Summary
When James Cameron returns to theTerminatorfranchise with another movie, he’s gone on the record as saying it will have a new setting and a new cast of characters. That means John Connor, Sarah Connor, and the various Terminators, both good and bad, that movie-going audiences have met since the original was released back in October 1984 will all be gone.
With no announced plotto the nextTerminatorfilm beyond it being something that hasn’t been seen before, there’s a ton of different directions Cameron could go. There’s a chance the next film might focus more on the resistance and stay in the future, orbe set somewhere elsein the world than what’s become familiar to fans. Wherever the next film goes and whatever it does, it seems like there’s a chance to kind of rest theTerminatorgame franchise as well. And there’s another beloved science fiction film franchise that could be used as a model.
New Tone for Terminator Games
So far,most of theTerminatorgamesthat have been released have been the kind where players are blasting as many robotic enemies as possible. That makes plenty of sense considering that’s what the movies have been about. Running and hiding has been included to some degree in the movies, but blowing the enemy up and stopping them cold has been the focus of the film franchise and the game franchise for the most part.
There is one game that’s taken a step in a new directionin the form ofTerminator: Surviviors. Instead of the point of the entire game being to blow up as many machines as possible, it’s more about not only fighting Skynet and its armies, but also just surviving in this new world after the bombs drop. It gives a feel of being a survivor of Judgement Day who has to find resources and places to live when the night comes, while also doing battle and taking down as many baddies as possible.
It gives a feel of being a survivor of Judgement Day who has to find resources and places to live when the night comes, while also doing battle and taking down as many baddies as possible.
However, whileTerminator: Survivorsis a stepin a new direction, the next Terminator game could go one further. A game where players’ only goal is to survive. They don’t need to find resources (though that could be an added bonus and a way to better survive) it’s simply to run and hide and not get caught by Skynet and its Terminators. The game would basically put players in the shoes of a normal survivor of Judgement Day. Not someone who has been trained up to fire a weapon of war. Not someone who has joined the resistance to fight, but someone who was there before the resistance even existed.
Terminator Meets Alien Isolation
TheTerminatorfranchise has already been shown how this kind of game can be quite popular for a certain segment of the gaming world. WhenAlien: Isolationwas first released itdidn’t get the greatest reviews, in part because people were a bit annoyed they couldn’t actually fight the alien. That the entire purpose of the game was just to hide and run away and make it out of a space station without the alien killing the main character.
Now thatAlien: Isolationhas been out for a while, players are starting to realize what an interesting take on the franchise is and are even clamoring for the eventual release of a sequel.A decade after it was first released, more people are playing it than ever and that should send a message to whoever might be working on the nextTerminatorgame about what kind of games could be offered in the market place that would be new and original.
Survival Setting Could Feel More Like The Movies
If and when a newTerminatorgame was made that focuses more on survival that destroying as many robots as possible gets made, it could still incorporate some combat to draw in more players. There could even be the inclusion ofdifferent Terminator modelsthat are easier to hide from and then easier to destroy.
The key to this approachwould be that each Terminatorwould offer more of a boss fight than a level where hundreds or even dozens of robots are fought off in order to get to the next area. Spending an hour or so getting around the robot killing machine, finding a special way to take it down and then laying a trap would all come into play more than grabbing a shotgun or laser rifle and shooting the boss over and over and over.
There is currently not another Terminator game in development, officially
Making survival the key aspect of this new offering could really set it apart from the many, many games that have already been released where the point is to rack up as many kills as possible. Setting it in a world that is just after Judgement Day would also add some heft to the story and make this nextTerminatorgame something that’s quite immersive.
