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Has anybody looked at Firefall or planning to play it when it drops on 7/29? Sci-Fi Online shooter made some ex-Blizzard folks. Graphics are a bit cartoony (like WoW but maybe a bit better) and it has class based roles. F2P. Never heard of it before today but it looks interesting...maybe. If anyone has some knowledge of it, I'd be interested in hearing what folks think .
Check post #31 for some info:
http://forums.defiance.com/showthrea...-is-Live/page4
I'm on PS3 so that's all I got for you. Firefall does sound good tho.
I have played it some over the last weak. My thoughts, compared to Defiance:
Content: Firefall has more. Lots more. You could pretty much drop Defiance in a fraction of the real estate Firefall has. They also have a lot more quests, item crafting, etc. Then there are the 16-18 odd battle frames you can level up to level 40, independently of each other, so there is definitely a lot of stuff to do. It adds replay value, which Defiance sorely lacks (you can repeat the game, but there is no benefit, whereas in Firefall you have to go back through the various areas to level up each of the frames).
Guns: Defiance wins here, if only because you do not have to equip (and level up) a battle frame to use a specific type of gun. In total, Firefall has more guns, and a better selection of guns, but Defiance gives you instant access to all of them, which makes the game more fun, IMO.
Gameplay: Defiance gets the nod here as well, due to whole borderlands-esque critical hit system. In Firefall you simply shoot the enemy, and short of the recon none of the players do critical damage. I did not see any enemies with a weak point, so it dumbs down the shooting aspect of the game. On the other hand, the enemies move a lot, surviving is harder, and you have jet packs, so Firefall isn't too far behind. Just wish there was a little more skill required for the shooting.
Graphics: Firefall can draw stuff out really far, and it is gorgeous. Downside? Characters have these little bobble heads. It's a little freaky. I kind of prefer the Defiance art style, even if it is limited by consoles.
Sound: I rarely ever turn my speakers up, so I can't comment on that very much.
Bugs: No real game-breaking bugs that I saw in Firefall. If you get disconnected and log back in, you just appear wherever you got disconnected from, or somewhere nearby, on the same shard, and you can just glide back. No weird teleporting or invisible enemies. No vehicles spawning out from under you. It is surprisingly well polished.
UI: Defiance is an obvious console port, that doesn't work very well as a PC-based MMO. Firefall was designed strictly for the PC, and you can customize the crap out of the UI, and even mod it. There is no comparison here. Firefall curb stomps Defiance in this category.
Vehicles: Vehicles move faster and drift better in Defiance, but they traverse over rough terrain and you have motorcycles in Firefall. Pick your poison.
Character Customization: Defiance gets the big nod here. The ego grid allows you to define the character however you wish. Appearance wise, you can chose how your clothing looks, whereas in Firefall each battleframe has a set style. HOWEVER, you can change your appearance FOR FREE in the game at any time in Firefall. This is something all MMOs should allow. Why a company charges $$$ for it is beyond me.
PVP: Didn't try it. If I want to go PVP I generally prefer games that are specifically designed for it. (Hawken is pretty fun and free if you like shooters.)
Misc: You can fast travel in Defiance a lot easier than Firefall. Given the size of Firefall, that is a annoying.
F2P: Firefall has that time gating thing where you can spend real money to speed things up while crafting. It did not bother me personally. I just did quests or thumped for ore or did something in RL while some of my crafting was going on. None of it impeded my ability to play the game. The items in the store are cosmetic only. You can unlock battle frames early, but you cannot buy any weapons or anything. So it feels like a true F2P game. Defiance, on the other hand, feels a bit like a money grab, with the ability to buy lock boxes, ark forge, etc.
Overall: Firefall is a polished game. It is fun to play. I wish it was a little more like Borderlands, where enemies have weak points, and that you could switch out battle frames on the fly, but those are my only two quips about it. Defiance on the other hand has awesome gameplay, but a lot of bugs, and far less content. Both are worth playing.
Many thanks Zhedda, that was exactly what I was looking for. One question though, how are the chat and social features? If I have one beef with Defiance it's the awful chat window, etc
To be honest, I was too busy playing to chat. Firefall has the best user interface I have ever seen in a PC game to date. You can easily move and resize windows. You can turn various options on and off that most companies would probably not even consider important, but as a player I appreciate being able to do. I imagine the chat features are pretty robust. It feels like they went out of the way to give it all the MMO bells, whistles, and stripper poles. I may not agree with some of the gameplay decisions, but I respect the amount of polish they put into the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razoreddie
Just a heads up, Firefall is now live and F2P. I didn't get much time to play , the graphics are a bit cartoony, but I liked cinematics and the voice over work. Got a chance to use a glider, which I stink at but was fun. Has a nice UI that can be customized, community seems pretty nice and helpful. Jump Jets are kinda sweet. That said, they had a quirky glitch that kept you in a loop back to the opening sequence that was super annoying but they have that fixed I believe ( I got past it). It takes some getting used to after playing Defiance for a bit. Maybe a little confusing since there seems to be a lot of stuff to figure out for new folks though there are pretty good guides on the forums. I'll get a better chance to have a good look over the next couple of days and have a better review of what I think. For now it looks fun and has potential it seems.
