Terminator: Resistance - Annihilation Line Critic Reviews

Terminator: Resistance’s Annihilation DLC is a solid four-hour expansion to the main campaign. While it retains some of the foibles that kept the original experience from reaching a higher score, there is a lot to like about what this content brings both in the narrative and action. For Terminator fans that want to experience every piece of lore associated with the first two movies, this is a treat. However, if you found yourself burned out by the main game, then you may want to give this a miss as it is mostly more of the same.

With some seriously neat moments that echo some key scenes from the first two films and at just over five hours in length, is a neatly digestible morsel that doesn't surprise or innovate in any sort of meaningful way, but instead gives us more of that Terminator: Resistance goodness. Essentially, if you're a Terminator fan and played Terminator: Resistance through to completion, enjoyed it and wanted to stay in that world, then Annihilation Line is absolutely your ticket.

Annihilation Line doesn't solve the issues with Terminator: Resistance, such as its slightly clunky overall feel, but those fans who overlooked its lack of AAA polish won't mind that. Instead, the DLC refines what came before and doesn't have the same amount of technical problems that the core game had at launch. As such, for fans of the Terminator series who enjoyed Resistance, this is certainly something to enjoy.

If you were unimpressed by Terminator: Resistance, your mind will not be changed by Annihilation Line. For better or worse, it is more of the same. The cast mostly carries over, as do the mission types, enemies, and weapons. It’s a little more challenging, perhaps, and the pace is faster. Annihilation can’t compare to the best recent shooters, but it does have an audience. The ideal player might be a diehard Terminator fan eager for a compact few hours in their favorite sci-fi universe. Players who really liked the main game will enjoy the DLC as well. For everyone else, it’s probably a pass.

The main draw here is getting to spend time with Kyle Reese, and this standalone adventure does indeed succeed in rounding him out as a character. This being Terminator: Resistance, though, expect to see lots more Easter eggs sprinkled in. That’s why, much like before, Annihilation Line delivers another ho-hum FPS experience that only true franchise veterans will fully have fun with.

If you’ve played Terminator: Resistance and found yourself wanting more, Annihilation Line is definitely worth considering. It doesn’t really try to offer anything new gameplay-wise, but it does allow you fight beside Kyle Reese and go behind the titular Annihilation Line. Those two factors alone will be enough to convince most fans.

Terminator: Resistance Enhanced is a game that doesn't really understand its source material. The evidence for that can't be made more plain than the way it can't even maintain consistency of vision from one mission to the very next one. The NPC models, audio, bugs and glitches, and repetitive nature of much of the play speaks to an implementation that falls short of any vision, whether the one presented or the one I believe should have been the goal. It does get better with the DLC, and the Infiltrator Mode is an excellent experience in it's own right, although one short lived - clocking in at less than three quarters of an hour with little replayabilty. But factoring in that minor triumph and better subplot of DLC into the mess of the main campaign still falls short of something I can really recommend.