Gaming Target - Xbox: Game Title

Written by Nick Doukas on October 24, 2002

Full Review: I need your clothes, your bootsЕand a refund.

I dislike having to give a game a bad review. Somewhere, a team of programmers and artists worked very hard for a long time. Yes, sometimes licensed games are pushed out the door for quick profit, but my findings don't support that theory in this instance. I think someone tried to make a great game here, but in the end some fatal flaws in play mechanics and a bad case of major league camera failure sink The Terminator: Dawn of Fate before it gets off the starting block.

The game takes place in the year 2027, and opens with a powerful CG cut-scene that comes right out of the films. A voice-over from John Connor, the warrior-prophet and leader of the human resistance, explains that Skynet, which controls the machines, has plans for a retroactive abortion. It's idea is to send a Terminator back through time to kill Connor's mother before he's born, thus nipping the resistance in the proverbial bud. As the gameplay begins, it's a race to NORAD, and the time displacement equipment. The plan is to stop Skynet cold, but if that fails Connor has a back up plan: A young soldier named Kyle Reese. Unfortunately, a traitor named Stone is out to cripple Tech-Com. As you take control of Kyle Reese, the battle for survival begins in earnest.

You'll move your character with the left analog stick, and use the A button to swing your melee weapon, the plasma baton. The A button will also control hand-to-hand attacks. The Y button is used to speak to NPC's and open doors, while B performs the dodge-roll, a useful maneuver that can save your behind when you've got a contingent of infiltrators bearing down on you. The right trigger is used to lock your aim onto an enemy and pressing X will fire the currently equipped weapon (the white button is used to access your weapon inventory). The black button toggles adrenaline mode (a bullet-time effect that allows your character more powerful attacks, greater speed, and while using a weapon, more critical hit power) while the left trigger is used to switch to first person aiming (you can fire, but there's no movement while in FP). In a useful touch, the back button will reveal your mission objectives.

Your heads up display (or HUD) shows you the usual: health, armor, weapon equipped and rounds remaining, as well as your adrenaline meter and a map. Any imperative information will be briefly displayed in the status line, which rolls across the bottom of the screen. As for the weapons combat that makes up the bulk of gameplay in Dawn of Fate, you can circle strafe an enemy by locking on and simply manipulating the left analog stick. Unfortunately, the lock on mechanism is pretty faulty, and most of the time you wind up locked onto anything but the most immediate threat. To add insult to injury, there is no way to manually adjust the camera, and the default views are some of the worst I've ever seen. You'll constantly find yourself running into walls and reversing direction simply because the camera does such a terrible job of displaying the action properly.

You'll have access to the AP50, an assault shotgun, canister bombs, and C4 explosive (among some other goodies). You'll also be able to man a turret gun, and blow away Terminators from a stationary position, as well as get your hands on a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range (hey, just what you see pal). You can collect various med packs and armor, and also score some of Skynet's own technology, which you can use to upgrade weapons, health, armor and adrenaline. Visually the game looks very good, and admirably captures the feel of the war-torn future depicted in the films. The character models are solid, if uninspired, and the weapons fire gives off some excellent lighting and particle effects. Explosions are colorful, but have a curious, 2D flatness to them. With the ability to play as several different characters and a surprisingly good story (I found myself mesmerized during the cut-scenes, but sadly, it was soon time to play again) it's too bad the fun is completely sucked out of the game by character control that mimics a tank, and a camera that appears to be wielded by a drunken chimp. Most of the fighting is pretty repetitive, although some sequences and scripted events do work well and give a glimpse into what this title might have been.

The in-game sound is well done, and the music is ripped straight from the films. Voice acting is decent, but certainly nothing to get excited about. All the sound effects for the weapons are punchy and clear, though the terrible control and lame lock-on targeting combine to seriously weaken the immersion factor. The game will allow you to save once you've beaten a mission, and any completed mission can be played again at any time (though you most likely won't want to bother). All in all, The Terminator: Dawn of Fate is a pretty bad game, one that even fans of the film won't want to blow fifty beans on. It's worth a rental, but don't say I didn't warn you.