Defiance

 PC
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 661 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 353 out of 661
  2. Mixed: 123 out of 661
  3. Negative: 185 out of 661
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  1. Seryin
    May 26, 2013
    6
    I already hate when games with no history or budget are released at 60 bucks, so when Defiance was finally released and had massive problems and bugs on launch day followed by horrible reviews and ratings, I dropped the game clean off my radar. However, Trion Worlds has recently began facing massive layoffs and Steam just had a "free weekend" for Defiance.
    Now, I just thought this would    I already hate when games with no history or budget are released at 60 bucks, so when Defiance was finally released and had massive problems and bugs on launch day followed by horrible reviews and ratings, I dropped the game clean off my radar. However, Trion Worlds has recently began facing massive layoffs and Steam just had a "free weekend" for Defiance.
    Now, I just thought this would be my chance to try a bad game and rip it apart in a review, but I am not sure if it was because I went into the game with such low expectations or what, but I was pleasantly surprised. The game actually had some decently enjoyable shooter mechanics. I spent 15 hours in defiance and it was not at all as horrible as I thought it would be.
    However, the game was still unable to hide its serious lack of content for a game that claims to be an mmorpg. The quests are all repetitive and get boring fast. There is really no "mmo" feel to this game. Very little cooperation or grouping is needed. Customization is narrow, and I felt extremely lost with some of the menu features like gun modding.
    However, the actual gameplay, or gun-play, and the world itself, was solid and has the potential to be built upon.
    I came into Defiance with guns drawn and ready to obliterate it. But it actually had some potential to be something much better. I give the game 6 points. Great gunplay and world FOR AN MMORPG, but I still have not seen the MMORPG part of the game. Just that they know how to mimic a lame rpg quest. So it is only half a game unless they add massive amounts of things to do.    … Expand
  2. FrostyGreenacre
    Apr 19, 2013
    4
    This game sadly shoots itself in the foot.

    There are many good things in the gameplay of Defiance, and there are moments that have indeed been fun. However, each one of those is equaled or marred by some badly designed game mechanic or bug that either destroys player immersion or should have just outright been fixed during development. Pros. the shooting and dodging mechanics seem    This game sadly shoots itself in the foot.

    There are many good things in the gameplay of Defiance, and there are moments that have indeed been fun. However, each one of those is equaled or marred by some badly designed game mechanic or bug that either destroys player immersion or should have just outright been fixed during development.

    Pros. the shooting and dodging mechanics seem pretty well made, servers have very little lag, there's plenty to do across the world and you can have a lot of fun rushing to an objective in your vehicle with 20 other users down a deserted highway. This core element of the gameplay could make up for the following misgivings if the bugs were fixed, however the issues stay ever visible whilst the good gameplay is plagued with visual glitches. One thing I did like, however was that players didn't need to be in a team to do a mission together, if three players shared the same goal it didn't matter who took down an enemy or activated the 3 objectives, all three players got the quest with no queueing.

    Cons: very sketchy tutorial. very little is explained in the tutorial. the tutorial also takes place in a "danger zone" and whilst reading the descriptions of the 3 paragraph mission dialogues you can be attacked, damaged and presumably killed without being able to defend yourself. There is no tutorial on how to perform social interactions, in fact, I've seen the MMO in no way encourage social interaction between players whatsoever. The storyline is only so-so, however this is true with many MMO games where you'll find yourself either skipping past the majority of quest dialogue or spending more time reading than fighting.

    bugs: this is where the game experience is truly ruined for me. the best game in the world can fail if it's just unplayable (diablo 3, simcity etc.) we can often look past game mechanics we don't agree with so long as they're running as they supposed to. However with my first 4 hours of playing Defiance I encountered: random invisible structures in the wilderness that would stop you driving or running (note, you could go around these small items, they are not barriers, just textureless objects) the game also bugs out when you stand on some of the bridges in the first city area you play in. standing on them with the camera at a certain angle with make all 3D models disappear. to make things worse this includes NPC enemies. You can be getting shot whilst not being able to see your character, the area you're stood on or the enemies who are shooting. particularly frustrating when your mission objective is on that bridge. Some of the terrain has been added into the landscape awkwardly as well, leaving gaps between the landscape and the items themselves so you can see that they aren't solid, very bad for game immersion. I've also been driving down a highway when I saw a "random encounter" quest where enemies were kidknapping some innocent NPCs, except all of the cars added into the encounter were floated a good 7ft above the road...

    overall I'd say that this game WOULD be fun if if worked properly. Heck, even outright addictive. However there are many problems that need to be addressed before it's properly playable. unfortunately for me they already have my money now, so I can only motivate them to fix these by letting everybody else know about the issues before they get your money too.    … Expand
  3. Chomag
    Apr 2, 2013
    7
    This game is average. It's more of a co-op multiplayer shooter than an MMOFPS. If you wanted MMO features, I can only tell you that these are in small numbers and pretty much bare bones. If you wanted your classic MMO just with shooter features, you will be sorely disappointed.

    The "quests" aren't taken from NPCs in towns (there aren't even any towns, just some peaceful areas amongst    This game is average. It's more of a co-op multiplayer shooter than an MMOFPS. If you wanted MMO features, I can only tell you that these are in small numbers and pretty much bare bones. If you wanted your classic MMO just with shooter features, you will be sorely disappointed.

