Terminator: Skynet
A F.A.Q. by Benjamin J Johnson. Check out my classic Sierra style
horror/thriller adventure game, Prodigal, available for free! Download from
www.prodigal-game.com or the “full-length games” section of bigbluecup.com!
Contact me at real_trisk(at)yahoo(dot)com if you have any comments on this
FAQ. Please, no flames.
Gamefaqs.com is the only website with permission to post this FAQ.
Specifically, this FAQ is NOT to be used by those “cheat” websites that
hijack your Google searches if you put the word “walkthrough” together with
any other word in the human language, then have no actual walkthrough to
offer. I hate all of your guts and hope you die alone and afraid knowing no-
one ever loved you.
If you found this FAQ anywhere besides gamefaqs.com, please email me and let
me know about it. Thanks.
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TOC:
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1A. Introduction and my thoughts.
2B. The Sticking points - Use if you are stuck.
3C. The Detailed Walkthough
3C1. Mission 1
3C2. Mission 2
3C3. Mission 3
3C4. Mission 4
3C5. Mission 5
3C6. Mission 6
3C7. Mission 7
3C8. Mission 8
4D. Strategies and tricks 5E. Bugs to watch out for.
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1A. Introduction and my thoughts.
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Hello all! This is my first ever FAQ. I’m doing it because I love Skynet and
consider it to be a superior game. Sadly few bought it and it is apparently a
very obscure game, and there are no FAQs for it! When I went to play it a few
days ago, I got stuck in several areas/puzzles, and when I checked
Gamefaqs…nothing’. So I muscled through and figured out what to do, but I’m
going to write this to help myself next time I play it, and hopefully help
others who might play this DOS gem.
One thing I’d like to note, Terminator: Future Shock was the FIRST game with
mouse look controls that all modern FPSes have, NOT Duke Nukem 3D. Future
Shock predates Duke by over a year and had mouse look. In fact, PC Gamer, who
INCORRECTLY claims that Duke3D was the first mouse look game, actually
lowered their rating on Future Shock stating that the “mouse for looking and
keyboard for movement” controls were terribly difficult to use. Twits.
A couple things to note about this game though. First, at least on my system
running Dosbox .73, the game is fairly UNSTABLE. Bethesda’s Xngine games were
ALL unstable and buggy, and I can’t remember if it was always this way or
not. Regardless, the game likes to crash on level transitions. This including
going in and out of buildings, as they cause a level transition. The game is
not so crash prone as to be unplayable, but I do recommend saving often
unless you like replaying large portions of a game because it decided to bomb
on you. Furthermore, it seems like the longer the game has been running, and
the more times a game has been restored, the more likely the game is to
crash, so watch out!
Another thing that I heartily recommend to any ‘90s era Dos gaming
aficionados; BUY A ROLAND SOUND CANVAS! Hearing what the designers INTENDED
you to hear for their game music is a jaw dropping experience. Nearly all 90s
games’ musical scores were composed on a Roland Sound Canvas, and hearing
these old games on one will blow away any DOS game music aficionado. I can’t
believe how truly beautiful games sounded, and how poorly most of us had to
hear them. Some games like Shadow Warrior and Hexen even recorded their
games’ music directly from the Sound Canvas and made it into the “enhanced”
redbook audio on the CD to show people what they were missing.
Roland hasn’t sold Sound Canvases for many years, but there are lots of them
available on eBay at any given time. Send me an email and I’d be glad to tell
you my experiences with purchasing them, and what works best for old DOS
gaming. When they were new, Sound Canvases cost from 600-1600 bucks, which is
why few gamers had one. But for around 90 bucks used on eBay, you can hear
what you’ve been missing and experience your old games like they were new
again.
I myself just bought several of the different Sound Canvases to hear my old
games, and I’m LOVING these things! I’m going to assume you are NOT an idiot
and just give an overview of the game and sticking points in each level, plus
any cool bits I’ve uncovered.
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2B. The Sticking points - Use if you are stuck on some of what I think are
the game’s main tricky puzzles.
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Mission 1. Fairly straight forward.
Mission 2. Also fairly straight forward.
Mission 3. Getting into the Cyberdyne building - I always forget this and get
very stuck here every time I play this game. To get into the Cyberdyne
building, you CANNOT just walk in the front door as there is a deep
radioactive crater right in front of it. Instead you need to go UP onto the
roof of the building. There are several walkways and paths around the area
that lead onto the roofs of nearby buildings. ONE of those buildings has an
antenna on the roof. You can see it from the ground so you’ll know which
building you must get on top of. On the ground, just follow the catwalks
backwards from that building back until you find the way to get up there,
then blast away at the base of the antenna. It will break and fall over,
creating a bridge from which you can jump onto the roof of the Cyberdyne
building.
Mission 3. Inside Cyberdyne -
This one can lead to a little frustration too, if you aren’t looking around
closely. The way you need to go is hidden under the air hockey game…
Level 3 Getting access to the docks and the submarine-
You need to use one of the machines in the M&M Welding building to break a
hole in the wall. This will get you access to the docks. Use the machine over
and over until it makes a hole in the wall.
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3C. The Detailed Walkthough - Use if you don’t want to have to explore the
levels yourself, or if you are stuck on a puzzle not discussed in “The
Sticking Points.”
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3C1. Mission 1.
Objectives:
1)Scout out the robot complex to the west. Reports have shown several convoys
moving in and out there.
2)Return to base once you have discovered anything out of the ordinary.
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You start the mission next to your car in a rocky area. There is a Raptor
charging you from the left, so pull out a better gun than the lead pipe you
start out holding, and blast it. Now you can take a look around. Southeast is
a dead end, so the only option here is to head West. After blowing up a
turret and a Seeker, you’ll come to a fork in the road. Head left and you’ll
see a small tower and a hover truck with a giant crate on it. Watch for a
Seeker here.
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SECRET
On the back of the crate on the truck you’ll see a door, walk up to it
and hit your activate button to enter a small secret. Inside you’ll find some
crates with ammo in them. While the contents of each is random, you need all
the ammo you can get at this early stage in the game.
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Head back outside and go into the radio tower behind the truck. Watch out for
the Raptor behind the truck, grab the ammo and health he was standing on,
then head into the radio tower for a couple clips of ammo and some armor.
That’s it for the dead end, retrace your steps to the main path and continue
west, fighting a couple more Raptors on the way.
After a short jaunt you’ll come over a ridge looking down at the base. You’ll
see the doors open and a hover truck drives inside while a second one waits
outside. The truck that waits outside is your ticket into the base, there’s a
door on the back just like in the secret, but watch out for your first H/K to
attack from over the destroyed building behind the truck. Hop in and Skynet’s
minions will bring you into the base if you want, or you can explore the
ruins behind the truck for some more much needed ammo, which I highly
recommend, as you’ll need it in the base. Just keep an eye out for Raptors
guarding the stashes. Don’t forget to go into the donut shop bathroom for a
box of shells.
Anyway, after your trip in the truck, hop back out the door and get ready to
fight your first terminator. There’s an H/K lurking about too, so be quick
with the terminator. I recommend clearing out the yard of the base before
going inside. Just south of the truck you came in on is a tower with a switch
that will open the front gate so you can get back outside, but watch out for
a terminator hiding up there. He can kill you in a couple seconds at the
range you’ll encounter him. Northeast of your truck is a giant treaded
carrier truck. Check behind it for lots of armor and ammo.
