‘Terminator 2D: No Fate’ Review (PC)
Terminator 2 is one of the best films ever made, and perhaps the closest ever to being a “perfect film”. It achieves everything it sets out to do, and does it with incredible style. It is endlessly quotable and features a kid with a ginger mullet saving humanity by instinctively lying to a policeman.
Aliens is close, but I am docking a point for Newt. Mostly.
Terminator 2D: No Fate is brought to us by the Team at Bitmap Bureau. A small retro studio in the South of England who have put out Xeno Crisis (Smash TV meets Aliens) and Final Vendetta (Final Fight / Streets of Rage). Both games feature gorgeous pixel art, both games are amazing in 2-player, and both games are a bit too difficult for me, despite my love for them.
They also earn extra points for being on the Neo Geo MVS, Sega Dreamcast and a very long list of other retro consoles. I wanted to pick up a copy of Final Vendetta on Neo Geo, and emailed asking, “if I buy it, can I swing by your office and pick it up?” They did not reply to my email, sadly.
Their new project is a 16-bit style pixel-by-pixel rendition of one of my favourite films of all time. At this point, it feels like they are making games exclusively for me, personally. I have been following it for at least a year and put down my 30 euros on day one.
About 48 minutes later I had completed it (on Easy) and restarted it on Normal difficulty. The game looks beautiful. People have been comparing this to SNES or Megadrive games, but honestly, nothing of the day looked, ran and played this well. I have an MVS copy of a lot of the Metal Slug titles, and even that powerhouse, the Neo Geo, chugged at times of high action. There ARE occasional slowdowns in Terminator 2D: No Fate, but my guess is, this is a deliberate choice (e.g. when big bosses blow up).
The game looks top-notch, the sound, the music, and the remixed music are all bangers. The running and gunning feels amazing (I played this on the Steam Deck), but I did find some of the occasional platforming a bit of a slog at times.
We run through the film mostly scene by scene. We play Arnie, Sarah, and John in the different time zones. On one level, we are breathlessly trying to evade the T1000 in the mental hospital, and the next, we might be shooting lasers at robot dogs, in the far future (2029-ish). Checkpoints are regular, so you will rarely throw more than a couple of minutes of play away, by accidentally falling into the lava pit, but I did find the platforming aspect frustrating at times.
You could also make a case that Terminator 2D: No Fate is short for a 30 euro release. If I didn’t love the studio so much, I would likely be less inclined to ignore this point. It has some replayability, but a 2-player mode would have added a huge selling point that is sorely missing, when their previous games really came to life in 2-player. There are different difficulties, modes, leaderboards and secrets, but the release is light on content, albeit high on quality.
So there we are. A short, but sweet slice of early 90s nostalgia. The running and gunning is top-notch.
Bitmap Bureau, if you do this again (rumours are, Robocop is next), I would like Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing and Escape from New York.
Now I know why you cry…
Terminator 2D: No Fate is out now on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and PC.
