My Thoughts About DEFIANCE Xbox Game

Hey, remember when we reviewed Defiance on the PlayStation 3? You know, MMO for consoles, TV show, future of media and all that? You can’t forget Defiance! Actually, you can. That game’s a mess on the PS3. But you might remember that I said. See? It wasn’t all bad with Defiance. If it would’ve run better on the PS3, it could’ve ‘been a decent shooter, and a fun MMO. If only, right? Well, listen...I have some good news and bad news.

The good news is, the Xbox version doesn’t run like dead car battery. So hey...that must mean this Defiance is actually decent, right? Well, only after a few hours of installation, and patch downloads, and failed patch downloads, and then re-downloads of previously failed patches. But after that? This Defiance is actually decent. That’s me being a smart ass, by the way. Whoa, alien tempers! Alright, to be fair, Defiance is a lot less broken on the 360.

The game still doesn’t run great, but...way fewer problems than the PS3 version, for some reason. And it really is nice to play Defiance with fewer bugs, and glitches. I mean, there are still bugs, but...these ones, you can shoot. Anyway, if you missed our PS3 review and have no idea what I’m talking about...this game’s called Defiance.

It’s a pretty ambitious idea, too. Not only is it an MMO shooter for consoles, but it’s also a TV show...and one of the biggest examples of transmedia production to date. The game and show are telling a story together. And that’s kind of awesome. What’s a little less awesome is the game’s approach to leveling up. Defiance is obviously a multiplayer-focused game, so to create better balance between players, leveling up is very subtle.

And although that does level the playing field a bit, it also means...you never really feel like you’re getting better, or benefitting from all the missions. It makes things seem...kind of pointless, at times. Fortunately, the missions are many. And the game play’s solid Defiance is a perfectly decent shooter. And although its missions aren’t terribly exciting the fun is in.

The sheer amount, the sense of freedom and the feeling that this really is a war, with lots of other fighters around you. You might see a battle and decide to jump in, others can do the same for you...throw in a nice list of multiplayer options, and Defiance manages to achieve a pretty respectable MMO feel on consoles.

Of course, that said, it comes at a cost. It runs worse on the PS3, but...the game has problems on the 360, as well. Screen tearing, frame rate drops...sadly, all too common, and still problematic. But this is definitely the better version in terms of performance. Enough so that...even with its flaws, I actually had fun with it this time. Defiance tries to be a lot of different things.

A shooter, an MMO, a science fiction saga...an entire brand, really. The video game falls way short of living up to those ambitious aspirations. But you know...even with its boring missions and sluggish performance and average game play, Defiance still has its moments. And they break less on the Xbox 360.


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