Farther northeast of the truck is another tower, again with a terminator in
it. There is a switch up there too, this one opens up the main doors into the
base. Northwest of the base structure itself is a third tower, with yet
another switch which does some fool thing with the lights on the nearby H/K
landing pad. Finally you’ll see two big electric motor looking things in the
yard around the base. Destroy both of them, I tells ya! Not sure if it does
anything, or not, but Future Shock taught me always to destroy those
generators.
Lastly, just west of the truck is a portion of the base with a lower height.
You’ll see two big docking doors which you can’t get in, but on the north
wall just by the doors is a small door you CAN get through. Inside is a ton
of ammo and other loot, but also a ton of bots. Be on your toes if you want
to clear out this small area!
Anyway, now head into the doors you opened with the switch in tower number 2.
Watch for a terminator to your right, then hit the switch he was standing by,
which will turn off the red force field so you can enter the structure itself
through the door.
BASE PART 1
Inside the base, follow the tunnel and enter the first door on
your right. Be carefull to destroy that loading arm thing you see flailing
around. It’ll damage you if you get to close. Hit the switch on the east
wall. This opens the door to the room across from this one, but watch out for
a Raptor behind it.
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SECRET
You WANT TO GO INTO THIS NEWLY OPENED ROOM *BEFORE* you go down the
tunnel and hit the second switch, as that switch will rotate the hallway and
you’ll miss a massive stash of loot as well as the plasma pistol, the first
actually worthwhile energy weapon in the game!
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Once you’ve got the loot in the secret room, go to the end of the tunnel west
and grab the loot, watching out for the loading arm to the right just inside
the door of the room. Behind the arm on the north wall you’ll see another
switch. Hit it to rotate the room through your opened doorway to get deeper
into the base.
Head through your opened doorway again and follow the tunnel to a T
intersection. Watch for a Raptor hiding behind the wall to the left, and take
the right tunnel first. Watch OUT! The room at the end of the tunnel is an
ambush CRAWLING with clankers, including a Raptor waiting on either side of
the door! I recommend ducking into the room then ducking back out and running
back down the hallway so you can try and pick off the Raptors and terminator
from a distance.
Once the room is cleared, head down to the bottom part of the room and blast
the crates for more ammo. Head back up the ramp and follow it into another
passageway. The passage turns left, and watch out for another terminator
around the corner waiting to pulverize you. Bethesda does that A LOT in this
game. Enemies around every corner. You’ll get used to it and come to expect
it.
Anyway, grab the loot from the room the terminator was in, then hit the
switch on the west wall. Head out of this room and go back to the big ambush
room, and you’ll see the door at the end of the ramp is open with a ton more
loot and a machine gun in it! The machine gun is very powerful, but it eats
ammo too fast to be worth using for much. I stick with the Uzi and the M4 for
machine guns, myself.
Now head back to the T intersection and take the left path, which is now
open. Another Raptor awaits you around the corner, so get ready. After you’ve
made the Raptor an ex, head up the ramp and through the door into another
section of the base.
BASE PART 2
You start off facing west looking into a medium size control room with a
large pit. Inside the control room are several terminators and the now
ubiquitous Raptor just to the left of the door. Waste ‘em all, then enter the
room and watch out for another terminator down in the pit and through the
door. You can wake him up by crouching and putting a few rounds into him,
then quickly back off so he can‘t shoot back. He’ll walk into the pit and
usually get stuck on the wall, letting you blast him at your leisure.
Once you clear this room, head up the west ramp, jump a small gap and go into
a small room with a window looking out into a big room. There’s a switch
under the window, which when hit will open a door in the big room through the
window, so hit it and retrace your steps back into the pit room.
Now head down into the pit and through the door. You’ll come to another
intersection. Watch out to the left, there are TWO Raptors around this
corner. To the right (east) is a dead end with some loot. The North passage
is blocked, for now, by a door. That leaves heading left (west) where the two
Raptors were. Around a corner you’ll enter that big room you could see
through the window. First, head over to the small lift just south of the door
you opened, and hit the switch to raise the lift. Around the catwalk is a
small secret of some grenades, so grab ‘em and then return to the lift, hit
the switch and go back down. Now just north of the lift is a tiny room with a
switch in it. Hit the switch and then turn around 180 degrees to watch the
fireworks.
Yikes! Time to make like a tree and get out of here! Return to the
intersection, and the door which was closed will be open leading to a room
brimming with loot and the door out of the complex.
BACK OUTSIDE
You will start off in the middle of a MAJOR ambush. Terminators are
everywhere, there’s an H/K raining down fire, and even a few Raptors are
scattered about. This might be a good time to use the machine gun, or you can
run around the corner of the building to your left and deal with the H/K,
then peak around the corner to waste the bots one at a time.
The front gate is closed again! Rats! So much for saving yourself some
effort! WATCH OUT when you go up in the tower to open the gate, though…the
terminator guard is back and just as dangerous as ever.
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SECRET
Another little secret can be found on the roof of the complex. You’ll notice
the two hover trucks that helped you gain access have been unloaded. Go
partway up the ramp to tower one, then jump across the two trucks and onto
the roof for some ammo and health.
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SECRET
I can see a bunch of ammo and goodies on the roof of the upper, bigger
building, but I haven’t been able to figure out how to get it. If anybody
knows the trick, please email me and I’ll put your name in the FAQ credits.
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Anyway, once you hit the switch in tower 1 to open the gate, you can go south
into the ruins to destroy all the bots that you already killed who have
magically respawned. Most of the loot DIDN’T respawn though, so it really
isn’t worth it unless you are trying to kill every last bot in the level.
Head back up east into the hills and continue east back towards your car. The
hills are crawling with terminators and other nasties, so go slow and pick
them off one at a time from a distance. If you are running low on ammo, which
you probably are from the zillions of bots out here, you can go back to that
first hover truck that is in that little southeast dead end with the small
tower. There is a terminator behind the truck, so watch out, but you’ll find
that the crates IN the truck have respawned.
When you make it back to your car, click the “activate” button on the
drivers’ side door to end the level. If you want, you can destroy another
three terminators just east of the car, but you don’t get anything for it, so
ending the level might be preferable. Let’s Roll! Well done, Soldier!
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3C2. Mission 2.
Objectives:
1)Drive the jeep to safety and out of the hills. Your escape route has been
blocked off and you must take the route to the west.
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This mission again starts you with some bots baring down at you from the
left. You have unlimited ammo but NO ABILITY TO HEAL on this level, so spray
away at them before they get close enough to shoot. I recommend going slow
and shooting stuff at the limit of distance visibility, as the bots often
can’t shoot back because their AI hasn’t started yet.
Anyway the game starts you off with the car facing west, so who are we to
argue? Head west, being careful of the dead end to your left…there are about
3 raptors at point blank range there that will chip away at your unrefillable
health. Continue West until you reach the gates of the complex from your
previous mission. Bethesda sure is getting its money worth out of this map,
eh? This part is tuff city.
Creeping forward here will get you killed by a ton of Terminators and
Raptors. This is one occasion in a car mission where I suggest you charge
blindly forward off the cliff in front of you and stopping on the right side
of the bomb crater outside the bases gate. Kill the Raptor in front of you,
then spin around and blast the Terminators and Raptors bearing down from
behind. Watch for a couple coming out over the hills from the direction of
the base, too.
