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[General Article] Defiance: Review In Progress #3
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
We are winding down our series of 'review in progress' articles for Trion Worlds' Defiance. In the third installment, we take a look at PvP and the latest (and largest) patch. Check out our thoughts before adding your own to the mix in the comments.
Another week in Trion’s MMO shooter, and this time we’re going to focus on the PVP aspects of the game, its recent mega-patch, and even a little bit of the show. I figure, since I’ve been slowed in my playtime since my young progeny came into the world, we’ll take another week after this, and then hit the final Review in early May. I’m not about to scrimp on the time needed to get this right, just because my days are filled with dirty diapers. I’ve logged nearly thirty hours and have broken into the EGO 300+ range. I’ve spent a few days this week with the Echelon PVP and the Shadow War, so let’s start with them, shall we?
Read more of Bill Murphy's Defiance Review In Progress #3.
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I was sad to find this Bar was not the social hub Id hoped it would be.
Comments
I did not watch the show which is no suprise since I only watch sports on tv and news
I mentioned first impressions because while they said they will be changeing alot, im afraid I have moved on already.
Idea was great it just didnt fill my expectations. Looks like it back to the good ole pc for me.
The patch has improved the game a little at least. I have now played through the main storyline twice and experienced most of the rest of the content but still find irritating little issues causing me to log off, for example: -
1) The social functions or lack thereof.
2) The time trials are handled server side with the result that +2-10 seconds are regularly added to your time knocking you from one medal category into the next. Contrarily the weapon damage is handled client side with several one-shotter modders ruining gameplay.
I feel like I have experienced all the content in a few short evenings of gameplay (I am circa 1000 ego with the weapons I use at lvl 20) and just hope more content is introduced to keep me returning, as I enjoy the gameplay a lot.
If I want a world in which people can purchase success and power with cash, I'll play Real Life. Keep Virtual Worlds Virtual!
Bunny hoppers are annoying as hell. It is cheap and it is effective. My suggestion is like you said dimishing returns on the successive hops, and / OR make the crotch a crit point. So if the person jumps in front of you, when you shoot where his head was, you still hit the nuts and crit on him.
Plus it is always cool to shoot someone in the huevos :P
I cannot agree with the making the Shadow War 24/7. The intensity is driven by having the 32 on 32 action with capping points and whatnot right then and there. They do need to extend the times and allow for the newbies to play to get a feeling for what they are supposed to do, I suppose. The deathmatch games they HAVE to increase the kills to like 35 or 50 or something.. cause they end WAY too soon.
The biggest improvement from the patch is seperating text chat with voice chat. When you muted voice chat your Text Chat Window was "muted" too. So there was no way to communicate with people if you have voice off.
Speaking of Voice chat.. I will caps this, as it is that important... MAKE VOICE CHAT PUSH TO TALK BY DEFAULT!!! No one wants to hear someone breathing heavy and calling for their mother. Nobody.
Right now they don't have PTT in the game as far as I have seen... even in the alpha there were pleas to make PTT the norm, but...
There are cheaters in game. Some are obvious, some not so much. There are some who exploit the game by ... well let's just say, those one shots from a shotgun from 15 meters away.... not equipment in their inventory...
So yes, they need to crack down harshly on the cheating.
But the game is fun. And let them throw in brand names... let more car companies pay to have their cars put in the game. More variety and their bottom line gets fulfilled.
The show and this game, have nothing in common so far. Except there is an arc "reactor" and the Votan. Other than that..not so much. Besides, while I DO like this game, I prefer watching "Darla" :P
Fixing the VOIP highlights where their priorities are, namely consoles. What they should be really looking at is fixing the fucking chat system, but they won't because it's mainly something that PC players will be worried about and I'm pretty sure that PC will be a fairly small percentage of the population.
It still feels like I'm playing a solo game most of the time, and that's pretty much down to the fact that nobody bothers to type in chat, why should they, it's fucked.
Definately starting to lose faith in this one. Haven't logged in for days apart from checking to see what the patch fixed. And seeing that chat is still a steaming pile of shit, well I just logged off again.
Thanks for the review Bill
I think the Shadow War isnt actually a clone of the same map...The players are there , you just can't shoot them unless you sign up...
Atleast , I saw them when I went inside the purple area withou signing up..I saw one of those mounted gun cars with players..
I think ...Defiance is a great game, I always said they needed this combat system -the hightech gun weaponry in Rift..The combat in Rift(classic MMO style) felt complely wrong when partaking in overland Rifts..and now we have Defiance so I guessed they felt that at some level aswell
I do however feel that they need to open up the game more in a rather hasty manner, othervise players will bore out eventually..The combat is fun and hectic in the normal gameplay But The Arkfalls has to be more strategic and difficult, right now it's basically impossible to die in a large one unless you are just to few players..
.For me Defiance is a solid 8/10
Feels kinda weird that It get's such a low overall score thou..It's fun and got a hell of a potential to be great even..
"Overall, Im still quite enjoying Defiance despite it being sort of halfway between competent shooter and competent MMO. Its almost a genre all its own, and thats probably why in later weeks of the advertising campaign, Trion backed away from calling it an MMO shooter (among other reasons I dont need to rant again about here). If a games fun, thats really all that counts. I like hopping online for ten minutes to several hours and progressing the missions, engaging the pursuits, and getting gibbed in PVP. "
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
I went through the trouble (and you know what I mean if you've registered) of creating an account simply to point out one thing:
You used this word: "niggling"
Really? Is that the word you chose? What do you think little Liam (is that who you keep blaberring about that came into this crappy world?) would say 10 or 20 years from now?
Just only one thing to say about the use of that word: THAT'S RACIST.
lol... funny read ... crotch shots ftw!
Bunny hopping is, like, rappent in all MMO's even in ones where it doesn't make a blind bit of a difference like WoW and Rift. Not much you can do about it really.
Yeah niggling is no more racist than the word niggardly learn2english.
Steam: Neph
Verb
Cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety: "a nasty leg wound which still niggled at him".
Find fault with (someone) in a petty way: "he loved to niggle and criticize people".
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Why developers think they have to have voice coded in their game is beyond me. Outside voice servers work far better and software available is better.
I was disappointed with the game, why it is pared with the TV show is the big question as the TV show is nothing like the game at all.
I was hoping Trion would do a better job on this game as their past games have shown promise. This was one project they were not up to.
SoE's is decent and the only one Ive seen used, but still not as good as the major providers.
However forcing voice on everyone and making typing nonexistent/an inconvenience is not smart imo. people will see absolutely no chat happening and think the game is not lively.
Because it's a console game. It's UI is a dead give away. The prime market is consoles. We poor PC fuckers get a buggerd chat system they don't give a fuck about because console players don't generally use key/b they use in game voip.
haha, half an answer.
The show isnt good, isnt bad. I hope they get their pacing better and lose some of the heavy cliche elements...really unimpressed by the writers/direction, save the dialogue quibble.
Yeah, the show is certainly not Battlestar Galactica/ Game of Thrones/ Walking Dead.
Cliched, unsubtle and heavily relying on rather trite action sequences.
I've been playing it like a SP game and thats not bad for the most part. But I am also a casual player, only playing an hour or two at a time. But for a game that is supposed to be part MMO the chat is unusable and I turn of VOIP because it's all open mic.
I'm disapointed that instead of fixing the things that could improve the game and make it a little more MMO-like that they just stopped towing the MMO line.
I'd ask for my money back if I thought I could get it. It's the fourth underwhelming game release I have bought in the past year. It's not a bad game, just not worth the $60 I've sunk into it.