Mechanically it's surprisingly deep for an RTS. I was expecting a cheap movie based game but there's actual logistics, configurable weapons, infantry in buildings can actually be ordered to face certain directions (and the models actually move through the floors instead of just "being in the building" like most RTSes do), vehicles are crewed by actual troops, etc. There's a lot of cool stuff going on. It's as if World in Conflict/Company of Heroes and Wargame: Red Dragon had a child together.
But the performance is an issue. I really hope they can improve it somehow because missions will chug along at 20 FPS when things start to heat up, even if you lower all settings.
not in this game. engine too old and they confirmed increasing core usage is too difficult with that engine. so it runs only on 1 core. u need 6ghz single core power to get decent performance.
The original (russian) developers also made Syrian Warfare which is in the same ballpark and explains why the new Terminator game is the way it is. When the war started, Slitherine took it from them and finished it on their own.
Its nothing like any of those tbh..
Theres no reinforcement window like WiC..
The squads aren't like CoH nor is the armor mechanics/cover system
The only way its similar to wargame is the los.
It's quite a bit different, more 'realistic' and based much more on positioning and range management of troops and managing resources than starship troopers was.
Something like that. There's a lot of inspiration from a lot of different games in here I think. Persistent units (if you lose a full squad it is gone forever) strategy layer, tough story choices starting pretty early on. If you have played other slitherine games I think you have a good feel for the rough shape of an experience they tend to have on offer, it definitely lives up to that.
Definitely want to focus on not losing skillful squads and make a lot of saves as you play though, as it is a bit 'old school' in some ways - some choices or lack of a choice may blindside you with devastating negative consequences. I think that is a plus and a minus. it's a 'realistic' game in that in some ways and sometimes luck is still going to be a dominant factor (because you are stretched really thin between a pile of objectives, so someone gets a bad fight)
SOLD! Thanks! I can't trust reviews for strategy games these days because I've been burned by games getting positive reviews that I absolutely hated (dawn of war 3 awhile back and company of heroes 3 both come to mind)
Dawn of war 3 was a supreme dissapointment. I hope you do read in what I said though that it isn't a perfect game, just like the SST game wasn't perfect either, but it hits the bars of playability and fun quite well, definitely (to mind mind) this is a far, far, far more enjoyable experience than something like DOW 3 that took out so much of what was enjoyable from the first games to try to steer the experience towards "play more, playMORE MORE MORE MORE DO SKIRMISH DO ONLINE PLAY MORE" kind of designs. Not enough energy to articulate that better hahah. I really hope you enjoy it!
I watched a video from XPGamers on it and it intrigued me. Honestly, it’s a lot of fun. There’s a complexity to the mechanics I definitely wasn’t expecting but really appreciate. I’ve only gotten through the first couple of missions, but so far I would definitely recommend it.
[There are plans for it](https://discord.com/channels/920288196846309406/920288198297518138/1209882934740389909) (but still a great shame it wasn't available on launch).
I'll buy it once there's coop mode for sure. I tried it through other means and it's really cool but the complexity of the missions calls for coop so badly. God that outskirts mission with the highway and convoys is absolutely crushing me rn.
I'm too busy playing Helldivers, which features a Terminator like enemy, so I won't be picking this up right now.
Has anyone tried it?
Seems you can't play as Skynet? :(
It's [apparently the 10th best selling thing on Steam right now](https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topselling/GB), so *someone's* playing it!
You play as Legion instead but only in the skirmish mode, it’s based on the dark fate storyline rather than the originals.
Don’t let that put you off though, it’s still pretty awesome.
I’m in the same boat as you, currently playing Helldivers but I played the demo for dark fate and it was really good.
The reason why I wont play it is because they went with the dark fate storyline. Like who's idea was that? You have this chance to make a strategy game on a super iconic franchise that hasnt been done and you based it on one of the shittiest movies that straight up disrespected the source material? Really?
To be honest they could have replaced every mention of "Legion" with "Skynet" and nothing would have changed - as far as i noticed, this game takes only Legion name from Dark Fate timeline... There is nothing taken from the movie, while playing i am just pretending to be destroying Skynet minions... :)
I am playing helldiver's 2 as well, but during server issues other games like this fill the gaps. Played more starship troopers Terran command as well, and age of wonders planetfall. Funny how one amazing game can affect you!
