seconds? It's like, no time! Terminators! Pa -pow! Anyway. Okay. Okay. Fair dues. Fair dues. But is there anything before we kind of give our final thoughts, is there anything else about this game that didn't sit right with you or you thought, eh, it's not great? There's a couple of things.
Speaker: Overall, I don't think the voice acting is great, I'll be honest. I like some of the characters. I don't particularly enjoy the voice acting overall for a lot of the game, I'll be honest. There's particularly one character, and thankfully they're not in the game very long, but one of the people that you meet in the group of survivors at the end of the first level is a very angry, confrontational man called Colin, and I was still ready for him to be killed, I'll be honest.
Speaker: I was so ready for him not to be in this game anymore, and spoiler alert, but he is killed not long afterwards. I thought his voice was so grating and his character was so badly written. But yeah, I don't think overall the voice acting is great. It's not terrible. It's nothing that really dented my enjoyment of the game.
Speaker: Another thing I don't like is I didn't like the boss fights. There's one against the Skynet tank which I think is okay. I think it involves a little bit of skill and a little bit of intensity. The one that really disappointed me was the fight against the Infiltrator Unit. I was really looking forward to that and I was building it up and I was like, oh I can't wait for this, it's gonna be like mano a mano one on one, desperate fight
Speaker: between us and then you end up confronting it in this sort of small kind of ruined area. If I remember rightly Baron and some other resistance soldiers are there and basically all the terminator does it just pulls out a minigun and just stands at one end and just tries to shoot you and I was very disappointed by that because I wanted something like and I don't know how you'll react to this actually but I wanted something more like the boss fight from Call of Duty Vanguard where it's like
Speaker: if you remember the second Stalingrad level where you're in the department store and you're having to duck and hide under these tables, the mannequins and stuff, as you're trying to get a drop on the Nazi officer. I was wanting something more like that, that kind of bus fight, rather than just a straight up shooting fight. So that kind of disappointed me. And then one last thing, maybe you can remind me, maybe I'm forgetting this, but are there any vehicle sections in this game?
Speaker: Not as far as I know, bar the bus that you travel in at the beginning. No, there's not. Yeah, I kind of would have liked to have seen something like that, because one of my favourite little bits in the first Terminator is when, after Carl always blows up the tank, he jumps into the front of the car, the car is like this beat up junker is driving down and crashing through all these ruins and stuff as it gets chased by an HK. And I've always liked that bit, and I've always thought that'd be kind of fun. And I know some Terminator games have done it before, but I was like, oh, that would have been kind of fun to have done something there, but maybe it would have been badly implemented. So maybe that was a blessing.
Speaker: But yeah, that's really all I get. None of those three things ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I still had a lot of fun with this game overall. So, but they're just kind of my last sort of minor criticisms. Yeah, to borrow a phrase from you, I completely co -sign everything you're saying. I have to admit, this game has a great talent of blue balls in you.
Speaker: with a lot of the action is especially with, as you said, the infiltrator unit. That was really built up and you thought, oh, this is so cool. It's going to be, as you said, it's going to be like this one -on -one fight. Technically, it is. As much as I have a visceral disgust of agreeing with you about Vanguard,
Speaker: Yeah, I agree, they should have had something a little bit more epic, but you know, you just shoot them, bad robot goes down, that's it, you're like, okay, yeah, there's a lot of moments like that where you're like, really, can we not see more of that? And I don't know if the DLC fixes these issues, because I haven't played the DLC as of this recording, but I do agree with you, the voice acting's okay at best. It's not amazing, it's not bad, it's just
Speaker: Yes, I think. It's just a thing. And you're like, yeah, that's a thing. So overall, Adam, what would you say about this game? Would you recommend it to people or are there certain caveats you would throw in there? Yeah, I'm going to throw just one caveat onto this.
Speaker: If you like the Terminator franchise and you like FPS games, I would definitely pick this up and give it a try. I think there's a good chance you're going to enjoy this and you'll have a lot of fun with it. The gameplay's fine, it's not going to impress you that much, but I think you'll really enjoy how this game fits into the Terminator lore and how it blends its own story with it and the reverence it has for it. I think you'll really enjoy the fan service.
Speaker: you're not a big fan of the term if you don't like the term rea franchise or you're just not interested in it you know you've never seen it or anything like that i probably wouldn't recommend picking this game up because without that kind of attachment i don't really know what else this game is bringing to the table honestly i think it's like a very much milk toast middle of the road five out of ten experience and you there's other things you can play to get that like it's nothing special so if you don't have that attachment to
Speaker: to it. I would certainly not pay full price. I would at the very least wait for a sale to get it and check it out. But I don't think you'll have as much fun with it as somebody who really does like it. But if you do enjoy the Terminator franchise, I would definitely recommend picking this up. But would you agree, Satsu?
