Rating of
3.5/5
Play the Show, Watch the Game
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/22/15
With “Defiance,” the SyFy Channel and Trion Worlds teamed up in an unprecedented project: To create an MMO shooter and a TV show that tie-together into a single coherent experience. While it is an indisputable fact that games based on TV shows or movies are absolute garbage and TV shows and movies based on games are absolute garbage (with few, few exceptions throughout the history of multimedia), nobody else has really done a game/show hybrid that are contained in the same, simultaneous development process. SyFy impressed me with the “BattleStar Galactica” reboot to the point that I was willing to give them a chance (despite the fact that they are also the channel responsible for “Sharknado” and its sequels), while Trion Worlds, like every other MMO company, was something of an enigma to me. Unfortunately, in the end, only one half of the partnership is upholding their portion of the project… and it’s not Trion Worlds.
Presentation
“Defiance” is fairly average-looking for a 7th Generation game. As a third-person shooter, the game is, of course, fully polygonal. The game engine is nearly indistinguishable from the dozens of other shooters that have flooded the market in recent years. Character models look decent for player characters (though they could use a lot more customization options) and enemies (though they could stand to have a few more different enemy models for each enemy type). NPCs are more hit-and-miss in their design. Characters that are unique to the game look alright for who/what they are, but the crossover characters that appear in the game and the show are highly inconsistent in quality. While I’m sure it is more difficult to create a polygon model that closely resembles a living person, the fact that the team at Trion Worlds was able to do a commendable job creating a replica of Grant Bowler (the actor who plays main character, Josh Nolan, on the “Defiance” TV show), yet completely dropped the ball on replicating Jaime Murray (who plays Stahma Tarr) is not a good sign. Even when character models look good, though, the animation tends to be stiff and a bit awkward (especially when the MMO nature of the game rears its head via server instability).
I almost completely hate the soundtrack in “Defiance.” It has moments that are few and far between where I think, “Wow, this is a nice tune. Why isn’t it used more?” But most of the time, the soundtrack consists of overly simplistic noise that seems to be a simple two-measure loop that goes on infinitely. This type of ‘music’ is both grating and distracting. “Defiance” also commits the mortal sin of voiceacting in that it doesn’t use the same actors to voice game-specific characters between the seasons. This type of trick might work on a kids’ show (but it never worked on me when I was a kid… I caught the changed voices every time in my favorite cartoons), but trying to pull it off in an M-rated game is just insulting.
Finally, “Defiance” falls flat in its technical presentation thanks to a huge number of server issues, bugs, glitches, and generally shoddy quality. None of these problems are consistent throughout the life of an always-online, persistent-world MMO, but I have experienced serial disconnects, massive lag, invisible/invulnerable enemies, clipping through walls/floors into limbo, objectives not completing correctly, matchmaking in instanced (non-open-world) areas failing, and a slew of other issues. “Defiance’s” servers have remained unstable since the game launched in 2013, which has led many of the game’s hardcore fans to declare that the servers are powered by hamsters on treadmills… and that Trion doesn’t take very good care of the hamsters.
Story
Despite the original premise of the game and show leaning on and complementing each other in storytelling, nothing has really panned out in that regard. “Defiance” the show takes place in Saint Louis (which was renamed Defiance), while “Defiance” the game takes place in San Francisco and surrounding areas.
The shared premise of both the game and the show is that an alien pilgrimage from the Votanis Solar System arrived at Earth in the present day aboard a fleet of enormous Ark ships. These aliens – mostly of the “Star Trek” variety, being humanoids with odd colorations and/or decorative facial growths – had been working on the assumption that Earth was uninhabited when they fled their exploding sun, but were willing to be diplomatic upon realizing that humanity already lived on their target planet.
After several years, the diplomacy between the humans and the Votan races broke down, leading to a long, bloody conflict called the Pale Wars (most likely because the dominant Votan races come in lovely shades of white). Just when it seemed that humanity was doomed, something went catastrophically wrong within the Votan fleet, causing it to self-destruct, forming a ring of space junk around Earth that was later dubbed the Ark Belt. Unfortunately for the humans and Votans on the ground, the destruction of the Arks also unleashed a number of out-of-control Terraforming Spires upon the planet that reshaped the entire surface and hybridized a number of native Earth life forms with Votan DNA.
