Terminator: Future Shock

[Anonymous No.5194235]

>late 1995 FPS
>full 3D environments and level design
>hub system
>all directional mouselook by default
>3D models enemies
>some enemies have localized damage, you can destroy parts of them
>3D model props you can interact with, use for jumping, destroy
>objectives, story
>driveable vehicules: car and plane

Why was this game so misunderstood and underrated at release, and why is it still now?
Even Quake and DN3D didn't have it by default and even then had up/down mouselook because of this game.

Looks like all the reviews of the time complained about were stupid things, like the lack of multiplayer and no high-res, which the sequel added, or not being able to a mouse control scheme which later on became the norm. That and, oh, gameplay isn't like Doom and was more survival oriented so apparently that's not okay.

[Anonymous No.5194247]

Because it's boring as shit.

[Anonymous No.5194258]

>>5194247
You're just a depressed low testosterone cocksucker that can't appreciate games that don't have cutesy anime eyes.

[Anonymous No.5194284]

>>5194247
Quake doesn't play great either, and if you check review conclusions, all they care about, and all the marketing is all about, is the "3D engine with 3D levels". This game did it before and no review conclusion from the time even mention it.

[Anonymous No.5194498]

[Anonymous No.5194539]

D-d-d-duke nukem?!

[Anonymous No.5194576]

>>5194498
lol ugly as fuck. Nice draw distance.

[Anonymous No.5194662]

>>5194235
I've honestly never heard of this game desu. Anyone got a DL link? I'd like to check it out. I love the Terminator theme/style so it' be neat to play an old school shooter with that design.

[Anonymous No.5194680]

I own a physical copy of this.
I never understood as a kid why no one I met ever played it. I enjoyed it

[Anonymous No.5195520]

>>5194235
needs a sourceport

[Anonymous No.5195536]

>>5194284
>Quake doesn't play great either

[Anonymous No.5195542]

>>5194235
Only ever played Skynet version and I loved it. Really amazing for its time

[Anonymous No.5195547]

>>5194662
>I've honestly never heard of this game desu. Anyone got a DL link? I'd like to check it out. I love the Terminator theme/style so it' be neat to play an old school shooter with that design.

I had this and Terminator Skynet when I was 12 or so, back in the day. The game was actually quite innovative for it's day, even though it still had some flaws. Future Shock has fairly open ended map design and you could enter into any building with a textured door. Which would lead to some fairly big interiors. Future Shock is almost a completely polygonal FPS, and yes it does have mouse look aiming, which makes it one of the first of its kind. The game uses Bethesda Softworks's old XnGine engine, the same engine that was later used in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall . The sequel: Terminator: Skynet was also Todd Howards' first game as leader designer. He also worked on Future Shock as well, too.

>>5194662
>>>5194235 (OP)
>I've honestly never heard of this game desu. Anyone got a DL link? I'd like to check it out. I love the Terminator theme/style so it' be neat to play an old school shooter with that design.


It will probably never end up on GOG due to licensing, but this and Skynet wouldn't be too hard to find.

[Anonymous No.5195548]

>>5194284
lmao. no.

[Anonymous No.5195552]

>>5194235
I played this some as a kid, but I just barely remember it.
I was a dumb shit as a kid who only played with cheats and couldn't progress much, so obviously I wasn't able to appreciate the game very much back in the day.

Really wish there was a sourceport or port, I remember trying to make it run in DosBox like, a decade ago, and it just refused to work.

[Anonymous No.5195556]

Undeniably incredible on the technical level. But it's supposed to present a post-apocalyptic world. And rather than feeling desolate and abandoned, the areas have kind of a sterile, playground-like quality to them. This kind of takes away from the immersion. Also no multiplayer of any kind is really a downside. The biggest offense by far though... no gun sway when walking.

[Anonymous No.5195557]

>>5194284
what did he mean by this

[Anonymous No.5195559]

I had this game, still have the booklet for it somewhere. I remember purchasing it at a local computer shop in some mall. I really dug it, it was fun but it was slow, as were the enemies. It had good ideas but like a few others said, the execution was lacking.

[Anonymous No.5195565]

>>5195556
>But it's supposed to present a post-apocalyptic world. And rather than feeling desolate and abandoned, the areas have kind of a sterile, playground-like quality to them. This kind of takes away from the immersion

I dunno, I thought it did a good job representing the Future War from the movies. Probably one of the best representations of it in a game from 1995, though I guess that isn't saying much, given that the majority of the Terminator games were 2D side scrollers. The weapon bob was kinda weird. But the guns were 2D sprites. In some weird ways, it was like a smaller scale Fallout 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNMdboshmb4

[Anonymous No.5195579]

can't believe bethesda game studio made this game, with ancient game engine Xngine..

