Critical review

[Dude]

THE BAD

• To exit the game go either into SETTINGS or CHARACTER menu, then bring up the radial menu by KEEPING space pressed and select exit game. That's four clicks. Almost all other PC games work like this: ESC->QUIT.
• Instant crash when trying to go into SETTINGS menu when using a 120hz monitor, even when its set to 60hz. To change my settings I have to attach ANOTHER monitor with the SAME RESOLUTION. Because otherwise I can't change the resolution back, once my gaming monitor is attached again.
• Key mapping is not being saved properly, no matter how I exit the game afterwards. Binding POWERS to Q, weapons to 1 and 2 and ROLL to thumb mouse button works, but its not being saved on exiting the game. It even uses keys for two actions (weapon 1 and POWERS on pressing 1) when I log back in. Each time you start it up, you have to rebind the keys.
• Mouse cursor slows down extremely when aiming with the right mouse button. It's really hard to hit stuff when suddenly you have to slide around like crazy on the mousepad, each time you're looking down the sights/scope. This is the ABSOLUTELY WORST issue for me.
• Several items seem to be bugged and unremovable from the inventory. They can't be salvaged, sold or simply deleted and end up clogging up the inventory, forever.
• When entering the Dodge car from the right side, it cannot be driven. You've entered the passenger seat and its impossible to slide over to the other seat. You have to exit and enter from the driver side to actually drive. Nothing indicates that it wouldn't work that way. It just doesn't start and seems broken.
• Some quests seem to be randomly bugged and don't progress; ie. unable to talk to an NPC/use a computer. They have to be abandoned and restarted, hoping it works this time (so far it did the second time). Other quests like Reservoir Chickens, give you the weapons back after you've used up the bullets of the given weapon (and achieved silver) and then prompt a FAILED message when you leave the mission area: they don't end properly. You can still continue to shoot chickens with your own weapons, FOREVER.
• The game world seems to be pretty small. It's gotta be the smallest MMO I've ever played, even smaller than TSW. If you've seen everything after a week or even less, there's not much incentive to continue playing, other than waiting for DLC and hoping they are actually each as big as the whole game, which I'm sure they won't.
• From some menues the ESC key brings you back one step, from others it quits right back to the character in game. For instance in the salvage matrix, depending on wether you're in the selection of weapons or have one already selected, pressing ESC will bring you back one step, or simply close the window and throw you back to the world, when you're not done.
• The Arkfalls I find extremely boring. It's basically the same concept from RIFT: hit on a mob for 30 minutes until it dies. In between he disappears and two smaller arrive, which you have to shoot "only" for 5 minutes each. It's just not fun. And then when you're finally done, you don't even get a weapon or mod as reward. Boring boring to shoot mobs over such a long period and watch their HUGE healthbars decrease in slow motion. That was my first and last Arkfall.
• Very few types of enemies so far. The Hellbugs, the Mutants and the Raiders. Most look alike, even if there's a few different types in each faction. But I suppose not many more enemy factions can be expected in such a small world.
• The mission NPCs in the world seem to be all voiced, which is a good thing. The bad thing is that their mouths don't move when they talk.
• Extremely short line of sight. Players and other stuff pops in basically under your nose. I'm sure this has been done so that consoles can handle it. Of course there's no need to change it for PC players who can handle much farther lines of sight. We all love the pop-ins, they contribute so much to the atmosphere and real-world-feel.

The whole game is optimized for consoles. Mousespeed changes, clunky menues, low resolution (yes it actually COULD be worse like in ME3, but still), straight crashes when using a 120hz monitor and the wonderful pop-ins.
PC players are second class customers for many companies today which often only get the bare minimum of optimisation (if any), and I'm increasingly annoyed by this. If I knew this was a console port where PC players take the backrow, I wouldn't have bought it. But now I can add another developer to my list to be extremely cautious about buying games from. Trion Worlds, I am disappointed. I used to respect your RIFT release and see it as good example amongst the MMO world. Defiance has opened my eyes now.

THE GOOD

So, what's positive about this game? I suppose the setting is ok and the whole "massive" co-op gameplay is also a welcome change to the pure PvP shooters. There's plenty of weapons to chose from and specialize, and the whole EGO thing seems to be ok, not being extremely progression based. I like level playing fields. The vehicles are also a fun idea for transportation, even if they drive extremely arcady. And I suppose this is already it.

THE SCORE:

As it stands now this game is worth a 60/100 at best. And that's being generous with some of the issues. Blatant disregard for PC players' standards and a seemingly rushed release pull the score really down.

[Senel]

THE BAD

• Several items seem to be bugged and unremovable from the inventory. They can't be salvaged, sold or simply deleted and end up clogging up the inventory, forever.

The item you're trying to salvage are equip in other loadouts which is why you aren't able to salvage, sell, or delete them. It's to prevent you from removing items in your other builds without knowing.

Also in your critical review it seems only to be critical on the negative aspects, while you have valid points it just looks like you get tired of writing half way through and generalized the latter half which doesn't lead me to have much confidence in your scoring.

[Aspect]

Okay. Enjoy whatever game you're playing now.

[squidgod2000]

Nearly the entire review could be a copy/paste of the Beta forums (and I assume the Alpha forums) over the past few months.

