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So what IS Defiance?
So most of us have either participated in the beta to some extent (or at least seen some of the gameplay), but what is there to really do in the game? It's an MMOFPS with an overarching story and side missions... some PVP... but...
What kind of "endgame/replayability" does it have?
Are there PvE instances or raids?
How specialized can you really get? Looks similar to GW2 in the "everyone is self-sufficient" aspect.
Basically, what will keep people playing this?
Comments
Sure, but I'd like to know what actual game elements there are, not just the marketing...
"Experience dynamic missions, massive co-op battles, and endless exploration across a gigantic game environment."
Those are all pretty vague descriptors and I have a hard time believing the exploration is truly "endless".
Actually it's not a FPS, it's a TPS.
If you participated in the weekend beta, then I'm not really sure what you are asking. I mean, you pretty much saw what the game has to offer, you probably ran Shadow War, Match PvP, the "co-op dungeons" and so on. You probably did an Arkfall or two.
If you did those things, and you are still asking, don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds almost like you are looking for the game to be something else, like you are coming in with a set of expectations that Defiance is not trying to fill.
It is what it is, it's a TPS, it has some PvP, it is a persistent world, you have a certain level of customization, but there is not a significant gear progression, as it became obvious in PvP, when low EGO players could kill higher EGO players.
It's either fun for what it is, or it isn't.
Eh, MMO-shooter is what I meant. And I only got to play the last beta for a few minutes (just barely through the tutorial) so I didn't get a chance to see most of that stuff... My question was more towards the longevity of the content, not necessarily the stuff you can do in the first few hours/days.
You'd have to have someone in Alpha answer that then.
Based on what I saw over the weekend, it seems like more of the same, perhaps more challenging, but more of the same, so if you did not enjoy what you saw, odds are you wont enjoy "endgame." Remember, I was a weekender, so I really don't know what lies beyond the starter areas.
Again, this is just me having a weekend experience, but I'd be surprised if there was a traditional MMORPG style end game, mostly because this game strikes me as not being an MMO. How many online shooters have an "endgame"?
I ask that not to be snarky, but because it's just not something we think of being part of a shooter, or an RPG like Borderlands. I think the MMO tag on Defiance makes us want to look at it like an MMO, and it definitely isn't.
I'd hope more of the dungeons, more challenging areas, and a steady stream of content, both paid and free would keep me interested. You asked a fair question, but I guess in a round about way, I was trying to get at the idea that you'd be better off looking at this as a shooter or RPG rather than having traditional MMO trappings. People play shooters for all lengths of time, just like MMO's, but for vastly different reasons.
From my experiences... I would say its as close as it gets to a Borderlands MMO. It was fun and derivative enough. I don't think this is a game players are going to dedicate most of their gaming time to. Once they play through a bulk of the content, they'll return for new updates or that TPS fix.
I'm personally taking a pass on this one. I have a ton of single player games in my backlog when I need a break from TSW.
How many delicate flowers have you met in Counterstrike?
I got a case of beer and a chainsaw waiting for me at home after work.
There are perks that unlock...u get one early in the tutorial.. Either a cloaking device...a speed burst...a decoy ..or overload weapon damage. Then there is this tree depending on what u pick that unlocks other perks around your primary perk as you level . Stuff like..more damage from behind or to targets in front of u or more damge if crouched. There are options to unlock others as you gain points. Mostly branching out from your primary perk but I believe others unlocked in other areas after completeing some achievement or mission. i imagine eventually you could unlock all 4 primary perks but I doubt you get enough points to max all the other perks as well.
You skill up individual weapons as u use them as well as your vehicles. Every once in a while as you are driving..or shooting it says "insert weapon/vehicle type here" is +1. Or something to that effect. Only weapons change appearance and armor is a function of a shield device of which there are many various types that drop. High shield slow recharge...quick latency before recharge..lower shields in exchange for quick recharge....or any number of combinations. You do earn head gear and outfits on various quests...I earned about 3 or 4 i think or you can buy other outfits, headgear,vehicles and boosts in the shop. Prices seemed reasonable and I didnt see any truly P2W stuff. Head gear and outfits are purely cosmetic. Maybe that changes later..idk.
For the price of a box it seems like it would provided at least your money's worth of fun. imo.
Defiance is a third person shooter first and everything else comes after
Here's what your choices are in Defiance.
PvP, Chasing arkfalls (Similar to rifts in Rift), Do main story quests + side missions, farm co-op instances or achievement hunting. That's it
This game does not have enough content to keep a seasoned MMORPG player entertained for months on end. It's just a game you load up once in awhile spend a couple of hours in and then go back to playing your main MMO. That's the only way to make this game last past a week or two.