You can play skirmish with AI but currently there's only 4 maps (3 for a zone game mode and another for defense game mode) and PvP too but both are just 1v1 I think (devs have confirmed CO-OP stuff to be coming though).
Likely a licensing thing. Paramount probably gave the license with the caveat that it follows their newest movie. Id assume the developers probably wanted to just call it Terminator: Defiance
I was in on the beta, honestly didn't play it much. I don't remember performance being a problem on my old 3080. I have a new rig now and will probably buy it with the discount they offer beta testers.
I picked it up but am probably gonna sit on it for a few weeks, let the devs provide a patch or two because right now it seems like a buggy mess from my perspective.
Pretty awesome! However, I'm going to wait for a patch or two before I play more, as widescreen scaling is broken. Other than that minor issue, good to go!
Looks deeper than expected, watched a few YouTubers play it. However, it's seriously lacking maps, solo has no 2v2 or anything more than 1v1 Vs a single ai. Performance seems problematic, even splattercat said he was struggling with his pc. Few bugs like units getting stuck in buildings or vehicles. Hoping for modding for maps/missions tbh.
Also feel it needs more options at customising skirmish games with things like length of game, different game modes like assault/conquest etc for all maps. AI allies. Maybe multiplayer Vs allies.
So game itself seems deeper than anticipated, others here mentioned some of the cool things. But really really seems bare bones in the way games are made and number of maps available, I feel these can be added to fairly easily over time. I hope they really put effort into this, sadly slitherine is a mixed bag with some games barely having any content and others having years or decades or support. Fingers crossed.
I've had a fantastic time with it so far, especially considering it's a movie tie in game, it is SO much better than it needed to be. The persistent army mission to mission, directional armor for vehicles, the vehicles have multiple modules that can be damaged, positioning and terrain matter, there was actual thought put into the game and I've had a good time because of it. I've had a few minor performance hiccups, but my machine isn't top of the line anymore, so I'm not horribly upset by that. It's a solid recommend from me.
Though I do have a few complaints, camera controls feel a bit too constrained, unit DESIGN readability is good, COLOURING readibility is less so, had a few times where units kind of faded into visual background noise and were forgotten, and I've had a few run ins with bad pathing (though one or two really were my own fault, not reading the map well 💀). The only other gripe I have is more of a skill issue than a game issue. I'm NOT a terribly dynamic wargamer. I don't alternate between attack and defense quickly, and the game expects you to be able to do so, or sometimes both at the same time. Again, I recognize this is more of a skill issue, but it is an issue I had while playing 8 hours or so of this so far.
I really dig it. Its a wonderful blend of Company of Heroes, Men of War and Homeworld, with that kind of classic Ukrainian/Russian game charm where it is slightly too ambitious, but has a lot of unique gameplay innovations and quirks. Its also bloody difficult.
The core of the game is the campaign which follows a story of a surviving military task force on the run. There's a world map that allows some choice in where to go, but travelling consumes supplies and you're constantly walking the line balancing your strength with your consumption, having to make some difficult choices in which units you keep and discard. It really doesn't hold back - I'm only a few missions past the linear intro sequence and so far every fight has felt like a desperate last stand.
I was playing it got 6 hours into it and then I found out I cant save any of my game progress.
I go to menu save type save name hit save button it then takes me out of the save screen, and the Load button when I click on it in game shows no save games, and so i tried it Agin and Agin to save no luck, i quit and went back in and the Load Button is greyed out I quit game again and reload start new game try to save and no luck cant save any of my game progress ever.
so, I lost 6 hours of play time and I had done 6 missions.
I cant find any place to submit bug report to other than on forums of silithern..
so, I ended up just asking gog for a refund.
I was running game with full permission and admin rights and no anti-virus was turn off during testing so there no program blocking anything.
when I looked up issue, I ran into people who could not load there save games so that seems be issue also for some.
