It’s one of the reasons why I’m such a big fan of series such as Earth Defense Force, because they allow me to revel in that kind of low-thinking-effort cheese. Also read: Earth Defense Force 6 Review (PC/PS5) I’m also 100% in the age bracket to have seen James Cameron’s classic Terminator 2: Judgement Day back when it was in the cinema. I remember leaving the cinema thinking that while it could make for a great video game, the odds were low that this was actually going to happen, because this was very much the era of mostly-terrible shovelware movie tie-in games. Sarah’s being a bit judgemental here. I mean, technically, John Connor is a bastard — he certainly wasn’t born in wedlock. I was right; that was pretty much what happened, because while the arcade gun game had its limited charms, the more regular T2 games were… well, they were like this: Playing most 16-bit movie tie-in games was about as much fun as being poked in the eye. Terminator 2D: No Fate is a deliberately retro-styled game from Bitmap Bureau, and it’s one that I’ve been keenly awaiting ever since it was announced. That’s largely because Bitmap Bureau are also responsible for games such as Xeno Crisis, one of the very best retro-styled shoot-em-ups in recent memory. These are folks who know how to create satisfying shooting games, though Xeno Crisis is also very, very hard. I don’t mind a hard challenge as long as it feels fair, and I’ve been waiting a long time for a good game (excluding the excellent pinball table) to tackle the basic Terminator 2: Judgement Day setting. Terminator 2D: No Fate is quite gory, if that kind of thing bothers you. Stylistically Terminator 2D: No Fate is built to look like a 16-bit game, though some of the particle effects and parallax scrolling might have been just a little bit too much for the SNES or Megadrive to handle back in the day. Still, it doesn’t take much imagination to see the potential for a demake here. I feel like I’ve heard that line before somewhere… Your first playthrough of Terminator 2D: No Fate will run through the key parts of the movie, expanded out with a few levels that teach you the controls and cover off just how Sarah Connor ended up being thrown into an asylum in the first place, as well as how future John Connor ended up sending back the T-800 to protect his younger self. Key moments are either scripted out as straight text to screen, which was very much the style of any 16-bit shooter, or sometimes played out in rather delightful pixellated form. You wouldn’t think a bunch of pixels could recreate Robert Patrick’s excellently creepy T-1000, but somehow Bitmap Bureau manage to pull it off. Pixels can have more of an emotional range than you might think. Terminator 2D: No Fate mostly plays as a straight run-and-gun game; think a mix of games such as Contra/Probotector and titles like Probe’s excellent-but-exception-to-the-rule Alien 3 titles, and you’re on the right kind of track. You have a limited number of continues, though more can be found in-game with a little careful exploration to keep you going as needed, but once you run out, it’s right back to the start of the game for you. Bitmap Bureau does also throw in a few key scenes that wouldn’t work as simple platform shooting elements, such as Sarah’s attempted escape or the truck chase scene to break up the shooting, as well as the T-800’s bar fight for clothes. NAKED BEAT-EM-UP ACTION (though the rude bits are, well… pixellated) The latter level there is mostly played for laughs with a pixelated-naked Arnie taking on waves of bikers who can’t actually hurt him, just cost him time that will reflect in the end-of-level score and ranking you get when finishing each section. Of note here, it’s pretty clear that while money was spend on the T2 licence itself, the same level of funds don’t seem to have been applied to getting a full Schwarzenegger likeness rights package, because all the visuals of the T-800 are rather stylised. Not a killer problem, but something I couldn’t ignore once I noticed it. Is that the General Electric Minigun that Robert Rankin was so enthusiastic about? It just might be… The vehicle sections of Terminator 2D: No Fate are slightly less effective, though these have long been poorly represented in video games. This is SUCH a good movie sequence… and a poor game sequence in most T2 games. They’re not massively hard or unfair in the way that some of the earlier T2 games were, but equally they’re not all that engaging or dynamic either. Also read: Retro Game Of The Week: Robocop versus the Terminator The reason why Terminator 2D: No Fate gets the “No Fate” suffix isn’t just because the developers wanted to be cute with quotes. It’s because there are a few key parts of the game where you can make choices that will alter the future path and the levels available to you. You can make some quite dark choices, if you’re so inclined. Those paths only become options once you’ve made your way through the game’s regular, movie-accurate (albeit expanded) playthrough, however. The retro roots and focus of Terminator 2D: No Fate plays out with each level challenging you to get the S Rank and as high a score as possible, and the whole game really is built around high scores and whether or not you enjoy chasing them. It is not, however, all that long a game, and I’d strongly advise you only play on normal (“No Problemo”) difficulty. Where Xeno Crisis can be punishingly hard, Bitmap Bureau seem to have veered a little too heavily into making Terminator 2D: No Fate accessible, with an easy mode that’s almost embarrassingly simple to play. I gave it a go for a single level and then quit out, because there’s very little challenge there, and as a result barely any fun to be had. You’ve got to like high score chasing and replaying levels for Terminator 2D: No Fate to make the most of it. Still, I can very much see the short run time of Terminator 2D: No Fate as being a problem for some gamers. If you just want to see what it has to offer, it won’t take you all that long, and learning the layout of levels only makes it easier as you go along. There’s a careful balancing act here I feel, because this isn’t a genre or indeed a title that would lend itself to an overly padded out gaming experience either, and it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome. Terminator 2D: No Fate: Alex’s Verdict As a representation and expansion of Terminator 2: Judgement Day – which I think we can all agree is the zenith of the Terminator experience, right? — Terminator 2D: No Fate hits most of the right notes. Gamers who are old enough to have seen the film originally will likely love the retro visual style, and those after a simple, arcade style run-and-gun experience will have a blast here – for a while. Steer clear of easy mode and concentrate on chasing those S-tier ranks – easier on some levels than others for sure – and there’s a decent amount of fun to be had here. Not every game needs to be a 100+ hour epic. Was this review useful to you? Support independent media by becoming a sponsor or buying me a coffee! Source: https://alexreviewstech.com/terminator-2d-no-fate-pc-review/