Defiance

Yesterday my son and I downloaded Defiance. I thought it might be something he was interested in playing, he loves shooters and was looking for an MMO to play. I figured I could try to have some fun with him and maybe end up with one of those awesome Dodge Challengers in the game (we have a pretty blue one IRL, I don't get to drive near enough >.<).

I started playing it first, wanting to check it out beforehand to gauge it. I read a bit on it here and there, it always sounded interesting, but I'm not much at shooter games. I never felt I was much good at them, to be honest. If you play some of the newer games like TESO, it is easy to get into, or even console games. The camera angles and such. It is a third person shooter, mouse/camera swings around the whole screen, which used to bother me but not as much these days. So, I did a few missions, seemed interesting enough. Got a little buggy type vehicle, or rather a four wheeler. It was a pain to control but went a lot faster than on foot. Great for getting across the massive maps.

Later on my son downloaded it. I met up with him, which is so nice and easy with the port to friend option. Instantly ports you to them and I didn't notice a cool down. I have got to say this is a great game to play with friends. It isn't bad solo but playing with someone else really is a freaking blast. What is nice is that you can jump in and join your friends without much worry about catching up. There is a leveling system but it is more so based on EGO points (think at it if WoW only based levels off of talent points or if EverQuest based levels by AA points, similar to how that would feel).

We rode around a bit, ignoring the story for a bit, doing random events. Which was a lot of fun. Then he wanted to head to San Francisco to do some main story line for the season. We were kind of mixed up on which to do first. It was a bit tough, we had some weapon upgrades but nothing spectacular. We finished it up and then stumbled upon some very large scale events. I think I made 15k scrip off of one. There are several currencies, scrip is mainly what you use to buy vehicles and a lot of weapons and upgrades. But the event, it was crazy. Big monster bugs (Hellbugs! so this is where they come from), robots and just lots of people around! Very, very cool.

We both managed to get new rides. I wanted a Challenger, ASAP, so I had read up where to get one. We headed over and grabbed ours. They are sweet, they take more damage, go faster than the old vehicles and control MUCH better. I'm not constantly running into everything, heh. That was a real highlight. There is a black one you can grab through the achievement system, I'd like to get it eventually. For now my orange one is quite alright with me. All covered in armor, it is a sweet ride!

What is refreshing, for me, about Defiance is the combat. Just nice to shoot things up and not follow a rotation. Swapping out guns, awesome. Lots of hotkeys to remember but they are very simple, such as V for vehicle, G for grenade, lol. I love the sniper action. Zooming up on a baddie's head and killing them, such satisfaction there. It is PvE, there are PvP games, but right now PvE is more than enough for me.

We jumped in and had a really great time. We didn't know much about what was going on, how levels worked and we didn't much care, we were having fun. It was refreshing to just feel like a true noob again, everything fresh and new and fun. Something I have not experienced in a long time, all combined together. I think Dire felt a little left out, sitting playing Diablo. I've asked him to play, it has big guns and cool cars! He isn't much for shooters though. I think he'd like it, regardless. It is a good game. I'm still working on having him join us, it would be even more fun. Still working on my brother Heri to join us!

Graphics are decent, runs great for me. Music is neat as well, very interesting at times. The feel of the game has a post apocalyptic touch for sure. Lots of great appearance items (I've seen on others). No screenshot function in game, I had thought we had one and missed out on a lot of great shots. So I had to paste a few in this morning, with paint (has to be in windowed mode to take them). Me have a post without screenshots? Haha... ! And the shift key... remember, that makes everything go faster.

I don't know how much I will play alone. I found myself playing already this morning, having fun riding around doing some events, that is a good sign. However, with others is where this game really shines. It is free, definitely worth a download just to try it. It ties in with the show. I've only watched a couple of episodes, I really liked it a lot, just not much time to catch it on a regular basis but I might try to catch up now. You see the main characters and others, which is neat. Even if you don't watch the show, it isn't a big deal.

All in all great fun to be had. Great with friends, easy to get in and out of, lots of missions and events. Easy to get to friends and get going. Bigger vehicles (cars and such) can ride two people. Give it a go, you might end up having some fun. I will say I was pleasantly surprised.