50
Defiance may be an ambitious project. Linking an online action game with a TV-series is a smart idea but one that here mostly comes of as a mere gimmick. The story is unengaging and the action mediocre and monotonous. Not to say anything about the myriad of bugs that utterly destroys the experience.
89
It’s an addictive game that seems to become even better as you play. If it keeps getting the right support and if the tie-in with the TV series proves successful, we might have a game that will keep us occupied for a lengthy amount of time. [May 2013]
74
Only time will tell if the game linked to a TV series shtick will pan out, but for the time being, I am glad Trion is taking the risk.
10
The series does stand its own a watchable, with a West Side Story vibe mixed with a bit of Wild West-meets-Farscape.
6
Harder to play with others; finding players close to or equal to character level, UI settings are very complex. There is a lack of content(quests,rewards etc.) to find the best weapons to use for maps or even for PVP. Overall good but requires a lot of time in order to customize the characters. Just doesn't look as active even with a moderate community playing. Chat system is really quiet with just players selling items/weapons in announcements.
4
Defiance at the beginning will be interesting, but over the time the lack of content and due to generic and dull quests will start getting to be tedious over the time, I had a great time playing Defiance with a friend of mine, but within a month we started to realize that we were doing the same thing over and over again, another negative point of this game, is DLC Weapons, although you can obtain them as random loot, you can't use them unless you have the respective DLC, and there are some overpowered DLC weapons like the Castithian Blade, the AI is pretty bad and sometimes will have major bugs that will ruin the experience, the PvP is plagued by lag and Castithian Blade users, and the tutorial explains from little to nothing, the UI is pretty bad, players assets doesn't even load alright, as most players appears to me with a common appearance or shape, also visual glitches are very common to find in Defiance, and the Inventory is very limited in storing space unless you buy more, the servers are very bad as mostly I have to retry five or seven times to be able to play, I don't really recommend this unless you have plenty of time, patience and the temperament to play this.
Defiance
Released On:
Apr 2, 2013
Metascore
Mixed or Average
64
User score
Mixed or Average
6.5
My Score
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
64
13% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
83% Mixed
33 Reviews
33 Reviews
5% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Jun 5, 2013
89
It’s an addictive game that seems to become even better as you play. If it keeps getting the right support and if the tie-in with the TV series proves successful, we might have a game that will keep us occupied for a lengthy amount of time. [May 2013]
May 7, 2013
70
The shooter portion is rock solid, but battles are generic and without real challenges. The game is still buggy and the first patches didn’t bring any new highlights or motivating content.
User score
Mixed or Average
6.5
53% Positive
356 Ratings
356 Ratings
19% Mixed
124 Ratings
124 Ratings
28% Negative
188 Ratings
188 Ratings
Jan 26, 2026
10
The series does stand its own a watchable, with a West Side Story vibe mixed with a bit of Wild West-meets-Farscape.