I can only assume that Trion is handcuffed by the show's premiere date and MS/Sony patch certification. Never gonna touch another multi-platform game as long as I live. PC version ends up as sh*t because the consoles are sh*t.

[Dude]

The item you're trying to salvage are equip in other loadouts which is why you aren't able to salvage, sell, or delete them. It's to prevent you from removing items in your other builds without knowing.

Also in your critical review it seems only to be critical on the negative aspects, while you have valid points it just looks like you get tired of writing half way through and generalized the latter half which doesn't lead me to have much confidence in your scoring.

Thanks for the tip, it actually worked! So that's another problem solved for the time being, but it still throws up a few more questions:

Why does the game create a second profile with the exact loadout as the first, when I curiously click on its number as soon as it becomes unlocked (the [2])? If I chose to only use one profile, I have to select the same stuff in all profiles so that I can actually get rid of the items. Also, why is there no message telling me that the item I try to sell/delete/salvage is currently used in a profile? The answer is: The game was rushed out, there wasn't time for many things.

I actually tried to give the game a higher rating, but remembering the negative things I just had to drop it, repeatedly. Having to switch monitors with my brother to change the settings, which I have to do each time I log in because defiance refuses to keep my keybindings is new even to me. Mouse speed changing while playing, as if to accomodate a controller when I'm using NONE? This is unacceptable.

The general attitude seems to be: Oh, you guys are on a PC right? Well do this and that and the rest.. well **** it, its a waste of time for us. First we make sure it runs well on consoles and then, MAYBE, we clean up some PC issues. You can still get a controller for the PC you know? - Yeah, I know. I even got one. But I might as well cut some fingers off than use it for shooters, cause that's exactly how playing with one would feel. - Right, right.. Well thanks for preordering the Digital Deluxe, LOL!!

So, much as I like, its the shortcomings and the huge disappointment that I noticed the most. I could say that it runs well on my machine. But I have a decent gaming PC and I'm used to play everything on max settings where other people struggle. So I'm not in a position to give points for performance when my PC can even run all crappy console ports well (and I've played more than I'd like).

[Ace Rimmer]

It is beginning to look like Defiance is a game that is plagued with problems. I have yet to play it, even after installing, activating an account, and downloading two update patches and three failed attempts at PLAY with Customer Build windows that stay empty and then disappear after a few seconds! And there is no game manual, what good it would do me now.

Granted, it is only day 2 after launch, but I was not expecting this much aggravation. Shame shame Trion Worlds!

[dimitrii anghelov]

I'm like dude, and he's like dude, and I'm like DUDE, and he's like DUDE, and i'm like DUDE USE ALT+F4 omg you need to press escape and then like find and press exit that's so freaking slow and ******ed. Can't take you review serious when you're missing basic knowledge

[Esra]

honestly saying you expect an mmo launch to go off without a stunning degree of buggyness which defiance in the majority has not had shows a lack of mmo experience no?

Saying that even the single player games these days seem to need a social component always online feature that stabs you in the eyes eg Diablo 3 and Simcity

btw to the OP you really complained about 4 button presses compared to 2 in the esc-quit point, I mean really?? 2 extra button presses is a bad thing?

[LadyChaos]

I will say that once the major hellbug Arkfalls were challenging in Beta (because of group-wide ammo constraints), now that I'm used to them are so simple. However the first time i found a solid challenge (keep in mind I had beta time) was with the robots Major arkfall. I have yet to do the darkmatter stuff people have described to be very challenging and am still looking forward to it.

I loved RIFT on launch and thought it might have been the most flawless launch I had seen, yet it was conquered so quickly. I don't just mean hit all the zones, there were plenty I mean conquered the character progression. I suspect that TRION has learned form that mistake (IMO) and created a game with far more character development in mind rather than just zones. This game is advertized toincrease with the episodes of the show. I suspect each episode might contain new weekly quests, only a hypothesis. But at the very least we know they are expecting at least 5 DLC in the very near future.

This game as advertised is meant to evolve somewhat more quickly than our steriotypical cookie cutter MMO we have been using for the last 5 years and perhaps last 15-20... pls don't do the math it's not polite to gauge a lady's age.

I think what we are buying into IMO, is to play at least 2 seasons worth of "living" game. The reason things were built so flexible and un-rigid is to allow for gamers to lend to the evolution of it. A lot of criticism to how small the current package looks... it's an opportunity to be part of the dev team via whatever methods they have chosen to use our input.

All shows start off with a pilot that people either hate love or go hmm ok I'll look again next week... this is the Pilot.

[Tontte]

[*]The game world seems to be pretty small. It's gotta be the smallest MMO I've ever played, even smaller than TSW. If you've seen everything after a week or even less, there's not much incentive to continue playing, other than waiting for DLC and hoping they are actually each as big as the whole game, which I'm sure they won't.

Naturally, your opinion is your own, and you're entitled to it. But if you actually think that The Secret World has a small game world, then I don't think you'll be satisfied with many MMOs. TSW has _nine_ full zones, each of which contains a full group dungeon. The zones are grouped into three distinct areas (New England, Egypt, Romania), each of which contains dozens of missions. Many of those are fully voiced and have cutscenes. The point's not that you're wrong (or to defend TSW), but that you seem to have a different expectation when it comes to the size of the game world.