Defiance : The Game and The TV Series

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diabolus

New member
Just to have a proper thread for this, extended from this thread:
http://mygaming.co.za/forum/showthread.php/30066-Defiance-beta-keys-(MMORPG-com)

Anyway, just a quick background. It's a Scifi TV Series starting 15 April and also a 3rd person shooter MMO type of game (think Borderlands MMO) that is launching 2 April .

There's is a bit of a gamble going on with this type of TV + Game release, which is definitely quite intriguing. The fact that the game is not considered a "remake" or "cash in" for the TV Series, but rather a integral part of the series. Apparently they intend to have things happen in the game as it relates to the series and vice versa.

I certainly hope the Game and/or the TV Series get somewhere.

So who's getting the game? It's releasing on all the console + PC platforms. I had my initial doubts while in the beta, but i found the game plenty of fun. It will however cost you $60 . I felt there's enough content to get more than my money's worth. I bought the pre-order on Steam (you get some extra rewards on steam : http://store.steampowered.com/app/224600/ ).



So here's the game trailer:

 
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And the TV Series Trailer:



The first 15 minutes of the first episode is on the SyFy website, and on youtube (if it's not taken down yet).
 
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I am shocked there isn't more on this on here....

My Ultimate Edition got delayed by Amazon until the 12th so a bit miffed at that. But I am hoping the delay means all the issues will be resolved before I jump in.
 
OmegaFenix said:
I am shocked there isn't more on this on here....

My Ultimate Edition got delayed by Amazon until the 12th so a bit miffed at that. But I am hoping the delay means all the issues will be resolved before I jump in.
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So the whole game is delayed to the 12th or just your order?
 
Yea, only physical copies are delayed. The game did launch, will check it out tonight. However sadly, it does look like a typical MMO launch with a ton of issues, judging from the forums. It also seems like they launched with the Beta 3 client, as everyone is asking what exactly changed between beta and live.

So alot of players are upset about issues that were obvious bugs in Beta 3 that didn't get fixed. Some are speculating Trion simply did not manage to make all the fixes in time and we'll get hit with the "real" update taking the client to live later on. I hope so, since i'm sure Trion did not sit on their hands for 2 weeks.

Many patching and client installation issues.

Plenty complaints about the chat/UI interface. I saw this coming though, it's identical to DCUOs launch. The chat screen is basically not usable, so there's not the typical chatter on the chat channels and such. I hope they get a grip on this quickly, as this can easily crush a game like this. There's also issues with the Voice chat, so it's a double whammy here when it comes to group/social interaction.

Also players complaining about the price changes in the cash store, apparently prices was increased by alot. The cash store only consists of boosts and cosmetics though, but this didnt' stop players from throwing their toys about the cost of these items. Looks like it can easily cost $10 for an outfit (full set of clothes) and so on. I don't remember how much it cost before, but cosmetic items are not a big concern for me personally, but it does paint a sad picture if players are believing Trion is gouging them.

Trion is also extremely quiet in all this. I've not seen one single post from them on the official forums , answering a few things. Although admittedly, they did launch at very strange hours. I think it was a midnight launch in USA and 8am launch in Europe.

Either way, i think it's not a bad idea having to wait a week or two on this, unless you already paid and got the game like me :). I got the Steam pre-order and it did manage to unlock -all- the rewards , so i have a ton of virtual goodies to claim , hence i'm not as concerned about the cash shop at this stage.
 
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OmegaFenix said:
I am shocked there isn't more on this on here....
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Indeed, i'm also surprised at the lack of interest. The game did actually hit top sellers on Steam over the weekend, still probably top seller behind Bioshock on there now. So it's on a few people's radars, just not here ;) . Even the Season Pass got to top seller list on there.

So launch issues aside, it should still be an entertaining game, or rather the same experience i had in Beta 3 at least.
 
Tbh I found the game like many others to be lacking. Way too generic... Felt like bf3 done with less effort. After this I actually want to see how planetside2 compares. Sigh, no tabula rasa anymore :(

Rift in comparison and guild wars 2 outshines defiance easily. I'm actually waiting on darkfall uw to see I'd it's any good.