    The "quests" aren't taken from NPCs in towns (there aren't even any towns, just some peaceful areas amongst the battlefield that is the rest of the map) but they are spread across the map and they're always about activating some things or killing enemies or both. Thing is these quests become very quickly very repetitive and boring. Also, you can do the same quest multiple times as enemies will respawn rather fast after you completed it (which, imo, is very lame and breaking the immersion). The game is FILLED with visual glitches, such as players disappearing from in front of you and reappearing, which looks quite bad when you got a lot of players blinking as you approach them.

    This game is pretty mediocre for our time. I'd say it's actually a more complex Global Agenda than an MMO.    … Expand
  4. Mhuang1985
    Apr 3, 2013
    8
    Pros: Great shooting mechanics, enormous weapon variety and kit customization. Instanced PvP and PvE are great fun.

    Cons: Quests are repetitive, annoying crafting interface. Currently at 250 EGO (max EGO aka level is 5000), put maybe at least 12 hrs into this game since release. Shooting mechanics are great which is VERY important for a game like this, quests are a little boring    Pros: Great shooting mechanics, enormous weapon variety and kit customization. Instanced PvP and PvE are great fun.

    Cons: Quests are repetitive, annoying crafting interface.

    Currently at 250 EGO (max EGO aka level is 5000), put maybe at least 12 hrs into this game since release.

    Shooting mechanics are great which is VERY important for a game like this, quests are a little boring but pretty much standard fare for a MMO (tbh, it doesn't bother players like me who spam Esc through all the cutscenes and don't read a goddamn thing because we play for the sake of progression). Both instanced PvP and PvE sessions have been great fun. There are "damage meters/scoreboards" so you can see how you stack with your friends.

    Solid game, add +1 rating if playing with friends.    … Expand
  5. MMOCritique
    Apr 2, 2013
    8
    Defiance is a game/TV series tie-in with a deal between Trion Worlds and the Syfy channel. The game is set in a futuristic post apocalyptic Earth. The player is an Ark Hunter who has survived a starship crash. An Ark Hunter is a specialist in survival, combat and tracking. The players aim is to salvage arktech and use it in their goal of protect the Earth from the creatures created by aDefiance is a game/TV series tie-in with a deal between Trion Worlds and the Syfy channel. The game is set in a futuristic post apocalyptic Earth. The player is an Ark Hunter who has survived a starship crash. An Ark Hunter is a specialist in survival, combat and tracking. The players aim is to salvage arktech and use it in their goal of protect the Earth from the creatures created by a failed terra-forming of Earth.

    Defiance gives a completely fresh and new to the MMO-Shooter genre in the fact that it focuses primarily on Player versus Environment (PvE) content. There is a large amount of content that the player is able to experience within Defiance, in a very large open world environment. Their dynamic content is extremely fun to play, using the RIFT content and twisting it to fit this new environment. The ground breaking link between game and TV show is a very interesting idea and it will be great to see how this progresses.

    I feel that the overall gameplay of Defiance is extremely polished and fun to play. It makes it easy for someone who is used to MMO’s who doesn’t normally play shooters feel right at home. MMO’s are my favoured genre and I found it easy to get in to and enjoy Defiance, not typically being a shooter player. This could be due to the simple and easy to follow tutorial in the game.

    However, there are certain shooter features which are sorely lacking in Defiance, prominent ones being the lack of a prone option, as well as no active cover options, like hugging and popping out from behind a wall. Addition of one or both of these would be a valuable addition to the game and could make the game play even more interesting. Furthermore, I personally dislike the camera view, I have never been fond of the ‘over the shoulder’ camera as to me it makes aiming feel wrong, and doesn’t seem like you are really aiming as the character, I would feel more comfortable with a true third person camera angle, from behind the character, or first person. The UI also feels rather clunky and less than intuitive on PC, having clearly been built primarily with consoles in mind.

    The fact that Defiance is being released on PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will allow for people of both the MMO and shooter fan bases all coming together in a single game. Though, of course, these platforms will all be playing separate from one another. I would expect that the consoles will see more of the shooter fan base, and as such more Player versus Player (PvP) action. However, on PC I would expect that the game will be played more by the MMO fan base, and as such I would think that the PvP experience would be a little sparser.

    Having said that, Defiance has two options available to aid with initiating PvP, there is the typical small scale instanced battles that MMO players will be well attuned with, as well as a large open world PvP option known as the shadow war. The shadow war allows players to fight one another and claim control of territory, the more people who join the battle, the larger the area of combat becomes. Also, as more people join the shadow war more vehicles become available for use, some of which will include weaponry to aid in combating your adversaries. This could be an extremely fun way to play PvP and fight against your fellow players, rather than alongside them.

    I feel that Defiance is a great game and should at least be given a chance by both the MMO players and shooter players out there. It really is revolutionary to the genre, linking the game in with a TV show and all of the dynamic content available. It is also very refreshing to see an MMO-Shooter which focuses on PvE rather than PvP. I look forward to seeing how this progresses, and whether both the game and TV show will be able to endure together.    … Expand
  6. Bawbzor
    Apr 3, 2013
    5
    Mediocre 3rd person shooter with limited MMO content. The user interface is a blatant console port and is very awkward to use with the mouse and keyboard (chat system practically non-existent). The story is pretty forgettable and you will finish all the quests within a couple of days if you play a lot.

