REVIEW – Terminator 2D: No Fate finally asks the question the franchise’s gaming history has consistently dodged: what if the legendary second film stopped being a quote machine and became an actual video game? Bitmap Bureau treats Judgment Day like we are stuck in 1993 in a dim arcade lit by flickering neon, and that is both a blessing and a curse. The end result is often cheekily spot-on in atmosphere, but sometimes so faithful to the era that the old discomforts slide back into the cartridge right alongside the nostalgia.

Just by existing, Terminator 2D: No Fate feels like a slightly absurd proposition: adapting one of the best action movies ever made yet again, even though the series’ videogame attempts have mostly been, at best, interesting footnotes. Bitmap Bureau is not reaching for a modern AAA toolkit, but instead returns to the one place Terminator games ever had real street cred: the 16-bit, hard-arcade era. The core idea is simple, and a little dangerous: translate the iconic set pieces of Terminator 2: Judgment Day into playable stages, then stitch in brand-new sequences of their own, sometimes in the past, sometimes among the ruins of the future. It all has a pleasantly “tape-era” charm, even if the storytelling is intentionally straightforward and old-school.

The campaign follows the movie’s major junctions, but it is not a museum exhibit: in several places it expands the events and even puts a few choices in your hands. In certain key moments, optional routes open up that swap, extend, or remix scenes, so you are not locked into a single “do everything exactly like the film” itinerary. It is not a sprawling RPG branching system, more of an old-school alternate-path approach, but that is exactly why it works. The game is short, yet it still has that something that pulls you back for a second run.

The Future Is Not Set In Stone

In terms of gameplay, Terminator 2D: No Fate is first and foremost classic run-and-gun: side view, constant shooting, crouching, jumping, and that kind of rhythm where the level will not wait for you, and the bullets definitely will not either. The twist is that the game does not stop at the usual “spray everything with a full magazine” solution, but also throws in a cover system. You hug a wall, wait for the moment, pop out, fire, duck back. It fits the genre surprisingly well because it adds a small tactical layer to chaotic firefights, and it does not feel like window dressing.

The real trick, though, is how Bitmap Bureau keeps rethinking what “action” even means here. The foundation is still shooting, but the game assigns different sub-genres to specific movie moments so it does not turn into one long, flat corridor sprint. The Pescadero State Hospital section, for example, is not about riddling everything with bullets, but about Sarah running, the T-1000 closing in, and you needing to stay out of sight. You hide in a locker, wait for the patrol to look away, step out, take them down, move on. The stealth is obviously not modern stealth school, it is more arcade-simple, but it is just enough to give the scene its own tension and translate the film’s iconic mood into game language.

That variety holds later on as well: you get gallery-style shootouts, big chase sequences, and even a stretch that switches into side-scrolling brawler mode. These shifts are usually not complicated, but they are well-timed, and they keep the game from locking into a single tempo. The trade-off is that you can sometimes feel the team leaning into the flashy “every stage is different” idea rather than polishing each sub-genre to a mirror shine. The package ends up more colorful and fast-moving than deeply refined in every detail.

Most stages end with a boss fight, usually against some big, spectacular, hard-hitting monster or machine variant. The good news is that attacks are generally readable, the game signals what is coming, so the fights feel fair and demand quick reactions. The less good news is that these bosses can be a little too textbook, like familiar run-and-gun templates dressed up in Terminator skin. Since several of these showdowns are not built directly out of specific movie scenes, this part could have used a bit more creative insanity.

Gun In Hand, Modes On The Menu

The full experience comes through Story Mode, with multiple difficulty settings. Easy mode is basically built around near-unlimited continues, while the more serious options limit your retries and only let you expand that allowance through collectible items. As you push forward, enemies hit harder, and some stages introduce time limits that further emphasize the arcade, score-chasing rhythm. Normal difficulty offers a solid challenge, while the tougher options are for players who live in the genre and are here not for nostalgia, but to train their nerves.

If you are not chasing story but pure performance, there is Arcade Mode for high scores, and Infinite Mode as the endurance test version: how long can you survive endless waves. On top of that you get Boss Rush and speedrun challenges, plus practice-style modes, meaning the game knows its campaign is short and compensates by giving you more reasons to come back. That “this is how we used to do it” philosophy works especially well here because the package is not built for a single quick clear.

Presentation is one of the strongest chapters in the package. The characters are recognizable even in 16-bit form, and the scenes are staged to evoke both the movie and the era’s videogame look. The music is a hit, too: the iconic theme returns in smart rearrangements, and plenty of moments land that cold, metallic Terminator vibe without which this would just be another retro shooter. But retro faithfulness is not limited to what looks and sounds good. Movement animations can feel a bit stiff, and there are moments where you can tell the game is deliberately clinging to old-school choices even in places where a little modern smoothing would have helped.

Hasta La Vista, Baby

All told, Terminator 2D: No Fate is a likable, carefully assembled, 90s-leaning 2D action game that finally is not ashamed of being a game instead of an interactive movie poster. It mostly translates iconic scenes into stages with real confidence, and the new original sequences add to the ride, even if the story itself is not particularly elegant or deep. The game is short, movement can be a little too rigid, and bosses often lean too conventional, but the mode selection, the atmosphere, and the pixel-by-pixel care give you plenty of reasons to fire it up again. It is not the Terminator game that rewrites history, but it is the one that finally pays proper respect to an era and a classic.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-

Developer: Bitmap Bureau
Publisher: Reef Entertainment
Release date: December 12, 2025
Genre: arcade, 2D side-scrolling action