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Defiance for the 360
I realise most people here are PC gamers, but with few cross-platform MMOs out there I thought it would be worth going over the console version. Seen a lot of "it's a console game, ported badly" and I was curious if PC users had some of the problems I've noticed so far.
The tutorial is poor; move, shoot, levelling, loot. Pretty basic stuff, yet it managed to skip the part where your unlocked abilities need to be equipped. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Nothing on weapon mods. Nothing about the various types of mission (though the details given on the map are fairly comprehensive.) Nothing about Arkfalls. Granted, this is only based upon a few hours of gameplay, and they may be upcoming but you're pretty much thrown into the world and told to get on with it. I'm fine with games not holding my hand, but a brief explanation of fundamental mechanics is expected.
It's also buggy as hell. Ridiculously so for a game in its final beta phase and due for release in just over a week. Ignoring server hiccups, there are a host of quest-related issues. It took me three attempts to get K-TAM done, because killing everything before you're told to kill everything broke the quest. Radio messages rarely trigger, until you're finally assaulted by a barrage of speech and text after finishing the quest they're supposed to be for. This also prevents you picking up the next mission until you're finally up to speed. After watching a few brief and largely pointless cutscenes mid-mission, I found myself respawning 20 feet above the ground. These are just a few of the problems I've witnessed so far.
Animation, a lot of people have complained about it and I'm going to as well. It's pretty bad. Run/Walk is horrible, crouch is even worse. Jumping is reminiscent of the abomination that is jumping in TES. Aiming consists of jamming a gun into your sweaty armpit (not forgetting a camera angle I don't think I've seen since the PSX.) I thought we were beyond pitiful attempts at over-the-shoulder cameras, clearly I was wrong. Getting on and off your quad isn't bad though, which is something I suppose.
Combat. It's basic, really basic. Even for a shooter. They made games like this ten years ago. No sticky cover didn't really bother me at first, as done badly it can ruin a game. "You can still use cover manually, like the good old days" I foolishly told myself. Except you can't. While the mutant hordes make great use of cover (mostly), I find myself pumping lead into anything I happen to crouch behind leaving just enough of myself exposed to get peppered anyway. Elemental effects from enemies can hit you through paper thin walls. Aside from these considerable annoyances, combat can be entertaining when you're with other people. Running through the quest areas alongside one or two people meant the lack of meaningful cover could be ignored in favour of portable, bullet-spewing, human shields. The game simply made more sense that way. Similarly, the arkfalls were a blast, some of them at least. Thirty people unloading round after round into a crystal for ten minutes was pretty dull (especially when the same "dynamic" encounter began two seconds after the first had ended.) The larger hellbug fight (I forget the name, had a lot of elites and monarchs, giant worm with several mouths) was great fun though. That's when the game really works and you can forget about its many, many problems.
As far as performance goes, it's hard to say what is server problems and what isn't. The horrendous pop-up whenever you get up to speed on a vehicle (think GTA3 in a sports car) is shocking. It's even an issue on foot, though less noticable. By less noticable I mean clutter objects popping up every few seconds instead of entire buildings, huge sections of road, the world in general. There also seems to be some really odd priorities as to what renders and what doesn't. During an arkfall I was quite surprised when the target (the aforementioned crystal) simply blinked out of existence repeatedly in deference to a ton of ammo pick-ups, and the horde of trigger happy ark hunters, Two things should always be on screen; you, and your enemy. Again, I thought we had learned these lessons long ago. The UI, menus, etc can also take a while to display relevant information, but at least the backgrounds are pretty, right? There's a lot of aliasing going on, character selection screen looks awful. I expected lower image quality, but the upside was that I wouldn't have to worry about issues like these. Once again, I was proven wrong.
Considerable wall of text over, I was simply curious if the PC version was as much a clusterfuck as the 360 version is. I'm yet to abandon all hope, it's still a beta after all, but I'm doubtful the game will be in an acceptable state on release day and my previous enthusiasm for the game has waned significantly. I have enjoyed some moments of Defiance, but generally it is a goddamn mess.
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