    I haven't been able to find any standout features in this game that would make me    Mediocre 3rd person shooter with limited MMO content. The user interface is a blatant console port and is very awkward to use with the mouse and keyboard (chat system practically non-existent). The story is pretty forgettable and you will finish all the quests within a couple of days if you play a lot.

    I haven't been able to find any standout features in this game that would make me want to play it over the plethora of other MMO's on the market. Hopefully the show will be more interesting.    … Expand
  7. MilkANdWookies
    Apr 2, 2013
    8
    A few hours in and I am glad to say I am pleasantly engrossed thus far, The massive co-op quests that are a constant in the world are my favorites thus far. I played beta on Xbox and I am now playing the PC version it is much better looking graphically, from a control stand point it seems it was made more console friendly. Overall I would say it is worth giving it a go.
  8. Hanff
    Apr 3, 2013
    3
    Mediocre-at-best shooter with too many glaring flaws to keep a player engaged. The potential was there, but the execution was halfhearted: terrible voice acting, no real character customization to speak of, controls that are so far from intuitive it's almost a joke, and the same grindy quests over and over. Not to mention the lack of a viable chat system.

    There are worse ways to kill an    Mediocre-at-best shooter with too many glaring flaws to keep a player engaged. The potential was there, but the execution was halfhearted: terrible voice acting, no real character customization to speak of, controls that are so far from intuitive it's almost a joke, and the same grindy quests over and over. Not to mention the lack of a viable chat system.

    There are worse ways to kill an hour here and there, but not at this price.    … Expand
  9. asmoron
    Apr 2, 2013
    9
    An engaging sci-fi story with the wild enjoyment of Borderlands only with 1,000 friends instead of four. If you're the type of person to get caught up in fevered loot-hording, third person action and large scale PvE and PvP give it a shot.
  10. Fereldin
    Apr 3, 2013
    8
    Having beta tested and played MMOs for close to a decade, alongside the obligatory 'A' Solo titles like Skyrim, Borderlands 1 and 2 DLCs, Far Cry series, all the Bioshocks I feel I can contribute a good sense and feel for Trion's Defiance.

    Any launch of an MMO has issues. Star Wars:The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, heck even World of Warcraft vanilla, were not perfect on day-1 of retail    Having beta tested and played MMOs for close to a decade, alongside the obligatory 'A' Solo titles like Skyrim, Borderlands 1 and 2 DLCs, Far Cry series, all the Bioshocks I feel I can contribute a good sense and feel for Trion's Defiance.

    Any launch of an MMO has issues. Star Wars:The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, heck even World of Warcraft vanilla, were not perfect on day-1 of retail release. Either the launch or pre-order advance play launches were so packed, you couldn't log-on, or many of the difficult to reproduce beta bugs, exposed to 10,000x the players, actually did surface as major game play bugs and impeded enjoyment and playability. This is the nature of MMOs it's always a work in progress, and only get better with time. We can't compare this barely '1.0' title to an almost-nine year old WoW with about 100 person years of development time and tweaking or other similar titles. One must know, going in to a new MMO, that you're an investor and a pioneer. You are investing in a title that, in due time, will mature and improve. If you're not keen on this investment, then likely the best route for you is to continue to play the mature titles, and come back to this after several months of patches.

    I for one, am a believer, and an investor I gave some cold hard cash to support the developers, as I they have earned by trust and respect with their other fun and refined titles, such as Rift. I would be quite tickled if 'some other mmo' out there competed for my time and dedication, instead of sinking yet more hours, days and years into World of Warcraft.

    Sure, it's hard to re-invent the wheel; but why fix something that isn't broken. The wheel is fine, but we can work on better tires, better axles, better suspension, and rims. That is where I see Defiance, Guild Wars 2, Planetside 2, and other titles. They offer some changes and mix things up; Alright, so it's still all about the quests, and turn-ins, grinding and killing mobs, loot drops, money drops, and we buy and sell, but Defiance isn't trying to re-invent MMOs, they're offering some extra features that enhance the generic.

    I'm going to wait and see how future patches change, tweak, perfect it; meanwhile, I have no issues providing Trion some remuneration for their hard work, and motivate them to keep improving it. Much like SW:TOR a fairly horrid product initially, and it felt like a beta 4-months into Retail with no end-game content, but after a year and its f2p conversion and micro-transactions, it's actually pretty good now. Besides, WoW has micro-transactions, but they're tied into links from the Launcher app, to a web store portal.

    Microtransactions and free-to-play is likely the model to come for the foreseeable near-future; until another model surfaces. WoW is the Apple of the gaming world; they are bucking the trend and generating earnings where the other 90% of their respective industry does not and are operating at a loss. The wheel will likely be re-invented at some point; for anti-gravity hover pads or some such. For now, i'm pleased to be a part of the re-invention; and I like seeing what developers are coming up with, to buck the trend.    … Expand
  11. Maeldun81
    Apr 2, 2013
    10
    One of the rare MMO's that actually grips you in the story, flawless launch so far which you never see in mmos ever. Nice customization, weapons, loving the vehicles.
  12. lollermittens
    Apr 2, 2013
    9
    If you've been waiting for a new and refreshing MMO experience, look no further, TRION Games has done it again.

    Background: long-time WoW player (4-5 years); played RIFT for about 5 months; SWTOR for about 4 months; TSW for about 1 month. Too many others to list. TL;DR: I have vast experience when it comes to MMO and would consider myself a hardcore player (30 hrs+ per week). I'm    If you've been waiting for a new and refreshing MMO experience, look no further, TRION Games has done it again.

