Editorials
[Based on the Hit Film] Replaying the Apocalyptic Horror of Bethesda’s ‘The Terminator: Future Shock’
It’s easy to forget that Bethesda Softworks, the house principally built by the likes of The Elder Scrolls, DOOM and Wolfenstein, actually dallied rather extensively in the movie tie-in business. Indeed, some years before the Maryland based outfit would fart out its own risible take on Pirates of the Carribean, it would give us The Terminator: Future Shock, a mid-1990s PC only FPS take on one of Hollywood’s most enduring sci-fi icons.
And you know what? It wasn’t half bad either.
Referring to 1995 as the start of the nuclear war that would shatter the human race and not 1997 (as, you know, the films have taught us), Future Shock nonetheless ignores that continuity faux pas and throws things forward to 2015 (the future!) where Skynet is completing the crackdown on its fleshy foes among the fashionably grey ruins of post-apocalyptic North America.
After escaping a detention facility, it isn’t long until players join up with franchise crux John Connor, who enlists the player’s nameless protagonist into the Resistance. The first thing that immediately hits you in the face harder than Edward Furlong’s panicked delivery is the fact that Future Shock actually controls really well, and even does so when rubbing shoulders with its genre brethren.
One of the first games of that era to embrace full mouse free look, aim and WASD controls, Future Shock felt like a proper first-person shooter in every sense of the word, and certainly a world away from the somewhat stunted movement and shooting action of previous genre efforts up until that point.
As to the merits of its overarching structure, Future Shock is an objective-driven shooter that has you wrecking key Skynet enemies, stealing intelligence, protecting your fleshy buddies and generally having you become as much a nuisance to the Big S as you possibly can. In gameplay terms, this means you’ll be scavenging Future Shock’s post-apocalyptic landscape for any armor, weapons and first-aid kits that you can get your hands on in order for your plucky resistance fighter to remain attached to their mortal coil.
As previously alluded to, Future Shock is exclusively set in the machine triggered apocalypse, the dark fate if you will, that Sarah Connor was warned about in 1984 and attempted to avert with some hardcore chin-ups and spot of gnarly home invasion in the early 1990s.
Certainly then, perhaps most important is the fact that Future Shock looks, feels and sounds as befittingly bleak as the setting which serves as the backdrop for its genre beats to unfold against. The hardware of the time being as modest as it was, visual issues like a close draw distance actually helped to embellish the atmosphere and make the whole affair much tenser, as enemy cyborgs and robots manifest out of the darkness, often at a moment’s notice.
Likewise, the limitations of Future Shock’s game engine also meant that transitions between the Los Angeles wasteland and the many ruined buildings that litter the landscape were not seamless either. However once inside, those same structures played host to a variety of tightly knit combat scenarios, where every bit of cover and every stairwell must be used to its fullest in order to protect yourself against Future Shock’s range of highly damaging mechanical foes.
Speaking of things that can damage you, radiation too also plays a significant part in the proceedings (it is a nuclear apocalypse after all), and if you’re not careful can turn you into a pile of meaty slag rather quickly. Equally, the more difficult Terminator variants such as HK drones, T-800s and a literal Terminator Tank, in particular, can also overwhelm you extremely quickly if you don’t have the sense to retreat when you need to.
Audibly, Future Shock surprises. Punchy and appropriately thunderous gunfire emanating from shotguns and assault rifles impress (the pithy sounds of grenade explosions less so, unfortunately), while the low-key soundtrack fondly recalls the foreboding and uneasy score of the very first Terminator movie, with its melancholic electronica that snaps into something a little faster paced when the action inevitably kicks off.
The Terminator: Future Shock then is hardly a revolutionary shooter, but for its time the Bethesda produced effort managed to capture the resolutely bleak sci-fi apocalyptica of its silver screen counterparts – something that just about all the games and the movies in the franchise since the early 1990s have almost completely failed to do.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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