As an introduction: I'm in my early 30th, female and I've played MMORPG's since almost 15 years now - basically the time I could afford to connect to the internet in useful fast and long sessions. I'm more of a fantasy and cooperative sandbox player usually, played pretty much every fantasy game out there except Tabula Rasa for a short time (Garriott made me :P). And my game focus is usually or more the UO/EQ2/Vanguard/Salem/Wurm version.
I prefer supporter classes despite often having too little time for work and family to play much or regularly and thus tend to play more alone while being part of a guild. I run fansites often for games I like though, wikistyle in majority.
With that out of the way ... why on earth am I trying Defiance and even posting this?!?
I've seen the TV series and it is all the series fault! My hubby and me we both found it rather corny for the first 2-3 episodes which made us nearly stop watching. But it starts to become interesting, the figures are believable and starting to become three dimensional, the cultural depths of the races is impressive and the storyline sure is increasingly adding layers that make it more and interesting to see what happens. So congrats on that, the TV-game mix definitely works at least on me and I believe the IP is starting to develop into something that reminds me both of Star Trek The Next Generation and Lost. Keep it up Trion.
I've never played a first person shooter except once as a short test because I knew the people who developed it, online fantasy shooter kind of. All of them had experience in one. I stumbled in there, kicked there *** realizing how the physics work quickly, they finally all ganged up on me to get me killed lol. I didn't feel drawn into that one back then, there was little to it except shooting other people and it was hectic all the time, tiny map and all. I prefer a much slower pace and pick my fight and some collaborative gameplay is much appreciated. Here is where Defiance comes in: I really its the PvE setup and the circle marked encounters where you have a chance to step in or out no matter if it is realistic or not. Things remain manageable time wise. The world seems more dynamic with all these side missions and sudden more random encounter. I've spent a while yesterday (first day of my trial) to do both main missions quests and just wait at a spot to see if the same thing happens over and over again or what. Nice to see that Volge street blocks actually disappear completely once cleaned up and we got that elite Volge once we had not the other time, probably we had quite some players there at after a while. Seems there were two major events scripted at that site that were alterating. Which is not awesome but pretty good especially compared to what other MMO's usually do, were it is already big if the NPC giving the quest is disappearing - but everything else remains the same or is part of a text box I hit buttons in.
Helps it to be believable the same as how NPC pop up more realistically, nice work there!
Plus I really like the differences in AI behavior, the line-of-sight, weapons differences, the mods and the changes the EGO grid do (I'm currently only EGO 108 though). So far it is complex enough gameplay to keep me occupied for quite a while trying to figure out strategies and getting a grip on weapon types and mods and what suits my playstyle best. I like that, more involved than the common whack-a-mole playstyles. And I really like that while shields do something at least so far with the four shield types I've found it is a way better idea to simply get not hit and adjust your playstyle to THAT, instead of common MMO mechanics where you are so heavily armed that you just taunt it all and shrug it off or you flatten it all with one hit so running straight ahead into it is normal or such. Reminds me of the hours I spent in Wizardry Online trying to work out the mechanism as in that one you have to make sure to NOT GET HIT. Dying hurts in WO , a LOT, and at some point is permanent too. Didn't like the grind of WO though, Defiance is much nicer there, much more variety. And it is much harder in Defiance not to get hit at least some, I die much more often, the death penalty is ok for me currently, the reviving I like a lot, on other players too.
But there are things that strike me as weird, annoying or plain bad too ...
Introduction: Very spotty. It is cinematic and it throws you right in, yes that is nice. But ... why on earth do I work for this guy? What is his business exactly? I forage artifacts for him or am more a mercenary for protection or both? As an Irathient ... why would I do that and not stick with my peers? Irathient are according to lore rather shunned by the the other Votans es well as the humans having trouble with them. So ...?
The intro part is annoying too as the "Intel" screen does not allow to playback what I heard. All the work with the story, voice over and such ... lost. Instead of telling me right at the beginning that there is that Intel screen I found that out hours later upon some loading screen tip or what it was. Too hectic in the beginning to spent time on figuring these things out, no "ok, now lets slow down and go over the interface" in the Earth Republic camp later too, everything pumped up and GoGoGo. That is realistic but for a newbie to the game detrimental. Took me hours before I realized what the right mouse button does, was by accident. Bad. I'm still trying to puzzle out the Salvage matrix, there is no indication in some items information if it can be salvaged and what for or sold or upgraded. Takes a long and annoyingly confusing time to click through all of them and figure out. The salvage part is never explained actively and the intel about it does not help too. I still have no clue why I have for example one weapon with a white name from loot and the EXACT SAME WEAPON from loot too with green name - and the first is not salvageable, I can't sell it, it can't be dropped down. So it is stuck in my inventory? Bug? I've another such white-name-no-sell-no-salvage which eats up my inventory space. With the limited inventory that is annoying to no end. Tried to ask in chat, nobody replies, even with lost of people standing around in town, interacting with merchants. BAD because you are not even aware that someone talks in Chat if you don't hit enter to say something yourself ...
