I would
like to break away from the usual a little by covering two non-horror
titles.
I know this blog is
called Shade's Adventures in Survival Horror, but it's nice to do
different things sometimes.
This post is about
Terminator: Dawn of Fate, which was released in North America and
Europe on PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2002.
It was developed
by Paradigm Entertainment, and published by Infogrames.
As obvious by the
title, it's based on the Terminator series particularly the future
war shown and foretold by Kyle Reese in the first film.
It takes place right
before Reese is sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, John
Connor's mother.
Sergeant Reese is
playable along with two other characters: Captain Justin Perry and
Lieutenant Catherine Luna.
Perry was mentioned
once by Reese in Terminator when he and Sarah are at the police
station, and he is questioned by Dr. Silberman.
General John
Connor appears as a non-playable character.
There are ten
levels, and each level has players controlling a specific character.
Sgt. Reese for
levels one, two, six, and ten.
Capt. Perry for
levels three, four, five, and nine.
Lt. Luna is played
in the seventh and eighth levels.
The entire game is a
third person shooter.
If the player uses
a turret, the camera view switches to first person.
The Right stick
moves the character, and the Left stick moves the camera when L1/L
bumper (PS2/Xbox buttons) is held.
L1/L bumper locks
onto an enemy, and players fire the equipped weapon or throw an
equipped explosive with the square/X button.
X/A is used to fight
hand-to-hand combat with the electric baton.
When L2/L trigger is
held, players access the inventory.
Adrenaline can be
turn on and off with R1/R bumper, which makes the character move
faster and fight more aggressively.
Before playing the
game, there is a Basic Combat Training option in the main menu that
serves as a gameplay tutorial.
There is a lot of collecting ammo, medipaks, armor, and pieces of Skynet technology.
Each Skynet tech is worth points that can be used between each level to upgrade medipak healing, armor, ammo capacity, and adrenaline.
There is a lot of pushing buttons and pulling levers.
In a couple levels, another character has to be escorted.
A list of tasks is shown by pressing the select/back button along with settings and controller layouts.
Of course, the game is primarily about shooting different types of Skynet machines.
There is a lot of collecting ammo, medipaks, armor, and pieces of Skynet technology.
Each Skynet tech is worth points that can be used between each level to upgrade medipak healing, armor, ammo capacity, and adrenaline.
There is a lot of pushing buttons and pulling levers.
In a couple levels, another character has to be escorted.
A list of tasks is shown by pressing the select/back button along with settings and controller layouts.
Of course, the game is primarily about shooting different types of Skynet machines.
There are several
different types of Skynet machines in the game.
Three series of
terminators appear: T-400, T-500, and, of course, the T-800.
The T-800
Infiltrator (T-800 disguised as a human) shows up in a couple scenes,
and as a boss during a level.
When I first played
this game, I was a little scared to fight the terminators because the
T-800 endoskeleton at the end of the first film frightened me a
little.
New enemies are
present called Skynet Initiates.
They are humans taken by Skynet, and mind controlled with a device attached to their heads.
They are humans taken by Skynet, and mind controlled with a device attached to their heads.
H/Ks
(Hunter/Killers) are also in the game as mentioned by Reese in the
first movie, and shown in the future war scenes of the movies.
One enemy mentioned
by Reese in the original film, but is not in the game is the T-600.
The game has the
T-400 and T-500 but no T-600.
I don't know why,
and I can't find any information on it.
In fact, there is
very little information online about the development of this game.
It would've been
great to have the T-600 as well as it's rubber skinned infiltrators.
The T-1000 is a
no-show as well.
It's not a surprise, however, since it's possible that the T-1000 was a very new and mostly unheard of model by the end of the war.
It's not a surprise, however, since it's possible that the T-1000 was a very new and mostly unheard of model by the end of the war.
Dawn of Fate also
has other story inconsistencies with Terminator 1 & 2.
First off, the game
takes place in the days leading to Reese and the T-800 traveling back
to 1984, but it gives the year as 2027.
In Terminator 1,
Reese and the T-800 came from 2029.
In the opening
scenes of Dawn of Fate, John Connor narrates that sending Reese back
in time to protect his mother is his back-up plan if they can't
destroy the time displacement machine before the terminator is sent.
