It seems the cycle of poorly executed movie licensed games knows no bounds. Living up to the expectations built of a terrific movie franchise must be a daunting task for game developers. However, Dawn of Fate fails miserably to bring us closer to the apocalyptic world envisioned by James Cameron. The simple fact is no one should own this game, it isn’t worth the time, energy or money. If only I could go back in time and undo the damage done by actually playing this game.
While many of my reviewer brethren encouraged fans of Terminator play this game I again depart from the conventional wisdom. This game is abysmally bad. Not because of any lack of trying. In this prequel to Terminator we find any interesting ideas the developers do come up with so poorly executed as to make even renting this game a horrible waste of time. The game play has a number of critical failures. At best, the controls are not intuitive. Making matters worse is the herky jerky camera movements. Seemly with each step the camera switches position here, there and everywhere. Your character is running away from the camera and then a second later you are running towards the camera. Fighting in this game is all but impossible except while in first person mode. You don’t stand a chance in hell of doing anything but spraying the walls with ammo while in 3rd person mode.
There are numerous weapons and powerups littered throughout the ten levels of solo play. One of the chief weapons you start out with is a plasma baton for hand to hand combat. Detracting from the awesome and scary world of cyber warriors, you go about waving your baton knocking down terminator after terminator. If you don’t laugh out loud the first time you take out your first T-800 with this electric charged stick then you don’t know real humor.
The visuals are a mixture of good and bad. The atmosphere presented in fighting legions of cyborgs through dark and mysterious terrain in this terrifying future is executed well. The background details add to the mood with broken bits of the once modern world we now take for granted. Moments of brilliance present themselves in a few of the cinematic scenes. Still, enemies seemingly float over the ground instead of walking in rendered realism, and horrible camera tracking destroys what could otherwise have been considered decent graphics.
All in all, I wanted to like this game but couldn’t get past the Uber frustration factor. Still, their isn’t enough done well in this game to warrant playing through the problems. A case of reward not matching the risk of burning out your brain trying to play this holy unworthy addition to the Terminator franchise.
Grade: F (Infogames failed to live up to even mediocre expectations. Don’t buy. Rent only as a last resort.)