Cleary I didn't like defiance and beta3 left me rather unimpressed.
 
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Blind Faith said:
Tbh I found the game like many others to be lacking. Way too generic... Felt like bf3 done with less effort. After this I actually want to see how planetside2 compares. Sigh, no tabula rasa anymore :(

Rift in comparison and guild wars 2 outshines defiance easily. I'm actually waiting on darkfall uw to see I'd it's any good.

Cleary I didn't like defiance and beta3 left me rather unimpressed.
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Well yea, alot "meh" from alot of people i suppose. I must just add, you can't compare this with Battlefield or Planetside. This is actually more in line with something like Tabula Rasa. Defiance is definitely more a PvE game with a PvP type of instancing tacked on. Obviously i wouldn't say this is as good as TR , but if there's a game to compare with then it's TR. Definitely not PS2/BF .

Thing with Planetside 2 is, it's pure open world PvP, there's very little you can do on your own, you either jump into a battle and shoot other players or you don't play. Defiance i expect to have a more of a semi-solo/coop questing type of experience in an open world with a few dynamic events.
 
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diabolus said:
Well yea, alot "meh" from alot of people i suppose. I must just add, you can't compare this with Battlefield or Planetside. This is actually more in line with something like Tabula Rasa. Defiance is definitely more a PvE game with a PvP type of instancing tacked on. Obviously i wouldn't say this is as good as TR , but if there's a game to compare with then it's TR. Definitely not PS2/BF .

Thing with Planetside 2 is, it's pure open world PvP, there's very little you can do on your own, you either jump into a battle and shoot other players or you don't play. Defiance i expect to have a more of a semi-solo/coop questing type of experience in an open world with a few dynamic events.
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I'll meh it and compare it to what I want to :p

Not all is lost, but I'm not impressed for now. I'll give it another bash in a week or two.
 
Blind Faith said:
I'll meh it and compare it to what I want to :p

Not all is lost, but I'm not impressed for now. I'll give it another bash in a week or two.
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Heh, sure.

I've gotten in without too much issues, so far pretty much beta 3. Lots of players though. Something not right with the performance, my pc is struggling all of a sudden and i can't remember the motion blur being on in beta, so updating drivers and things and hope it gets better.

Either way, here's the final launch trailer:



And here's some of the first Launch Impressions coming in:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/602/feature/7276/Defiance-Launch-Day-Impressions.html

THE WORLD IS FILLED...Both with people and cars and ATVs. It’s like the apocalypse never happened there’s so much traffic. The screen below shows what your first screen past the tutorial will probably look like. When Trion ninja powered-on the servers in the NA regions last night, the locusts swarmed. There sure were lots of clones milling about, all wondering what to do next. This actually makes for an interesting first few moments in the game proper. You see, mobs in Defiance all scale based on how many people are around them. Suddenly the first mutants you’ll face will take dozens of shots to drop, which wouldn’t be so bad if people weren’t just standing around looking through their UI. Luckily, this is an issue that will resolve itself as people spread about. Just remember, don’t be that guy who stands there and makes mutants impervious monsters: freaking shoot something.
I’ve done the initial missions so many times now through the beta and alpha that I could not wait to get them finished. One thing I noticed this time however is that the final Voiceover and cinematics are far more polished and interesting than they were the last time I watched/listened to them weeks ago. This isn’t surprising as that sort of thing is usually topped off near launch. In fact, overall the visuals in Defiance seem to have all received a much needed layer of polish. The lighting, effects, motion-blur, textures... they all seem to be in a better place. Defiance still isn’t as pretty as say Planetside 2 or Dust, but it looks good on high settings.

.....[rest on site]
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And here's Massively's first impressions:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/02/alter-ego-a-defiance-launch-week-diary/
Anyhow, I've abandoned my usual tactic of doing a bunch of research prior to jumping into a new game. I don't know a damn thing about Defiance other than it's a sci-fi shooter, it's made by Trion, and it's the companion piece to a pretty slick-sounding new TV show.
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momonica said:
It looks really good. Especially gameplay. I think I'll buy it, after I'll read some reviews.
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Yea, i suggest waiting for some proper reviews.

