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Confused by this game
So I picked this up a little after launch as there is nothing else that can keep my interets currently and thought why not. The reviews here weren't horrible, and for the most part sounded positive.
I have to say that I am giving it a chance and I WANT to like this game so I am simply asking questions and not making assumptions.
However, I'm really confused as to what in the hell you are supposed to be doing, and what the point of it is? I know its supposed to somewhat sync with the actual TV show and I understand content will be rolled out in conjunction with it. Anyways, what is the point? So far I've been sent from story line A to story line B (which sadly comes up as an instant waypoint on the map; no exploring necessary) to PEW PEW PEW a few static spawns that just keep respawning every so often and there may be a small cutscene. Rinse/repeat. Apparently, the line of people showing up behind me aern't here to help, they're simply there to do the exact same thing I was.
Then there are the random events you may drive through like 'save this ambused patrol' where you PEW PEW PEW for 20 seconds, or 2-3 waves of mobs and then it ends. Yay. This is much like the larger Arc events where 50 people stand around spamming their weapons on whatever 'boss' mob is there until it dies. No real strategy, no real skill, practically spam your full auto SMG at it. And oh look, there's an ammo box every 200m incase you ran out of ammo. What?!!! I'm not even going to get into the fact that you can jump off a 500m cliff and live.
I do have to say that I did enjoy the few small times where other players kind of moved together with somewhat of an ad-hoc 'plan' as to how to take over an apartment complex we had to free some prisoners at. As soon as the big gun NPCs showed and started raping the spray and prayers, you could feel that lightbulbs went on in peoples' heads. It was fun, but its few and far between as so far it seems like a 'drive to this waypoint, shoot this shit, do it again' setup to me.
Does anyone communicate in this game? The chat box is there yet all I see is the occassional 'thx' like I saw in GW2. There's no communication, no chat, no spam, not even the usual drivel about how this game rocks/sucks/whatever. There's nothing. I feel like I am playing a single player game that has other people playing the same single player game in it and the only time we interact is if we happen to be on the same part of the same quest at the same time.
So what am I missing? As I said, I WANT to like this game. I see potential and I know its new but seriously, what is the point/goal/endgame of this; what drives the fun that this should give as a MMO?
Comments
A couple of things...
First, you basically described every MMO with the observation that you just run around and do one of x number of things. Nothing new there, other than Defiance is a 3rd person shooter rather than a tab-target hotkey platform. You have quests, and you can look at your map to see where to go, or you can head to the waypoint on your HUD. Sometimes you have to turn stuff in, but usually the quest is resolved right after you do the thing. Some quests a part of a series, which open up further quests. They may not be related to any main story, but they are still kind of neat if you take the time to listen to what you are doing.
The Ark Falls can seem a bit overwhelming, and look like it's just a bunch of people unloading on a boss. Except that you'll never complete it if you just do that. A lot of the mobs, and every boss, have weakpoints that you have to exploit in order to actually deal meaningful damage. Some of the larger bug things have really tough shells which, although you could unlead a ton of amo into it and eventually kill it, can be bypassed by hitting certain exposed spots during some attacks and movements, which requires a little precision. It gets even more hectic when fighting multiples of the same type. I still remember how awesome if felt the first time I had a big ass Matriarch bug show up with no one around to help. The thing was huge, and seemed impervious, but after a few moments of dodging and poking and prodding, I figured out where to attack and when. Great fight, and it really felt like I acomplished something.
That said, there are some really annoying and crappy things about it. The UI sucks. Information about the game is non-existant, which means you have no clue what weapons to equip (they are all different even if they look similar), how to add mod slots (you have to unequip the item first), what the item level really means (not a hell of a lot, at least in terms of stats), how to join instances and PvP (open a menu by pressing Left CTRL of all things), and so many other weird problems.
It's not perfect, and I imagine if you go into it like it's a "typical" MMO, where you are racing to hit the cap or something, you'll be either bored really fast, or confused because of how the "end game" concept doens't really exist there. For me, I really enjoy it because I think the combat mechanics are a lot of fun. The fights feel frantic and dynamic, and it has a real Gears of War or Mass Effect feel to combat, minus the cover systems. The setting seems pretty interesting, and I'm excited to see how the content is expanded through DLC, patches, and the TV show.
You make me like charity
Chat system is horrible, there's no doubt about it. Even worse is if you turn off voice chat, it seems to disable the actual text chat as well, at least for some people. Hopefully they can fix that though.
You make me like charity