    Background: long-time WoW player (4-5 years); played RIFT for about 5 months; SWTOR for about 4 months; TSW for about 1 month. Too many others to list. TL;DR: I have vast experience when it comes to MMO and would consider myself a hardcore player (30 hrs+ per week).

    I'm simply going to go over what I feel are the most important factors that people look for in an MMO:
    1. Gameplay: the hitboxes are accurate. Not 100% accurate but if I'm aiming for a headshot with the sniper rifle/AR/shotgun (yep, shotgun), it registers the hit accurately. This was my biggest fear that TRION developed an MMOFPS where the FPS part would be horrible. How does it feel? Well, imagine the accuracy of Gears of Wars 2 and 3 weapons with even more accurate hitboxes when you're landing hits. Basically, skill does matter in Defiance and you're simply not required to press 1, 2, 3, E, A or whatever to get your combos off since you're not restricted by the cooldowns of the skills you place on your hotbar. It's a very solid experience all in all and I'm very happy that the game, at the very least, is functional in the MMO department.

    2. RPG-elements: a question that still remains on everyone's lip is "does this game have the typical depth expected of a good/great MMORPG?" Surprinsingly enough, it *seems* like it. Now, I want to emphasize on the "seem" a bit: I played the game for about 12 hours now and I've only maxed out three "skills" (one which increases your critical damage when you're crouched, another which increases the damage you do against monsters who are rushing towards you, and another that increases drops when I perform critical kills) which you then assign into "perks" slots. Take the perks that you'd find in your typical over-the-shoulder third-person shooter, sprinkle a bit of RPG-flavored stats on them, and voila, you've created enough depth to give me at least a solid month of playtime. And when I say solid month, I'm expecting to be playing this game 4-6 hours on a daily basis and even longer on weekends. Before you start the game, you're given the choice of 4 powers that will be assigned to your 1 key: Cloak (makes you invisible); decoy; run faster and deal more melee damage; and, last but not least, an ability that increases your shooting damage by 10%+ for a few seconds.

    You will be inquired to pick a power during the tutorial but the "EGO" perks are designed in such a way that you should be able to unlock all skills (although you can only use one at a time) after a few months of playtime. In terms of gearing up, you'll have access to a primary and secondary weapon slot as well as the possibility to spawn a vehicle wherever you want (even in some indoor areas surprisingly), put on armor, and a grenade. You can add mods to your weapons such as recoil reduction, increased crit dmg, and the standard stuff. Ultimately, the possibility for in-depth gearing up is there and the weapon selection so far is enormous.

    3. Longevity: I mentioned the game's longevity during the RPG-elements section and I'm confident that this game will provide me a solid month's of game time at the minimum. For a casual player, a "solid month" would provide easily minimum 2 months of gameplay. There's a lot to go through and explore. And if you live in the Bay Area like I do, it's very refreshing to "explore" the game world which is closely integral to real-word Bay Area.

    Conclusion: last night was the first time in an MMO that I was able to cover my friend in "real-time." We weren't "in combat;" monsters were popping left and right like a shooter; my friend had to dash across a parking lot to turn off an alarm and from a windowsill, I was providing sniper fire which allowed him to make it through the parking lot and complete the quest. This was the FIRST TIME I experience a "real-time" quest with dynamic monsters that created a refreshing experience.

    Defiance borrows heavily from GoW, Borderlands, Rift, and traditional MMO elements. TRION successfully fused all these elements together and have provided a very, very solid game in return.

    If you're still on the fence after reading my review, answer the following questions with a 'yes' or 'no;' if you answered 'yes' to more than two questions, honestly, just do yourself a favor and go buy the game (also no monthly subscription is required which is a huge plus): do you like Borderlands 1 or 2? Do you like Gears of War 1/2/3? Do you like Rift/WoW/The Secret World/Guild Wars 2? Do you like crisp/accurate shooters with hitboxes that register correctly?    … Expand
  13. scipion41
    Apr 2, 2013
    8
    Très bon jeu. Rien de très innovateur, la l'exception de l'univers dans lequel on nous plonge qui est, tout même très intéressant. Cependant, le gameplay est solide et les cartes du monde sont immenses. Bref, jusqu'à maintenant, j'aime beaucoup
    J'ai très hâte de voir le "show" qui y est attaché.
  14. The_Ommadawn
    Apr 3, 2013
    4
    I pre-ordered after watching some videos online. I wondered why there were no reviews beforehand and now I know why. It's total poo and offers nothing new. I LOVED Rift and had confidence in the Dev, but this is a mess of a game. The AI is a joke, the landscapes are boring (little variety), the gear and looting is confusing, entering/exiting vehicles is hit and miss, the controls (PC)I pre-ordered after watching some videos online. I wondered why there were no reviews beforehand and now I know why. It's total poo and offers nothing new. I LOVED Rift and had confidence in the Dev, but this is a mess of a game. The AI is a joke, the landscapes are boring (little variety), the gear and looting is confusing, entering/exiting vehicles is hit and miss, the controls (PC) are awful, the avatars all look identical, etc. I'm not drawn towards this game at all. I played for a few hours and became bored quickly. The RPG element is clearly not there. It's a generic MMO shooter with little else on offer. I wish I could roll back my life a day and buy Bioshock Infinite instead. Shame on you Trion.… Expand
  15. Lighterfluid
    Apr 2, 2013
    3
    This game may look like a MMO Borderlands, but do not be fooled. Defiance offers very little when it comes to the MMO spectrum. I had so many issues with this game i dont even know where to begin.

