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[General Article] Defiance: Review in Progress #4
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
This week wraps up our four week Review in Progress for Trion Worlds' Defiance, with our final score to come next week. Find out where we are in the game and check our impressions against your own before heading to the comments to discuss the game.
This is the first week in Defiance where I’m no longer trying to explore the game’s feature set. Instead, I’m just playing it like I would any other MMO. I run missions, try to complete pursuits, stop and do the random objectives that litter the map, and occasionally hop into some of the PVP. The Shadow War, oddly enough, doesn't seem to pop as often as I wish it would. It’s easily the game’s best PVP mode, but it’s not as quick and easy to earn XP and scrip when compared to the standard match-made PVP.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Defiance: Review In Progress #4.
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Defiance is capable of pretty vistas, despite muddy textures.
Comments
I just got off the Def. Forums and was discussing the games mechanics and hitbox and how inacurate it is.
I just feel that its no secret they want sFPS playerbase and borderland fanbase to play their game defiance- but as of now the hit box and mechanics of shooting is so gimpish. not acurate.
when you see mobs shooting through walls, rocks , and trucks and u try ur darnest to get a good spot for cover and snipe and a mob miles away is hitting you w/o reloading time-just feel like-ill say it again and 80's arcade game. badly developed.
becouse i enjoy the arkfalls and missions and style of the game i try n 'ignore' these faults- but when a non fps gamer (me) notices these things(coming from playing borderlands2) you know its a bad thing.
and dont get me started on pvp matches-they have nothing on firefall (iam actually glad FF is taking their time now- i understand completely!!! now)
Bill, the original reason for removing the mission was some continuity. They wanted the game to move forward while the show does, but it's hard to do that when Nolan and Irisa are still sitting around in Mt. Tam while they're also doing stuff in Defiance.
I'm happy they'll bring them back for people who missed them (I'm thinking perhaps the re-runs).
Also when you're queing for Shadow War, the area that you're queing makes a difference. If you queue in San Francisco, you'll do a SF Shadow War. If you queue in Medara or Sausalito, you'll do one of those. So if you're having time getting one to pop, try another area.
I hope the final review doesn't bash the game for it's lack of "standard" MMO things because Defiance isn't a "standard MMO." I hope you rate it fairly on what it is, what it plans to be and how much fun it is and not some pre-concieved notion about it not being like every other MMO or Shooter on the market.
If you see NPCs doing that, fill out bug reports because those are bugs. NPCs should be stopping to reload and even eventually run out of ammo.
The NPCs shooting through cover was a bug that existed long back in Beta 2 and has been fixed for a long time. I haven't heard a single person I know talk about it, or experienced it myself. The last time it happened was some odd relation between upgrading a beta client without doing a fresh re-install (where a fresh-reinstall fixed it). Not saying that's the case here, I just don't experience that problem.
go check the game forums friend.
'I’m actually really enjoying the pursuits and exploration of the Bay Area in Defiance. I’m just not looking forward to when I’ve uncovered every inch and seen all the content. If Defiance is going to keep me interested for the long term, it needs to have a decent stream of content additions, something to rival Guild Wars 2 or Rift in terms of pacing.' -Bill Murphy
xcly! I already have, on my second character starting missions again and now noticing its faults instead of the game.
unlike borderlands2 or GW2 i have a few different characters and everytime i play them the game feels different and fresh!
I did.. even tried searching. There is an odd reference here and there, most from a couple days after launch when there were server issues.
I'm not saying it's not possible, I just don't think it's as rampant as you make it out to be.
I enjoy this game, but not as an MMO. But more to do with the buy to play aspect and being able to just log in with a few friends and play for a couple of hours whenever I please. Of course, new content will always draw me back in and play.
As for the MMO aspect of the game, it's in the right genre, but I feel some people whom are accustomed to how MMO's are typically made these days (including the F2P ones) will find something lacking in this game.
I realy hope trion can mold this game into a sucsess, glad to here the potential is there.
Most companies prolly would have totally failed @ making an mmo to conincide with a tv show premier. (Go Trion!)
As for the show, the pilot was alot of charaecter introduction but :
" looked cheap even by basic cable standards"
idk i watched it in 1920x1200 and i though it looked good, granted i dont even have cable i just buy the episodes on amazon till they show up on netflix but still, i though the show had unique visual style that i liked. I know you refered to the battle scene specificaly but just my 2cents.
Yeah i think you might want to update or re-install most websites (even fps ones) are giving it high marks for solid shooter mechanics, could be a bug you encountered.
They have been deleting a hell lot of threads over the past two weeks. Especially about skills resetting, hacking, dissapearing items and the sort.
There are currently three threads active about hacking alone and I am actually suprised they haven't been deleted yet... like all the others.
I guess TRION has finally come to their senses that the harder you try to wipe issues under the rug, the more threads people start creating about it. So hopefully they stop with the Gestappo bullsh*t and leave the threads alone and come with an actual response and plan to do something about all the current problems.
Please show me a real game review thaty gave Defiance "High Marks" for anything. This game is fun but not because it has good shooting mechanics. THe problems this game currently has outnumber the good points which is strange because I'm not sure why I continue to play it, but I do. Although since hacking has now reached epidemic proportions I'm afraid I am very close to uninstalling.
Bought the game earlier today and have played for about 1½ hour now. I may have missed something, but it appears that the camera is locked, I really wish that I could zoom out just a little more or go 1st person. The game doesn't feel like 3rd person or 1st person for that matter, but is something in between that just doesn't work well for me (my character takes up way too much of the screen).
I really don't like the UI either - it actually took me several minutes just to figure out how to log out and how to look at my inventory. The game tutorial could've been a lot better too, I had (still have) a hard time figuring out social interactions like chatting and grouping. The story so far seems uninteresting and does a very bad job at drawing me into the game and its lore. I've also noticed a few bugs already like the game "timed out" 3 times when I tried to make my character.
Graphics are pretty decent from what I've seen. I did notice a few really bad textures here and there, but nothing that I couldn't look past. I liked the music as well.
I like Trion a lot and I'm still subbed to Rift, but Defiance made a pretty bad first impression. I'll give it one more go tomorrow, when I have more time, but I have a feeling that nothing will change. I honestly regret buying the game right now, if I had had a chance to try it first, I definitely wouldn't have bought it.
No need to make you pay twice for the "same season". There are technically 4 seasons in a year, so there could well be 4 season passes in a year too...
I ran into this last night during a major arkfall. Funny thing is, I still beat the hacker in the damage/kills ranking at the conclusion of the arkfall. But yeah, it's rather annoying.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.
thats sad to hear.
hacking on consoles or PC?..im a pc player havent encountered any faults of hacking but then again iam staying from the pvp i tried it and there are other games out there that do alot better pvp.
Trion has been quiet these past few days in forums and announcements -my only guess they are reevaluating the masses concerns to comeback with a statement and solutions. give em a few days to readjust .
its a kewl game-but needs major tweaks. games arent built in a day.
I'm having a great time in Defiance and I'm playing it almost entirely solo, besides que'ing and arkfalls. I would of liked a bit more of an MMO feel (ui, chat, etc.) and simply a larger world and longer storyline.
I look forward to more episodes of the show and more updates to the game.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red