The Truth Is...

I really enjoyed Defiance and got a number of my friends involved, we had a great time in game but then things started to die down at an alarming pace. These are things that need to be addressed if this game is ever going to survive. To the haters; there are some great things this game has going and only hope the devs put the puzzle together soon. To the fan boys; there are so many things driving people away from this game its time to accept and pressure the devs into expanding the game so that we all can get our moneys worth.

The Good:
The game mechanic is really good, shooting, moving, ADS etc. all feel refined enough that makes defiance a good shooter. Bar some mechanics like missing reflect sight, scopes feel a bit flat etc. I cannot argue that as a TPS Defiance gets a 7/10.

The Bad:
There is no progression; hold on before you all quote that this game is a "linear" shooter and designed around "skill". The problem is that there is no real benefit to leveling anything in this game and no real incentive. My argument is based around the fact that all content can be beaten with the starter weapons with no real effort. So only for the bragging rights and for the "pretty" factor is there reason to level ego, weapon xp etc. I do not want my character to get prettier and have new vehicle / ammo skins, I want my character to get better at what he does so that it enables me to do the more difficult content. This is the formula that drives most MMO games (Also please do not quote that this is NOT an MMO), If it really is not an MMO then it has serious competition in the shooter category as a single player game.

The Ugly:
- No communication as to the future plans for the game: If what we have seen, i.e. new pursuits at an adhoc basis that require you to collect data recorders (yawn), purchase only story updates, lighting lantern events etc. is what we can expect in the future then, bleh..
- No real clan support: Clans like to communicate easily, have a place to hang out and progress as a team into the "end game". Defiance has none of these well implemented, which is why you see clans dying all the time.
- No variation: most games that are in the MMO category with little variation and intense grind give you something really good for your efforts. In Defiance I am expected to grind for an orange weapon, to do what with exactly? My white assault rifle kills anything in this game via hip fire. So if you want me to grind 90k ark salvage to put a new attachment on my gun, that attachment better turn my gun into a nuke because the content around the corner that has bullet soak of 3 nukes requires it, if not there is no point in grinding for the orange weapon besides bragging rights.

The excluded:
You will notice I did not mention the bugs for good reason, 99.9% of games have bugs these days and it is not that causing people to stop playing. Its the fact that, as one of my friends said, "There is no substance to Defiance". The odd bug here and there I can live with, the lack of substance is a different issue altogether.

Conclusion:
I will hang onto my copy in the hope that the game gets good updates in future, although I did the same with MOHW and look how that turned out. Since these are the developers of RIFT I expect the same level of content updates and support in future.

Wow a review thats not either singing praise or condemning the game. +1 faith in this community.

The only thing about bugs is that Trion continues to bring more and more into the game with every patch. Even issues that have already been addressed/fixed are removed when a new patch is released. While bugs are to be expected, patches should improve the game, not hinder it. Trion has yet to release a patch that does not cause this community problems.

Also, Trion's communication is abysmal. Patch notes regularly omit critical information, such as weapon stat changes. Trion has yet to comment on the changes to non-Auto Fraggers for example.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AssKicka

Conclusion:
Since these are the developers of RIFT I expect the same level of content updates and support in future.

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Quickly disabuse yourself of this idea, because these are not the developers of Rift. These are a poor imitation who failed to live up to the ideals and, (more importantly) potential of their own product. This game has light-years to travel before it will be the game it should have been at launch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AssKicka

The Bad:
There is no progression; hold on before you all quote that this game is a "linear" shooter and designed around "skill". The problem is that there is no real benefit to leveling anything in this game and no real incentive. My argument is based around the fact that all content can be beaten with the starter weapons with no real effort. So only for the bragging rights and for the "pretty" factor is there reason to level ego, weapon xp etc. I do not want my character to get prettier and have new vehicle / ammo skins, I want my character to get better at what he does so that it enables me to do the more difficult content. This is the formula that drives most MMO games (Also please do not quote that this is NOT an MMO), If it really is not an MMO then it has serious competition in the shooter category as a single player game.

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The difficult content you described is increased health, or increase in enemy numbers. Not actually more difficult or challenging. And you do get better, it just isn't in the form of direct damage and when it is, it is not a huge boost. In this game, intelligence and skill wins out over stats. I like that.

Essentiall, there is no benefit to leveling if the enemies increase with you. That's not progression either.

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Originally Posted by fang1192

Essentiall, there is no benefit to leveling if the enemies increase with you. That's not progression either.

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+1
The problem is that ppl feel progression when their character is better than a day one character, they want to be better than noobs only because they spend time on a game.

Now, the problem in Defiance is that there is no real difficulty that needs better skills or better tactics and coop, so there even no needs to train and to know the game well to be "better".

We want some type of endgame that doesn't be vertical progression but that needs better skill and teamplay.

Nice post, you win a free bump from me.

Sadly, I believe your topic will be buried under the troll threads.. That seems to happen often with the good threads.

Anyway..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AssKicka

Since these are the developers of RIFT I expect the same level of content updates and support in future.

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Yes, Trion is the company that developed Rift. However, I wouldn't say the exact same crew developed Defiance. Developers come, and go.

I kinda of disagree wt the progression part. It's not like most MMO gamers are use to wt bigger numbers on weapons and armor.

I'm ego 1650 something like that. Wt the weapon skill increases and ur main ego skill and points u point in perks and the number of perks u can equip make a huge difference. I can tell u my char is a lot more powerful then he was at ego 1000 even.

Another thing weapons do progress the higher ur ego u get more bonus and better bonus on weapons depending on rarity plus synergy options which also make a huge difference. Plus u get better shield options wt bigger numbers. Also u get better numbers wt grenades the higher ur ego is.

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Originally Posted by Blondin

Now, the problem in Defiance is that there is no real difficulty that needs better skills or better tactics and coop, so there even no needs to train and to know the game well to be "better".

We want some type of endgame that doesn't be vertical progression but that needs better skill and teamplay.

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This. Difficulty needs to come from AI and tactics. Not be meat shields. While it was annoying fighting the Rogue E-Reps because of their health and shields, they also showed better AI, flushing you from cover, flanking, forcing you to roll between grenades, rolling out of the way of your grenades etc...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fang1192

This. Difficulty needs to come from AI and tactics. Not be meat shields. While it was annoying fighting the Rogue E-Reps because of their health and shields, they also showed better AI, flushing you from cover, flanking, forcing you to roll between grenades, rolling out of the way of your grenades etc...

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Agreed with this. If the new enemies follow similar patterns or unique actions like this, I think those of us who are happy with skill being greater importance than good gear will find ourselves content, they just need to work a hell of a lot faster. As for the naysayers...they have points, but at this point they're little more than a nuisance. Always in some forum or another so there's no avoiding it, good game or mediocre.