Speaker: Absolutely. 100 % I would agree with that. If you're a fan of the first two Terminator films, you're going to love this game. There's a lot of janky moments, there's some kind of buggy bits, but overall bar, what we've covered. If you're looking for an unofficial, I mean, it's not the best, but if you're looking for like that unofficial Terminator 3, then yeah, definitely go check out. You won't really regret it if you get it on sale. I think you'll have an enjoyable time and it's about
Speaker: would you say it's about 6 hours long? Yeah, well, I probably spent about 8, maybe 8 -10 hours but I take a lot longer to play games. I'd probably say between 6 and 8 hours roughly on average. Yeah, no, I think I was the same because I also did the side missions and that is something I will say that this game, although it doesn't
Speaker: force you to do the side missions, you kind of feel compelled because they're right along the way anyway, so you think oh I'll just pop in, grab the milk for Patrick for whatever reason, but at the same time if you love Terminator and you're a fan of RPG, FPS kind of games then
Speaker: really you've got nothing to lose. All I'll say is just be wary of the, as I said, the intimate scenes in this game because you don't want parents, you don't want loved ones, you don't want anyone you're going to feel embarrassed with seeing those scenes because, as I said, they're not graphic or anything but they're just awkward. It's a bit like, you know, when you're out in public and you see a couple kissing and everything and I don't mean like a peck on the cheek, I mean full on going at it and you're standing behind like,
Speaker: terrible weather today. Is that the time? I'd better jump off this escalator. It's awkward, that's the only kind of sticking point. If you're not a fan of Terminator... This isn't going to change your mind. No, probably not. I wouldn't say this is a game for you. I would say try it out if you're curious, because you're not really going to lose out on it. You know, it's not like Right to Hell Retribution, or it's not any of these kind of, you know, infamously bad games, but you have an alright time with it.
Speaker: at the end of the day, as long as it works, much like Terminator films, as long as they work, you're going to enjoy them. So yeah, I would say check it out. But yeah, Adam, this is the final final episode of Terminator 1, so thank you ever so for talking about Terminator Resistance.
Speaker: No, it's my pleasure. It's made me really want to go back and play again because I said it has been a little while since I played this game and I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun I had with it and how much I enjoyed this game. And I think I was saying to you like at one point in the days before we started recording here, obviously, you know, Terminator 1 and Terminator 2 I think are still the peak of the franchise. But honestly, like I think alongside Terminator 3, this is my favorite, next favorite Terminator property. They're probably on a level I really enjoyed. It's certainly the best Terminator video game.
Speaker: I've played a couple and this is by far the head and shoulders the best of them and yeah like I had a lot had a lot of fun with it so yeah thank you for reminding me of how much joy it brought me and maybe I'll go I'll go check this out again and I'll definitely keep my eye out and see if see if the Robocop Rogue City lives up to the hype. Yeah fingers crossed because there's going to be a lot of angry Robocop fans. I mean they haven't really recovered since was it 2017? Yeah I think it was 2015. Or was it even there? Do you know why it may well have been? I think I was selling uni actually when it came out.
Speaker: just double check that. No. Shutting that down. Shut it down. 2014 Robocop came out the reboot. The one where he wears all black armour for no reason other than the fact that all he can't wear that armour that makes him look goofy as opposed to
Speaker: as opposed to Batman like. And the fact they only shoot robots instead of people. See this is the thing, see all these aces films, they make me sound like a psycho because they're very violent and they get the point across and then when you actually see the reboots and they're so watered down then it's like oh no I can't shoot him. It's like this Robocop, literally there's a verb after it. You get Robocop'd if you get shot too many times, like come on guys.
Speaker: Honestly, I think that scene from the original, the Robocop scene from the original film, is the stuff that ends people's childhoods. That's when you enter the world of adulthood when you watch Peter Weller get literally disintegrated.
Speaker: in front of your eyes. Oh yeah, absolutely. I wonder if that'll be in the game, that'll be fun to experience in first person. That'd be worse than like the Black Ops 3, D -limbing. Oh god, that's another game we'll have to revisit one day. I think we'll review Robocop first before we review that. That'll be good fun actually, there we go. Maybe I spy a potential Mumpf in the future. What, Robo Mumpf? Robo Mumpf. We'll make our way through all these 80s action film franchises.
Speaker: your move, Croup. And yeah, we of course will buy that for the dollar when the time comes, but until then, yeah, that is the end of Terminator Month. So next week we are heading into the spooky month of October. Can you believe how fast this year's going by the way? I don't want to think about it. That's the scariest thing right now. Not because I'll watch or play this Halloween will be as scary as the march of time right now.
Speaker: You're not wrong. You aren't wrong. So yeah, next week we are going to be talking about probably a property you don't really expect to be so spooky, but trust me, get ready for your childhood to be ruined because we are going to be talking about what it's like to live in the Pokémon universe. And let me tell you, it is horrifying.
Speaker: If you would like to listen to more of our episodes, you of course could catch us on Spotify, iTunes and of course our website, page .com forward slash chat tsunami, where you could catch up on all of our episodes from season 1 through to 3. But until then, stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, we'll be back.
