I think that sums it up nicely. It's fun, but man, the lack of MMO polish is getting to me. So you are kinda forced to judge this game as a single player game with coop features. All the MMO elements are there, but it's just implemented very poorly and clearly as an afterthought. I believe the multiplatform thing, launching an MMO on both PC and Consoles has lead to compromises both on console and pc , and now we get a totally mediocre offering . If it was designed as a 3rd person shooter, we probably would have gotten mass effect like features like cover system/sticking to walls. If it was designed as a more pure MMO we would have gotten a functional chat/trade/economy/grouping system. So instead we get something of both, but without any of the parts that makes either of those great.
If Defiance was designed for the PC from the start, it could have been so much better, i mean these devs created Rift, they got the 3rd person shooting thing right in Defiance (a rare thing in MMOs) and then dropped the ball on everything that worked in Rift. All because it need to be on console /sigh.
At least it doesn't have a sub and the cash shop is primarily cosmetics, so the purchase is similar to buying GuildWars 2. Can play it whenever i want. I feel i got my money's worth though, i've finished $60 games much faster with less satisfaction than Defiance.
Either way, i still enjoy the game, so it's not a bad game, it's just not one i feel will be lasting a very long time , unless they make some serious changes to the MMO part of the game. These changes can luckily happen, unlike a single player game, but whether Trion will have the $$$ and time for this, remains to be seen.
It definitely helps that i also get to watch the tv series which slots in nicely with the game.