Once you deal with that thorny situation, just carefully make your way
southwest through the ruins until you reach the gate which was closed in the
previous mission. On the way watch out for a Raptor or two hiding in the
burned out husks of buildings. They have a nasty habit of shooting you from
behind once you drive past.
At the gate, take out the two turrets guarding it, then blast away at the
gate itself and head on through. Your basic goal now is to follow the street
through another gate. When the street ends, continue north into the hills.
When the path veers west, watch out for your first T-Rex just around the
corner. Continue on, shooting any opposition. When the path starts to go up a
hill on the right side, stay to the left if you want to fight all the bots,
or take the upper path if you want to take a shortcut. (Take a left when the
shortcut ends at a T intersection to reconnect with the main road.)
The path will lead out onto a road, which you should follow. Lots of bots,
but just go slow and destroy them before they are close enough to attack. The
road will end again, so follow the trail into the hills.
Eventually you’ll come to a fork in the road, with one path leading south,
and the other leading east. Go south, and you’ll reach another intersection,
east and south, same as the last. (If you are wondering, there is absolutely
NOTHING east. No bots, nada. So don’t waste time going there.) Go south yet
again, and the path will lead to a dropoff in what looks more like a ditch
than a path through the mountains. Watch for two tanks lying in ambush at the
bottom of the ditch…they like to pop out at point blank range and pound on
you. Follow the ditch south then east to complete the mission! Well done,
soldier!
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3C3. Mission 3
Objectives:
1) Travel into the city and obtain the missile data from Cyberdyne Research
and Data. You will have to get to the sub- basement level of the building,
where Cyberdyne was testing the SkyNet system.
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Ahh, back on foot for level three. After two very linear levels, it’s nice to
return to a more Future Shock style level with wide open spaces and lots of
gutted buildings to explore for loot. Because of the size of this map, I’m
not going to walk you through every nook and cranny. NOTE!!! I’m going to
take you the shortest route to completion, grabbing any guns along the way.
If you see something that I don’t talk about, feel free to explore! That is
half the fun of Terminator: SkyNet! Furthermore, it is a requirement, since
you’ll need the ammo scattered about in the various buildings in the area, so
keep your eyes open!
This level also has the most vague puzzle in the game, the dreaded antenna
puzzle.
You start this mission facing north on a narrow rubble strewn road, with the
vague instructions that the Cyberdyne building should be northwest. Head
north and fight a Raptor. When you see a small bomb crater in front of you,
start watching the skies for your first H/K bomber. These take a lot more
punishment to destroy than a regular H/K, and drop streams of grenades on you
to boot. Just keep moving and try not to let it get directly of you and you
should be OK. Just to make matters even worse, watch out for a Terminator
coming at you at the same time as the H/K bomber.
When you’ve dealt with these foes, you’ll come out of the narrow street into
a wide open area. There’s a T-Rex hiding behind the buiding to the northwest,
so watch out for him, and head along the street to the west. There’s another
H/K bomber lurking around as you get close to another small bomb crater. Just
north of that little bomb crater is a catwalk leading up. Go up TWO levels
only, and jump onto the roof of the building to the EAST. There’s some much
needed ammo here, as well as the Phased Plasma Rifle, my favorite energy gun
in the game! It’s very powerful, nearly as powerful as the shotgun, but only
uses 2 rounds of energy per shot. I recommend this baby be your bread and
butter weapon for most of this game.
With gun in hand and a warm buttery feeling in your stomach that only heavy
firepower can bring, return to the catwalk and go up all THREE levels this
time, jumping onto the ledge on the building to the WEST. Follow the ledge
west and viola! Access to the upper freeway!
OK, at this point, you can go right, towards your goal, or you can take the
scenic route by turning left to get extra guns, and see a nice Easter egg in
the form of the Tech Noir. I’ll take you on a detour if you want, but if
you’d like to just get on with beating this level, you can skip this next
part.
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The Scenic Detour:
OK, turn left and head south, then west along the elevated highway. Watch out
to the left down below of the highway, there are 2 T-Rexes with your name on
them. Don’t get so caught up in fighting them that you miss the fact that an
H/K bomber is lurking about, though. The T-Rexes can’t really hurt you from
down there, but the bomber sure can. Anyway, after the highway swings west,
you’ll see a small building on your right with a hole in the wall. Jump
through that hole for a grenade launcher and some ammo for it. The grenade
launcher rocks, although it is a bit tuff to use at first as it doesn’t have
a target reticule.
Unfortunately, you can’t just jump back onto the elevated highway, you’re
going to have to go all the way back to the catwalk to get back up. Before
you do that though, drop down from where you got the launcher for some health
and armor, then go out the door of the place to the north, and go across the
street into the building to the northeast. It has a wooden fence around its
yard, so it is easy to spot. On the ground floor of the building is health,
armor and ammo, but the REAL goodies are up the catwalk. Clear each level of
this building of much needed energy weapon ammo. When you are done, head due
east back to the first catwalk and get back up on the elevated highway.
Continue west until the elevated highway connects with a raised island of
land. There’ll be a building to your right with a machine gun in it, but
watch out for the turret just behind the building. The building might also
get besieged from a T-Rex that comes up from the road below to the west, so
be on the lookout.
Continue west on the elevated road to another island of raised land, and look
left. You’ll see another gutted building with the laser cannon in it. You
need to make a flying leap from the hill to land on that level, so snag that
bad boy. I’m not a fan of the weapon personally…it IS powerful, but it eats
precious energy ammo WAY too quickly to be practical. ++NOTE++ You MUST be
running to make the jump, but you will smack into the floor of the level
above when you try for the jump. Keep pushing the forward button though…the
physics of the game are archaic, so as soon as you clear the level above,
you’ll start flying forward again and land where you want. (If you return to
this part of the elevated highway after getting the laser cannon and head
around the back of the building in front of you, you can climb the pile of
rubble and jump onto the upper level of the building. This leads you to a
mountain of energy ammo, health and armor by jumping from roof to roof to
catwalk etc.)
OK, we got a new gun, but now have to jump down to the lower streets. Bummer.
Well, no tour would be complete without a trip into the Tech Noir though, so
since we are close by let’s hit that part o’ town up! Drop down and head
north along the nearby street. Watch out for several turrets and an H/K
bomber when you reach the intersection, they can kill you quick if you aren’t
careful.
At the intersection, turn left (west) and you should see a skyway connecting
two buildings that runs above the street. There’s a bunch of loot on it,
which we’ll get in a bit. Head down the street and you’ll see a white
building, which is the Tech Noir! Don’t just run up to the door though, there
is a T-Rex guarding it just up the street to the north, and you will awaken
another H/K bomber as you approach, which loves to grenade you as you fight
the T-Rex.
Save before going in! The Tech Noir is CRAWLING with Terminators! There isn’t
a lot that needs to be said about the club inside, I’d recommend clearing all
three floors before jumping the railing to grab the laser cannon, or you’ll
be attacked from all directions. On the second floor, in the southwest corner
you’ll see the payphone that Sarah used, and there’s a load of armor and
health behind the bar on the first floor. (There are posters in here that
point to the fact that somebody at Bethesda likes Japanimation.) On the third
floor behind the bar is some health and another grenade launcher.