Thus “Defiance” takes place in a post-apocalyptic new frontier Earth where the surviving humans and Votans must work together and strive for a pre-Pale Wars kind of peace if any of them want to survive at all.
“Defiance” the game primarily revolves around a nameless protagonist (the player) running around the terraformed remains of California hunting for Arkfalls – bits of the Ark Belt that fall out of orbit and land on the ground, possibly containing tech or other valuables. Our hero also happens to be in the employ of Carl VonBach – a notorious human arms dealer whose company invented most of Earth’s deadliest weaponry during the Pale Wars. As the game begins, our hero finds themselves with VonBach aboard a crashing strato-carrier (think low-flying cargo truck) filled with weapons and tech. After recovering from the crash, it becomes obvious to VonBach that one very specific piece of tech is missing, and the player spends the majority of the story chasing after it as it changes hands.
“Defiance” the game has shockingly little in the way of storytelling or lore exposition about the very interesting post-apocalyptic world. Even worse, most of the non-player characters and villains are very one-dimensional and completely lacking in personality. I actually found a minor NPC, one Varus Soleptor, to be far more entertaining and interesting that the other core supporting cast simply because his lines were well-written and his (original) voiceactor did a great job of conveying his personality. The season-based tie-ins to the show started off somewhat promising during Season One, with direct connections to events and characters in the show, but by Season Two had turned into a string of non-sequiturs that didn’t make sense. Now that we’re officially into Season Three, there are NO more tie-in events, which is incredibly disappointing.
“Defiance” the show, on the other hand, has a great cast of recurring characters. All of the regulars have well developed personalities, and even the seasonal newcomers or one-offs have better development than any of the game’s cast. The show is filled with complex heroes, folks with ulterior motives, and villains we love to hate. The show is also not afraid to make huge changes and deal with world-changing events, whereas the game is stuck in its status quo rut where the Ark Belt still exists in Season Three despite being incinerated via laser at the end of Season Two. “Defiance” the show also does a much better job of dropping lore than the game, however, neither the game nor the show really lays everything out clearly, making a visit to the “Defiance” Wiki page a necessity for those who want to understand everything about the game world, the numerous Votan races, and several of the proper names that get bandied about in the stories of both the game and the show.
Gameplay
The strength of “Defiance” the game is solely in its gameplay. Veterans of the ‘Borderlands’ franchise will recognize quite a few of the gameplay mechanics, as “Defiance” is essentially a Massively-Multiplayer Online Third-Person Shooter with Loot. Throughout the three years it has been up and running, “Defiance” has gone through quite a few changes, both for the better and for the worse… but mostly for the worse.
The core shooting gameplay of “Defiance” is the main reason to play the game at all. The gameplay is quick and responsive, and the shooting is superb, with a huge variety of different weapons with different handling and attributes in a large number of categories ranging from the bog standard Assault Rifles and Pistols to the exotic and bizarre Infectors and Bio-Magnetic Guns. There are even a handful of melee weapons to choose from. Like ‘Borderlands,’ these weapons drop randomly in a variety of ways and locations, and each weapon can appear in a variety of ‘Diablo’-inspired rarities: white Commons, green Uncommons, blue Rares, purple Epics, and orange Legendaries. The thing that makes “Defiance’s” random weapon generation far superior to ‘Borderlands’’ is that there are no absolutely unique weapons with special qualities that only appear in Legendary rarity from a specific boss encounter. Every gun type in “Defiance” is what it is, and simply gets a bonus (in a random category) for each level of rarity. Some specific guns with fun names have been available during limited-time holiday events, but even these are simply Legendary versions of other guns with pre-determined bonuses. And the bonuses on guns in “Defiance” actually seem like bonuses, instead of nerf-removals.
Weapons in "Defiance" can also be modified with up to four weapon mods each, affecting the barrel, magazine, sight, and stock, respectively. The mod system is a great way to allow any weapon to have a scope that suits any player's taste, as well as adding a number of small bonuses that stack with weapons' existing rarity-based bonuses.
