So I bought Defiance at launch and decided to try it out even if its not my usual thing. Generally don't overtly favour sci-fi games and shooters but I did love Borderlands 2 so... eh why not. I had some friends that were going to buy the game anyway so I decided to join them.
My first hour in Defiance was uninteresting to say the least. I had a few issues with the game from the very start. The controls and UI felt a little lacking but that could be because I was still getting used to it (and I'm nubby at shooters ^^;). It was very Borderlands-ish minus the crazy gun names and humour, which I supposed could work well depending on how the game pans out. Defiance has a really bad tutorial. Besides it being really laggy, the controls weren't explained properly, the entire experience felt rushed and fell flat. I promise that you'll actually enjoy the game alot more AFTER the tutorial. Everything gets better after your first 2 hours in Defiance.
Character models for this game is... fugly, but I guess you don't play a game like Defiance and want cutesy/pretty characters... so this rather fits the game. Overall graphics are gorgeous and my screenshots look beautiful despite the game's post-apocalyptic look.
Defiance is truly a level-less game with something called EGO Rating (that you gain as you earn XP) that you spend on buying perks (kinda like passives). Perk slots are unlocked as you gain higher EGO Ratings. This makes the game scale alot better, and you are able to join a lowbie friend in quests/Co-ops without ruining his experience of the game or sap his XP. Gun damage is similar for all except for a slight increase in stats with better quality guns.
Connection from Malaysia seemed spotty at areas with high player density. Lag was inescapable when it came to large scale Arkfalls where it took the game ages to realise that you changed weapons. At least it was ok when out of those massive Arkfalls. The game was alot less laggy when just questing or in Co-ops. Co-ops are really fun (especially when doing it for the first time). My friends are mostly from Australia and Singapore so it doesnt seem too different in terms of lag. On those rare occasions that we had to get a random person in for a Co-op run, we seem to lag ALOT. It's frustrating and for that reason alone, I no longer queue for random matchmakings if I can help it.
Chat is buggy :( It doesnt appear at times and this has to be the quietest MMO ever! There is almost never any chatter... maybe because chat window is too tiny or buggy or whatever. But... I like it! The silence is much better than TERA's influx of rubbish players spamming general with nonsense :) Kinda why I dislike f2p games so much.
And Defiance first ep has finished downloading! ^_^ brb!