One other Easter egg before you leave…If you go to the DJ booth on the first
floor and hit the “use” key on the record player, you’ll get a blast from the
‘70s! Groovey, babuh!
OK, let’s leave this seething cauldron of angst before the grim post
apocalyptic mood of the game is totally ruined. After that homage to bad
fashion of decades past, it is only appropriate to slink out the back door
found on the first floor, just watch out for yet another terminator lying in
wait for you.
You’ll find yourself back on the street just out back of the club. Head
around the corner east, keeping a keen eye out for a multitude of bots. Head
east until you see a small gas station on your left. There’s a Laser Rifle
along the side of the gas station, as well as some plastic armor. Keep going
east down this street, and keep in mind there is a lot of ammo and goodies in
the buildings you pass. If you are low on supplies, it is worth scouring
every nook and cranny. Anyway, there will be a small bomb crater in the
middle of the street but it is one of the rare ones that isn’t radioactive
inside.
Just past that crater is an alleyway between two buildings on your left
(north.) You’ll see a pile of debris and a catwalk that doesn’t make it to
the floor. Climb the rubble pile and jump to the catwalk, but watch out for
an ambush from an H/K bomber. Climb the catwalk all the way to the top, wary
of a friendly little robot guarding the roof.
This part is COMPLETELY linear now, so I’ll gloss over it. Jump from rooftop
to rooftop, walking along catwalks and skyways as you go. Just watch out for
Turrets and other nasties firing at you from below. The catwalks eventually
end at a hole in the side of one of the buildings, and you’ll find another
grenade launcher and some ammo inside. Up the staircase on the roof of the
building is the antenna you need to destroy to enter the Cyberdyne building!
Not bad, eh? Grab any loot you need as you’ll not be back once you make the
jump. Now fire a grenade into the base of the antenna and it will tip over
giving you a tightrope to jump from to reach the roof of the Cyberdyne
building. The physics of it are utterly impossible! Neat! Note that there are
lots of other areas to explore and loot to be had, but this route will give
you some new guns and an easy path through some buildings loaded with loot. I
still recommend you explore this big, cool area, especially if you are low on
ammo. I’ve skipped a whole bunch of loot.
Skip the next section, as it is just a direct route to the roof of the
Cyberdyne building.
End of Scenic Detour
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The Direct Route to the Cyberdyne Building:
You won’t get as many of the good guns and ammo taking this route, but if all
you want to do is get into the Cyberdyne building fast, this is the most
direct route.
OK, so you’ve jumped from the catwalk onto the elevated highway. Go right
(north) along the elevated highway. There will be a raised island of land
that the highways connects with, and watch out for an H/K bomber coming your
way from the north. On your left you will see a building with an antenna on
the roof; that is your destination. Continue north along the road until it
swings left (west,) but watch out for just about every kind of bot there is
coming at you from every direction here. Head west along the street, passing
the Bethesda building on your right.
As you reach the end of the Bethesda building, you’ll see a pile of rubble on
your left, and a catwalk leading up. Jump from the rubble onto the catwalk,
then head up onto the roof of the building. This part is linear, so I won’t
detail everything…just jump from roof to roof, catwalk to catwalk, until you
reach the end of the catwalk and a hole in the side of the building. Go in
the building for a grenade launcher, then up the stairs onto the roof to
reach the antenna. Shoot the base of it with the grenade launcher to tip it
over, then run along it and jump from the end to land of the roof of the
Cyberdyne building.
End of The Direct Route to the Cyberdyne Building.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSIDE THE CYBERDYNE OFFICES
At last the insides of the Cyberdyne building! Shoot the crates and grab any
loot and health you need. I recommend that you DON’T pick up any health and
armor you do not need, as this level has a lot of tuff fights and it isn’t
too far out of your way to run back up here to grab some health and armor if
you need it.
There is only one way out of this room, and that is the hall. Head in there
now. When you come to a T junction, turn left and you’ll see a dead end with
an elevator at the end of it. We’ll be getting back there eventually. Careful
as you round the corner of the hall when it turns right. There’s yet another
Raptor lying in wait. The hallway will eventually let you out at some office
cubicles and an air hockey table. What an obvious combo. Anyway, be careful
entering this room, Raptor to the left blah blah. Around the back side of the
cubicles is a Terminator, which I’d recommend destroying now so he doesn’t
cause you trouble later.
Behind the cubicles is a small separate office that is empty except for a
bookcase on the back wall. Throw a Molotov at the bookcase to reveal a
Canister Bomb hidden behind. Once you’ve cleared the area, turn your
attention to the pool table. If you look closely, you’ll see that the floor
is cracked beneath it. That’s where you need to be, so put some heavy
ordinance of one kind or another into it. STAND WELL BACK THOUGH, as far as
air hockey tables go, this one must be filled with gasoline and C4 ‘cause it
blow up REAL good. Same goes for the floor underneath.
Clamber down into your newly renovated tunnel between floors, and watch out
for a Raptor shooting you from the hall when you reach the bottom. Again,
this hall is linear, so just go along it, watching each corner carefully for
ambushing Terminators. Finally down some stairs you will come to the ground
floor and the front lobby of the Cyberdyne building. Time to head into the
basement and the labs. Clear the lobby and any offices off of it BEFORE you
head downstairs, as I’m guessing you’ll need some armor by now. Now when you
go down the stairs, DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT DESTROY THE CRATES!!! There is
nothing in them and they are your ONLY way to the upper area where the power
switch is!
Once you’ve hit the switch in the little room on the upper area, you can
destroy the crates if you don’t believe me. I can’t believe that Bethesda
would allow you to screw yourself over and make the level unwinable, but it
seems they did EXACTLY that.
Careful going back up the stairs. Some Raptors and Terminators have snuck
into the building on their tippy-toes…or at least, *I* sure didn’t hear them
walk in, did you? Weird, huh? While mulling over that mystery, head all the
way back up through the building to that top dead end I mentioned that had an
elevator door in it. Yep, that’s where the elevator is. While you are up
there, take the opportunity to swing into the starting room and grab some of
that loot you were wise to leave behind since you didn’t need it. There’s
gonna be lots more Terminators down below!
Jump in the elevator and hit the switch, making note of which wall the switch
is on. You can ride the elevator all the way to the bottom if you want, but
there is nothing down there. What you are looking for instead is a hallway
you can jump out of the elevator into that is on the SAME WALL THAT THE
SWITCH WAS. The other two halls you can duck out of the elevator into are the
rooms you’ve already visited. The exit on the switch wall is the only new
one. Be careful when you duck out though, the room is guarded by a Terminator
and you’ll have to fight him with little room to maneuver. This is one of the
rare times where you could consider bringing out one of the BIG guns to kill
him fast or he may lay some serious smack down on you.
Once the Terminator is dead, head into the room he was guarding, and hit the
“activate” button on the control console where you see a screen that reads,
“Data Lab Room SECURED.” The screen should change to say “disabled,” and NOW
you can head to the bottom of the elevator shaft. Call the elevator to this
level by hitting the button on the wall opposite the elevator shaft
though…trying to drop down the shaft in a freefall will result in your shin
bones protruding through your socks. Jump into the elevator as it passes,
though…it won’t actually STOP on this level.