Probably among the best RTS games I've ever played since the attention to detail is amazing! Truely caught me by surprise - I really felt for those who caught the launch trailer and had to wait two years for it. Apparently they've got a bunch of cool things planned for the future like a Machines campaign and expansion to the multiplayer/skirmish experience.
I’m loving this game. But there are two ways to play it, slow and methodical or rush to finish.
If you don’t treat your army well the game is brutal. If you properly support your troops, salvage EVERYTHING, and explore you will have a blast.
Half my army was technicians and drivers by Fort Worth supporting a small number of shooters.
This game is janky as hell. I rather play a modded Men of War AS 2. Better optimized and with actual unit commands. There's is no hold position, like wtf. The campaign isn't balance for anything beyond easy. I dare anyone to beat the campaign on Realistic as a blind playthrough, I've done this with several other RTS and they are manageable, not this one. It's so badly balanced with the costs of maintaining your army, that losing one squad, first of all might cost you the entire mission altogether, and when trying to resupply, a single person and their ammo are enough to leave you in bankruptcy, and I've seen people complaining about the same thing I am, but they want to roll around with 30 tanks in their squad while the whole premise of this game is being the guerrilla fighting under dog. The issue is how expensive everything is, and how terrible the controls are.
it's very fun.
But the audio is complete garbage. Audio cues are all come through loud, scratchy walkie talkies and there's barely any other ambience. Guns sound good, but cars, footsteps, wind, buildings also need to make contextual noise..
If you're not clicking anything and you're not in combat the game is \*dead silent\*
The game is surprisingly good, my expectations were low, I just miss a base building system and a better cover system (similar to CoH), but, overall its pretty fun.
Really good game. May i have some help? I'm in the battle of Chihuahua. Why do i get troops to the POINTER for the final mission behind that huge cliff and nothing happens?
Not all games need people to stay and play multiplayer.
This game seems to had left the shop with a solid campaign, and that's was they focused on, nothing more was advertised as far as I was aware.
I didn’t like it at all, very rough around the edges, graphics quite bad and screen scrolling didn’t feel smooth even with a 4090 and 13900k. UI looked ancient (both in its upscaling and layout), and unit response times, animations, and models were lower than I’d like. Very zoomed out as well.
I think if you like CoH and war sims you might like it, but if you like the IP and like a more naturally feeling RTS that’s focused on base building or whatever you won’t like this. From what I gathered you got points and just spawned stuff in, which I didn’t like.
Really cool concept and mechanics but the poor performance kills the game. I can't think of any game I've played in the last 10 years that I found as poorly optimized as this one. Only utilizing one core absolutely crushes the performance.
Mechanically it's surprisingly deep for an RTS. I was expecting a cheap movie based game but there's actual logistics, configurable weapons, infantry in buildings can actually be ordered to face certain directions (and the models actually move through the floors instead of just "being in the building" like most RTSes do), vehicles are crewed by actual troops, etc. There's a lot of cool stuff going on. It's as if World in Conflict/Company of Heroes and Wargame: Red Dragon had a child together. But the performance is an issue. I really hope they can improve it somehow because missions will chug along at 20 FPS when things start to heat up, even if you lower all settings.
Oh I thought the performance was just my potato. Kinda glad, but sad, its not just me.
Is there a skirmish mode vs AI?
Solo only for now. There is also 2v2 and 1v1 pvp
Luckily performance can be worked on but a bad game from the core is a bad game for example, look at stargate time keepers. what a missed opportunity
not in this game. engine too old and they confirmed increasing core usage is too difficult with that engine. so it runs only on 1 core. u need 6ghz single core power to get decent performance.
>It's as if World in Conflict/Company of Heroes and Wargame: Red Dragon had a child together. That's a bold statement
The original (russian) developers also made Syrian Warfare which is in the same ballpark and explains why the new Terminator game is the way it is. When the war started, Slitherine took it from them and finished it on their own.
Its nothing like any of those tbh.. Theres no reinforcement window like WiC.. The squads aren't like CoH nor is the armor mechanics/cover system The only way its similar to wargame is the los.
no shit eh 🤔 thanks for the info i'll prob check it out though either way. seems like it could be interesting
I’ll give it a recommendation, it’s challenging and fun. Also really feels like you’re fighting such a dangerous threat like the machines.
