Fun, addictive, fast-paced and sometimes a bit repetitive, but fantastic!
*** Important: This is not a Play2Win game as other MMOs are that tell they are not !!!*** more on the buttom of the review.
Defiance, one of those games where you look at the graphics which are probably about 5 years outdated and then neglect to play it. Wrong choice my friends.
Defiance has a lot to explore. It is totally unique in its kind and offers some serious PVE and PVP fun at this early stage. Already! Imagine how it will become in the near future.
You are faced with a somewhat very short story-line mission (that supposedly continues "a la The Secret World style", very lenghty main missions and tons, tons of side quests (which are sometimes very repetitive, but not identifal). So although repetitive missions, the objectives are different and the rewards. PVE is fun, you are fighting cybors, monsters, mutants and suddenly ark debries crash nearby, you abandon your mission quickly and join together with dozens of other players, yes, dozens, destroying the hell bugs in order to get ark keycodes. You are free to choose whatever you want in that game!
The good:
PVE
- there is simply tons of it. I can't explain it, but it is fun. The main mission cut-scenes are amazing and very well made. Great storyline and you start to love, admire and hate characters, A+. Simply amazing.
PVP -
Co-Op. Is AWESOME. Not many maps out yet but team work is required but it is fun stuff ! The objectives are clear, the final bosses maybe not too hard (so die hard boss fighters might get a bit disappointed) but the mission for co-op are well designed and there is even some buggy fun, a driver, a passenger and a gunner. Direct copy from HALO, but a well made copy because driving that buggy feels the same ! The good thing is if flips way less.
Multi-player in general: Not that many maps but it is the typical team work deathmatch. You really need to spot enemies before they have a health bar above, so it is not like in other games where you see the enemy way ahead with a shiny red tag above, here, you need to really see your enemy first, before you see his tag, this means, snipers will love it because if nobody sees you, you can farm ahead.
Weapons and going Stealth or Rambo or borth-
It is somewhat Gears of War style. Third person, then when firing the camera angle zooms up over your right shoulder. Surely not as great of a feel as Gears of War, but if GOW would be a 10 in that aspect, this game would get it up to an 8 in terms of the feeling. However, some great adrenaline pump up music will show up, making it a lot of fun! That music however I think is bugged because it just keeps going even after you achieved your objective, and in order for the music to revert to normal, you got to accept a new mission.
Storyline -
Good stuff, that is all I can say here. The characters are well made, you will hate some people and love others. If a game or movie can make you feel that way, than the storyline is good, you guys know that.
Music -
The sound matches the situations, congrats on their sound team !
Customer Service -
Fast response. They made a mistake with me on an issue I had and immediately offered a very large compensation and apologized and asked me in case I disagreed with that compensation that I can contact them directly and they do all to solve your issue. I think Blizzard could learn a lot from these guys.
The bad -
Graphics-
The graphics, let's be honest, could be nicer. A light bulb should be round and kind of like a hexagon or whatever. But then again, the wheels of cars are nice and round, so the buttocks of female characters ;) The graphic is outdate, that is fact. However, that is in a way good because that means you don't need a hardcore rig to play the game and the graphic is not that bad either, but from todays perspective, a 6.5/10 but that does not bother me. I rather sacrifce a bit of graphics to have smooth game play.
Character creation -
You are not able to create your character. One is pretty much handed to you and you can make some alterations. They are also repetitive, so I don't know how many same ones are out there but I have seen several already, but it is not that bad either. Just keep making new characters until you agree somewhat how it looks. Once you chose your character you can make some simple alterations, but forget choosing hair colors and such. Unless I missed out on that and did not see how.
NPCs -
They are really dumb initially but seem to get better as things get harder. I am still new into the game so I might be wrong but initially, when you start the game, they are horrible, as you go down, they become harsher. But I still list it as a bad for now but it is nearing the neutral zone. I expect the NPCs to get even harder, the more you go up in level. (spot you faster, dodge you, charge you, use more cover, etc, all of which they appear to be doing later on but they do none of that in the beginning of the game, where they just stand to become farmed).
Overall:
I like this game a lot. It gives you kind of a repetitive feeling sometimes initially, but as you go deeper into the game that fades right away. The beginning missions are very simple, I think even a Turtle could do it, but as you go on, fighting along side NPC Mercenaries and real players and cover them to plant explosives or defuse them. Rescue missions, and so much more, it is a lot of fun and not repetitive at all, so don't let the beginning feeling of the game fool you. It is a superb game. I recommend it.
*** This is NOT a Pay 2 Win game !!!!!*****
If you pay, you get 10% bonuses (not like 50% as in PS2) and other games. You can get slightly faster vehicles, and you can unlock higher tier weapons faster, you can easily get the required keycodes by recovering ark pieces, so trust me on this, it is not a hour after hour after hour grind. As you do ark recoveries, the NPCs drop some serious good loot sometimes, even the standard loot that drops will do the job just fine !!! And even then, there is some better tier loot that drops ! So no need to purchase anything, the keycodes are easily achieved through some missions, side quests and especially, ark recoveries. So no need at all to purchase anything. As for cosmetics, I plaid for several days now and already got half a dozen really cool outfits to choose from, as well as headgear and vehicles, so you don't need spending RL money for good looks !!!!
Enjoy and sorry for the long review.