Gareth Harmer delivers his final preview opinion of Trion's shooter MMO

Ammunition supplies seem hit-and-miss – sometimes you’ll be swimming in bullets dropped from mobs, while other times you’ll be scraping by on a handful of rounds and using melee attacks wherever possible. Automatic weapons will rapidly eat through magazines, especially if you’re engaging in ‘spray and pray’. It can get so bad that sometimes the best solution is to charge in headfirst, die, and then choose to respawn at an extraction point rather than reviving where you are. You’ll usually find an ammo crate nearby, although it’ll take four actions to reload and replenish both primary and secondary weapons.

There’s also the rudimentary AI that’s borne of MMO development. Snipe a lone mutant and any nearby enemies will instantly pinpoint your location. Dodge round a corner and they’ll make a predictable path into oncoming fire. Defiance responds by throwing more enemies against you, spawning them from underground hatchways and inaccessible rooms, in an effort to overwhelm you with numbers. As long as you use a methodical approach and keep an eye on your shields, you’re unlikely to be caught out.

Accompanying the carnage is a form of futuristic pseudo-dubstep that starts up whenever you enter combat. Thankfully, it can be disabled independently of the general background music, most of which is actually enjoyable.

Wandering the Wasteland

Defiance encourages you to explore the post-apocalyptic wasteland that San Francisco has become, equipping you with a quad buggy in the very early stages. In some ways it’s incredibly handy, allowing you to zip along the fragmented highways at speed. The map also supports waypoints, plotting a route to your chosen destination using as much of the fragmented road as possible.

It’s just a shame that driving the vehicles is such a disappointing experience. There are two great things you can do behind the wheel in Defiance: run over skitterlings until your buggy falls apart, and drive off incredible heights to land on a crowd of the same.

It’s a toss-up between the physics model and the soundscape as to which makes the quad more unpleasant. At speed your turning circle diminishes to non-existence, but grab some air and you can pirouette like a figure skater. Clip an obstacle and you’re as likely to stop dead as you are to scrape around it. Drive full-tilt into an NPC like the arrogant Karl Von Bach himself, and you’ll rebound at the same speed you struck him at. And yet any time you try to steer, the tires squeal like an army of new sneakers being dragged backwards through a shopping mall.

There are alternative ways to move around, with the map also providing fast travel options to certain previously visited locations. Unless you have a particular desire to crunch legions of skitterlings under your fender, you’ll be using this option wherever possible.

Arkfall Adventures

Besides the main mission storyline and assorted side missions, your surroundings are frequently subjected to dynamic events. Sometimes these are low-key, such as a mutant roadblock or raider ambush, but other times Arkfall will hurl down from the sky, smashing into the ground and attracting nearby creatures. They also represent some of the best that Defiance has to offer, creating a frenzy of combat that has players racing against the clock.

Minor Arkfall events are usually multi-phased, in a similar way that rifts were in RIFT, Trion’s previous MMO. After each phase, a new wave of enemies spawns, with the entire event under a strict time limit. Major ones work slightly differently, with multiple locations requiring clean-up in order to summon a huge boss. The clouds become thunderous and burning embers start to fall from the sky, as hellbugs of all sizes become drawn to the maelstrom.

It shows off what Defiance is capable of when players work together, with no grouping required in order to get rewarded for taking part. During the recent weekend, the region was flooded with players pouncing on these larger-scale events for the large amounts of scrip they could earn. However, it remains to be seen if these events become repetitive, and thus neglected by players.

Beyond the Arkfalls, Defiance remains one of the loneliest experiences I can remember in an MMO. Players in the same phase of some missions can assist each other and contribute to objectives, but if you fall ahead or behind the pack you’ll largely be on your own. For many MMO players that’s nothing new, but it’s the lack of social communication that really struck me. The chat box is ostracized to a tiny sliver of screen, and is largely unused by players. Clear quest markers and simple controls mean that there’s never a need to ask for directions, while the reward system means that there’s no need to group up.

Defining Defiance

In building Defiance, Trion faced two challenges. The first was to develop an MMO that could be simultaneously released and updated on three platforms, including the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – two consoles that they’d never developed on before. The second was to meet a strict timetable that coincided with the pilot episode of a tie-in TV series, meaning that delays for polish and tuning were impossible.  Either of those alone would be tough for an MMO developer to meet, but I can’t help but feel that taking on both was flying too close to the sun.

Defiance has a story to tell. Your journey through San Francisco, Von Bach’s determination to rebuild the world, Cass Ducal’s continual dig at the mystery behind Tranquility – they all tie together, somehow. Even though the cut-scenes suffer from some lackluster facial animation, I have to admit that I’m still curious to see where the story goes, and how it ties into the TV series that will accompany the game. The voice overs also represent some of the best acoustic work in the game, contrasting significantly with some ability-based noises that are actually detrimental.

But it’s the sacrifices that have been made to crowbar Defiance into consoles that sadden me the most. From low-quality textures and models, and a bland color palette, to that clumsy user interface, I can’t help but think that too much has been lost in the process. The lack of social nudges and cues are also deeply concerning.

At this point in time, Defiance is a game with both equal numbers of high points and significant issues. While these might be resolved at launch, it’s difficult to say that this MMO is one to dive headfirst into. In this instance, I’d encourage you to wait for our review, due to arrive sometime after release.

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor