The game took a very long time to download - almost 30 minutes and was later plagued by a number of connection issues. While such issues are not new in online game launches, most end up stable enough by the first weekend. This was certainly not so and the most play i've gotten in the weekend was just past the first major story mission; maybe 1-2 hours in.
Over the past week though, I was able to get a few hours of gaming in and I am happy to say that it is a fun game. Not a great game by any stretch, but fun nonetheless. Still not enough to really give a full review, but it's impressions give me enough to talk about.
One thing to note first though, is that Defiance is not a redefinition of an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), though it certainly fits the MMO category quite well. It is basically a third person shooter with a Massive Multiplayer map (seewutIdidthur?). It definitely does not fit well as an RPG. Other than a decent character creation screen, there are hardly any roleplaying aspects in the game. You play as a silent character that really just tags along with whatever the main characters are doing. So yeah, it's a typical shooter.
Speaking of the story, it is pretty lackluster. Considering that this game has a tie-in with an upcoming TV show with the same name, one would think that they will want to get people hyped up about the show through the game. I've seen the trailers for the show, and it came off as pretty bland, but I still definitely check it out. The game itself does not add anything to build anticipation nor does it even provide any good backstory for the world.
All I can gather is that aliens immigrated to earth which ended up devastated by....something. Mutants (mutated by what, I have no clue) and raiders (various factions, but all the same), form the token organized group of antagonists in addition to "hellbugs", insect-like aliens that are really rather generic non-human enemies. Some even remind me of Half-Life headcrabs.
Enemy AI is ... well, decent I suppose. There are some that dodge out of the way during combat, but I can't really tell if they dodge in response to an attack or just to move into position. There is also little variety with the AI among same types to the point that they become incredibly predictable. Much of the challenge in the game is really due to suddenly becoming overwhelmed by enemies. Many, many times, I carefully snipe 5 raiders and then find 6 others spawned right next to me.
But questions like, who these aliens are, where did they come from, what the hell happened to devastate the earth? Those things are just plan lacking in the game. Considering that it is an absolutely new franchise, backstory does allow more immersion in the world and would make us care about the TV show. Rift was a new franchise that did well to establish the world to it's players. Yes, it was rather simplistic, but it was enough to at least know what was going on and who we are fighting and why. In Defiance, we are just living to get by, with no real way to relate to it's world other than it's yet another post-apocalyptic Earth.
As for gameplay, it is a shooter. I am not exactly the best person to say whether it is a good or bad shooter, but it works out nicely. Coming from playing MMORPGs for years though, the controls were a bit odd. Not being able to mouse-move threw me for a loop at the start, but thats just me not being a shooter person to begin with.
Other shooter type gameplay elements include different weapon loadouts (although only 2 weapons per loadout can be equiped), regenerating health/shields (although healing weapons are available later in the game), and headshots...oh I love headshots. Controls are minimal compared to an RPG and really works better with a console gamepad. Still, the PC setup allows me to make some nice headshots. Did I mention that I like headshots?
The options interface was definitely harder to get used to and shows evidence that the game is a console port. It took me quite a while to figure out how to even exit from the game. Normally, the ESC button brings up the main menu, but this time it only shows the loadout screen. Hitting the spacebar for a radial menu is really not intuitive.
All in all, Defiance is a pretty decent game and, despite several gripes, is genuinely fun. Hopefully the story picks up later on and I actually do want to see the TV show become popular so we get to see how the tie-in works.
Highlights
- Have I mentioned Defiance is free to play? Well sorta. Updates are paid for, but the cost is still unknown. Season pass for all updates in the year is $39.95 but how many updates we will see is also unknown.
- Headshots! Most human enemies die with one well placed shot. Although I would have liked to see effects on different parts - like disarming armshots or slowing legshots.
- The EGO system is Defiance's talent system. Interesting but rather complex so I don't have much of an opinion if it yet. All I know is that I am probably doing something wrong.
- Vehicle driving is fun and has a bit of a learning curve. Being able to run over bugs was a pleasant surprise.
- I like that different weapons have different feel to them. A machine gun fire feels more weighty than a sub-machine gun. Goes the same with different weapons of the same class (i.e. different types of shotguns)
No comments:
Post a Comment