At the bottom of the elevator shaft, an open door will beckon you into the
labs and a new area.
CYBERDYNE LABS
This place has a great sounding song if you have a good Sound Canvas synth
hooked up on music duties. This area is short but sweet with a lot of
Skynet’s forces lying in wait for you, so be careful and keep a good firearm
up at all times. I stop just short of recommending you run around with the
grenade launcher up, because there are a bunch of those annoying Seeker bombs
in here and a grenade would be a terrible waste on them.
Grab the piles of grenades, and when you are ready hit the switch on the wall
to open up the labs. Watch out for a Seeker bomb waiting to squirt through
the door and blow up in your face the moment the door swings open, though.
Head down the hall and stop at the first door on your left. Hit the switch to
open the door and watch out for a Terminator guarding the room. Again, only
pick up the health and armor if you NEED it, as there’ll be a lot of
opportunity to get hurt here and you’ll need it later if you don’t need it
now. If you curve around the wall on the right as you enter the room, you’ll
find another hall with a door leading you back out into the main hall. Hit
the switch on the wall to open the door. We’ll get the other door in this
room open in a minute, so just remember it is there.
Well, as you exit that door you’ll see another door right across from the one
you are coming out of, so we might as well go in there next. In the next room
there is a console right in the middle. At each of the black screens on the
console, hit use and you’ll activate the screen and get a bit of background
information about what went wrong at this facility. (hint, it was Skynet.)
There are FOUR screens, so make sure you activate all of them. South of the
console with the screens on it is another room. Head in there now, and again
be wary of ambushes. Grab the loot and continue east into the next room then
again south. This south room has a TON of Seekers in it in addition to a
Raptor, so be careful.
There is really only one way to go here, so keep going through the rooms and
halls until you reach the end Guarded by a Terminator. There are two consoles
in this room, one on the north wall and one on the east wall. Activate them
both and retrace your steps to the main hall and that room whose door was
previously closed that I told you to remember. It is open now, and the room
beyond is guarded by two Terminators, one on each side of the door. Grenade
launcher fired at their feet works wonderfully here.
When you have sent them to meet the Great Programmer, enter the room and grab
any health and armor that you need before you activate ALL EIGHT consoles in
the middle of this room. And this is important to my strategy of this room,
START at the consoles closest to the door and finish on the ones farthest
from the door. When you activate the eighth console, your character should
speak, and several Terminators will run into the room leading out of here
really fast and really soundlessly, almost like they just popped in when you
activated the last console. There is an easy way to kill these guys though,
so listen up. Wake them up one at a time, and make sure to keep one of the
consoles between you and it. He won’t be able to shoot you, and you can use
your shotgun or rifle to shoot him in the head ‘till he goes boom. Then move
up to the door and wake one more and run quickly back behind the console.
Rinse and repeat until you have all three of them destroyed.
If you leave this room by the left door, watch out for two more Terminators
lying in wait in the room across the hall. There is yet another Terminator
waiting at the entrance to the complex, so wasting them all with a grenade
launcher is a great idea. You can now leave if you want, or explore the other
three rooms to grab some ammo and health that you probably need. Only one of
the rooms is guarded with a lone Seeker. When done, leave the way you came
in.
BACK IN THE CYBERDYNE BUILDING MAIN OFFICES
You’ll come out of the labs and find that the bots have tried to collapse the
building, sealing you inside. They weren’t done though, so you still have a
chance. Inch carefully to the right and you should see a Terminators head
peeking out through the rubble. Awe how cute. Blow him away with the shotgun
or rifle.
His death should take a bunch of rubble along with him, allowing you to crawl
out underneath. If for some reason his explosion DOESN’T clear the path, back
up and throw a couple well placed explosives to clear it out yourself.
Hop in the elevator, and pull out a BIG DANGED GUN! Either the Machine Gun or
the Grenade Launcher are a must here to survive. Hit the switch to bring the
elevator up, then turn 180 degrees and be ready for a Terminator LITTERALLY 2
feet away from you when the elevator stops. Kill him as fast as you can, and
you’ll find the bots have shut down the elevator before it reached the top
floor. **HINT** Look up through the open ceiling of the elevator, and you
will be able to get a clear easy shot at him with the grenade launcher well
before the elevator reaches his level. I was able to destroy him without
taking any damage this way.
So once again you are going to have to trundle your way up through the entire
building until you reach the room you started in. Not much to say about this.
Grenade Launcher works best as they are literally EVERYWHERE in the lobby.
I’d save on the elevator before you step out so you can memorize where they
all are to take them out in the most efficient way possible. One of the
offices has a health canister in it which may be a life saver for you.
Make your way back up and keep that grenade launcher out! Some of the offices
have health and armor in them, so check each one on your way back up to the
top floor. Some of the Terminators and Raptors are at or near the tops of
stairs, so you can use the “steep height” trick I wrote about in the tips
section.
At long last you will make it to the starting room. Hop on the raised
platform and hit the switch. You will be raised up to the upper section of
the room, and you can exit through the door on the opposite wall. You will
emerge outside, and after a second will see an H/K flying towards you. Don’t
panic and shoot at it! You’ll just waste your ammo, as that is your rescue
ride. Wait ‘till it lands to beat the mission. Well done, soldier!
==============================================================================
3C4. Mission 4.
Objectives:
1) Get to the harbor area.
2) Search the USS Las Cruces for the Hades Missile data.
==============================================================================
You start this mission just like the first mission; standing next to your car
with a bot coming at you from the left. A few well placed grenades from your
launcher should make him think better of it, though. After he’s dead, you can
grab the armor and grenades to the southwest of your car…but you’ll probably
notice pretty quickly that this level is CRAWLING with Spiderbots. They can
be a bit tricky to deal with, and my only recommendation is aim for the head,
and if that is blocked aim for the first joint on their legs, which means
that if you miss with your shot you have the chance of hitting the leg behind
it, or the leg behind that.
Anyway, you are heading South and West in this level, looking for the “M&M
Welding Fabricators” building. You should be able to find it without too much
trouble. There is a lot of machine gun ammo and energy cells all over this
area, so if you need ammo or health and armor, search around.
When you’ve gotten all you need, go inside M&M Welding Fabricators. There
will be a raptor waiting inside, as well as a few prox mines, so get a decent
weapon out to deal with them. You can go upstairs, there is your first rocket
launcher up there, but your destination is the machining room at the back of
the building.
You should see several heavy machines around, some of which can be interacted
with. The one you are interested in, though, is the one with the “I” beam
laying on it. On the opposite side of the I beam is the control panel for the
machine. If you activate it, the “I” beam will be driven forward and crack
the wall! Do this several times until it completely opens the hole, then back
off the machine and head on through. (This is a big sticking point where I
always got stuck.) Don’t forget to go upstairs for the rocket launcher first!
You’re going to need that baby!
On the other side of the door is an ambush of several terminators and a
turret. Deal with them all with some heavy firepower. This is a fairly small
yard you’ll find yourself in, so go ahead and explore for some ammo and gear.
One of the buildings has a door in it that you can enter. Inside is a bunch
of ammo, and two raptors you’ll have to deal with at very close range… so
pick your weapon wisely when you enter.
Side Area When you finish with this area, there is a secret area you can
find. Head to the southwest corner, where you’ll see a small pool of water
featuring a drainpipe. Head on inside and into a sewer.