I played Firefall in Early Acess. To say my view on this game, i would say that at present, I have as much fun playing Firefall as Defiance, while Defiance is 2.106 (at time of writing), and Firefall just started. As I am still discovering Firefall, I think the discovery of the game made me play. In addition, in Defiance, it's been a long time since i have all in game (EGO, legendary weapons, etc.). Play another game is good.
In fact, i find myself play Firefall, while remaining on the forum of Defiance.
I think i'll play Defiance until the end of season 2, and then depending on what happens (knowing that i'm pessimistic), i definitely would stay on Firefall, which is a very nice game. In addition, it is free, then you can test without necessarily give up Defiance.
Tested Firefall over the last two days.
It is a pretty neat game. Nice graphics and I definitely love the UI.
Chat is good too, just doesn't work from time to time. Just now, I had a bug that I everything I wrote just wasn't sent.
Changing channels (from group to clan or sth) only works with chat commands which took me some getting used to in the beginning.
The world is huge of Firefall. There is a lot to discover. However, you do not get a vehicle (until around lvl 24). That said, it is tedious to do any mission or move aroud. There are no fast travel points (at least not for free and not as they are in Defiance) and some side missions send you from point A to point B which is 600 meters away and then in the other direction again for 800 meters. It is really tedious and I spent more time running around than actually shooting stuff.
Firefall is more MMO-ish than a shooter, IMO.
What I miss is huge open world events with lot of other players. A friend told me that there will be large open world events in other zones (so not in the starter zone) but it takes some time to get to another zone.
I always liked the social aspect of Defiance where everyone can come to an Arkfall and it's just a huge event with a lot of players which takes some time to complete.
Firefall has some small emergencies which I mostly did alone and sometimes you have to defend a watch tower against "the Chosen" (the big bad enemies in Firefall). I did that two times. One time with a friend of mine and one time with a friend of mine and two other persons.
The difficulty in Firefall overall is harder IMO than in Defiance though. Enemies hit a lot harder, sometimes there just spawn 10 enemies on you all of a sudden.
What I also dislike about Firefall is that there is no instanced loot. Everyone sees the same loot, so if one person picks it up before you, you don't get any.
I like this in Defiance way better. In Firefall, it could lead to arguments in groups about who gets which item, sometimes people pick up ammo/health up off the ground right in front of you and you don't get any.
Overall, Firefall is a fun game for me. It has its perks but there are some things which Defiance did way better IMO.
As it is now, I like Defiance better even though there is less stuff to do.
There are aspects about Defiance I just like better but everyone has to decide for themselves :)
Ok, got some actual time to play this on Saturday for a couple of hours and here's some early observations.
Things I like:
- Jump jets. Pretty fun and starting to get the hang of using them during combat.
- 1 character, all battle frames available to play. I started off using the Engineer frame (support type) and enjoyed it leveled up to 7, and Dreadnaught (Tank type frame) to 5. Enjoyed them both. You have to level up to get the "advanced frames" but you can just customize the stock frames all the way up.
- Combat. It's challenging and you can die if you take on too much. It's a bit of a shooter in that you have to put your targeting right on the target, no sticky targets or auto targeting. It takes some skill. Using the jump jets during the combat adds to it.
- Gliders. I like flying with the Gliders once I got the hang of it.
- The look of the world is nice, not the greatest graphics but nice.
- Very little, little lag only experienced once for like a minute. No DCs!!
Things that I'm not sure about:
- Crafting. I like that it's here but it's kinda confusing and it takes awhile for things to get done, although you can wander off and do other things while it does whatever.
- The Questing. The job board is ok but the quests are repetitive and not imaginative. There's a real lack of quests other than the job board. You have to make your fun at times if you don't feel like running back to the board. Has a little of that "Now what do I do?" .
Things that don't impress me:
- Getting around. You have the Gliders, which are fun, but the quests make you run around a lot and getting a vehicle to do that in takes a long time of play. If you like running distance, you'll love this. Me...not so much.
- Tutorial, etc. You don't learn much here. If you hadn't played an MMO or shooter before you would likely be lost. The community and forums boards are VERY helpful, but without that, good luck figuring stuff out.
- The UI. On the plus side, you can customize it! Yay! On the other hand you can't point and click on the inventory etc. You need to use the keyboard for that, except when you go to the Garage (like a vendor and repair station for your Frame). The icons are there you just can't use em. That might not bother anyone else but it does me. Otherwise the UI is decently laid out and is ok.
Overall:
I had fun with it. It was challenging, I had to work at it to level up, there was no real lag and NO DCs! You can help other folks out at certain sites (Thumper collections, etc). The Battleframes had something for everyone, and the game world looked nice. Combat was pretty fun for me and I enjoyed it. It's F2P so nothing lost in trying it out. It's a nice change of pace from Defiance. It doesn't have the plethora of guns that defiance has but it has more variety and the world is bigger. I'll still play Defiance ( Which I did on Sunday and got DC'd several times..ouch!), but this has some entertainment value.
I watched a trailer for it and saw the words "Open World PvP" and knew it wasn't for me at all.