Future
Terminator: Dawn of Fate
Here’s a recipe for disaster: First, man made machines. Then, man made machines mad.
Now, at the Dawn of Fate, the mad, man-made machines will make war on man. Expect mass carnage, twisted metal, and plenty of hurt feelings (but, oddly, no blood and no Arnold Schwarzenegger) when lnfogrames and developer Paradigm Entertainment bring the Terminator universe to the Xbox. Terminator: The Dawn of Fate, a third-person shooter with a pounding rock soundtrack and plenty of high ordinance, serves as a prequel to James Cameron’s violent film The Terminator.
Dawn of Fate ends where The Terminator begins, and opens in 2027 amid the ruins of a shattered Los Angeles. Human forces under the command of John Connor uncover a fiendish plot; the evil computer Skynet intends to send a Terminator robot back to 1984 in order to kill Connor’s mom before she can give birth to John. As rational discourse often fails to ameliorate a Terminator’s homicidal outlook, players will need to fight their way through the game’s 11 levels, and the developers make no pretense about Dawn of Fate being anything other than a “relentless action game.”
lnfogrames and company fully intend for fans of the Terminator films to get an eyeful of the future war between the humans and Skynet in Dawn of Fate—and have been granted a lot of creative license to flesh out its details. “We went in and created tons of Skynet stuff that’s never been seen before,” Francois Lourdin, senior producer for lnfogrames says. This means players will be treated to new Terminators, new hunter/killer units, new human protagonists, and even, Lourdin says, “a new kind of enemy that’s never been seen.”
The walls of Paradigm Entertainment’s demonstration room bear witness to Lourdin’s statement. They’re thickly decorated with sketches of mechanical marvels, humans packing heat enough to fry St. Louis, and fearsome killing machines. Among the never-before-seen terrors are the hulking and one-eyed Terminator 400s, their metallic hides stricken with a severe case of orange-colored rust, as well as their more-imposing brethren the T-800s. Also posted on the walls are drawings of strange human-robot hybrids-these are the mysterious “Digihumans” who play a pivotal role in the game’s plot.
Players take control of the Tech Com heroes Kyle Reese (the protagonist of the original Terminator film, the big and bald hero Justin Perry (“he’s a big guy, so he gets a big gun,” the developers say about Perry), and the female fighter Lt Luna; sadly, the characters do not vary save for their appearances and the weapons they carry. The game offers 15 different weapons such as shotguns, plasma rifles, C4 explosive charges, and rocket launchers for the heroes to use, and it will also be possible to attack Skynet’s forces up close and personal with a plasma baton or with a series of kicks and rush attacks. If a Terminator gets knocked off its feet, it’s possible to dispatch it with a well-placed baton stab to its chest—and the resultant explosion is well worth the danger inherent in coming within kissing distance of such an imposing killing machine.
An early, warts and all, walkthrough of Dawn of Fate showed off the game’s great appeal: its almost single-minded emphasis on killing them all and letting the God of Technology Gone Awry sort them out—as well as its Achilles’ heel, a dynamic camera system that dynamically stunk. To their credit, the developers repeatedly insisted they’re aware of the camera’s flaws, and have vowed to work hard to correct the problem. “We’re going to be working on the camera until they tell us to stop and the game ships,” Ken Tabor, lead game designer says.
Because the game is intended for teens, neither lnfogrames nor Paradigm intends for the game to contain blood. It seems an odd choice considering that humans are going to get shot—a lot, but this is perhaps nitpicking; the more obvious omission here is with a certain Austrian strongman whose likeness rights lnfogrames was unable to secure.
Still, the game holds a lot of potential for fans of the Terminator series. Frenetic firefights are highlighted by Terminators teleporting in via huge pink and blue explosions, and players can opt to fight in first-person perspective, which adds a lot of tension to the proceedings but, sadly, fixes a character in place until the perspective is changed back to the third person. Missions, which range from blowing stuff up to escorting humans (often so they can blow stuff up), are built around the notion that action is life, and life is indeed quite fine.
Developer Paradigm Entertainment seems to have a good handle on the game’s plot which is pretty darn deep for a rather straightforward shooter. Though specific details are being kept to a minimum, Dawn of Fate features plenty of intrigue in the form of some humans whose allegiances aren’t all that well defined. Tabor hints much of Tech Com’s history will be revealed, as well.
“It’s not all pretty,” he notes.
