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Dawn of Fate
Video game
Developed by Paradigm Entertainment
2002 |
In 2027, John Connor, Kyle Reese, and Captain Perry lead the final
assault on Skynet.
Read the story summary of the game at the Terminator Wiki
Notes from the Terminator chronology
For some reason, the game opens in 2027, and plays into
the human resistance to victory over Skynet and Kyle
Reese being sent back in time to protect John Connor's mother, Sarah, in 1984.
But in
The Terminator, these
events took place in 2029 instead. I suppose this can be
explained as just another anomaly among the many alternate
timelines of the Terminator universe caused by time
travel. Despite being published in 2002, the game only
references the events of
The Terminator,
ignoring Terminator 2:
Judgment Day, and also has John giving orders to
Kyle to make the trip back to 1984 to protect Sarah, rather
than Kyle volunteering as he states in the film. It's
possible this is an earlier timeline than any of the others
presented in licensed stories in the Terminator
universe. This is why it appears in Timeline TT-1 in the
PopApostle Terminator chronology.
Didja Notice?
During the introductory segment of the game, a collapsed
freeway sign indicating exits for Glendale Blvd., Los Feliz
Blvd., and Colorado St. is seen. These are all actual
streets that cross the I-5 freeway in
Los
Angeles.
No Model 101 T-800s are seen in this game. Apparently the
developers did not have the rights to Arnold
Schwarzenegger's likeness.
This game introduces us to Captain Perry,
Reese's commander when he served in the 132nd from 2021-27,
as stated by Reese to Sarah in
The Terminator. Perry
appears to be a Caucasian man with a (possibly Central
American Indian style) tattoo on his face. In episodes of
The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Perry is a black man, sans
tattoo.
The game introduces the underground enclave of human
survivors called Haven. Haven is not mentioned in any other
stories of the various Terminator timelines so far.
The game also introduces the older Terminator T-400 and
T-500 units. (Images from
gamer.ru) |
 |
 |
|
T-400 |
T-500 |
At times during the game, the humans refer to the
Terminators as "fakers" or "fakies".
Kyle Reese spends a fair amount of time protecting John
Connor from invading Terminators. What are dads for?
Part of the action takes place in the Federal Reserve Bank
of Los Angeles building. This is presumably a reference to
the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Los Angeles Branch.
Skynet appears to be able to teleport Terminators to enemy
locations. This is presumably through the use of the time
travel mechanism, as also seen in
An Evil Hour.
The game introduces Initiates, humans that have defected to
the machines and have external implants on their bodies,
notably on the head and neck, to receive commands and
information from Skynet. During Level 7 of the game (the
asylum) onscreen displays refer to the Initiates as I-950s,
which happens to be the same designation as the Infiltrators
bred from human slaves by Skynet and implanted with internal
microcircuitry in the T2 Trilogy of novels
(beginning with Infiltrator).
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During the course of the game, we get a couple brief
glimpses of HK-Flying Mini Hunters, first seen in the
Universal Studios theme park ride T2 3-D: Battle Across
Time, which opened in 1996 and closed in 2012. |
Level 9 of the game opens as Connor leads the human
resistance in an assault on the Cheyenne Mountain
headquarters of Skynet at NORAD. From the images and dialog,
it appears the resistance is mounting its attack at the
North Portal entrance of Cheyenne Mountain.

Reese's commscreen shows the date of the assault on Cheyenne
Mountain as 6-1-2027.
In the storyline of this game, it appears that John Connor
gave Kyle the picture of Sarah at some point in the past,
telling him to memorize the face, but did not tell him who it was until the assault on
Cheyenne Mountain, at which point he also gave Kyle orders
to use Skynet's time travel equipment to go back to 1984 to
protect Sarah Connor if the resistance forces were unable to
stop Skynet from sending back a Terminator.
In its Cheyenne Mountain fortress, it's implied that Skynet
has perfected the use of cold fusion as a power source. Cold
fusion is the theorized ability to achieve a nuclear
reaction at room temperatures instead of the millions of
degrees needed for currently accepted fusion processes such as those
in the sun. Cold fusion is generally considered a fringe
science by mainstream scientists.
As Luna enters the time displacement chamber, she says, "Dios
mio!" This is Spanish for "My God!"
Luna remarks on Skynet sending a Terminator back in time 30
years to kill Connor's mother. It's actually over 40 years,
from 2027 to 1984.
Near the end of the game, Reese faces off directly against
Skynet's brain (or something) at close range, destroying it.
In other timelines, Skynet's defeat happens differently. At
this range, Skynet somehow has the ability to take control
of a human mind given enough time; this ability is not seen
in any other version of Skynet in other timelines.
At the very end of the game, it's revealed that Skynet had a
backup of itself in the onboard computer of an orbiting
satellite.
Unanswered Questions
How did Skynet gain the ability to control a human mind at
close range?
Memorable Dialog
a
messiah.wav
a rendezvous with fate.wav
the needs of the living outweigh the needs of the dying.wav
who is
she?.wav
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