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Defiance
PC (Steam)
Just Go Shoot Some Things
3.5/5 stars
Defiance takes an interesting concept - having a television series and MMO work together in harmony - and while I think that concept is sound, the two never really work together as well as it should. Instead of a an interesting, seamless interaction between the two we get an above-average sci-fi show with some interesting characters and morality issues and a sub-standard third-person shooter with a lackluster story and occasionally characters that cross over with the TV show. Granted, probably wouldn't have got one without the other, so maybe things balance out, but, as it stands, Defiance the game is a pretty generic experience.
Presentation: The game is completely average in the graphics department. Both characters and background are good but nothing special. The game takes place in and around San Francisco (as opposed to the TV show, which takes place in St. Louis) and certain aspects stand out - but nothing memorable enough to make me take notice. The characters based on the show can look good but at other times fall flat - it's a half-hearted effort all around.
The music is dull, the voice acting adequate but unremarkable (also, changing voice actors between seasons messed with my head) and sound effects decent. This is a game that is certainly fun to play but not all that interesting to experience.
Story: The TV show goes into a lot of detail about how the world has become a near wasteland with various alien races now living alongside the remnants of humanity - the game, not so much. Instead you are paired with a weaselly arms dealer (and coward) and are forced to go on a series of missions first, to locate the guy, and then to track down some technology. It's all fairly standard and linear and not at all that involving. Even the missions based on the TV show seem to lack any sort of polish. There are tons of side missions and jobs to take on - but once again, these feel like all filler no depth. You get a few memorable characters and that's all - even your main character is essentially a voice-less grunt. If you want a deep story, look elseware.
Gameplay: The saving grace of Defiance is the gameplay. You have a staggering amount of weapons to choose from, vehicles to drive and skills to play with. Armed with an EGO unit (that talks to you, ala Cortana and such) you unlock various powers (from speeding up movement, to turning invisible to pumping up your damage and throwing out a decoy) and, out of the four main skills, a lot of secondary skills (some obviously more useful than others). The game has attempted to thrown i more variety with the DLC as well as special holiday-themed weapons and such. I only have the base game and can't comment on the DLC, but the holiday weapons are pretty keen.
The game has a scaled difficulty based on the level of people involved. Low-level first-timers must watch out, if a high-level characters joins it, it throws things out of whack and can easily wipe you out. Sure, the boost is nice, but isn't always enough. In huge events, you can have hundreds of people at the same time - meaning the difficulty spikes to insane levels. But, should you survive, the rewards are very nice. Still, the game has been trying to tweak this aspect since its release, and it can't quite nail this down.
You can do missions to unlock rep points with the various factions - this helps you buy things from the mundane (outfits, vehicles and titles) to some nifty weapons and such. Almost everything you do - firing different weapons, killing different enemies, using skills, completing missions, driving certain vehicles, discovering locations and on and on - will earn you points towards not only boosting your EGO but unlocking some nifty outfits. Granted, getting to the highest level requires some insane allotment of time but if you're into this kind of thing, have at it.
The game has thrown in rigs (to give you slight boost to various power) and Expeditions (think increasingly difficult time-consuming dungeon runs) to the mix recently but I really think the reason to play is in the core gameplay. Sure, it's mainly just running around and shooting things - but the variety of weapons and enemies keeps you on your toes and provides for a lot of customization between guns and skills. Weapons can be modified and upgraded (though this does cost precious in-game currency) and finding top-tier gear can be a crapshoot (unless you want to spend "real" money), but even so, I have always had (mostly) fun just wandering around - alone or with the group - rather than focusing on the lackluster story.
Replayability: Other than looking different and choosing different styes of gameplay, I don't believe there is a significant difference in the races to warrant starting over. Unless you really like having multiple characters, I doubt this would ever be a game I would rush back to.
Overall: Defiance is a fun game to play - especially with some friends - but it's not going to win any awards for being pretty or having a deep story. Enjoy this for what it is, nothing more.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Replayability: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
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