    From the start you are treated with some terrible visuals and pretty lame voice acting. Then comes the quests, which are run here do that. The game wasnt engaging or gripping in the least.    This game may look like a MMO Borderlands, but do not be fooled. Defiance offers very little when it comes to the MMO spectrum. I had so many issues with this game i dont even know where to begin.

    From the start you are treated with some terrible visuals and pretty lame voice acting. Then comes the quests, which are run here do that. The game wasnt engaging or gripping in the least.

    If you are looking for a story, then maybe just maybe you might find enjoyment in this game. If your looking for good game play features on the other hand i wouldn't even give this a second look. Truelly a let down.

    Over all just another MMO to brush under the table    … Expand
  16. Woopya
    Apr 5, 2013
    1
    I dare say all the extremely positive reviews are people who reviewed the game within hours of seeing it. I say this because the game starts off with at least something of a fresh feeling, it appears to be different and people got excited. But, since release the ratings have been spiraling downward for a reason. This game gets very old, very fast. It is extremely linear and simplistic.I dare say all the extremely positive reviews are people who reviewed the game within hours of seeing it. I say this because the game starts off with at least something of a fresh feeling, it appears to be different and people got excited. But, since release the ratings have been spiraling downward for a reason. This game gets very old, very fast. It is extremely linear and simplistic. The lack of tab targeting is refreshing, because it at least makes you feel as tho your doing more yourself than most linear MMOs. But this game was clearly made as an aside to the TV show. On it's own, without the TV show to accompany it, this game would be free to play or failed in a month or 2.… Expand
  17. Ethasa
    Apr 3, 2013
    2
    While a few new concepts have been added to the gaming world, this game is not much to look at if one looks past the few shallow reviews left here by passersby. Let's start from the beginning, as i played rift before this game, and thoroughly enjoyed it's concepts and content, i expected something above average for this game, but that is not what i received upon being invited to the Alpha.While a few new concepts have been added to the gaming world, this game is not much to look at if one looks past the few shallow reviews left here by passersby. Let's start from the beginning, as i played rift before this game, and thoroughly enjoyed it's concepts and content, i expected something above average for this game, but that is not what i received upon being invited to the Alpha. Yet, then i went one to try to help with solving bugs and giving suggestions content wise, and that all went unanswered due to lack of fixes or simple neglect of the Alpha community, which made apparent that the dev has really given up or simply put down the project, and for this reason, i believe the game has no real value in terms of maturing over time, as the crew seems to have a different agenda then that of rift. It also seemed to be a rushed product, due to it's lack graphic wise and content wise, as the voice acting seemed so rushed and placed that it literally sounds if they almost didn't even do it in studio, and that's not even the worst audio, as the charger was changed multiple times due to the quality of recordings they received from dodge, which also shows how much they were willing to give up to their preteen associated sponsors such as axe and etc.
    All this and i haven't even touched on the combat yet. As i said before, the game seemed rushed, and content wise shows so. The end game is non-existent, along with a viable progression system. Oh yes, i just remembered that, the progression system is linear, so no matter what level your weapon is, or what rarity (e.g. a green/uncommon, will be exactly the same as an orange/legendary, except for one little bonus effect that might or might not be what you need/want) they will be almost exactly the same, this amplified by the gimmicky perk tree that was constantly debuffed due to complaints of extremely unbalanced and unviable pvp that was dominated by rocket launching bunny hoppers (is still plagued by this if you must know), and is now so shallow that you feel as if you wasted that 10 hours getting +50 ego rating from some ridiculous broken "achievement" (which they call pursuits) that gave you them because you already ran so many congruent/exactly the same arkfalls that became so tedious you just had to force yourself to do something different. Also, if you want to say the arkfalls are akin to the rift system in rift, then your completely wrong. This "exciting" and "replayable" system has so little variance that, in alpha, people just plain stopped doing them, due to both their tediousness, and their lack of a legitimate award. Also, on a side note, if your hoping for an expansive vehicle system, their are only 7 variants of vehicles aside from colors, of which none are customizable at the least.
    Oh, and to further make this mess worse, the reason they don't give legitimate rewards to you is so that they can make you pay for that weapon you desperately want. For example, to even be able to get a legendary/orange weapon (extremely low chance that makes me want to cry due to their linear progression) you need to get a t4 lockbox that will cost 64 arkfall keys, and you will most likely only make 4 from a major, that will likely take anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on how many people know what they are doing. This results in you needing to grind these arkfalls for around 8 hours to even get one, they will probably not even have what you want. So by using this 8 hour grind time obstacle, they made it possible to simply by them with your real hard earned money. Oh, and if you want one of the actually good looking outfits, you probably going to have to pay 10 dollars for that too, because you can't even earn them in game.
    And to top all this off, they have had months to fix that unintuitive UI they try to push on their PC gamers that resulted when they were too damn lazy to change it from the console counterparts of this game. In fact, the entire alpha gave up on the topic due to their lack of communication regarding the issue. Such issues were brought up several times, but always ignored, like most of the bugs.
    So all in all, i just wanted to save you from this worthless game that has reduced my respect for Trion Worlds 10 fold by telling how this rushed mess is lacking in every aspect, and that you should look farther than that fluff those positive reviews give you and see the cold hard truth about this game before you waste that coveted 60 dollars of yours.    … Expand
  18. XenoCypher
    Apr 2, 2013
    10
    Defiance is everything that The Secret World SHOULD have been, with more. It has a compelling story with characters that evolve through-out the missions, giving them the feeling that you "know" them to some degree. The ability to drive around in cars, trucks, and quads gives the game an added fun factor with all of the cool things you can do with them (like crazy jumps and 360's).

