ign gives the game a 5.9? are you kidding me...

[Jack Johnson]

Maybe you haven't noticed this, but I havent exactly been complaining about the scores that have been given to defiance. Personally, I rate it around a 7, potential 7.5 - 8 with some improvements. Its not like I am going around claiming it's the best game ever or anything. I know it has it's issues, and I am waiting to see where it goes ove rthe next few months.

What I really have an issue with is the absurdity of some of the things said in some of the reviews.

Just speaking of the IGN review in particular, they knock the game for having repetitious kill / fetch quests. Yet in most other games, including the 2 he mentioned (WoW and SWTOR), kill / fetch quests are somehow magically transformed into this unique and exciting thing that make up 75% of the game and get them very high scores.

It's like watching one of those taste test commercials or something. Where someone says they prefer 1 brand over another. Then the taste test shows they actually liked the 2nd brand better when they didnt know which was which. Like, if they reskinned and renamed Defiance as something else, like a new World of Warcraft spinoff or something, suddenly they would enjoy the taste of Defiance much more.

Yeah. To be completely honest, it isn't the score of Defiance that is wrong, it is the score of most AAA games. They're so ****ed that some reviewers have to give games 6/5 to indicate a game that really is that exceptional. To be honest, the only 10/10 I've ever played would probably be Super Mario Brothers 3. No other game comes close to being near perfection IMO. Certainly not games like Skyrim which are bugged up the *** and delete your file, have clunky as hell gameplay, etc.

[Mystical]

I don't think defiance is as bad as IGN says. I am having quite fun on it and sure there are issues / bugs but the game is just starting out and the fact I can play for like 3-4 hours straight and not want to stop means something. I have bought other new games and got bored within 2 hours of it being the same rehash junk I felt I've seen before. Defiance is a little bit of everything and for me as a console game pretty cool to have a good mmo shooter.

[Kaladan]

Also, don't call me an idiot just because you disagree with me. That's just rude. I don't call you an idiot for not being able to actually explain in words why you think Skyrim is so much better than Defiance. The analogy has a lot of merit and I think you know it. Both games are buggy as all hell, lack any sort of end-game content, repetitive sidequests, etc. So you can't own your own home and get told they used to be an adventurer like you, but at the end of the day that stuff is fluff.

Good job you didn't call me an idiot then, isn't it?

Focusing on the storyline/world aspect of the games here, since Defiance's in-game story is what I criticised... I'll make this quick, as I honestly can't believe I actually have to explain this.

Defiance does very little to make the player feel like they're part of anything, let alone a "feature" of the story. There isn't even the illusion of immersion. You, as a player, are the chump that shoots things. None of what you do has any impact on the world around you, aside from what is next on the rails - the things you're predetermined to do. Now I understand that this is not an RPG, so your choices in missions/quests are limited to how you get there. You nor your character don't make any decisions - you don't even participate in conversations. Even if your character had a specific dialogue that had them throw something as little as passing comments or observations into a conversation, it'd be nice to have the illusion of some kind of input.

Again, I'm not expecting anything even close to Skyrim in terms of conversation either, but the dialogue in Defiance is poorly written and most of the characters and interactions seem very wooden. The characters themselves are cliché. I especially feel let down by the half-dozen new pointless swear words that have been thrown in for the alien races. "Yes, you said 'shtako', well done on convincing me you're an alien species with fancy new words. How long did it take you to master the American accent, by the way? And by 'you' I mean your entire race." (I understand there are some American accents in Skyrim. INB4.) Worked for Battlestar Galactica, I suppose.

I won't go into specifics about the actual story itself, for either game, due to spoilers. Defiance's storyline is "solid" in that it is a sequence of events, being told. A "story" in the bare definition of the word. Skyrim is engaging, thick with hundreds of years of history besides the events of previous games. Skyrim's story pulled me in and made me give a toss. Defiance's storyline I've lost interest in so far because the delivery was poor and the story itself wasn't interesting enough to reel me back in. It's all very disconnected from the player. The pleasure I got from the Dark Brotherhood storyline in Skyrim alone drowns any enjoyment I've had from Defiance.

