Defiance

Game Critics (8 out of 10)

I may not know what other MMOs offer, but something that feels like a single-player game where other people just happen to show up is just about the best possible thing I can imagine. Coming from this perspective, Defiance delivers.

TrueAchievements ( )

At the end of the day, Defiance is a buffet of content that will supply gamers with hundreds of hours of game time that is not only filled with a variety of gameplay, but also lots of fun. Once you embrace this war-torn world, you will be engrossed in a constantly-changing environment that is a blast to explore along with a well-thought-out story. Keep in mind that the mold for Defiance is staged as an MMO but may not be rich enough for true MMO aficionados. Despite this lack of depth, Defiance is a game that can be enjoyed by many different gamers, from RPG fans to shooter fans. It does a little bit of everything just well enough to be worthwhile to those intrigued by its promise.

Cheat Code Central (3.8 out of 5)

As an MMO, though, Defiance does alright for itself. It gives players a massive world to explore and do quests in, as well as co-op missions and Deathmatch/Domination PvP modes. It’s jam-packed with content, and it gets more interesting once you’ve invested several hours into it.

The Digital Fix (7 out of 10)

Despite the ropey opening few hours Defiance settles into its rhythm very nicely and becomes a game that is so easily picked up and played you cannot help but fall for it a little. Yes for every positive there are at least two negatives but ultimately it’s light, fun and most of all an experience that console players currently do not have. Never write an MMO off because of first week issues and you’d be a fool to think that Defiance wasn’t going to get better.

Console Monster (70 out of 100)

I find myself thinking about the game and wanting to play when I am not at my Xbox and I am enjoying exploring the world so it’s obviously doing something right. I just hope that now we have seen the first episode of the show (which in my opinion was a good start to a TV series) that this and the show continue and live up to their potential. This is a great starting block for what future MMO gaming and online gaming could be like on consoles and while some seasoned MMO players may be left wanting more, for me it’s enjoyable enough.

Gaming Nexus (7 out of 10)

Giving credit where it's due, Trion Worlds took a huge risk with this hybrid MMO and spanning it across the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3. Beautiful scenery and plentiful missions provide a backbone for the game, and there is a huge world to explore and enjoy, but lag issues cause some of the enjoyment to change to frustration. The 360 version limits interactions with other players and turns it into a glorified standard multiplayer title. If that's what you prefer, the 360 title is for you. However, MMOs should stay on the PC, and that is exactly the case with Defiance.

Games TM (7 out of 10)

Mechanically, it's a by-the-numbers third-person shooter, but with a never-ending stream of quests, side missions and exploring to occupy your time with, it's easy to waste away the hours. Any resistance found comes, surprisingly, from the writing. The characters that inhabit Defiance are routinely frustrating, with the cheesy sci-i dialogue and painful characterisations often forcing you to reach for the mute button - it certainly doesn't make us excited for the upcoming TV series. Still, it's easy enough to ignore the terrible story and get on with what Defiance does best: letting you bask in the glory of marauding through a vast open world with an army of players sitting (silently) by your side.

Gamer.nl (7 out of 10)

Misschien moeten we het als volgt uitleggen. In de wereld van Defiance hebben een aantal buitenaardsen een enorm lelijke neus. Deze neus is echt heel prominent en je kunt er gewoon niet omheen. Je kan denken: dit is verder een heel interessant persoon met veel diepgang, maar allemachtig wat een lelijke neus. Het spel Defiance op de Xbox 360 heeft hetzelfde probleem. We hopen dan ook van harte dat toekomstige patches (die al zijn aangekondigd) iets aan het uiterlijk van de game kunnen verbeteren. Nu doet het spel, net zoals de grootneuzige aliens, soms zeer om naar te kijken.

411mania.com (7 out of 10)

Overall, Defiance is a good foundation for a console MMO. It’s a decent experience, but doesn’t break the mold in any new ways and actually doesn’t capture the full charm a PC MMO has. That being said, it is enjoyable to run around with a friend in to see the war-torn world of San Francisco. If you’ve seen the series it’s also worth a look to get more of a look into what happened before the show started.

