Defiance Review: Eurogamer!

[Technodude]

Although I agree with quite a bit of the review, aside from the obvious mistakes on the reviewers part (like thinking vehicles are bugged because he entered the wrong side), the score doesnt make much sense when considering his own comments about how much he enjoyed the game and it kept drawing him back in despite some of the problems.

Also find it kind of funny how all these reviews are coming out already before they even implement the 1st major bug / improvement patch or begin adding new content. In a regular MMO where new content might not be seen for several months after release that makes a bit more sense, but considering they should be aware of Defiance's ties to the show and updates coming along with the show and these patches & content releases starting in just 3 days you would think any worthwhile reviews would be held off until then. Theyre reviewing the game without one of the main draws / factors of the game, the TV crossover aspect, having even begun yet. Seems kind of ridiculous. I think are going to wind up being a whole lot of re-reviews with very different scores / opinions in a couple of months, all because they rushed reviews instead of waiting a few more days.

The problems Defiance has right now which resulted in low score are more technical in nature and not about the cross over.

All MMOS are reviewed on basis of initial release so i don't know why they should make an exception in case of Defiance..only because of the cross over? even though that has no bearing on the current problems of the game resulting in low scores.

[PurePlayinSerb]

'Sometimes a mission will require you to drive a vehicle, except the vehicle won't move' - what's the betting the reviewer is from a right hand drive country, and randomly kept getting in the wrong side of the car.

I did it a lot at first, thought it was a bug.

or they are reviewing the beta, cause when the beta first went live i had this problem

[Warkaiser]

The problems Defiance has right now which resulted in low score are more technical in nature and not about the cross over.

All MMOS are reviewed on basis of initial release so i don't know why they should make an exception in case of Defiance..only because of the cross over? even though that has no bearing on the current problems of the game resulting in low scores.

So every review has been scored based purely on technical aspects? No. Look through the various reviews and you see complaints about things like lack of content. Yet anyone who knows anything about the game knows that content in Defiance is being done differently than other games due to the TV show. I know theyre not going to wait very long, but you would think they would at least wait until the release of the 1st DLC and episode related content due to it being such a big factor of the game so that they could also include that in their review. This is a 1st for a worldwide MMO release, so you would think it would be done a bit differently.

Its kind of like doing a review of current WoW with all of its expansions, but then only covering the Vanilla WoW content in your review. You know theres more content after what you played through, but you just disregarded it. I know, its not on the same scale as WoW as far as all their content over the years vs what will be added to Defiance over a few months, just making the point that theyre knowingly disregarding a core part of the game in order to push out their reviews.

Also, as far as the technical issues.... well I noticed they did this on the 360. We all know 360 had it the worst as far as technical issues. Personally, on the PC I havent run into a single one of the technical issues they mentioned. I have experienced a few other issues, but not his particulars, especially the server problems. Kind of sucks that they wound up reviewing it on the worst possible system which kiled the score. Hopefully they will do another review of at lest the PC version, if not all 3 platforms. It sounded like the enjoyed the game overall quite a bit, at least deserving of a 7+ if he had played either of the other versions.

[Technodude]

So every review has been scored based purely on technical aspects? No. Look through the various reviews and you see complaints about things like lack of content. Yet anyone who knows anything about the game knows that content in Defiance is being done differently than other games due to the TV show. I know theyre not going to wait very long, but you would think they would at least wait until the release of the 1st DLC and episode related content due to it being such a big factor of the game so that they could also include that in their review. This is a 1st for a worldwide MMO release, so you would think it would be done a bit differently.

Its kind of like doing a review of current WoW with all of its expansions, but then only covering the Vanilla WoW content in your review. You know theres more content after what you played through, but you just disregarded it. I know, its not on the same scale as WoW as far as all their content over the years vs what will be added to Defiance over a few months, just making the point that theyre knowingly disregarding a core part of the game in order to push out their reviews.

Also, as far as the technical issues.... well I noticed they did this on the 360. We all know 360 had it the worst as far as technical issues. Personally, on the PC I havent run into a single one of the technical issues they mentioned. I have experienced a few other issues, but not his particulars, especially the server problems. Kind of sucks that they wound up reviewing it on the worst possible system which kiled the score. Hopefully they will do another review of at lest the PC version, if not all 3 platforms. It sounded like the enjoyed the game overall quite a bit, at least deserving of a 7+ if he had played either of the other versions.

I guessed you also missed the part that where reviewers mentioned that they are having fun in game despite of its issues which are mostly technical in nature like connectivity, latency and other server side problems. No review has slammed Defiance for lack of content but they did mention that content gets very repetitive after a while.

But you have to understand something that all MMOS are reviewed on basis of what state they released in and not on basis of the improvements they may or may not make in future.

Also i think trion over soled the whole 'cross over' thing. The impact on the game is going to be so little that it won't be even worth mentioning in reviews. That is my opinion of course on basis of what i have read about the cross over so far.

[r3dl4nce]

No review has slammed Defiance for lack of content but they did mention that content gets very repetitive after a while.