    The    Defiance is everything that The Secret World SHOULD have been, with more. It has a compelling story with characters that evolve through-out the missions, giving them the feeling that you "know" them to some degree. The ability to drive around in cars, trucks, and quads gives the game an added fun factor with all of the cool things you can do with them (like crazy jumps and 360's).

    The Arkfall system is very akin to Rift's in RIFT and award every player doing the missions there, without the need to be in a group. Even the main missions (quests), do not require you to be grouped to get credit, which is pretty awesome.

    There is so much to love about this game, that it is hard to list it all. It is worth trying for yourself.    … Expand
  19. RosaV
    Apr 2, 2013
    10
    Everything Tabula Rasa should have been. An immersive MMO with tight shooting mechanics and compelling missions. There is a lot of game here, and it's a blast!
  20. Joshy
    Apr 2, 2013
    10
    Most innovative MMO in a LONG time, not just another stupid WoW clone. And the fact that it's tied in with the show and your character could end up being IN the show.....that's just neat as hell. Awesome weapons and vehicles also. Smooth gameplay and good graphics also.
  21. JoseTadeuChagas
    Apr 9, 2013
    10
    This game promisses but not deliver, a crappy pc port, trion do not respond tickets when they respond they say the problem is resolved when it is not. If you intend to buy pass this one out.
  22. Cytheria
    Apr 18, 2013
    6
    It's a reasonable enough shooter, with a fantastic new IP to work with, and what promises to be a fun tie in with a fresh new tv show to boot.
    It has a certain allure that will draw you back to it again and again to play, but you won't know why.
    I wish I could score the game higher at the moment, as I've really fallen for it, but I'm trying to be as unbiased as possible. In it's    It's a reasonable enough shooter, with a fantastic new IP to work with, and what promises to be a fun tie in with a fresh new tv show to boot.
    It has a certain allure that will draw you back to it again and again to play, but you won't know why.

    I wish I could score the game higher at the moment, as I've really fallen for it, but I'm trying to be as unbiased as possible.

    In it's current state, the game is unfinished. The story is short and the play area is deceptive in its scale it is pretty big, but you'll feel like its only a small region or level from a different game.

    In game communications, regardless of their form, are bugged or inoperable. Users report items going missing all the time, whilst others are swapped out entirely when patches are applied. The in game AI is pretty poor, and its spawn size, rather than actual "skill" or "intelligence" that is used to confer a sense of difficulty.

    A few features players expected never happened, most notably in game weather effects. The in game UI experience is pretty poor and doesn't always make sense (to log out you need to access the settings menu, which in itself is buried inside your main loadout/inventory screen)

    There is an issue with gated content, where some, real time limited, events are only accessible after completing a certain proportion of the PvE campaign.

    There is currently no clear sense of character progression, as in attempting to balance new players against old, Trion have opted for a system which see's players farming for "ego" perk points to upgrade abilities by a couple of percent, and very samey items which rely on mods to help players tweak them to perform in a way that appeals to their play style. What this basically means for the average casual player is that your character will always feel pretty much the same, and whilst they might change outfits once in a while, one user is pretty much interchangable with another. With items playing such a large role in your character development, it's also worth noting that with the lack of an auction house or storage, its very hard for individual players to actually collect together the mods and equipment needed to build their own "perfect" loadout, and with limited inventory space, most players end up either salvaging items they collect for parts or selling them to npc vendors rather than trying to sell them on to people because the alternative is a bit too awkward for most to want to worry about. (namely post on the forums and hope you can arrange to someone that wants the item you want, and that they are on the same server, the same platform, and in the same sort of timezone)

    Arkfalls and random in game events add a slightly chaotic mix to the equation, and something different to do. They're similar to the "Rift" events from Trion's earlier game Rift, but sadly feel like a poor reflection of the original. Similarly, the majority of the quests are pretty lackluster generally typical MMO "fed ex" and "kill 20 of these" type fare. Which is a real shame, as some of the "bigger", scripted events have some excellent narrative work, and really shine. Unfortunately, the few good quests just make you look at the bad ones that make up the majority and see how much better they could have been.

    Lack of reliable/usable comms renders the "Multiplayer" element of this mmo pretty much redundant. Unless using 3rd party tools to communicate with friends, you're going to have a hard time meeting anyone in game, and one random player with an assault rifle is interchangable for any other. Added to this problem is the fact that the main story quests dont work well with groups and generally force you to play solo, mean that what community feeling there is, is heavily forced.

    As a stand alone game, the lack of community immersion is made worse by the fact that a lot of the back story development has actually been left to a handful of in game collectible voice recordings and the TV show. The whole transmedia idea is fantastic, all most players know about the game world has come from information about the TV show, leaving it feeling like all those nasty movie tie in games we've seen over the years that do nothing to actually stand on their own two feet and instead just rely on making money from fans who already know and love an established IP.