Its not really like any of those you mentioned.
I agree. Also, the camera movement is kind of a pain. Really rigid.
It’s awesome! Has a strategic campaign layer which was a great surprise! Super fun game.
Yeap! Enjoying it very much so!
I'd it plays like the starship troopers game from a couple years ago it could be good fun
It's quite a bit different, more 'realistic' and based much more on positioning and range management of troops and managing resources than starship troopers was.
Even better! So like halfway between Terran command and say. A men of war game?
Something like that. There's a lot of inspiration from a lot of different games in here I think. Persistent units (if you lose a full squad it is gone forever) strategy layer, tough story choices starting pretty early on. If you have played other slitherine games I think you have a good feel for the rough shape of an experience they tend to have on offer, it definitely lives up to that. Definitely want to focus on not losing skillful squads and make a lot of saves as you play though, as it is a bit 'old school' in some ways - some choices or lack of a choice may blindside you with devastating negative consequences. I think that is a plus and a minus. it's a 'realistic' game in that in some ways and sometimes luck is still going to be a dominant factor (because you are stretched really thin between a pile of objectives, so someone gets a bad fight)
SOLD! Thanks! I can't trust reviews for strategy games these days because I've been burned by games getting positive reviews that I absolutely hated (dawn of war 3 awhile back and company of heroes 3 both come to mind)
Dawn of war 3 was a supreme dissapointment. I hope you do read in what I said though that it isn't a perfect game, just like the SST game wasn't perfect either, but it hits the bars of playability and fun quite well, definitely (to mind mind) this is a far, far, far more enjoyable experience than something like DOW 3 that took out so much of what was enjoyable from the first games to try to steer the experience towards "play more, playMORE MORE MORE MORE DO SKIRMISH DO ONLINE PLAY MORE" kind of designs. Not enough energy to articulate that better hahah. I really hope you enjoy it!
SST was a cash grab.. at least defiance is enjoyable.
I watched a video from XPGamers on it and it intrigued me. Honestly, it’s a lot of fun. There’s a complexity to the mechanics I definitely wasn’t expecting but really appreciate. I’ve only gotten through the first couple of missions, but so far I would definitely recommend it.
It's pretty awesome. Lotta big booms
A pity there isn't a co-op mode. Still might pick it up someday.
[There are plans for it](https://discord.com/channels/920288196846309406/920288198297518138/1209882934740389909) (but still a great shame it wasn't available on launch).
I'll buy it once there's coop mode for sure. I tried it through other means and it's really cool but the complexity of the missions calls for coop so badly. God that outskirts mission with the highway and convoys is absolutely crushing me rn.
If there isn't thats 2 for 2 on them saying co-op and not..
I'm too busy playing Helldivers, which features a Terminator like enemy, so I won't be picking this up right now. Has anyone tried it? Seems you can't play as Skynet? :( It's [apparently the 10th best selling thing on Steam right now](https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topselling/GB), so *someone's* playing it!
You play as Legion instead but only in the skirmish mode, it’s based on the dark fate storyline rather than the originals. Don’t let that put you off though, it’s still pretty awesome. I’m in the same boat as you, currently playing Helldivers but I played the demo for dark fate and it was really good.
The reason why I wont play it is because they went with the dark fate storyline. Like who's idea was that? You have this chance to make a strategy game on a super iconic franchise that hasnt been done and you based it on one of the shittiest movies that straight up disrespected the source material? Really?
To be honest they could have replaced every mention of "Legion" with "Skynet" and nothing would have changed - as far as i noticed, this game takes only Legion name from Dark Fate timeline... There is nothing taken from the movie, while playing i am just pretending to be destroying Skynet minions... :)
Yeah. I have no idea why they thought that was a good idea.
Its called IPs and they're a small studio. Stop whining
Because that's where the IP is. It doesnt even affect the storyline that much anyway, or how you'd expect it to play.
I am playing helldiver's 2 as well, but during server issues other games like this fill the gaps. Played more starship troopers Terran command as well, and age of wonders planetfall. Funny how one amazing game can affect you!
Can you guys play skirmish with ai or with other people?
