Defiance: Is it great or a pile of shtako?

     Defiance is a third person shooter MMO developed by Trion Worlds Inc. The story of Defiance takes place on Earth (the San Francisco Bay Area) after years of war and destruction between humans and aliens. The planet is basically now in shambles. The humans have aligned with the alien race known as the Votans. You can choose to play as a male or female human or Votan. There are various other alien races in the world that you will encounter throughout missions as you work to protect your fellow allies. A big draw with the story is that the SyFy television show interacts with the game. You'll meet characters from the show, work on missions with them, and events from both the game and show will interact with one another. The story of Defiance is somewhat overdone, but it works well enough to keep you entertained.

     If you've never played a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game before, it works just as the name states. You are constantly connected to an online server and playing with many other people online. This doesn't mean you have to play with anyone. You can complete the side and main missions all by yourself. The real appeal and fun of a MMO is to play with other people. You can group up with random individuals, or form a clan and group up with people you know. The game does a pretty good job distinguishing who is who on your radar. Random people online show up as purple dots, people in your group are green, and clan members show up as blue dots. The controls for the game are extremely smooth and work well for the PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers.

     The missions themselves are done pretty well for the most part. The main missions are focused on the story and are broken into five acts. Each act contains multiple missions, cutscenes, and is basically the game's campaign. Then there are a lot of side missions that open up while you complete main missions. While the main missions are good and have you involved with the main characters, the side missions can become very repetitive and end up a rinse and repeat affair. You'll end up collecting so many of this item, clear out this area of enemies, deliver this item to another area, etc. These kind of missions are MMO standards, but it doesn't make them get any less boring. There are also challenges and contracts to complete to increase your reputation with certain factions and earn different items.

     To help break up the repetitiveness of the side missions you can team up with people and complete co-op missions or competitive matches in what is known as shadow wars. The co-op missions act as what other MMO games call dungeons or instances. You can team up in a small group and work through a map that contains an objective and usually a boss at the end. These can be repeated as much as you like too. The shadow wars are the competitive or pvp (player versus player) side of Defiance. These end up being basic deathmatch and large capture point events. Then there are ark fall events. These are random, community involved battles. These can be chaotic and fun as tons of people migrate to these battles to take down a big enemy. The co-op missions, shadow war battles, and ark falls all work well.

     Now what would an MMO be without loot and leveling your character? Defiance has you covered in both areas. By completing missions, ark falls, and defeating enemies you will pick up random weapons and gear. The weapons range from different rifles, pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, and some alien inspired weapons. You will also be able to get different shields, hand grenades, and vehicles. Just like in other MMO games the color of the weapon or gear reflects its rarity. This ranges from white, green, blue, purple, and orange. You can also purchase different items and outfits from stores with either in game money (script) or pay real money for certain items. 

     Leveling up your character comes in the form of EGO. Even though your character's EGO rating can be in the thousands, it really doesn't seem to matter. This is both good and bad. It's good because players with completely different EGO ratings can still group up and complete missions and other things together. This gets rid of the feeling that you have to constantly be leveling up your character or you'll get left behind. It's also bad because you never really get the feeling that your character is all that more powerful. You'll also have different perks and abilities to upgrade too. The four abilities to choose from are overcharged (damage boost), cloak, blur (speed boost), and decoy. Surrounding these abilities are many different perks that you can unlock and. as your EGO rating increases you can equip multiple perks.

     Graphically the game isn't something you're going to be amazed at. The environment is somewhat varied in different areas but you'll end up getting the feeling that you've seen the same thing before. At times the textures look a little grainy and low res. The character models themselves look okay at times, and then bland at others. There are also moments of pop up and the occasional lag. There have been several patches released to help fix these issues and more. For the most part the patches have helped with the issues.  The interface takes some time to get use to but once you figure it out it's not too bad. I should also add that there is no auction house or crafting system in the game other than adding attachments to your weapons.

     Defiance is another achievement in itself because it's a large scaled MMO that is both on the PC and consoles. The main story missions are good, but the side missions become very repetitive and you end up loosing interest in them. The co-op missions, ark falls, and shadow wars all work well and help spice things up, but it's hard to tell how long the online community will last. There are still some technical hiccups, but nothing that has made the game unplayable as far as I've encountered. I do love the fact that you feel like you're playing a third person shooter game. In the end the word that keeps coming to my mind when I think of Defiance is decent. It's not terrible, but it's not great. Everything about the game is decent. If you're really wanting to try a new MMO (especially on the console) you should give it a try.

Final Verdict: 7/10

Written by: Alter Ego 83