Also like ‘Borderlands,’ characters in “Defiance” wear energy shields, which provide them with a recharging damage barrier that enemies must whittle away before directly damaging the character’s health. Characters can also equip a number of consumable items, like grenades, stim needles, and area spikes. The most recent update in Season Three also added a new type of equipment called Cyber Rigs which allow players to further customize their characters with boosts in a wide array of randomly-selected attributes. Characters can also equip one of four EGO Skills that act like Action Skills in ‘Borderlands,’ providing options for Stealth, Blur (speed and melee damage), Overcharge (damage and reload speed), and Decoy. The great thing about these EGO Skills is that every character can unlock all of them and switch between them freely.
Perhaps the single best addition to “Defiance” over time is the ability to upgrade weapon rarity using an in-game currency called Arkforge. While the initial form of the upgrade system allowed players to take a white weapon and upgrade it all the way to orange, the current system only allows a single upgrade to any given weapon (or shield). Unfortunately, along with the ability to upgrade weapons came a change in the way the game handles character levels.
Originally, “Defiance” was a flat-stats, skill-based game, where progressing through EGO levels simply unlocked more perks for the player to use in character customization, while the character’s health and weapon damage stayed the same from the beginning of the game to the end. Unfortunately, perhaps in an attempt to imitate ‘Borderlands’ even further, the same update that introduced Arkforge also introduced Threat Levels and BIGGAR NUMBARZ on gear commensurate with the EGO of said gear. This system has been a massive thorn in “Defiance’s” side since it was introduced, and has remained flawed despite a significant amount of tweaking.
“Defiance” is by-and-large an open world game, where all players of all EGO levels exist in one big map. Players can go wherever they want and informally team-up with others in the same area to complete objectives or just grind for a while. Threat Levels cause enemies to become more powerful when the total EGO rating of players in the area hits certain thresholds. This can be problematic when a large number of low-EGO characters are in an area, and it can be EXTREMELY problematic when a single high-EGO character drives through an area where low-EGO characters are fighting. While higher Threat Levels do temporarily boost the EGOs (and thus damage output and health) of low-EGO characters to set numbers, boosted characters are never as effective as naturally high-EGO characters. At the highest Threat Levels, enemies become massive bullet sponges that even high-EGO characters must fill with clips and clips of bullets.
Arkforge came to the rescue again to mitigate some of the pain that scaling stats caused in the form of EGO rating upgrades for weapons. Since every piece of loot drops at the EGO rating of the player who finds it, it is entirely possible (like in ‘Borderlands’) to find a great piece of gear, but then outlevel it. Arkforge can be spent to upgrade a given piece of gear to the player’s current EGO, keeping old favorites viable for as long as the Arkforge flows. Of course, I left out the main downside of Arkforge: It is “Defiance’s” premium micro-transaction currency. While it is entirely possible to earn Arkforge by playing, it always drops in such small quantities (and costs so much to perform upgrades) that it can be difficult to grind enough of it. The fact that a blob of 500 Arkforge costs $16 and is the exact amount required to upgrade a purple weapon to orange is absolutely insane.
Indeed, the vast majority of “Defiance’s” negative gameplay adjustments have happened because Trion Worlds needs to find a way to make money after taking the game from Buy2Play to Free2Play last year. The game has become more grindy than it used to be, the new content is all recycled, and the game feels like its main purpose now is to serve as a micro-transaction engine to keep players participating in what the former creative lead of the game, Trick Dempsey, called “the longer, more fulfilling chase.”
Overall
While it is being chronically mismanaged by Trion Worlds and is slowly being converted into a micro-transaction engine, at the core of “Defiance” is a fantastic third-person shooter that is an absolute joy to play. As a collaborative effort between SyFy and Trion, full credit goes to SyFy for producing a highly entertaining show, while raspberries go to Trion for the horrible treatment they’ve given their game in the story department. If “Defiance” was an offline or peer-to-peer coop title, it would lose the open-world and MMO aspects that make every play session different, but it would also lose the chronic grinding and ineffectual upkeep Trion has been providing since launch.
Presentation: 2/5
Story:
The Game: 2/5
The Show: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
