Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance is not just a game; it's an adrenaline-fueled journey where your strategic prowess decides the fate of mankind against the machines. After the machines took over, the greatest threats may not come from the machines but rather from other human survivors.
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is a strategy, real time tactics and rts game
developed and published by Slitherine Ltd..
Released on February 21st 2024 is available only on Windows
in 7 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Dutch, Russian and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 3,353 reviews of which 2,774 were positive and 579 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.0 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 38.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 4.72€ on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance into these genres:
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or equivalent
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Geforce GTX 750 (2GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 25 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
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User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This game is so good, I bought it, decided to try tutorial, and then forgot to pee for 6 hours. Updated: After completing the main game and playing the DLC, I would use the word "genius" to describe this game. There are so many things it does superbly. One of my favorite things about COH: 1 was destructible environments. This game takes it to the next level - terrain blocks line of sight, blocks shots, but can be destroyed. Shots have a real trajectory and do not stop at some magical cutoff marker - they just keep flying and can hit things far behind the aiming distance. To give you an example: A 30mm heavy cannon is engaging an infantry squad in a building - it will shoot many rounds at that building, blow off the walls, but some shots will miss, pass through the buildings and may hit a logi truck that is way back and is considered "safe". Is your soft technical under artillery fire? Park it under a tall building and see arty hit the building. The realistic trajectory makes controlling the line of sight important, but in dense environments you may just force fire to open up new lines of sight, by blowing up environmental objects. Just like COH, this game is heavily focused on keeping your infantry in cover, and fighting to dislodge enemy infantry from cover. Here the "genius" parts come in - you can order your troop transports to assault a building with a Z shortcut - the transport will move up to an entrance, drop off infantry, that may engage enemy in hand to hand inside the building. Did I mention that all buildings actually have stairs? So to get to a roof, a unit inside a building walks up or down the stairs. Every building has directional entrances, for example to enter a junk wall in one mission you have to be inside a compound it is protecting - you cant just get in from the outside. Some of the larger buildings complexes have these entrances connected - can move between buildings without going on the street. The vehicle/crew combat is superb - reminds me of fighting over a panzer wreck in COH1, except here it's every vehicle can be decrewed, and then repaired and re-crewed. Sometimes by a different squad. The realistic damage model is satisfying. An ATGM kills most everything and sets other things on fire, making crew bail out. But then the damaged and beat up (enemy) crew can linger around, get back in their vehicle once "fire" burns out, repair it from scratch and get it back in a fight. So it's your choice whether to kill the wreck or try to save it to evac it at the end of the mission. Vehicles have different components that can get critically hit, they can get out of fuel. There are abandoned vehicles in missions that need to be refueled to be used. The list of things I like just keeps going on. The engagement distances are very long, in some cases like ATGM, longer than a screen can show, which reminds me of "Wargame: European Escalation" - spot with a camoflaged unit, shoot targets with ATGM or artillery from far back. Find high value targets and take them out in innovative ways. The Dark Fate game clearly borrowed heavily from Wargame. Managing ammo, running out of ammo, resupplying - these are interesting concepts that add up tactical layers. The learning curve is there, and missions essentially act as an extended tutorial. For example there is a mission that teaches you how to use mines and C4. Units travel faster on roads, and use them for pathing - mine the roads and enjoy hearing "booms" in a fog of war. See that ATGM flying at you? Press F1 and pray the smoke will hit fast enough. This learning curve is not super complicated, but satisfying. Units have upgrades, like smoke grenades, common and exotic armor and they persist between missions. Lose a vehicle and upgrades are gone - you can replace a humvee, but not the exotic armor you acquired in one of the missions. Same with infantry upgrades. Reading game guides suggests they get more health and faster rate of fire and more damage, so losing a veteran level 5 unit is painful, and you will be trying to preserve the last remaining man in many squads. Managing somehing like 64 infantry squads in late game can get difficult, and it took me 20 minutes and multiple saves to figure out "who drives what" and in which sequence ( your early force that enters the map is super important). The atmosphere of the game is superb - imagine driving a bulldozer, towing a combat trailer (bunker), with 3 independently firing guns, through a bombed out ruined city blocks. Every one of those 3 guns picks their own targets - this is not something I've never seen implemented so well, even in COH. The unit upgrades mean that I'm thinking of which 3 weapons to equip on this killdozer, and what targets it will be useful against. Then, in combat, this dozer will get shot at, some crew members will be killed, and it may lose say the ability to fire the hatch weapon. I can choose to close the hatch to preserve the remaining crew, or let it rip. Here picking between a 3 person squad with vehicle upgrade skills or a beefy 5 person squad that will stay in combat longer is a real choice. Finally, the mission design - again, genius. These are not your typical RTS cookie cutter maps. Every map is unique, from grid-based US midwest to dense industrial areas to open farmlands, with many natural obstacles that split the map into smaller zones that can be controlled. For example vehicles cant cross foot bridges or hillside paths, and noticing some of them can win you a mission. The way battles unfold in single player is satisfying, from a token avanguard, you deploy more units as you complete objectives and the battles evolve along the line of sight and those micro-map sectors. Sometimes game throws you curve balls, and this is where vision becomes important. Keeping snipers in "do not fire" mode, just to watch from some building to spot an enemy flanking. Music is great, I cant even name the genre, but it's fitting as I'm struggling to give orders with tactical pause to "many more units that I ever controlled in COH. The units are voiced, the map events, such as rescuing a unit are voiced, and this is done well, in that "America strong", 1980s Abrams and Bradleys and A10s dominating vibe. I enjoyed the game immensely, stayed up much later than usual, this is the RTS that I've been waiting for since COH 1.
