As an MMOFPS its a fun and ground breaking game. As an FPS or MMORPG it feels under cooked. How you view the game is key
How much or how little you enjoy Defiance will likely come from how you view the game. Two major communities are represented in Defiance, the MMORPG gamers, and the FPS gamers. As an MMORPG Defiance is a bit under cooked and as a FPS the game can feel a bit clunky at times. So lets break it down.
MMORPG:
As an MMORPG the game lacks real features. There is no auction house (as of writing this review) and the chat system on the PS3 is nonexistent. In most cases the community dosn't even really talk. Lastly there aren't any real hubs like cities and such. Rather there are vendors that sell stuff that are more a-kin to vending machines.
FPS:
As an FPS the game is good and well rounded. The diversity of wepons can be lacking and getting the type of wepon you want to use can be a chore at in the early hours of the game. Running and gunning can feel very satisfying but sniping enemies is almost a waste of time. Often enemies take so many shots that by the time you drop one with a sniper rifle the rest are on you which forces you to resort to different weapons like rifles and pistols.
So what does Defiance do right? Defiance is ground breaking in the sense that it is probably the first true co-op MMOFPS to date. I personally tried to get into massive MMOFPSs a while back with Planetside, MAG, and then later Planetside 2. In all of those competative games I never found my place and always felt like the cannon fodder the "real" gamers got to shoot down (I know how NPCs feel in Call of Duty).
The best way to view Defiance is a mixture of game styles. It's similar to this:
Rift + Borderlands + Diablo = Defiance
If that gaming equation sounds good to you then you'll enjoy Defiance. I will say that the game shine the most during major Archfalls. These are events where it takes 20-100 people to take down massive challenges. The pure chaos and excitement during an Archfall with lots of other players is where Defiance truely shines.
Defiance has a good story and if your even slightly interested in the TV show I would recomend getting the game and playing along side it. Its a fun proposition to play alongside the main characters while the TV show is airing and the story thus far is rather good.
Overall Defiance is a good game that dosn't reinvent the wheel but then again it never set out to do so. You can't go wrong with the price as MMO gaming goes. You buy the box and that's it, the game is yours no subcription necessary. What makes Defiance groundbreaking is that it may very well inspire a whole new type of game. The co-op MMOFPS genre could very well have been started by Defiance.