In the film, Reese
says that he volunteered to go back because he wanted to meet Sarah.
Reese in the game
sees the terminator being sent back through the time displacement
machine.
In the movie,
however, he had no idea what the terminator looked like.
He had to wait until it was about to kill Sarah to attack it.
He had to wait until it was about to kill Sarah to attack it.
There are a few
others, but those are the main ones that I noticed.
There is also the
gameplay issues of changing camera angles with no tank controls.
It's very common to
accidentally go in the wrong direction because the camera angle
changed.
I like switching
camera angles especially in horror games, but Dawn of Fate doesn't do
it very well.
This is not an
issue, but I would like to address that the characters look nothing
like the original actors in the first two films.
Infogrames probably
did not have the rights to use the likenesses of the original actors.
Despite the issues,
there are several things I like about this game.
For one, it's so
much fun fighting terminators and other Skynet machines.
It's even more fun
when metal music plays while fighting.
The metal band Fear
Factory contributed a few of their songs to this game.
Metal plays when
you're fighting, and ambient music is played when not fighting.
Dawn of Fate has a
very good soundtrack.
Speaking of a good
soundtrack, I love the opening scenes of Dawn of Fate.
Part of it is the
music.
It also has good
narration by the voice actor of John Connor, and the war scenes along
with the character interaction afterwards is a great introduction.
I watched the
opening scenes over and over before I would actually play it.
I would put in the
game just to see the opening scenes.
The voice acting is
pretty good.
There are a couple
lines that are a little cheesy, but I like cheesy dialogue.
A couple more
aspects I like consists of the title: Dawn of Fate.
I'm not sure why,
but it sounds good.
Another one is that
the loading screens in between levels shows the head of a T-800, and
it's red eyes slowly lights up as the game loads.
It's really neat,
and it's better than just having a typical loading icon or an
on-screen bar that fills up the more it loads.
Lastly, as far as I
know of, this is the last non-film based Terminator game that takes
place during the future shown and foretold in Terminator 1 & 2.
There were few other
Terminator games released in the 90's that were not based on any
particular movie such as the DOS games Terminator 2029, Terminator:
Rampage, Terminator: Future Shock, and one just called Skynet.
There was also
Robocop Versus The Terminator released on Sega and Nintendo systems
in 1991-94 (depending on the region and system).
Dawn of Fate is also
the only video game (that I know of) pre-Terminator 3 that focuses on
the events leading to Reese and the T-800 being sent to 1984.
I've always been
fascinated with that part of the story.
I will admit that I
do wish that Dawn of Fate was more focused on Reese's story.
As far as human
characters, Terminator 1 was more focused on Sarah becoming the
mother of mankind's future leader in the war against the machines.
Terminator 2 was
about Sarah and ten-year-old John as well as their relationship.
I would love to see
a Terminator prequel to the first two films focusing on Kyle Reese,
and his relationship with John Connor.
Reese and Connor do
interact in Dawn of Fate.
The only thing,
though, mentioned about their relationship is towards the end of the
game when Luna tells Perry that "Reese is the son Connor never
had."
That is a great
idea, but it would be better if the game showed their relationship
rather than having a character say it.
The replayability of
Dawn of Fate is good.
There are three
difficulty modes: easy, medium, and terminal.
Each of the ten
levels has six medals, and achieving four of them unlocks something
in extra content.
The extra content
are cutscenes, cheats, music gallery, threat data (descriptions of
enemies), and concept art.
You must achieve
four medals in all levels on all three difficulty modes to unlock
everything.
The cheats are
definitely worth unlocking, but they can only be unlocked by playing
on terminal mode.
And, terminal mode
has to be unlocked by completing all levels on medium.
Everything is
unlocked in steps, which is a good way to give players an incentive
to play the game several times.
Terminator: Dawn of
Fate is not a wonderful game, but it's very likeable.
A video game does
not have to be a AAA title to be good.
It can be
appreciated even with its flaws.
Bad games can also
be enjoyed.
I wouldn't say that
Dawn of Fate is a bad game.
It has issues, but
it's still a decent game.
I
played it many times when I was a teenager, and I still like to play
it every now and then.
I recommend it to
Terminator fans who have a PlayStation 2 or an original Xbox.
You should be able
to find it for a couple dollars.
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