The first left in the sewer has another rocket launcher, which you should
pick up. I would save the ammo for these for the last level. You don’t get a
lot of ammo, and you’ll need it constantly then. Grab the rocket launcher and
continue down the pipe. Straight ahead is a room with a ramp leading up… this
is your destination, so you can go there, or explore the side tunnels and
rooms. Be careful! There is almost no maneuvering room in here, and some
nasty bots wait around the corners!
Up the ramp you’ll find a door. Head through it and you’ll see the USS Las
Cruces in the harbor right in front of you. Beware! An H/K will be
patrolling, as well as a terminator or two. Clear them out before you leave
the safety of the drain pipe.
Careful not to fall off, or you are in trouble! You can’t swim, so you’ll
drown very quick if you fall into the water. Just around the corner from the
drainpipe, to your left, is a large health and armor and some ammo. Grab it
up, then retrace your steps back to the yard behind M&M End Side Area
When you stand at the door you came out of to enter this yard, if you look
west, you should see a ramp leading up onto the roof of one of the buildings.
Climb up, then jump onto the roof. Jump across to the next roof, then jump to
the crane controls and activate them to turn the crane. CAREFULL! The lever
that powers the crane likes to clip through you and get you stuck when
activated, so I’d stand off to the side when you use it. To unstick, just use
it again to raise it back up.
Walk to the end of the crane and fall onto the roof for a metric ton of
goodies. When you’ve got all you need, and have cleared what bots you can
from the rooftops, drop down onto the docks. There are several buildings you
can enter here, one of which has another rocket launcher, but they are tough
buildings with no room to maneuver and lots of Terminators inside. Up to you
if you want to get the loot, but bring a big gun if you do.
At the end of one of the docks is another lever you can pull, which will
rotate the crane and let you climb it to jump onto the submarine. Careful!
You do not want to drop down to the main deck, or you’ll have to jump back to
the docks and try again! You want to jump to the raised wing-like platform to
the left at the top of the crane. There is a ramp you can climb here, and at
the very top is a manhole you can use to gain access to the sub proper. Head
inside.
This is a small maze, and you can explore if you like. To the west is a door.
Head through it into another room, and you’ll see the mess hall ahead of you.
If you turn around and go AROUND the door you just entered, you’ll come to
the engine room. Head up the ramp to your right, and use the terminal at the
end to learn the sub codes. To make the next level easier, I recommend going
through the door at the end of the engine room.
Inside, turn down the left tunnel and beware a terminator hiding in an
alcove. At the end of the tunnel is a switch. Hit it and go back around to
the right tunnel, and a door which is now open. Inside is the torpedo bay,
but there isn’t much to do here now. Head back out and through the engine
room. Head back towards the crew quarters on the other end of the sub.
Just before the bunks, there is a door to your right. If you go through it,
you’ll find a meeting room, and in an alcove on the back wall, a safe which
you can use the codes to open. This ends the level. Well done, soldier!
==============================================================================
3C5. Mission 5
Objectives
1) Get out of the submarine
2) Return to your jeep with the missile data
==============================================================================
You start this mission in a partially submerged meeting room from the last
level. Go the only way you can, through the ship, through the engine room and
the door on the back wall. This area is completely submerged in water, so you
will start drowning in short order. Since you already headed left and hit the
switch in the last level, you can just swim right down the corridor. Swim to
the torpedo bay and open one of the torpedo tubes. This will trigger a
cutscene, and you will be shot out of the torpedo tube back into another
sewer system.
Unfortunately, you are underwater here too. Swim forward and up the ramp
ahead of you to get out of the water. At the top of the ramp, head right, and
fight your first Flencers here. They die easily, but are deadly if they melee
you, so kill them quick. Take a left, and on the back wall you’ll see a valve
which you can activate, opening the left path up.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
Head there now, killing a terminator you find on the ramps. The next room is
a sequence puzzle. You need to hit the valves in order to open the rooms. Go
north along the ramp first, hit the valve there, then jump in the water and
go through the underwater north door and hit the valve there. Hurry back out
of the water up the ram, and head through the west door. Open the valve here,
then return to the east door, opening the valve here. This at last opens the
exit, which is the underwater door on the west wall. Head there now.
This part is hard. Swim as fast as you can (you can run while swimming,) down
the tunnel, to a room with a ramp leading out of the water. Unfortunately, it
is guarded by four raptors, and you are already drowning! I recommend using
the grenade launcher here, because you need to kill them quick and get to
air!
Once they are dealt with, head down the tunnel into the next room. You’ll be
standing on a ramp with water below you, a door ahead of you at the end of
the ramp, and a door to the right you have to jump to. The doors to the right
have stuff in them, so just continue along the ramp until it ends. Jump to
the next ramp and you’ll arrive in a tunnel that has a fork in the road. It
is a loop, but the fastest way out is to turn right and head down the tunnel
into a room with another ramp leading up. On the right wall is another valve
and a closed door. Open the valve and head through the door.
Egad! As soon as you open the door, the water starts to rise! RUN!!! Run to
the end of the tunnel. You should see a small gray crack right ahead of you.
Shoot it with the grenade launcher to blow open the wall and drain the water,
or else you are stuck. (Bug time!) If you don’t blow open the wall, and
instead hit the valve again, you’ll keep saying Oops! And the water will
raise higher and higher, glitching the game!)
Now you can head through these tunnels without drowning. Fight off all the
Flencers and Raptors, until you reach another room that is underwater. You
can jump to a platform in the middle of the room, guarded by two more
Fencers.
This room sucks. You can hit different combinations of switches to get to
different rooms, but they usually are more trouble than they are worth, and
will drown you. Just head for the exit here. To do that, you’ll find a switch
on each wall in the room, under water.
First, drop off ramp and hit the western switch, right beneath the ramp you
entered the room on. This will lower the water. Then turn and hit the north
switch, which will raise the water part way up, and open the portcullis in
the center room. Go into here and down the open tunnel to reach the exit at
last, and get out of this darn sewer! Whew!
Ahead of you to the south, you will see land, but you will have to cross the
water to get to it. There is some energy ammo under water, if you want to
pick it up. Be prepared for a hefty fight with quite a few T-600s. To the
east, you will see several buildings surrounding a road. Follow the road
east, fighting spiders, T-600s, and raptors, looting any buildings if you
need ammo or health. Continue down the road until you find your jeep. You can
explore the area, but there isn’t a lot of loot to be found, and there are a
lot of bots. Getting in the jeep ends the level. Well done, soldier!
==============================================================================
3C6. Mission 6
Objectives
1) Intercept and derail the Missile convoy.
==============================================================================
You start facing south east, and should take the road leading east. There are
two strategies with the driving sequences. Either go slow and pick off
enemies from a distance just as they become visible, or floor it and go
tearing past them before they can shoot you. Take your pick. When the road
ends, turn north, then east again on the next street. It will dead end
eventually, and you’ll see an open car wash ahead of yourself. Head through
it.
Just beyond the carwash, on your left, you’ll probably see a reference to the
first Terminator movie. Watch this for me, Big Buns! Anyway, keep going east.
The road will end, and you’ll have to turn north on a ramp that rises into
the air. Head up it until it turns sharply east. Hang on for a wild ride!
