Defiance

[CrimsonTider]

Hello everyone!

I have always considered myself a big gamer. I began in the Atari/Intelivision days and have played everything from Burger Time to Pac-Man to Mario to Final Fantasy to Madden to Halo. However, PL was my first MMO. Unlike WoW, and others like it, it did not require a monthly fee and I loved the social aspect of it. Without going into great detail, I have been looking around and finally rented a game a guy I work with recommended a couple of months ago: Defiance.

Defiance is the first true cross-platform MMO in which it's servers are shared on Xbox, PS3, and PC. It is maxe by Trion and is based off of the t.v. show which airs on the SyFy Channel. I received the game yesterday, and after waiting for it to load and download all the patches, I hit the ground running. To say I am amazed is a true understatement. After 7 hours, I felt like I hadn't completed anything, when in fact I had just completed 7 hours of constant fighting, quest completing, world exploration excitement!

I have not ventured to the forums (yet) as I like to try my way around things first. Here are a few things I noted:

1. The world is endless. Right before I quit playing last night, I drove around on my four-wheeler (as you complete quests, you are granted more vehicles to chose from to ride!), and after 30 minutes, had not drove by the same place twice. Yeah, it is huge.

2. Quests are limitless. There are NPC's and other places in the game which grant quests. Some quests give you XP (or EGO in this game), weapons, money, keys, and more. Some quests are like the timed runs in AL where you compete against others and you can see where you fall on the leaderboard immediately. And when I say these quests are limitless, you can be driving on a road and a quest to free prisoners will just pop up in the middle of the road while you are driving to a quest which you had picked up elsewhere.

3. The Ark. In this game, you are known as an Ark Hunter and the big "boss" fights are against the Ark. When they randomly show up, a red notification symbol will pop up on your map to notify you of location and distance. Once arriving, the type of Ark will determine the strategy needed to defeat it. Some Arks only need to be destroyed, some have monsters which spawn constantly until it is taken down. The more people who join the fight will determine how fast the Ark goes down.

Which brings me to my next point...

4. You can play with THOUSANDS of people at one time. I was skeptical at first. Then, I fought an Ark yesterday and when I arrived, there were so many people attacking it I could not count. I tried standing in one spot and to say 200 were fighting would be way off. It was crazy! And get this: NO LAG!

5. Equips. Throughout the game you will farm your gear (duh), and they comprise of weapons, grenades, shields, and vehicles. Weapons can be modified in two ways: Combining with another weapon or combining with a mod. Mods consist of stocks, scopes, and so on, which make the weapon more accurate and powerful. Weapon-weapon modifications make the weapon more powerful and also give it special abilities. You can also "level" your weapon the more you use it. I currently use a pistol the most because of my class and it's accuracy. As I have used it more and more, it becomes more accurate, powerful, and increases it's clip capacity.

5. Abilities. There is an ability skill tree which is phenomenal. You begin the game by selecting one of 4 abilities (I choose cloaking which makes me invisible) and as you gain more ego, your ability unlocks sub-abilities which add to your character. One of my sub-abilities allows me a greater chance for a kill to drop loot. Each sub ability has 3 levels and you can level them up as you gain more ego.

There is plenty more: Two classes with male and female versions each, you can customize your class from looks to the type of character they are, and on and on.

Yes, there are items you can buy with real money, but that is only if you are impatient. My friend who introduced me to the game said everything you can use in the came can be dropped in the game: Exactly how it should be! If anyone has played or would like to play, let me know and we can try and hook up.

Will update this thread as I learn more and see if there is a growing interest.