128 hours in, and I can comfortably recommend Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance.
What keeps me coming back is the combination of atmosphere, story, tactical combat and army management. Mechanically it reminds me somewhat of the Warhammer-style RTS/tactical games I enjoy, but the Terminator universe and the persistent-unit system make it much more personal for me.
Your army is not just a collection of disposable icons. Units contain actual soldiers, they gain experience, level up, and become increasingly valuable as the campaign progresses. After keeping the same unit alive through multiple battles, you genuinely start caring whether those people make it through the next one. That changes the way you play. Instead of simply throwing units at an objective, you start scouting, maneuvering, creating distractions and looking for ways to win while preserving the force you have built.
The resource system reinforces this really well. Sometimes you are low on ammunition, manpower or supplies and the situation looks terrible, but you can still squeeze out a victory if you stay patient and outmaneuver the enemy rather than rushing directly into them. Those are probably some of the most satisfying victories in the game.
The AI is interesting because it can be both hilariously naive and surprisingly clever.
I have managed to completely mislead it by leaving only one or two visible units around the map while secretly assembling forces for a multi-front attack. At other times, though, it has genuinely surprised me.
In one battle I positioned a very large defensive force inside buildings, expecting to drain the enemy's regional resources. Instead of immediately throwing everything at me, the AI initially sent only a few scouts equipped with different weapons to probe my defenses. Then three tanks appeared. After I destroyed those, it launched a massive attack with roughly 30 units carrying rockets, energy weapons and ballistic weapons, followed by another two tanks.
At that point I thought, surely they cannot have any armor left.
I was wrong. 😂
When I finally moved toward one of their outposts, another tank was still patrolling the area while Rev-6 units were hidden in nearby buildings waiting to ambush me. The only reason I did not walk straight into the slaughter was because I habitually scout objectives first and leave scouts behind as persistent eyes on important locations.
Moments like that are why the tactical layer works so well.
It is not perfect, though. One of my biggest annoyances is unit movement and pathfinding. Sometimes I order a squad somewhere and later discover that one soldier got stuck behind an obstacle halfway across the map, so the complete squad never properly arrives. In a game where positioning matters this much, those little pathfinding failures can become surprisingly irritating.
I would also love to see the environmental strategy expanded. More destructibility, the ability to deliberately block certain routes, create chokepoints and kill zones, or otherwise manipulate the battlefield would fit this game extremely well. Better AI and a more dynamic campaign would also give the game even more longevity.
And while the game captures the Future War atmosphere very well, this is the Legion timeline rather than the original Skynet branch of Terminator. I would absolutely love to eventually get the chance to fight Skynet as well.
After 128 hours, I would not say the game is necessarily extremely difficult once you understand its core mechanics. It becomes something better than that: enjoyable. You understand what the battlefield allows you to do, you have an army you care about keeping alive, and you start experimenting with increasingly elaborate ways of defeating the enemy.
I'm already looking forward to the next DLC.
9/10 for me.
If you enjoy RTS games, tactical warfare, persistent army management, futuristic battles or the Terminator universe, you should definitely give this one a try.