As soon as you round the corner, to your left you’ll see the convoy
transporting the nuke. Try to get the car lined up so it is driving straight
on the road, then open fire on the convoy and floor it! Spray it down with
missiles and lasers, doing your best to destroy the tanks protecting the
nuke. Pour fire into the nuke, but before you can destroy it, your road will
end, and you will be cut off from the chase, ending the mission. Skynet’s
forces escape.
You’ll then be treated to a cutscene showing what you just did, only in
gorgeous pre-rendered 3D graphics. Gosh, do you think someday games will look
that good? That would be AMAZING.
==============================================================================
3C7. Mission 7
Objectives
1) Fly east to the missile silo.
==============================================================================
You are flying the H/K! Yes! Super fun! Same rules as driving apply here.
Either go very slow, inching forward and killing all the enemies as they
appear in the distance, or floor it and enjoy a wild ride to your
destination.
This level is very straight forward. Head east along the road until it ends
in a canyon with a river running through it. Turn and head north down the
canyon until you reach what looks like a dam with a huge tunnel in it. Fly
into the tunnel to load the next part of the mission. Now you really just
follow the tunnel, dealing with any threats as you see fit. The first room
you come too looks like a dead end, but at the end of the room you can fly up
to a tunnel and continue in it. Remember your jump and crouch keys will fly
the H/K up and down, respectively.
When you fly up through the tunnel, you’ll come out on the other side of the
dam, right in a battle with some other H/Ks over a lake. Head north across
the lake, then veer northeast and head over land. Keep going, and you’ll come
to a red energy wall that is your destination, guarded by lots of tanks.
(It’s fun to shoot the gun turrets off the tanks, then let them follow you
around like puppy dogs. Aww! So cute!)
Around the north-ish, east-ish side of the energy barrier you’ll see a green
landing pad. Approach and touch down to end the mission. Good work, Soldier!
==============================================================================
3C8. Mission 8
Objectives
1) Override target zone with new coordinates.
2) Launch Hades before the Terminators can remove the new target zone.
==============================================================================
You’ll start this mission immediately being shot from behind, and wielding
the stupid pipe. Run forward immediately to avoid being shot, and switch to a
better weapon ASAP. Time to end this!
This mission is huge, convoluted, and potentially very frustrating. But,
there’s a trick to it which makes it much easier. I admit I don’t even know
how to beat it “properly,” so if you do, and want me to enter it into this
FAQ, shoot me an email detailing how. Anyway, we’re going to take a direct
route that skips all kinds of pointless rooms.
First off, you want to head west along the canyon you start in. You can go
east and kill some enemies, which will make it easier later, but you will not
be able to climb out of the canyon anywhere, so it will just dead end.
Heading west, you’ll reach an area where the cliff smooths out, and a dark
grey road will lead up it. Follow the road up to the red laser barrier and
turn right, following the barrier around, making sure not to fall down the
cliff.
You’ll reach the truck that was transporting the Hades missile, but it is
empty, and the nuke is east of it, already set on the launch pad. Looks like
you are in a race against the clock.
This area is CRAWLING with bots, so I would wander around the area, killing
everything you can before you head inside the base. It will be much easier to
deal with these enemies from down on the ground than when you are up on the
catwalks, trying to stop the launch. If you look carefully around some of the
catwalks, you’ll see little mounted laser or rocket turrets. If you can pick
these off from down here, it will make your journeys later on much easier as
well.
On the southeastern edge, you’ll find a cache of ammo and health, so grab it
if you are running low, which you probably will be after clearing the area of
enemies. Be thorough, especially with those little mounted turrets. They are
easy to deal with now, but once you get up on the catwalks, you’ll often come
through a door and have them right in your face, roasting you before you can
even move.
Once you are confident you’ve cleared everything, it’s time to head into the
base. Go back to the empty truck that held the nuke. When you are standing on
the south side of it, looking southeast, you’ll see a door leading into the
base. Head inside and prepare for war! This part sucks. You’ll start the base
off in a rotating thingy, with every wall of the base covered in missile and
laser turrets. The good news is, the constantly rotating thingamajig you find
yourself in will play havoc with their targeting systems, and they won’t be
able to get a shot off at you. Time your shots, and shoot through the
openings in the spinny thing to take out as many of them as you can see. When
you step out of the spinny, any you haven’t gotten will target you and open
fire, so take your time and be thorough.
When you’ve got everything, head out of the spinny thing to the south. Stop
at the end of the catwalk and turn around, taking out all the turrets you can
see again. Pretty much every time you move in here, look carefully around for
more turrets. Better to find them before they find you, especially the rapid-
fire rocket launchers!
Once you’ve finally cleared the room, you can go around and collect
everything you can find. You probably are getting low on ammo, so make sure
to get it all! Then climb back up the catwalk until you reach the spinny
thing again. You should see a catwalk to your right, with Kevlar vests on it.
Step over to this catwalk and follow it, through another spinny thing, then
up and around until you reach the top of the room. Gear up with what you
need, then head through the only door in the room to exit out to the outdoor
catwalks.
If you already got all the turrets out here, this should be no big deal… but
if you didn’t, it may be a challenge to get them. Anyway, follow the catwalk,
and you’ll reach a door which cannot be opened from this side. To the left of
the door, you should see the lip of the control room sticking out. It looks
like it might be a tricky jump, but really it isn’t. Take a running jump to
that room! I made it three times in a row and never fell off it once, so it
really isn’t a hard jump at all.
OK, there are three switches here. You are also on the other side of that
closed door, and if you want, you can hit a yellow switch beside it to open
this room up. Your objective are these three consoles. I never could figure
out if one of them is a good switch and the rest are herrings… it seems as if
they all spawn in terminators, so I just hit them all, and it will open your
objective. If you left the outer door closed, you can just leave. If it is
open, you’ll need to kill 9 terminators, so get out either your grenade
launcher or your rocket launcher and mow them down. Go through the small door
on the east wall.
You’ll find yourself in a small room with a catwalk leading down. Go down the
catwalk, then immediately up the next catwalk into another, similar small
room. Head through the door here.
There may be a terminator in this room, so have the grenade launcher out to
deal with him. Again, you’ll see three more switches on the west wall of this
room. Flip them all, then flip the yellow switch next to the door on the
north wall.
You’ll face off with six or so Terminators, so have either the grenade
launcher or the rocket launcher up and slay them fast. Follow the catwalk to
the next structure and head through the door to your left, on the southwest
wall. Those switches you hit opened this door, got rid of the blue force
fields, and extended the catwalk leading to the ring around the Hades
missile. Head out onto the ring and make your way around it to the console on
the west side of the ring. HAVE YOUR ROCKET LAUNCHER OUT AND MOVE SLOWLY!
There are Terminators and light tanks which spawn in all over the place!
When you flip the switch, hurry across the catwalk which extends leading to
the western building, then turn around and deal with the light tanks behind
and above you with your rocket launcher.
Head across the catwalk and ready your best weapon, this next room is another
trap filled with turrets and Terminators. Save before you enter, because
you’ll probably die the first few times. As soon as you enter the room, RUN
forward and duck behind the console on the pillar in front of you. From
there, clear out the turrets and terminators as best you can.
When the room is safe, turn and use the console you hid behind. It will
reprogram the Hades missile and open the catwalk leading to the launch room.
Head up the catwalk to the south and through the door into the final room of
the game.
