There are people who get really excited about a console's power, you know?
The technical specs, the processing power...that kind of stuff is really important to them.
Frankly, I'm not that kind of guy.
I'm the kind of guy who chooses lady characters, because they're more fun to look at.
I name them Sigourney Beaver.
As seen on home video.
Then I sat down to play Defiance, an ambitious shooter that tries to bring an MMO experience
to consoles.
Emphasis on "tries."
Defiance runs so poorly, it makes the PlayStation 3—a luxury import, as consoles go—seem
like a 1984 Ford Tempo.
I'm not that kind of guy, but even I thought...
"Wait, the PS3 can do a lot better than this."
I'll tell what other kind of guy I am not.
An MMO guy.
I thought Defiance was just some terrible show on the SyFy channel.
And I only knew that because of all the commercials they ran during SmackDown.
SyFy was mixing aliens with my Daniel Bryan, it was the worst!
Speaking of the worst...I'm tapping out, guys.
With this framerate.
See, that's what defines Defiance more than anything else.
More than its cool story about the future of Earth, more than its gameplay, more than
Sigourney Beaver...it's the fact that Defiance is a veritable smorgasbord of glitches, bugs
and clunkity clunk.
There were times when, all the sudden, the game just freaked out...like I was pushing
a million buttons at once.
Menus are popping up, I'm crouching...all without pushing the buttons to do those things.
And somehow, it happened, like, more than once.
Of course, sometimes the game's technical tomfoolery works to your advantage.
Like...having trouble with a group of enemies?
Hey, just walk backwards.
Eventually, they'll just disappear.
That way you can wait, let your health regenerate...and then walk back forward again.
And don't worry.
Your foes will be right where you left them.
So obviously, you take those technical issues, you add the other technical issues, Defiance
starts to fall apart a bit.
Or a lot.
And it's a bummer, because...when things worked, I had fun with Defiance.
The shooting mechanics are perfectly fine, and the game gives you plenty of stuff to
do.
Tons of side quests, in addition to the main missions, as well as a healthy list of multiplayer
options.
Thing is, though, even when the game is clicking...Defiance is never all that great.
Again, the missions and side quests are great in number, but not in design.
Most are pretty paint-by-numbers in their approach.
And you know, the leveling up is kinda weak, too.
It's neither tangible in game or intuitive to use.
It's no surprise that Defiance is much better when playing others, but even then...it's
hardly exceptional, thanks to a bit of generic design and a lot of technical issues.
It's a game that feels a bit aimless...like, it wants to be this ambitious console-based
MMO, but it just doesn't have enough ideas to back up that ambition.
Or enough polish, for that matter.
It's not a bad game, but...Defiance has some sh*t to buff out.