So far my impressions are identical to my Beta experience. There's not anything extraordinary in the game, it's a nice blend of action and MMO, without too much of the classic MMO trappings. I think the catch is, everything in the game most MMO players have seen before, however not necessarily all in 1 specific game.

I will however say this, i think there is some concern over the longevity of the content. Clearly Trion is planning to release content in drips and drabs in the form of DLCs instead of allowing players to burn through everything in a few days. So in a way it's good, assuming their DLCs are in fact real content additions and not just items and cosmetics. It does seem alot of players have been burning through the quests at a furious rate and then asking "ok so is this it?" . However, this is nothing new in MMO-land, there's always people hitting the level cap within a day. Defiance doesn't have "levels" , if you played The Secret World, i'd say it works in the same way, just alot more simplified. You "level" your weapons, and you gain "ego points" which you upgrade passives with, but there's nothing clearly indicating whether you can or cannot kill something. I'm not sure if the content becomes a "gear check" or "skill check" later on, TSW while level-less still had skill requirements to go into new zones.

Alot of the repeatable content does seem to be more of a "beat your score" or "try and beat the other people's score" type of setup, which does make it more worthwhile to go back and repeating them (i.e. having to shoot as many zombies in a specific time as you can) .
 
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I don't understand the excitement for this game. It looks generic and uninspired in every way...
 
And here's Total Biscuit doing a first impressions video. Good way to get an objective view of this game.


I've put in a bunch of hours myself, i do think the game might be a little light on content as i'm burning through things pretty quickly, so they better bring on the DLCs.
 
Caved in , bought it, consoling myself that it is F2P after buying the game, like GW2 and like GW2 I can return any time and kill stuffs, easily.

Also, I think as time passes, the game will be fixed in many ways, Trion has always been good with fast community based interaction, will have to see.

Guess I am playing Neverwinter from the ground up, on the cheap, instead of having a fast mount or nice companion ;-P

Now for the VERY long download ;-P

Pretty miffed I didn't do it sooner, could have had some nice cosmetic goodies ;-)
 
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Shrike said:
Caved in , bought it, consoling myself that it is F2P after buying the game, like GW2 and like GW2 I can return any time and kill stuffs, easily.

Also, I think as time passes, the game will be fixed in many ways, Trion has always been good with fast community based interaction, will have to see.

Guess I am playing Neverwinter from the ground up, on the cheap, instead of having a fast mount or nice companion ;-P

Now for the VERY long download ;-P

Pretty miffed I didn't do it sooner, could have had some nice cosmetic goodies ;-)
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Hehe, welcome. Let me know when you're up and running, can do a few things together. I've completed the first "zone" in terms of content (i.e. gained all the achievements similar to GW2) and now somewhere early with the 2nd "zone" . I call them "zones" but it's more like a section on the bigger landmass, there isn't a clear split.

Simply going on the achievements, there is basically 5 "zones" which most likely each have about the same amount of content/time as the first one i just did. So at a leisurely pace, probably not something that will last you very long, i'd say it's similar to DCUOs content longevity when it launched. I assume the DLCs will primarily add more landmass to it expanding these zones.

For the most part, i'm enjoying learning the lore and the story (much more compelling than GW2's ), so i actually do go out and do all the side missions and all that. You can probably do the main story in a few days if you skip the content.

Unfortunately it does seem like when you're done with a zone, you're less likely to go back there. So the first zone is already much more empty compared to launch. Although the Arkfalls are still attracting everyone from across the map.

The map that TB showed there in his video, as far as i can tell, that is the "world" . It is pretty large, but you can cross it very quickly . I guess the DLCs will unlock the dark parts on that map further and further.

I've also done the first "dungeon" yesterday, was a relatively solid experience. You just open UI and join a queue and are thrown into the dungeon. Not a lot of communication between group members, as usual these days with MMOs. The experience is pretty similar to the "open world" where alot of the quests are coop anyway, although the dungeon obviously have a boss fight in there.

Still need to try some PvP/ Shadow Wars (the open world RvR type of pvp) .
 
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