Does this game have any Depth?

[Archangel]

Note: I haven't progressed sufficiently far to be sure this is not in Defiance, please comment.

Well what I particularly liked in Borderlands was that even if it was an FPS, you could choose how you played. Especially in how you dealt damage. Like you could go for big hits, you could go for physical damage or elemental damage. You could have pets, etc. Overall the passives felt like they had more impact on the gameplay.
Don't get me wrong, I have grind and I love being of relatively equal skill-level to everyone else, but I also love options in terms of gameplay, even in shooters.

As you increase your ego score and unlock more points to contribute to your ego grid. You will start to feel like your skills are having more of an impact.

When you start running with fully maxed 3/3 perks and a 3/5 or 5/5 skill. Your goign to see a difference in your performance vs someone who isn't as progressed as you.

You can run different weapon elements to counter different situations you face in defiance as well. The higher level weapons will have more bonus's and more elemental effects to them.

[Starflame]

As you increase your ego score and unlock more points to contribute to your ego grid. You will start to feel like your skills are having more of an impact.

When you start running with fully maxed 3/3 perks and a 3/5 or 5/5 skill. Your goign to see a difference in your performance vs someone who isn't as progressed as you.

You can run different weapon elements to counter different situations you face in defiance as well. The higher level weapons will have more bonus's and more elemental effects to them.

Thanks for clarifying that. So defiance is not particularly much behind borderlands in the guns department. Is there anything that you found particularly superior?
(and i understand they are VERY different games)

[Ensu]

I enjoyed Borderlands, but I just couldn't stand Borderlands 2. It went too cartoony and zany for my taste. Defiance is close to borderlands, but slightly more to the serious side in its storytelling and character handling. I prefer Defiance's take over Borderlands.

[Archangel]

I've heard the same but didn't run across it in the 360 beta. I honestly didn't look very hard but if that is the case my plan's for April 2nd may have just changed.

More decisions...

I got to use Decoy for the first time in this last beta and I am liking it a lot. Overcharge is still the best for PVE on paper. But game play and fun factor the decoy is tops.

Its like a taunt to NPC's, buying you time to revive a downed player or capture a quest point while they all shoot at your decoy.

The teleport feature is epic.

I used my decoy outside of a build, ran into it and shot up the place, grabbed the quest item on the second floor then right as a mob of melee axe wielding baddies was running up the stairs I teleported out to my decoy. I can see this in pvp being awesome.

[mcwjimbo]

.......
When you start running with fully maxed 3/3 .....

^ YES noticed a huge difference right away after respecing and putting 3 into perk that limited the range at which explosions could hurt

especially from 1 of my own misthrown grenades LOL :-P nothing like blowing yourself up

[Starflame]

^ YES noticed a huge difference right away after respecing and putting 3 into perk that limited the range at which explosions could hurt

especially from 1 of my own misthrown grenades LOL :-P nothing like blowing yourself up

On the other hand, having a passive that increases damage to stuff that is out of combat... Well... maybe its the pvp'er in me but it just seems pointless

[Archangel]

Thanks for clarifying that. So defiance is not particularly much behind borderlands in the guns department. Is there anything that you found particularly superior?
(and i understand they are VERY different games)

the great thing is Trion balanced the weapons incredibally well. There is no OP CC/BEE shield combo lol. Or using the SMASHER glitch to make the infinity pistol OP.

Weapons are very situational and some shine better than others in the more common situations you are faced againts.

Ark falls for examble. Depending on the ark fall type i would rotate out between my regulard AR/BMG with a Pistol/BMG just because the pistol would hit crit spots for 1500 while the AR was only 400. When you would crunch numbers like clip size x damage the pistol out did the AR.

Other ark falls with no critical spots but just waves i felt the shot gun and explosives were the way to go.

so its very situational.

[Starflame]

the great thing is Trion balanced the weapons incredibally well. There is no OP CC/BEE shield combo lol. Or using the SMASHER glitch to make the infinity pistol OP.

Weapons are very situational and some shine better than others in the more common situations you are faced againts.

Ark falls for examble. Depending on the ark fall type i would rotate out between my regulard AR/BMG with a Pistol/BMG just because the pistol would hit crit spots for 1500 while the AR was only 400. When you would crunch numbers like clip size x damage the pistol out did the AR.

Other ark falls with no critical spots but just waves i felt the shot gun and explosives were the way to go.

so its very situational.

Well I'm pretty darn sure I'm going to get into Defiance at some point, just not at release. Hopefully balance stays as good as you say

[Archangel]

My favorite perk so far is one that fills your Ego cool down by at 30% per explosive hit you take.

So during Ark falls those flying hellbugs and the spitting towers all used explosive attacks. Your ego skill was almost always up and ready for use and that was pretty awesome.

[Archangel]

Well I'm pretty darn sure I'm going to get into Defiance at some point, just not at release. Hopefully balance stays as good as you say

Because everyone is so even. Balance to me doesn't seem to be an issue besides weapon balance.

During the very 1st beta and when Alpha started getting more people, they reported that PVP wa a RPG rabbit hoping nightmare. So Trion nerfed the RPG in pvp zones and thus balance was restored.

Think about it this way. Anything anyone can do you can also do. So if you see someone running a gun/nade/shield/weapon combo with a Ego skill and perks that just make him super OP. This will either become a cookie cutter build like most MMO's where pople like to min/max for perfection. Or, it will get nerfed.

My guess it will be the former since you dont want to nerf the game down to nothing. Balance is a hard thing to do in any MMO let alone a shooter.

Thankfully pvp is optional (^-^)b