As much as I enjoy the setting of killing clankers as military remnants and the post-apocalypse flavoured resistance stuff, the primary thing I enjoy about this game is the realism - it's not absolute realism, but I can't think of any other RTS where a sniper is anything more than anti infantry, whereas in DFD a .50 Barret can actually threaten light and medium armour, there is a notable difference between the standard 25mm and 20mm rotary for the Bradley and light turret in what they can actually damage, where other games would just be a dps difference at the cost of per hit damage. Angle, armour, elevation, ammunition, it all matters. Aside from Ceramic/Cage armour I think every 'upgrade' or better thought of as a side grade which is nice, no strict 'meta' loadouts so-to-speak - by the end of both the standard campaign and the new Uprising campaign, I don't think any two of my units were identical.
This game is a mix of wargame, xcom and lemmings. Only reason I purchased TDF was Slitherines track record of unique strategy games. Superficially, it appears to be a pause/play tactical meta. 50 hours in, I was not wrong but it is certainly a unique one. Its a wargame because tactical micromanagement is critical to success. Strategy depends on you refining your divisions equipment and staffing. You need to manage manpower and logistics units to reinforce, resupply and travel between sites. Angle your tanks to front face the enemy. Consider armor ratings of buildings and ensure your troops are facing the correct way to ensure you don't miss the first shot. Despite the many reviews citing difficulty - I did not find the campaign difficult - but it does punish mistakes. Infantry trying to creep past a blind corner? Be prepared for a plasma MG to microwave your troops. Attend to this with recon, stealth and a prudent mix of antivehicle capability. Trying to roll around with a mechanised blob? Urban terrain will digest you whole, with arty to finish whats left. Ran out of fuel? Unless you have a flank defensive position to protect your fuel/supply trucks, be prepared to walk home. It's an xcom-esque game - because units matter. If you want your rangers to have firepower, EMP or scouting capability? Make sure they survive and upgrade them. If they die, start again with a new squad. If you want to survive against air units - invest in ATGM's, upgrade and protect them. Want to drive tanks? Protect your driving units, and upgrade technicians to drive tanks and don't let them die. Vehicle upgrades are at the core of this game. Whether its strapping pinetrees to your semi-trailers, or retrofitting terminator tech to your Humvee. The meta is to protect your high value units, and use them decisively. You can lose this game if you run out of appropriately upgraded units and vehicles. It's a lemmings game, because the variety of enemy units come in waves - as do your re-inforcements. Locking down your supply and reinforcement routes are a key part of this game. The enemy just keeps on coming. Don't waste time. If you don't like micro, dont bother with this game. If you are keen for a wargame with X-com character dynamics and a deep vehicle mechanics unique to TDF - this game is a unique approach to a classic genre.
Terminator Dark Fate Defiance is a surprisingly strong entry in the real-time tactics space. It rewards smart positioning, use of cover, and flanking, making each encounter feel meaningful and earned. The game doesn’t let you win with sheer numbers; you need to outthink the enemy. Terrain and line of sight actually matter here, which adds a welcome layer of depth to every engagement. Resource and unit management are handled well, keeping the pressure on without becoming frustrating. The suppression and morale systems are a great touch, shifting the tide of battle based on how effectively you control the battlefield. Enemy AI reacts intelligently, forcing you to stay sharp and adapt your tactics on the fly. Missions are well designed, often presenting multiple ways to approach an objective depending on your playstyle. The interface is clean and easy to navigate, which helps keep the focus on strategy rather than micromanagement. Overall, it’s a rewarding experience for anyone who enjoys thoughtful, grounded tactical combat.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is currently priced at 38.99€ on Steam.
No, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 38.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance received 2,774 positive votes out of a total of 3,353 achieving a rating of 7.99.
😊
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance was developed and published by Slitherine Ltd..
Yes, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is not playable on MacOS.
No, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is not playable on Linux.
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance offers both Co-op and PvP modes.
Yes, there are 4 DLCs available for Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance. Explore additional content available for Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance on Steam.
No, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 10 June 2026 02:14 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 09 June 2026 00:53 |
| Steam price | 13 June 2026 12:51 |
| Steam reviews | 12 June 2026 22:06 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance compatibility
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Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
161
Developer
Slitherine Ltd.
Publisher
Slitherine Ltd.
Release
21 Feb 2024
Platforms
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