The year is 20somethingorother. Skynet has completed its domination of the human species, and the few remain----
Oh, hell with it. It's the apocalypse and you're the humans trying to kill your new robot overlords. Good? Good. Go watch The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day if you want more backstory, but it's basically about robots and the humans who run from them. I'll wait.
*waits*
Pretty cool, huh? That scene with the semi truck crashing off the overpass into the L.A. wash still gets me. Trust me, you can ignore literally every Terminator film other than the first two, as they're just extended exercises in creating plot holes from the first two films that didn't exist beforehand, and in the most boring way possible. They're garbage.
ANYWAY.
Enter Terminator: Genisys: Rise of the Resistance. It's a sci-fi dungeon crawler, no mistake, and plays like a cross between Gears of War and Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. And this is a very, very good thing.
You'll pick a character (two or more if you're playing solo), slap a gun or two and maybe a piece of equipment on them, then set up the map and plop down some mission objectives at predetermined spots. Proceed through the map hitting your objectives, gunning down killer robots as they spawn, until you complete the overall mission objective.
Wow, that sounds way more boring than I'd intended. 900
Maybe I can pique your interest with a numbered list of things that make this game so much better than you'd think? Let's call said list...
Five Things I Think About Terminator: Genisys: Rise Of The Resistance, Which I Will Henceforth Refer To As Terminator, Because Come The @#$% On
Number The First: Like WQ: Blackstone Fortress, Terminator uses action dice to tell you what you can do each turn. Each character (solo requires you pilot at least two, and it's a breeze) on their turn rolls 4 of their colored d6, and then slots them - and this is key - one at a time depending on what action they want to take. Here's an example of a character with dice slotted:
Here's the <PERSON> character with a few dice slotted. No, he doesn't look like <PERSON>, because of the stupid Genisys movie.
All characters have four standard action boxes they can fill with dice: Move, Rest, and Interact (helpfully, you get two Move boxes, because as mentioned, Terminator is fundamentally about running). Slot a "3" die in your move box, move 3 spaces. Slot a die in a Rest space and you heal a wound or revive another comrade. Plunk one down in the Interact space and maybe you'll open a supply crate or unlock a door (the value needed to Interact changes based on what you're trying to do).
But then maybe you want to shoot a killer robot in the face, yes? You'll need to spend one of your dice to do that too, and depending on your weapon you can get some very nice bonuses if your die is high enough. Spend a 5 or 6 on that plasma rifle and you can re-roll your damage. Spend a 6 on that Mk. II shottie and roll extra damage, that sort of thing.
Oooh, but didn't that blast door require a 6 in the Interact space to open? And don't you need to move a long way this turn to get to that next objective? And while you're at it, aren't you at 1 health remaining and could really use a rest? Oh, and isn't this your last die of the round before the clankers get to shoot lasers at you?
Hey, nobody said the apocalypse was gonna be easy.
So between your standard die slots, special character power, equipment, and weapons there's a fair few places to put those dice, and suddenly four of them won't ever be enough each turn.
Delightfully, though, you only spend your dice one at a time, so you can react to your failure and success mid-turn. Didn't quite manage to down the H/K with your first shot? Eh, we'd planned on opening a crate, but it's probably worth it to take another shot instead, presuming you've got another slot open for a die on your gun.
Niiiiiiice. You can only shoot once per turn with this weapon because it's only got one die slot, but if you spend a 2, 3, or 4 in that slot then you get a free attack with another weapon you have equipped using that same die value. Go get 'em, <PERSON>! 50