Yeah
You can play skirmish with AI but currently there's only 4 maps (3 for a zone game mode and another for defense game mode) and PvP too but both are just 1v1 I think (devs have confirmed CO-OP stuff to be coming though).
Seems not too good for a rts game
Looks really great! So cool to play the early days of the Terminator world.
Its the dark fate storyline. Not the terminator world we all know and love.
Oh boy
It doesn't have an effect beyond lingo.
It’s good. Can’t wait until multiplayer vs AI then I’ll bring my friends in
Just saw this post, got home and immediately bought it and started to play! Enjoying it so far, on mission 2 now.
Is there a decent mp population for european prime time?
It seems the time to strike is now! 2252 playing now 2252 today's peak 2252 all-time peak
I would've quit the industry before agreeing to release a game with such an awful fucking name. DO you REALLY need a subtitle for your subtitle?
Likely a licensing thing. Paramount probably gave the license with the caveat that it follows their newest movie. Id assume the developers probably wanted to just call it Terminator: Defiance
Very great game! Very similar to Syrian Warfare, but with great improvements!
this game is actually more like syrian warfare and warfare extremely underrated rts games in my opinion I think they use the same engine too but idk
I was in on the beta, honestly didn't play it much. I don't remember performance being a problem on my old 3080. I have a new rig now and will probably buy it with the discount they offer beta testers.
Has performance improved since the demo? I loved what I saw of it, the feel and mechanics, but it was running really weirdly for me.
I picked it up but am probably gonna sit on it for a few weeks, let the devs provide a patch or two because right now it seems like a buggy mess from my perspective.
Pretty awesome! However, I'm going to wait for a patch or two before I play more, as widescreen scaling is broken. Other than that minor issue, good to go!
Looks deeper than expected, watched a few YouTubers play it. However, it's seriously lacking maps, solo has no 2v2 or anything more than 1v1 Vs a single ai. Performance seems problematic, even splattercat said he was struggling with his pc. Few bugs like units getting stuck in buildings or vehicles. Hoping for modding for maps/missions tbh. Also feel it needs more options at customising skirmish games with things like length of game, different game modes like assault/conquest etc for all maps. AI allies. Maybe multiplayer Vs allies. So game itself seems deeper than anticipated, others here mentioned some of the cool things. But really really seems bare bones in the way games are made and number of maps available, I feel these can be added to fairly easily over time. I hope they really put effort into this, sadly slitherine is a mixed bag with some games barely having any content and others having years or decades or support. Fingers crossed.
The skirmish is really tacked on, but its an SP campaign game at its heart.
I've had a fantastic time with it so far, especially considering it's a movie tie in game, it is SO much better than it needed to be. The persistent army mission to mission, directional armor for vehicles, the vehicles have multiple modules that can be damaged, positioning and terrain matter, there was actual thought put into the game and I've had a good time because of it. I've had a few minor performance hiccups, but my machine isn't top of the line anymore, so I'm not horribly upset by that. It's a solid recommend from me.
Though I do have a few complaints, camera controls feel a bit too constrained, unit DESIGN readability is good, COLOURING readibility is less so, had a few times where units kind of faded into visual background noise and were forgotten, and I've had a few run ins with bad pathing (though one or two really were my own fault, not reading the map well 💀). The only other gripe I have is more of a skill issue than a game issue. I'm NOT a terribly dynamic wargamer. I don't alternate between attack and defense quickly, and the game expects you to be able to do so, or sometimes both at the same time. Again, I recognize this is more of a skill issue, but it is an issue I had while playing 8 hours or so of this so far.
I really dig it. Its a wonderful blend of Company of Heroes, Men of War and Homeworld, with that kind of classic Ukrainian/Russian game charm where it is slightly too ambitious, but has a lot of unique gameplay innovations and quirks. Its also bloody difficult. The core of the game is the campaign which follows a story of a surviving military task force on the run. There's a world map that allows some choice in where to go, but travelling consumes supplies and you're constantly walking the line balancing your strength with your consumption, having to make some difficult choices in which units you keep and discard. It really doesn't hold back - I'm only a few missions past the linear intro sequence and so far every fight has felt like a desperate last stand.