All that’s left between you and victory is a switch combo puzzle! It isn’t
too hard, so you may just want to mess with it until you figure it out, or
you can use my method as follows. We'll number the switches starting on the
right, the SOUTH wall. I’m numbering them starting here and going clockwise,
one through twelve. Hit these switches:
1, 4, 5, 9, and 11. The energy barrier will lower around the launch switch.
Hit it to beat the game! Well done, Soldier!
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4D. Strategies and tips.
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Below are just a few general strategies to help you in thorny situations, as
well as particularly effective and ineffective guns to use on specific
robots.
-The Grenade Launcher works great against large enemies. It is particularly
effective against all three kinds of H/Ks, tanks, turrets and Goliaths. It is
nominal against Raptors and T-Rexes, but it is a TERRIBLE gun to use against
Terminators of any flavor. I swear the grenades clip right THROUGH them three
quarters of the time! I pride myself in being a very good shot with the
grenade launcher in this game, able to pick off most any bot with it from
even beyond visibility, so trust me when I say this. You’ll waste a lot of
ammo trying to take out even ONE Terminator with this gun, unless you are
REALLY lucky.
-The Rocket Launcher is the best weapon in this game, hands down. With its
ability to make a target lock on any bot, you just need to make sure you see
the word “lock” before you fire and you’ll never miss. Its blast is so
powerful it will destroy ANY bot other than the Goliath in a single shot!
That said, I do not recommend you run around wasting its ammo to kill Raptors
outdoors. You’ll need a healthy supply of ammo for this gun to tackle the
final level, with its penchant for CONSTANTLY dropping terminators two feet
away from you. The final level with be MUCH easier to beat if you have enough
rockets that you can walk around using it on anything bigger than a Raptor.
-The Plasma Pistol and the UZI are the most ECONOMICAL weapons in the game.
Using a single unit of ammo per shot, their “damage dealt to ammo
consumption” is the best in the game. That said, it is slooooow and tedious
work to eliminate some of the tougher bots with either of these guns. I
recommend using them only if you are an “Ammo Scrooge” and even then only
outside when you have a healthy amount of distance to retreat behind you as
you peck away slowly at the enemies. Using these indoors will get you killed.
-The Plasma Rifle, M4, and Shotgun are your bread and butter weapons. They
have the most effective balance of damage dealt to amount of ammo consumed
per shot. The Plasma Rifle is my favorite, and it can be used even in close
quarters to quickly kill a tenacious baddie.
-The Machine Gun, Laser Rifle, Laser Cannon, and Plasma Cannon are all
TERRIBLE wastes of ammo. They chew through your reserves FAST, while their
damage dealt isn’t NEARLY as high as it should be for how greedy they are.
The Plasma Cannon is the worst of the lot, taking TEN rounds of ammo for a
single shot that STILL can’t kill anything bigger than a Seeker in a single
shot. In fact, it is not unusual to waste 10 shots trying to kill a stupid
Raptor. That is 100 rounds of ammo out of your 750 total! Bethesda would have
been better off just plain skipping these great turds. Use them ONLY if you
are in a dire situation with almost no health, tons of bots baring down on
you, and way more ammo than you could ever hope to use. And even then, after
the fight you should restore to an earlier game and avoid the aforementioned
scenario altogether!
-The “Steep Height Trick.” If you are at a steep enough angle ABOVE or BELOW
an enemy, they can’t shoot you. In rooms with pits in them, if you can wake
up the enemies and then either run back out of the pit or jump down into it,
you often can kill enemies as they moonwalk helplessly towards you at the
edge of the pit! This doesn’t work if the bot can walk underneath or directly
above you, because you can only aim up and down to a certain angle, never
STRAIGHT up and down. Guess they can’t all be as smart as Arnold…
-Cars and gas pumps can be shot while enemies are close by to do splash
damage to them! A Terminator is no match for a set of three gas pumps going
sky high in a chain reaction. He’ll succumb to peer pressure and join in the
cool explosion, too!
-Although not always, Bethesda often hides things behind the refrigerators in
gutted buildings. It’s worth hucking a Molotov at them just to see what’s
behind!
-I said it before but I’ll repeat it again, this game is A LOT easier to play
if you search every nook and cranny, every gutted building and burned out
hulk for all the extra ammo Bethesda has placed about! If you really DO want
to try some of the ammo wasting but more powerful weapons, the ONLY way you
are going to feed their habit is through careful searching for all the ammo
you can find. I recommend you pick ONE kind of ammo to be your “waste me”
ammo, either bullets or energy. Then use the other ammo type conservatively
with the more economical weapons. You may still run out if you aren’t
careful, but you’ll have a fighting chance this way.
-T-Rexes can be a nasty waste of ammo! Firing at their weapon pods or their
CPU cluster (OK, their head) will cause fun explosions and debilitation of
the bot, BUT you’ll find the legs keep trundling resolutely after you, and
with full health to boot! I strongly recommend just firing at the lower, fat
part of their legs right off the bat. You’ll have to shoot them eventually
anyway, after all. When you damage it enough the whole thing will go up in
flames at once that way, and the end result should be a quantifiable savings
in ammo.
-Again, I say AGAIN, when the bots are on the absolute EDGE of visibility,
their AI doesn’t turn on and they won‘t even react to being shot.
Furthermore, if you back far enough away, even after seeing and giving chase,
they’ll stop shooting at you. Use this game’s wide open spaces to your
advantage! Also, if you round a corner and have a bot in your face, DON’T
just back straight up, they’ll spray you down the whole time you are trying
to get out of range. Instead, back up while strafing either left or right at
the same time. The bots don’t lead their target at all, so they’ll never hit
you EVER if you are strafing! Even in tight spaces zig zag back and forth to
dodge some of the incoming fire, it can be the thing that saves your life.
-You can’t really lay claim to a mastery of this game without having shot the
moon at least a FEW times…It’s the most fun to do it with the Machine Gun!
C’mon, what are you, SCARED?
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5E. Bugs.
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-Ahhh, Bethesda. Their early games were spectacularly buggy, and the two
Xngine Terminator games are no exception. I mentioned it earlier, but it
bears repeating, this game likes to crash a lot, at least in Dosbox. Save
often! Version 1.01 may help with this somewhat, so trying to hunt up the
patch is a worthwhile endeavor, but it will still crash on you. A lot.
-Incline death. Happens only in v. 1.0, so again I recommend you patch to
version 1.01 before you try to play. In most games if you try to climb an
incline that is too steep for you, your character simply slides back down.
Not here! Bethesda got artistic with their physics and thought, “Hey, what if
the player were to slide down a 1 inch incline, and the game engine treats it
as a 200 mile plummet through the atmosphere? Why, the player would be
fighting away and accidently back into an overly steep incline, and then
suddenly DIE as if their shins were protruding through their shoulders from a
plunge off a cliff! They’ll be so disoriented and frustrated, it’ll be fun!”
What a great idea, thought Bethesda, and yes, they did just that. You NEED to
have the patch, or this game is nearly unplayable!
-Water crashing. This only seems to happen in Dosbox when you are on a level
containing water and playing in high-res 640x480 mode. If there is water in a
level, you probably are going to need to switch to 320x200 for the rest of
the level.
-Catwalks can kill you. For some reason, when walking on catwalks, you will
suddenly die. Make sure you save before you head out on them.