XboxAchievements (65 out of 100)

Defiance is a mixture of one genre that is amazingly popular on consoles and one that isn’t, but perhaps should be. But the marriage is one that never quite seems to work as the shooting aspects feel far too underwhelming while the questing and side missions are too bland to keep you hooked. With weapons just being very slight variations on each other you never feel obliged to forage for loot, so the gloss soon comes off. Sure you can enjoy hanging out with friends but even that side of the game feels like it has been abandoned on the 360 rather than properly integrated. Defiance may have you wasting away the hours, but this is not going to be the game to draw in new fans to the genre.

COGConnected / Canadian Online Gamers Network (64 out of 100)

If you can look past its technical flaws, Defiance does have something to offer. Though many of the features found in Defiance aren’t new to PC gamers, it is great to see a developer share the MMO genre with consoles. All in all Defiance can be a fun game, though it is difficult to enjoy its many features when so many bugs run rampant. The visual slowdown combined with the Internet related issues creates quite a mess at times, but when the game is working I can appreciate its uniqueness. The game is expecting several updates in content, and DLC is certain. One can only hope the game receives some much-needed polish and fixing via updates to further progress against the current issues that are prevalent.

MondoXbox (6.3 out of 10)

Defiance è un gioco dall’ottimo potenziale rimasto però quasi totalmente inespresso. L’idea di unire le meccaniche di uno sparatutto in terza persona a quelle di un MMO è molto interessante e gli sviluppatori di Trion Worlds meritano solo elogi per aver avuto il coraggio di lanciare il gioco anche su console, ma in ogni caso sono convinto che il risultato sarebbe potuto essere migliore con solo qualche accorgimento in più. Defiance è tutto sommato in grado di divertire soprattutto quando ad entrare in gioco è il fattore co-op, ma nel suo complesso non mi ha conquistato come speravo: già dopo poche ore di gioco la ripetitività delle missioni e le varie lacune evidenziate sono venute a galla e il fattore noia è esploso fragorosamente. In definitiva si tratta di un gioco che personalmente trovo adatto solo per gli appassionati degli MMO e dei titoli fondati sulla collaborazione con altri giocatori: tutti gli altri probabilmente troveranno pochi motivi per acquistarlo.

Thunderbolt Games (6 out of 10)

Defiance remains at its best when you can interact with other people, be it thirty players during an Arkfall event, or with two or three as you find yourselves seamlessly coming together during a side quest. It has ambitions of shaking up the monotonous MMO formula, speeding up progression with freedom and dynamically handling the way you interact with quests. Those elements work with aplomb, but they’re disrupted by a litany of glitches and enemies that aren’t particularly fun to fight, embroiled in an undefined world. To their credit, Trion Worlds’ support has been admirable so far, and there’s hope for growth, but in its current state Defiance strikes a precarious balancing act between fleeting enjoyment and impeding flaws.

GameSpot (6 out of 10)

Menus taking many long seconds before the screen populates with any information. Mission progress lost and weapons gone missing. Frequent server downtimes. Delayed or failed attempts to break down your items into resources. These are some of the obstacles you must circumvent to enjoy Defiance to its fullest, and even then, nothing Defiance does is best in class. Yet it has that special spark that ignites the desire to press forward. Defiance's merely acceptable systems are deftly assembled in a way that allows you to spread your proverbial wings and offer your gun-wielding talents to those who need you most. Much like its own arkfalls, Defiance offers treasure, but you have to battle an array of bugs before you can reap it.

Official Xbox Magazine (UK) (6 out of 10)

There aren't any games like Defiance available on Xbox, and that's to its credit. And the thing about games like Defiance is that they can change and evolve over time - like the beasts prowling the forests of this brand new earth. Still, Defiance has quite a few mutations to go before we can thoroughly recommend it.