    On top of all this are the day 1 bugs we've all come to know and love with new mmo releases, in this case already exasperated by a launch schedule that was rushed in order to tie in with the TV series. Unfortunately, so far, patches have failed to be applied at all to one platform (PS3), and on the remaining 2 (PC & XBOX) have generated an all new collection of bugs and problems for players, whilst in far too many cases, not actually correcting the bugs they were intended to fix anyway.

    I hope it gets better, but atm, its just a mediocre attempt at a TV tie in.    … Expand
  23. SimpleMethod
    Jul 13, 2013
    6
    I bought Defiance yesterday for the Steam Summer sale, and I'm happy with my purchase. That being said, I bought it for $13. I also specifically waited 3 months so they could iron out a lot of bugs, and I still had a ridiculous struggle logging in the first time. The core gameplay is pretty interesting, though. The problem is just a lack of polish. This game doesn't feel finished, whichI bought Defiance yesterday for the Steam Summer sale, and I'm happy with my purchase. That being said, I bought it for $13. I also specifically waited 3 months so they could iron out a lot of bugs, and I still had a ridiculous struggle logging in the first time. The core gameplay is pretty interesting, though. The problem is just a lack of polish. This game doesn't feel finished, which is a shame. Still, if you're looking for an MMO to play with friends for a bit, I suppose you could do worse.… Expand
  24. Baelelzebub
    Apr 22, 2013
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Defiance is one of those trend setting games. It will set a precedent as the first MMO/TV show. A great GIMMICK, I've watched the TV show, I've played through the story and then some of the game. The show is far more enjoyable.

    I have spent over 40 hours in game, customizing guns, co-oping with friends, joined in a shadow war and some regular PvP as well as lots of arkfalls and of course completed the story mission. But I open up Defiance apprehensively every single time. Sometimes I'm disconnected from PvP 2 or 3 times and give up. Sometimes my weapons vanished while zoning into a co-op. And sometimes it was just asking myself how many ark-falls am I going to do before I get bored.

    Defiance at the start is exciting, I crash into a strange new area. Then about 2 hours in you decide everything looks the same, so lets try a co-op. 3 hours in you realize they retooled solo mission dungeons as co-op dungeons(and the rewards aren't very good). So one decides to try the challenges, and then you see someone's score of over 100k and decide okay let me try, and find its far harder than it should be to even get a reward like one of those bad carnival games. So then on to racing, then you notice your hands are on a keyboard and mouse and decide to pass(even on a controller they are not too exciting....you are racing a time, like those ghost races in Mario Kart). So on to the story missions.....(you can finish them within about 7 hours)....done. Side quests and area quests are retooled story missions hooray! Go do this and collect or kill that. Now onto the bread and butter, ARKFALLS! Shoot EVERYTHING! You are presented with waves of enemies regardless if that's the objective or not and sometimes you go to several locations shooting the same stuff and then you find one big boss where you exploit weak spots and then destroy the summoned minions and then exploit weak spots...Rinse, repeat until dead. The ark falls are very interesting up until you do your fourth one (that is if you can find more than 1 or 2 in a row) when you decide well lemme do something else because i'm kinda tired of this guy whose got the grenade launcher that spawns more grenades on impact and I might have a seizure. Onto a shadow war! After an hour wait you spawn in to die by someone who has cloak and a double barrel shotty at your back. Re-spawn! Someone runs over you with a vehicle. Re-spawn! You spawn falling down with your shield gone and get sniped by someone on higher ground as you fall. Etc.

    You may be asking well what redeeming qualities does this game have. Defiance is extremely fun for the first 20 hours or so. After as such it is simply ALOT of the same content replayed and retooled. You think you can take it for longer seeing the same scenery, the same guns, the same mods for an extended period but you don't, nay can't. Let alone the lack of balance of weaponry, people say there are a lot of guns to mess with, this is true, but if the Light machine gun has a clip of 111 before you have to reload and does 416 damage per bullet give or take with a fire rate of 5-6 per second and the rocket launcher you need to reload after 2 rockets and each rocket does approximately 1200 damage per shot with a 6 second reload time, which will you choose? You say you are a sniper though and you only do sniping in shooters!? You do the same damage as a rocket launcher with 6-12 bullets in your clip. Do you see an issue?

    Now we come to the abilities. The abilities are unique and fun to use but once you maxed one out around level 350 with the perks you are set in using there is no more imagination. There is no point to go any further with the skills. You can make yourself a little more powerful with every 30 levels or so but it doesn't play a big enough part to matter. I'll dodge a firefight or a few bullets with decoy or cloak. Ill Initiate with some good damage with blur or overload. But other than that I don't see anyone going too much further with them.

    I give Defiance a 5 because it has elements of a great game, and you can start up do an ark-fall for 10 minutes and then get on with your day and still feel like you accomplished something in the game. The co-op rewards need to be improved, actually grouping with people for a reason is nice. Weapon balance will in turn balance out PvP. And as for the scenery, create some new venues Trion! Your game is great but it feels like it's extremely incomplete! ONLY the bay area while the show takes place in St. Louis? Does anyone else see a problem with this? Or how about more than 5 factions to fight because you have 7 races in the Votan collective PLUS humans. Some people might say hey what about DLC, but I remember the days when dev's would release a COMPLETED game before they would announce an expansion. Just saying. Worth 60-100 USD? NO! Worth getting into? Absolutely! But not right now.    … Expand
  25. HiddenGhul
    Apr 25, 2013
    5
    This game has some decent combat for an MMO, but sadly that also means the questing is a terrible as even the better MMOs altogether making a bland game but'll be fun with friends!
  26. AirRhino
    Sep 6, 2014
    1
    The game itself is decent. However TRION WORLDS continues to lie, and ignore its community.

    Thousands of ban reports go ignored. The hackers being reported even do so on the test realm right in front of the Dev team, and they simply ignore it.

    Beyond that there is the P2W cash shop. Once again they promised only cosmetic items, and once again they lied to us.
  27. Opetyr
    Jul 28, 2013
    1
    This game I played from the beginning and deserves a low rating. People who exploited the game we congratulated by the company for what they did. They promised things like what you do in the game will affect the show and the show will affect the game which they now say will happen later like Aliens:CM tricked people. They cannot fix issues that have plagued the game since the beginningThis game I played from the beginning and deserves a low rating. People who exploited the game we congratulated by the company for what they did. They promised things like what you do in the game will affect the show and the show will affect the game which they now say will happen later like Aliens:CM tricked people. They cannot fix issues that have plagued the game since the beginning and the DLC promised in the first month still hasn't shown up even though it is now almost 5 months later with no confirmed date of release. Hacks are many in this game since they used a 32bit security systems for systems that can use 64-bit hacks that the 32-bit could not see like gun damage. The game has been on sale so many times each month because they need to try and keep some sort of following. The game goes on sale for 20 dollars all the time. The PVP is unbalanced since a snipers line of sight is too small so people exploit it by coming into peoples range, shoot, and then run back 2 feet so they cannot be shot at themselves. Don't listen to the people that say it is great when at an extremely low level like 250 EGO since they haven't played past the starting area. I have played it through twice and the second time is quick because you can only do the main missions and all the secondary missions are not available. Not worth your time unless they do major fixes and apologize to people that were told lies.… Expand
  28. Noobverest
    Jun 6, 2014
    5
    Defiance is a game that appears to be new, innovative and interesting in the first hour. As you play on, you realize that the world of defiance is composed of one not-so-very-large map which can be easily explored in a single day.

    The game play is repetitive, for the first hundred or so EGO levels that you gain, it may seem fresh and exciting, but as you play on you realize that from    Defiance is a game that appears to be new, innovative and interesting in the first hour. As you play on, you realize that the world of defiance is composed of one not-so-very-large map which can be easily explored in a single day.

    The game play is repetitive, for the first hundred or so EGO levels that you gain, it may seem fresh and exciting, but as you play on you realize that from level one hundred to level five thousand, you will be doing the exact same thing, over and over again.    … Expand
  29. Enik
    Jul 22, 2013
    3
    You know why there's no demo of Defiance? Because if you do one quest, one arkfall and attach one mod to a gun, you've done EVERYTHING there is to do. Seriously. There's virtually no meaningful character progression, no real crafting, no real social component. It's a pseudo MMO for the Call of Duty dolts. I was bored after an hour.

    I gave it a 3 because the guns are kind of fun and the    You know why there's no demo of Defiance? Because if you do one quest, one arkfall and attach one mod to a gun, you've done EVERYTHING there is to do. Seriously. There's virtually no meaningful character progression, no real crafting, no real social component. It's a pseudo MMO for the Call of Duty dolts. I was bored after an hour.

    I gave it a 3 because the guns are kind of fun and the shooting mechanics are solid. But really, it's not an MMO.    … Expand
  30. AidanM
    Jun 12, 2013
    6
    Let me just say this: its fun. The competitive and Co-op mix of Multiplayer is very welcome to me. While many MMOs have fairly fun PvP, the PvP in this game is actually fun stand alone, kind of like the kind you would get in some kind of high-quality deathmatch. Otherwise, it has a good weapons system, some (though not enough) fun bosses and a solid and entertaining Co-op. However, its 60Let me just say this: its fun. The competitive and Co-op mix of Multiplayer is very welcome to me. While many MMOs have fairly fun PvP, the PvP in this game is actually fun stand alone, kind of like the kind you would get in some kind of high-quality deathmatch. Otherwise, it has a good weapons system, some (though not enough) fun bosses and a solid and entertaining Co-op. However, its 60 dollars. That's a pretty big deal breaker because the game doesn't have the story or production value to be a Bioshock Infinite or any spectacular game that really blows your mind. That being said, I do just keep coming back, as much as i tell myself the game is ripping me off.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

38
#38 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
91
#91 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 40 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 40
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 40
  3. Negative: 2 out of 40
  1. Level7.nu
    Sep 10, 2013
    50
    Defiance may be an ambitious project. Linking an online action game with a TV-series is a smart idea but one that here mostly comes of as a mere gimmick. The story is unengaging and the action mediocre and monotonous. Not to say anything about the myriad of bugs that utterly destroys the experience.
    Read full review
  2. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 5, 2013
    89
    It’s an addictive game that seems to become even better as you play. If it keeps getting the right support and if the tie-in with the TV series proves successful, we might have a game that will keep us occupied for a lengthy amount of time. [May 2013]
  3. PC PowerPlay
    Jun 4, 2013
    60
    If Trion can introduce better quest design, this will be a winner. [June 2013, p.88]
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