So every MMOs out there should take 5/10 because EVERY SINGLE MMO content gets very repetitive. Oh, well, let's go to see SW:TOR launch and technical bugs and missing features, or GW2 "when it's ready" release (lol!).
But Defiance gets 5/10 because it's different and Trion did not pay for good reviews. Yeah, right.
Put the magazines and web site in the trashbin and play! Intelligent people can by themself judge the game, no need for paid reviews.

[Tekkor]

While the review may be considered "fair" by many I still think based on the reviewers comments the score was at least 1-2 points lower then it should have been. I like many others feel the game for sure has some flaws but Im having a great time playing it all the same.

The chat sucks. The UI on PC is infuriating (although you get used to it eventually). Many elements are not explained by the game well (Contracts, Ratings, Mods etc).

The game is a bit repetitive but I think that will smooth out over time and a few patches and DLC. The core mechanics are great. the gunplay is solid. The performance is great.....at least for me. I have little to no lag ever...even at 50+ person Arkfalls...and I have a 3 year old computer with a crappy 3mb internet connection. I comment to my friends all the time that I am amazed how smooth the game runs for me.

This is one of those cases where the game has a really solid base. Give it some time and I think Trion can make it something great. They need to clean it up a bit. Add some more UI fixes (always up chat box for PC is a must). More PvP maps. More varied PvE mission types. Mix up the Arkfalls a bit somehow. Looking forward to seeing the game evolve.

[Technodude]

So every MMOs out there should take 5/10 because EVERY SINGLE MMO content gets very repetitive. Oh, well, let's go to see SW:TOR launch and technical bugs and missing features, or GW2 "when it's ready" release (lol!).
But Defiance gets 5/10 because it's different and Trion did not pay for good reviews. Yeah, right.
Put the magazines and web site in the trashbin and play! Intelligent people can by themself judge the game, no need for paid reviews.

Yes all MMOS are repetitive by nature but some devs are very clever at masking that repetitive grind. In Defiance the repetitive content is very transparent and in your face.

And please take your fanboy blinders off because this whole 'all negative reviews means Trion didn't pay them enough' excuse is getting old and pathetic.

You are just incapable of accepting that Defiance has flaws.

[skareffect]

There shouldn't even be reviews for this game until a month after when most of these problems are fixed. Specially when they stated that more content is coming when the show releases. -Facepalm-

[Warkaiser]

Yes all MMOS are repetitive by nature but some devs are very clever at masking that repetitive grind. In Defiance the repetitive content is very transparent and in your face.

And please take your fanboy blinders off because this whole 'all negative reviews means Trion didn't pay them enough' excuse is getting old and pathetic.

You are just incapable of accepting that Defiance has flaws.

Well, consider some of the scores of some other games theyve done reviews on:

Warhammer Online: AoR - 8/10 - One of the worst launches Ive experienced tons of bugs, performance issues, server / lag issues, forts crashing entire servers, no balance between classes whatsoever, several missing classes and missing 4 of 6 capital cities which were promised at launch, pretty terrible PvE content aside from PQs being kind of cool at 1st, the list could go on... I have played on and off over the years since launch myself, just for the fun of PvP, but theres no denying that the game was in horrid shape at launch and has seen some, but not a whole lot, of improvement. I dont think Ive ever talked to anyone who would even give the game an 8/10 in its current state, certainly not at launch.

Diablo 3 - 9/10 - Just... I dont even know where to begin with this one. The game was so bad, especially at launch, on so many levels I could probably sit here and type for an hour and still not be done.

Darkfall - Even Darkfall, as lacking and broken as it was at launch, managed a 4/10. Only 1 point lower than Defiance. This was also after they originally scored it a 2/10 and it was found that the reviewer (who was given a special account by the devs to use for his testing / review) had played less than 2 hours of the game before doing his review, which forced the 2nd review to be done.

[Technodude]

Well, consider some of the scores of some other games theyve done reviews on:

Warhammer Online: AoR - 8/10 - One of the worst launches Ive experienced tons of bugs, performance issues, server / lag issues, forts crashing entire servers, no balance between classes whatsoever, several missing classes and missing 4 of 6 capital cities which were promised at launch, pretty terrible PvE content aside from PQs being kind of cool at 1st, the list could go on... I have played on and off over the years since launch myself, just for the fun of PvP, but theres no denying that the game was in horrid shape at launch and has seen some, but not a whole lot, of improvement. I dont think Ive ever talked to anyone who would even give the game an 8/10 in its current state, certainly not at launch.

Diablo 3 - 9/10 - Just... I dont even know where to begin with this one. The game was so bad, especially at launch, on so many levels I could probably sit here and type for an hour and still not be done.

Darkfall - Even Darkfall, as lacking and broken as it was at launch, managed a 4/10. Only 1 point lower than Defiance. This was also after they originally scored it a 2/10 and it was found that the reviewer (who was given a special account by the devs to use for his testing / review) had played less than 2 hours of the game before doing his review, which forced the 2nd review to be done.

What about review of Angry Joe? his review mirrors sentiment of Eurogamer? was he also unhappy because he didn't get paid by Trion.