[Anonymous No.5195624]

>>5195579
>can't believe bethesda game studio made this game, with ancient game engine Xngine..

In all fairness, Xngine was new in 1995, and Future Shock was the first game to use it.

[Anonymous No.5195645]

>>5194662
Just downloaded it myself out of curiosity. Looks like there's a version 1.30 patch to download in addition to the game (I'm going with the 25 meg rip over the ISO)

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-terminator-future-shock-7xw

[Anonymous No.5195687]

>>5195536
After playing Quake about half a dozen times and playing many other old shooters ID agree with him, although I can still appreciate the game to some degree

[Anonymous No.5195701]

>>5195687
Have you played the expansions to Quake? They're pretty good, bar one or two real cruel traps.

[Anonymous No.5195981]

>>5195645
>Just downloaded it myself out of curiosity. Looks like there's a version 1.30 patch to download in addition to the game (I'm going with the 25 meg rip over the ISO)
>https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-terminator-future-shock-7xw


FutureShock is pretty easy to get running in DosBOX, an if you want mouse wheel support look here:

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Terminator:_Future_Shock

Also, the sequel, SkyNet, actually comes with Future Shock as well. The boxed copy came with both games. SkyNet was a slightly better game too, as it does fix some of the issues with the first game. It also has cheesy live action FMV cutscenes.

[Anonymous No.5196251]

Maybe the only good Bethesda games

[Anonymous No.5196260]

>>5195981
>The boxed copy came with both games.
Untrue.

However, if you have Future Shock installed, during the installation of SkyNET, you can let it know where FShock is located, which will allow you to play FShock inside SkyNET with its new 640x480 resolution. Sadly they share the limited save slots this way.

[Anonymous No.5196697]

>>5194235
It was really hard, and only ran at a good framerate at the lowest res which looks like shit. It's fun for a little while but starts to get old real quick. It's still probably the best Terminator game, though, but it could really use a sourceport.

[Anonymous No.5196745]

I just beat the game and the add-on.

The 3D engine and models are amazing, gameplay is fun due to that, exploration, blowing up enemies; but some parts can get really annoying. I had to resort to a FAQ twice, and two more times I got stuck due a glitch that prevented me from beating the level. The end of the game had a lot of "in your face" enemy spawns which wasn't fun at all.

half of the weapons being upgrades to others, it feels like half of them become useless once you have the upgrade.

The add-on has much better balance (you're not swimming in ammo anymore for instance), better level design and objectives, and more varied locations as well. It's too bad it's much shorter.

>>5195981
if you get a crash in Skynet at map transitions, google and you'll find an exe that fix that. It's due to dosbox cpu being set too fast so you can also reduce it.

>>5196697
>sourceport

Why? Mouselook is perfect by default, better than the majority of FPS games from the time, and the game looks and run greats in 640*480

[Anonymous No.5197506]

>>5194235

Question is, would Bethesda make a new game? They still have the rights.

[Anonymous No.5198349]

>>5194284
Fucking no.
I could see your point of view before, having never played future shock, but this side of your argument makes me think it's probably garbage.

[Anonymous No.5199419]

>>5196745
>Mouselook is perfect by default
The max sensitivity is really slow. Almost Wolf3D bad. I had to double Dosbox's sensitivity (which drastically reduces accuracy) to make it bareable.

I dunno, maybe they fixed it in the Skynet version you played, but the original Future Shock engine has pretty bad mouse support.

[Anonymous No.5199509]

>>5195520
>>5196697
>>5195552
>sourceport

The game engine was written in assembly to make most of the period hardware. Good luck working with that.

[Anonymous No.5199706]

>>5199509
Well, maybe it could be reconstructed in another engine.
(Yes, I know how that sounds)

[Anonymous No.5201184]

>>5199509
>>5199706
Or you could do like they have done some port back then.
Convert assembly program to C (like, when you got LD A,30, it outputs A=30;), and recompile it for an other platform / modify it.
Ugly as fuck, but it works.

[Anonymous No.5202556]

How do I set up dosbox? I'm retarded

[Anonymous No.5202570]

>>5202556
my dosbox conf file, you don't need all the shit commented out. I just took a conf file from a GoG game and changed the mount directories

-change the directories to match your iso(s) and folder and save it as a .conf file
-have a dosbox shortcut with that conf file
-install future shock
-install skynet, make sure dosbox has FS mounted so it detects it

- play Future Shock IN skynet so you can play in 640*480

- if you have crashes at door transitions, either google for it and you'll find an exe that fix thta, or manually set and reduce CPU speed

[Anonymous No.5202585]

>>5202570
Thank ya kindly