Official XBox Magazine (6 out of 10)

And yet, after powering through dozens of missions, blasting thousands of foes, and weathering frustrating flaws, we remain curious. We see Defiance’s potential in the little interactions and grand moments alike, and while our first impression has been rougher than hoped, we’ll be back in six months or a year to see how the concept has been expanded and refined. It’s just unlikely that we’ll spend much of the meantime watching Defiance struggle through its growing pains.

IGN (5.5 out of 10)

As a huge science-fiction nerd and a fan of shooters, I went in really wanting to like Defiance and its new universe. Thing is, it’s just not very good. Rare well-designed quests are overshadowed by a host of others that feel phoned in, and though the fundamentals of shooting are competent, weak enemy AI makes the PvE combat a bore. Respectable PvP combat goes a long way, but especially when the performance issues rear their ugly head, it's not far enough to make Defiance a recommendable experience.

Jeuxvideo.com (11 out of 20)

Selon les personnes, Defiance pourra être vu comme un MMO moyen, mais original, ou comme un mauvais TPS avec quelques fonctionnalités multijoueurs sympathiques. Dans tous les cas, le constat est mitigé. Ainsi, entre un éditeur de personnages incomplet, un gameplay mou et mal équilibré, une aire de jeu monotone et des bugs graphiques à la pelle, il n'y a clairement pas de quoi s'extasier. Reste que l'idée d'associer TPS et MMO est bonne et donne lieu à quelques phases pour le moins intenses. Malheureusement, un bon concept ne fait pas nécessairement un bon jeu...

Eurogamer.net (UK) (5 out of 10)

There's certainly a worthwhile game in here, teasingly close to the surface. Maybe in 12 months' time the TV show will be a big hit and the game will have been patched and updated into the experience it was clearly meant to be. If that's the case, it'll be a hard-earned and well-deserved victory. For now, proceed with caution.

4Players.de (49 out of 100)

Dabei rechne ich es Trion sogar hoch an, dass sie Onlinerollenspiel und Shooter so umfassend verbinden wollen. Dass die große Welt durch dynamische Ereignisse mit ein wenig Fantasie lebendig wirkt. Dass ich schnell mit Gleichgesinnten zusammen-, Einzelgängern aber nie in die Quere komme. Dass ich meine Ausrüstung verbessere und meine Fähigkeiten durch Learning-by-Doing stärke und mit aus dem Nichts gegriffenen Erfahrungspunkten lediglich meine passiven Fertigkeiten erweitere. Doch das sind nur Bausteine eines gut gemeinten Fundaments, das als halbfertige Ruine stehenbleibt. Die Geschichte ist trotz ihrer Anbindung an eine brandneue TV-Serie furchtbar uninteressant, das Erscheinen vertrauter Gesichter nichtssagend und jede einzelne Mission ideenlos als Ballerbude konzipiert, dass die Luft schneller raus ist als man "Konservenshooter" rufen kann.

Game Revolution ( )

It doesn't hurt to give a low score to games that have no effort put into them, but it breaks a reviewer's heart to do so fora game where you can see the hard work and potential. Defiance is full of good ideas and a bevy of solid MMORPG systems, but it's all buried under a messy-looking, shoddily designed shooter that you'd never enjoy on its own merits. I applaud Trion for attempting something so ambitious; I really do. But ambition is no substitute for solid core mechanics. If it were, Defiance would indeed be a rare jewel, rather than the chintzy rhinestone it turned out to be.

Metro.co.uk (4 out of 10)

A mix of low budget, (relatively) high ambition, and mediocre execution, Defiance is a hard game to hate but an easy one to lose interest in.

Gaming Age (D)

So no, I don’t really think Defiance is worth picking up or checking out in its current state. There are a lot of things about the game that I enjoy despite the flaws, but until some of the things mentioned above get ironed out, it’s certainly not something that begs to be played. Defiance can still get its hooks in you in the addictive way that most MMO’s do, but there’s a point where frustration with the various issues will continue to build, and make you put the game up for good. Once those issues are fixed, assuming they will be, then I imagine we’ll have a decent experience on our hands, especially for console gamers that don’t get a lot of MMO love. But until then, I’d suggest saving your time and money for something that actually works and feels complete.