Having said that I find the game worth the box price vs the entertainment you get out of it. It's a fun game but it lacks polish and some more exploit squashing. PvP is going to be one big complain fest the first few months.
Seems to remind some of Tabula Rasa in some way or form. As FPS games aren't my preferred game style, I can't really say if it's good or not suffice to say that I decided against pre-ordering after playing in a few weekend betas. This is mainly two fold and is only because of personal preference:
1) While I was initially interested in the premise (of the whole Syfy thing), I found that after playing the game that the only reason I wanted it was for the extras you get by pre-ordering it. Instead of saying to myself "I want this game because I had fun or think it's awesome" I was frequently saying, "I should really get this so that I can get 15 extra bags spaces and that dodge challenger". This made me question if I really would get my money's worth since I'm not a big FPS player in the first place.
2) This is the first time it has ever happened to me when it comes to games, but I ultimately decided not to get it because of the Collector's Edition and the Season pass. When I was considering getting it based on the premise that I would get all that extra stuff, some neat red armor from the collectors edition (I usually get collectors in MMOs if I like the game or want to support the developer and feel I would play the game often enough to justify it) and the new %25 discount for the $39.99 season pass on top of all of that... It quickly registered in my mind that I will be paying $150 for a game that I might not even enjoy just because of the T.V. show and the pre-order bonuses within a genre (fps) I do not enjoy.
When I started to think to myself, "Okay, should I get the normal and the season, the collectors, or the collector's and the season?" it dawned on me that it just wasn't worth it from my own personal preference. If I paid $100 for both the regular game and the seaon pass, then I will be missing that red armor that I was looking forward to wearing as well as the collector's edition items. If I paid the collectors edition, then I would have paid premium for the game and not have access to the full game when the five DLCs come out (which will likely be tied into the show as well, which was one of the reason for me playing in the first place). If I got both the collector's and the season, then that's $150 down the drain when I could just support my favorite B2P or F2P games that I enjoy playing as is and whom may be pretty cool in what is available to players for free.
This kind've depressed me and I decided to not even buy the game until perhaps a time when it's on sale, or has a "gold edition" with all the DLCs; that way I don't feel ripped off for missing either the red armor or the extra content that I wouldn't have access to despite paying a hundred bucks. If the game didn't even have the collector's edition or the season pass? I would probably pick it up just out of impulse, which is very rare of me to say since I usually buy collector's editions and spend what I like on cash shops if the game doesn't have a subscription fee. But I'm not one to pay 150-200 for a game I don't have full access to; I have purchased nearly every lifesub offered for MMOs in the industry (and haven't regretted a single one since I've been given about $600 in monthly stipends since in addition to having premium accounts), but if the game doesn't have subscriptions or monthly stipends then I'm not interested in paying that kind've cash on it upfront. It's also a reason why I didn't buy the $200 founders pack with Neverwinter, as there was no monthly thing to go along with it and it was basically just a race background I wouldn't use and a spider mount.
So if you''re like me and don't enjoy FPS games, then it might not be worth the purchase. Though using steam you do get like +15 extra bags spaces as well as all the other pre-order bonuses. Otherwise it may be an interesting game to play because of the Shadow Wars (PvP maps), the interesting ideas with weapons, the ability to play with hundreds of others in a FPS game with PvE focus areas and much more. As far as FPS games go, the time I did spend with it wasn't too bad. It kept me entertained for the whole weekend at least, so it isn't a bad game in any sense of the word. Just not my cup of tea.
Nothing. People will blow through all the content in a couple weeks then move on. It is worth $20 tops.
The same thing that's kept me playing counterstrike for 15 years, if you find it fun or not. The large scale PvP, Shadow Wars, could keep me coming back for a long time.
I've no doubt some people will play through the PvE and stop playing. I also have no doubt that plenty of others will stick around and keep playing.
Last Tomb Raider. 12 hours of gameplay to "blow through all the content". 49,99.
If people "will blow through all the content in a couple weeks" in Defiance, it will be more worthy than every single player.
Then, you'll show me people at EGO level 5000 in 2 weeks...
Oh, and Defiance has PvP... what mean "blow through all the content" in the Shadow War? lol
"endgame" and "raids" are offensive terms to me, and I'd hate to think they are the only way you define an MMO, OP.
I play it and have a ton of fun. I'll keep playing as long as it remains fun for me.
If you want to know what it is, it's entertainment.
Food for thought - if a TV show was the same as raids in MMOs, it'd probably bankrupt the whole broadcast channel. People would be bored stiff essentially watching the same episode repeatedly week after week endlessly. That's what raiding is. It's awful.
Have fun!
Okay well the best way I can try to answer this in Q&A form from many people that have asked me about this game due to my experience testing it.
Is this an MMORPG or MMOFPS? Defiance is an MMORPG, but it's combat and mechanics are in 3rd person...So a 3rd person shooter I guess. It's like borderlands, but an MMO. Or Mass Effect, but an MMO (when you count the personal story and quests)
Is the game good? Yes, if you like MMORPG's you will probably enjoy this game unless you hate shooter combat mechanics. If you like an engaging storyline, you will like this game.
Is it engaging? Yes, the story is really well done, the voice overs are pretty fantastic, and the presentation is pretty great over all.
Are there PvE/Quests/Missions? Yes
Is there a storyline? Yes, there is a 'world' storyline and a personal character storyline.
Is there PvP?: Yes.
Is the UI well designed, and PC/Console friendly? The UI is well designed, it's very clean and aesthetically fits the game both in theme and function, but it is hard to get used to at first if you're mostly a PC gamer. It will probably feel awkward for you at first, and for console gamers you will probably pick it up a little faster. As a PC player almost exclusively, I was used to the UI and actually really liked it within several hours of playing.
How are the controls/movement & Animation?: They're all fluid, and very well designed. However, vehicles are very hard to get used to at first, I was bumping into everything and driving off cliffs and road ramps all the time for the first few days. This was really the hardest thing to get used to, but once you do you should be fine.
Are there instanced dungeons & raids? Not really like you traditionally are presented with them, no. There are raids but they take place in the open world, and they utilize phasing for some of this as well. But Defiance is built to give you the perspective of being an inhabitant of Earth a long time from now with a bunch of crazy stuff going on where thousands of other people will also be joining you, and there are high end group PvE activities, but you will not run off to some portal that takes you to a dungeon that presents a mini storyline and a bunch of bosses that drop new/better items. This game is not exactly built around the standard gear treadmill like we're used to. There is gear and itemization, though.
The carrot on a stick, so to speak, is the fact this game ties in directly to the TV show. So as events play out on the show, things will unlock in the game, new content, places, species, items, systems, etc are all part of this plan. Nobody really knows how steady the stream of updates will be, but my guess is that there will probably be several major events during each season of the show that will constitute for a 'major update'. The game itself will also have events, or responses to events that happen in the story & show, that depending on the players actions, can directly influence further seasons of the show. So for example, if characters on the show do something that constitutes a major event in the storyline and thus in the game, the reaction of the playerbase to the event and the outcome of it one way or another will be written into the show. It is safe to assume that there will be some level of control in this for the sake of both the show and game, so there will probably be several possibilities, and all of them are probably written and approved by the writers of the show so that both the game and the TV show can stand alone if need be, and decisions aren't made that totally ruin everything.
I cannot tell you how significant these will be, and I cannot tell you how many times the playerbase will be able to impact the show, it's safe to assume the show will impact the game more than the game will impact the show.
It's also important to note that Trion has a complete plan for the game outside of the TV show. That means if the TV show is a flop and is not renewed for a 2nd season, or 3rd etc, they have a plan for making this game stand on it's own as a MMORPG that is competitive in the market today, with it's own innovations and will be fully supporting it with updates and other things while the show is on hiatus as well. They may decide to add instanced dungeons, they may decide to attempt another way of doing that type of thing, they may decide to make gear progression and itemization a higher priority for elder game, or they may stick with what they have now which is having it secondary.
Trion has done a pretty bad job at making it clear as to what this game is, as they fail to truly define it in their marketing. I think this is partially due to the fact that the game can go in numerous directions if they need it to.
Games are not about fun and entertainment anymore.
MMO's are secondary jobs you pay for, where you work hard to get the lastest Tier sets so you can grindfest to the next.
I have played Tabula Rasa until the servers went down. Eventho that game was unfinished toward the end, lacking content at higher levels... it was a far better and more enjoyable game than this one. Sadly.
What was the game called a few years back that had EXACTLY the same concept like Defiance has?
3rd Person Action Shooter, with a lvl-up system, earthly marine + alien-type weaponry...
I mean it is like an identical copy of this game.
Wait, you're claiming some game from years ago copied this game that releases today?
HEH
In related news, broad terms can describe multiple individual things.