Fast travel was another thing I figured out by accident. These collection missions were an accidental thing too, they annoy me because there is no lead where to start them, if I found a data recorder I can't reply them (what if I don't play daily and take notes who said what, I have a life out there, I'm not going to remember all that stuff!).
Missions: If I can't finish a mission I am blocked from starting any other while it is active and can only abandon it completely to have to start all over later? Really? What if I play with someone, they have to log out for a while and I can't finish on my own? No other player in reach due to odd play hours or we want to do these together. I sit there twiddling thumbs waiting or log out for the day too? Forced to do the random encounters/arcfalls and that is it? Allow please to have one open for ongoing main missions, one of the side missions.
Really odd was when I had a main mission running and I could not get it done on my own despite trying it a few ways (that is perfectly ok) and when I came back to the spot a few minutes later, my mission guidelines still said the same thing (second step in the mission) but the place had reverted back to the first step. That garbled the immersion up a lot. Some timer showing up with a warning and then reverting the mission log too would make more sense I believe.
So now what gives me the biggest issues: the lack of connection between the depth of the series and the game world. I know I am in the Earth Republic section, so mostly humans and they are wary at least of Votans. But ... c'mon? It feels a lot like it could be any human centric shooter currently. Some mobs look exotic, I look a bit exotic since I am Irathien, you have some exotic weapons. But ... Defiance? Where are the languages, the music, the different cultural traditions, the artefacts of the races besides weapon, the really weird stuff? I had to grin that chicken never mutated obviously but everything else did. I play an Irathien but except the looks of it I could be a human like anyone else. The main missions, the mission scripting, voice over, all done with attention to detail. But it remains ... shallow. What makes Defiance Defiance for me from the TV series or where everyone speaks reverently of the Defiant Few even in game ... it doesn't touch anything for real. I've played RIFT for a while before release. And it reminds me a lot of RIFT in that the gameplay is well done and has progressive, good mechanical ideas. But the world still does not feel a WORLD of its own. But a stage set up to run tasks in. If you simply want to make another fantasy offshoot MMORPG that pulls in simply by mechanics, fine (in case of RIFT). But an IP is more than that.
The TV series does. It stands on its own, definitely by now. The game does not atmosphere wise for me.
I'm not even sure WHY that is. I can only report how it feels to me.
It is a bit like Walking Dead, the game my hubby just finished. I got hooked watching over his shoulder while he played (too bloody for me to play myself of watch it), the characters were unique, it was believable, we were both quite emotionally invested quickly and even upset when it was over. After days I still think about the world, how it felt, what could have gone differently, how it would be to live in that world. The Defiance TV series does the same, I think about the conflicts and problems in the series, social and economical. But the game world is not catching up at all with me.
I believe that is a crucial point though, you are currently loosing out tremendously on the strength of the IP you are developing. Maybe it would help to get the TV story writers play the game and tell you why that is. And put way more Votans ingame (ridiculous to have ONE Castithan and ... she doesn't even look clearly her way. Rather fair human appearance in my eyes. And if I had not known that Varus is a Liberata I would not have recognized him.
And the last point: I chose a machinist as class. I somehow thought machinists are more like crafter from the description. Seems not to be the case. So ... what makes a machinist a machinist?!? Am I missing something? I know what an Arc Hunter is in the series. They go out in the wilderness, recover the stuff from the Arc Falls. Now the game uses that term but ... everyone goes out for Arc Falls - which are not the same as what they are in the series (booo), loots what is there to loot. So again ... what makes a machinist a machinist please? Or an Arc Hunter derived from a machinist special? I feel a bit cheated on the class from the description.
Will there even be any kind of crafting beyond the very rudimentary mods-click-a-button-and-wait system at all?
So, that is it so far, enjoy or flame but I care enough to write that long piece.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by L Y
) expand Data Recorder, then a location or episode and it should give you a list of data recorders. When I highlight them it gives me a one line description under the title in a window to the right and I press triangle to play them. not sure what that would be on PC.