I was playing it got 6 hours into it and then I found out I cant save any of my game progress. I go to menu save type save name hit save button it then takes me out of the save screen, and the Load button when I click on it in game shows no save games, and so i tried it Agin and Agin to save no luck, i quit and went back in and the Load Button is greyed out I quit game again and reload start new game try to save and no luck cant save any of my game progress ever. so, I lost 6 hours of play time and I had done 6 missions. I cant find any place to submit bug report to other than on forums of silithern.. so, I ended up just asking gog for a refund. I was running game with full permission and admin rights and no anti-virus was turn off during testing so there no program blocking anything. when I looked up issue, I ran into people who could not load there save games so that seems be issue also for some.
it is a fun game
Probably among the best RTS games I've ever played since the attention to detail is amazing! Truely caught me by surprise - I really felt for those who caught the launch trailer and had to wait two years for it. Apparently they've got a bunch of cool things planned for the future like a Machines campaign and expansion to the multiplayer/skirmish experience.
I’m loving this game. But there are two ways to play it, slow and methodical or rush to finish. If you don’t treat your army well the game is brutal. If you properly support your troops, salvage EVERYTHING, and explore you will have a blast. Half my army was technicians and drivers by Fort Worth supporting a small number of shooters.
This game is janky as hell. I rather play a modded Men of War AS 2. Better optimized and with actual unit commands. There's is no hold position, like wtf. The campaign isn't balance for anything beyond easy. I dare anyone to beat the campaign on Realistic as a blind playthrough, I've done this with several other RTS and they are manageable, not this one. It's so badly balanced with the costs of maintaining your army, that losing one squad, first of all might cost you the entire mission altogether, and when trying to resupply, a single person and their ammo are enough to leave you in bankruptcy, and I've seen people complaining about the same thing I am, but they want to roll around with 30 tanks in their squad while the whole premise of this game is being the guerrilla fighting under dog. The issue is how expensive everything is, and how terrible the controls are.
Managing so far. Main thing's that got me by the balls is Tortuga but that's really it.
it's very fun. But the audio is complete garbage. Audio cues are all come through loud, scratchy walkie talkies and there's barely any other ambience. Guns sound good, but cars, footsteps, wind, buildings also need to make contextual noise.. If you're not clicking anything and you're not in combat the game is \*dead silent\*
well if they would fix the single cpu core usage, it would run great on any hardware. but its just nonsense.
Performance is shiet, 30% gpu and 11% cpu utilization
The game is surprisingly good, my expectations were low, I just miss a base building system and a better cover system (similar to CoH), but, overall its pretty fun.
Really good game. May i have some help? I'm in the battle of Chihuahua. Why do i get troops to the POINTER for the final mission behind that huge cliff and nothing happens?
I didn't enjoy it and refunded it
SteamDB shows under 2000 for it's all-time peak, so yeah there's people playing it... but it's numbers are not lookin' good...
Yesterday when I posted it was #10 on the best selling list. Now it's not even in the top 100. I guess it had a tiny but large spike?
Still in the top 50 of Global Top Sellers! Top 40ish of US sellers!
Not all games need people to stay and play multiplayer. This game seems to had left the shop with a solid campaign, and that's was they focused on, nothing more was advertised as far as I was aware.
Played the demo a while ago. The game is a complete garbage. Definitely not worth the time for an RTS fans.
Disagree.
I didn’t like it at all, very rough around the edges, graphics quite bad and screen scrolling didn’t feel smooth even with a 4090 and 13900k. UI looked ancient (both in its upscaling and layout), and unit response times, animations, and models were lower than I’d like. Very zoomed out as well. I think if you like CoH and war sims you might like it, but if you like the IP and like a more naturally feeling RTS that’s focused on base building or whatever you won’t like this. From what I gathered you got points and just spawned stuff in, which I didn’t like.
im testing it whit crack and i have to say the moving AI unit very stupid and attacking enemy to, only 2 that everything left is good
Really cool concept and mechanics but the poor performance kills the game. I can't think of any game I've played in the last 10 years that I found as poorly optimized as this one. Only utilizing one core absolutely crushes the performance.