SCORE
Gameplay: 7.5
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Overall: 8
Pros: great graphics, interesting skill development system plus strong story and narrative.
Cons: characters hang too long when they jump.
Last week, we dedicated some of our time to check out Defiance, the futuristic action-based sci-fi MMOFPS/ shooter MMORPG from Trion Worlds (Rift, ArcheAge, Trove). On a post-apocalyptic Earth in the aftermath of an alien invasion, players step into the shoes of well-known Ark Hunters, mercenary-style scientists tasked with uncovering technologically advanced Ark Tech.
The MMO coincides with the events in the SyFy Channel TV show of the same name, with crossover characters appearing in the game as well as many of the themes and storylines that are unfolding with each season.
For we’ve never played the game as of now nor watched the show, we were interested in seeing which means developers had in store in order to get us up-to-date concerning the game’s lore, which with non-franchise games frequently turns out to be no easy task when there’s already an established base of enthusiasts along with an in-depth background. We fortunately noticed a moderate flow of information revealed through character backgrounds presented throughout the character creation process as well as a comprehensive cut-scene that leads into the tutorial, meaning that players aren’t overwhelmed but feel sufficiently provided with details and well prepared for entering this somewhat new world.
The initial impression in regards to the game’s visuals was that they looked quite up-to-date and modern, which we highly appreciate with an F2P title, since, in all honesty, people have come to expect this more and more (although not every game is able to live up to that expectation). Likewise the sound, music and special effects left a similar nice impression. When it comes to controls, these are pretty much standard without being exceedingly complex; the physics with the character jumping, however, felt as if hanging a bit too long in the air, which just is a tiny trifle.
Right after the cut-scene (don’t expect any spoiler), our adventure began with being guided past a fairly simple tutorial-type starting area by our Environmental Guardian Online (EGO for short), which is more or less a virtual character projection providing players with advice and tips and acting as their principal quest giver as well as an ideal source of exposition to advance the narrative.
Everything we were faced with within this area could mostly be finished with one hit while targeting enemies with our sniper rifle (which didn’t present any scope bob when zoomed in) or our pistol didn’t seemed to be extremely difficult. We therefore swiftly navigated across the zone, looting weapon cachets, including a few grenades, to stock up our load out arsenal.
Our equipment recovered, we were guided by EGO on our primary EGO skill, allowing us to try out several options including Blur (moving quickly and taking opponents down with a melee attack), Decoy (creates a virtual version of your character to distract your foes), Overcharge (additional damage), and Cloaking (turning imperceptible). We then were able to decide which of those 4 skills we’d like to enhance by spending points in the skill tree.
In many regards, this allows players to choose their class/ role; however all available abilities and the various skills are linked to each other in a grid, enabling players to find their way toward primary EGO skills while picking up additional ability skill nodes along their way. A pretty interesting system we think and a welcome change to the classical class-based skill tree, which offers much more variety and provides potential for unique hybrid templates.
Geared up and trained, we were directed into a compound of mutated humans, tasked with ruthlessly blasting them down like the freakish abominations they are! Due to the quite brisk respawn rate in the area, enemies were re-emerging pretty rapidly after being killed; however, the area is a public starting zone so that players actually notice other players in there once in a while. With the enemy forces ever-growing, we had to overcharge a generator in order to try and blow the whole base and were supported in this task by an unlikely ally we had come across along the way and had helped us out upon our initial "arrival" in the zone. When this job was done, a short cut-scene followed and then departing words from our companion before we were sent off to the new area.
On the whole, our quick first look and play test left us with the impression of a game that looked and played great. Defiance’s pace and the introduction of the story felt good and its systems, though having a somewhat different take in comparison to other shooter MMORPGs, were still sufficiently familiar to allow for being picked up easily. Is Defiance worth giving it a shot? We’d say yes, it definitely felt like a promising start and would be worth checking out further.
In case you’re interested in finding out more about this game, feel free to activate the INFO button further below.
Deja tu comentario
You must be logged in to post a comment.