Also Skyrim is not "buggy as all hell" in my eyes. Maybe I'm just fortunate as a console player not to experience the woes of a PC player. Defiance certainly is, though.

[Justin CarMichael]

5.9? Well to be fair Angry Joe gave the game a 5 out of 10 after having one of the guys from Trion run him over a copy of the game on a USB stick because he couldn't get the game to DL and install.

[IGears]

5.9? Well to be fair Angry Joe gave the game a 5 out of 10 after having one of the guys from Trion run him over a copy of the game on a USB stick because he couldn't get the game to DL and install.

lol really thats terrible. he judge the whole game just off that?

[RegularX]

Like i said I think there review is a little high to be honest!

You actually think the PVP in this game is far superior to the PVE?

Maybe the PC game really is that different from the PS3 one, and maybe IGN just copied and pasted a bunch. Because I seriously don't know what game you guys are playing.

[Elandriel]

...
What I really have an issue with is the absurdity of some of the things said in some of the reviews.

Just speaking of the IGN review in particular, they knock the game for having repetitious kill / fetch quests. Yet in most other games, including the 2 he mentioned (WoW and SWTOR), kill / fetch quests are somehow magically transformed into this unique and exciting thing that make up 75% of the game and get them very high scores.
...

SWTOR has those repetitious quests wrapped in an extremely good story cut scenes, story which many already know and love, different planets which means different world designs (although they ALL look ugly ) and it's an RPG. Which means that this repetition is heavily mixed with character progress. And all that does not make a huge difference compared to Defiance. But it does something more important. It adds a feeling of accomplishment and growth. Very little, mind you, but it's there.

Defiance is not an RPG, so all you are left with repetition of quests without any growth or consequences for failing. So basically you are left with a feeling "Why I am doing this, again?". Defiance makes you feel emptiness (lack of character growth), boredom (repetitive quests with no meaning) and not connected to the world, story or it's main characters. You are just voiceless, nameless Ark hunter repeating quests for the sake of getting to the top scoreboard.

[Rikishi]

I agree that the lack of progression probably puts people off. When I look 1000 EGO back I notice that I keep getting the same "shtako" loot - such as white I mods, and I have one more perk slot (that gets cleared every 10 minutes somehow). Whereas in a game such as Borderlands (fairly similar in gameplay) I kept getting better gear and the choices I made in my skill/talent/perk whatever you want to call it selection actually changed my gameplay a lot and gave me a sense of progression.

[IGears]

I agree that the lack of progression probably puts people off. When I look 1000 EGO back I notice that I keep getting the same "shtako" loot - such as white I mods, and I have one more perk slot (that gets cleared every 10 minutes somehow). Whereas in a game such as Borderlands (fairly similar in gameplay) I kept getting better gear and the choices I made in my skill/talent/perk whatever you want to call it selection actually changed my gameplay a lot and gave me a sense of progression.

i agree.. I blame the PvP balancing. they want a 100 ego person to be able to compete with a 1000 ego person

[Jack Johnson]

Skyrim is engaging, thick with hundreds of years of history besides the events of previous games.

I think you mean the universe of Elder Scrolls. I think the Elder Scrolls universe is very interesting (my real life friends and I have actually argued about whether the Empire or the Stormcloaks would be better for Skyrim), but the STORY of Skyrim is awful. Mr. Evil Dragon has risen from supposed death to conquer the world; kill some dragons, train up, and then defeat him. That's basically the story. There are some minor events along the way like infiltrating a Thalmer compound and getting an Elder Scroll to learn some dovakin word to defeat the dragon, but no real character development or drama. I say the same thing about Halo whenever people try to tell me that Halo's story is interesting... it isn't. The universe is interesting, the story isn't. Defiance's main campaign, once things get into motion, was actually very entertaining. When I say the story, I'm not talking about the history of the arks or whatever, I'm talking specifically what happens from when you create your character to when you see (forget this was on general forum, redacted).