Jun 10, 2014
10
This game belongs in the pantheon of great MMOs!. You could definitely see it as a fine working mixture of (in order of) Borderlands/Halo/PlanetSide 2/RAGE. The world is quite large (& faces expansion) and encourages you to explore it, there are a lot of random events such as saving troopers, helping take out enemies, races, Arkfalls (in orbit decaying Alien/Votan 'ship parts', that have technology which is valuable - in the game it's rare weapons & more, that crash down to Earth with a type of enemy usually occuping it's vicinity once it 'landed', that are scavenging it) & much more. Suffice to say, there is a healthy amount of content, which has been significantly improved since it's initial release (April 2 - 2013). The game is 95% PvE oriented, with the remaining 5% being a "Shadow War" PvP type mode in which players compete for point control, often granting things like the aforementioned Arkfalls. The graphics are extremely decent for an MMO, and should run smooth on most machines/setups, even during large player amounts. Of course, using the control panel of the GPU to enhance the picture - can never hurt. The character creation is quite weak, not having sliders or anything of the sort, only pre-determined eyes, face build, lengths etc. Although there are 3 races to choose from which are Humans, Irathients & Castithans. Irathients being more feral & spiritual-minded, whilst Castithans are the more 'civilized' of the 2, although you NEED to buy the Castithan Charger DLC to be able to choose the Castithan race. (Recommend getting all DLC, in the form of the season pass - which grants a nice discount). There are LOT of weapons & types in it, comparable to Borderlands - there is every weapon you can imagine, also Alien AKA 'Votan' weapons & you can also add weapon modifications (that also change the visual appearance of the weapon), and there are types like Electricity, Poison, Fire etc.. The main story missions & side missions are very numerous, especially when owning all DLC. But you will often find yourself doing those Arkfalls, which is highly enjoyable & rewardable. All in all, this is probably one of the best Shooter/RPG/MMO that I have ever played. Really commendable game. Personal score: 8.5/10 Now that it's Free2Play I HIGHLY recommend to everyone, to try it. Also if possible, watch the TV series (it is similar to Game of Thrones - but then Sci-Fi based) I hope to see you in game, and have fun! Much Greetings
Apr 15, 2013
70
With more polished graphics, fewer bugs and a better AI, Defiance could aspire to even more ambitious goals. Perhaps the right upgrades will come shortly, but now you have an imperfect MMO although courageous and, above all, one that is pretty fun.
May 30, 2013
65
Defiance fails in the difficult task of merging a TV series and a video game in a convincing and engaging way.
Apr 11, 2013
62
A competent MMO shooter marred by a lack of polish, whose TV tie-in ambitions only seem set to cause problems.
Apr 16, 2013
55
We appreciate the attempt to bring new ideas to the genre, but they don't really fit well together. Still, if you're looking for a action multiplayer-based game this could be an option.
Apr 15, 2013
40
Defiance is mostly lacking meaningful connective tissue. It fails at the fundamental task of feeling like a thoughtfully designed and polished game. It fails at feeling like a world. It fails at giving you much to look forward to once you’ve realized you’ve seen most of what it’s ever going to do. You can only get so far with “it’s fun to shoot stuff”. About Defiance far.
Jan 5, 2014
10
FANTASTIC!!! Great story, graphics, mechanics, and gameplay!!! I think this game as come a long way since it has been released, making a lot of the past reviews outdated. I was actually shocked at the poor ratings. This game has brought me so much fun and enjoyment! One of my favorite MMO's of all time. Yeah that's right. Well worth the price of $10. If you wait for a sale on steam (it was $5 this past winter sale) than even better!
Sep 20, 2015
7
Not a bad game game, keeps me entertained. It feels like a Borderlands MMO. The largest issue I have with it is that its a little buggy and lag can be really bad. Overall though, it's not bad for a f2p game, but I did expected better from Trion.
Oct 31, 2013
7
The experiment of game and tv show kind of works.. initially is really gripped me but through time interest has waned. However I got a large number of hours in before I got bored. Lack of a cover system given the type of game it is is a shame but Arkfalls are fantastic fun.
Nov 16, 2015
4
Defiance at the beginning will be interesting, but over the time the lack of content and due to generic and dull quests will start getting to be tedious over the time, I had a great time playing Defiance with a friend of mine, but within a month we started to realize that we were doing the same thing over and over again, another negative point of this game, is DLC Weapons, although you can obtain them as random loot, you can't use them unless you have the respective DLC, and there are some overpowered DLC weapons like the Castithian Blade, the AI is pretty bad and sometimes will have major bugs that will ruin the experience, the PvP is plagued by lag and Castithian Blade users, and the tutorial explains from little to nothing, the UI is pretty bad, players assets doesn't even load alright, as most players appears to me with a common appearance or shape, also visual glitches are very common to find in Defiance, and the Inventory is very limited in storing space unless you buy more, the servers are very bad as mostly I have to retry five or seven times to be able to play, I don't really recommend this unless you have plenty of time, patience and the temperament to play this.
Jun 24, 2014
4
Simply put, it's not very good. The world is interesting in many ways, but it suffers from repetitive gameplay. The largest problem is the developers. It felt like they checked out shortly after launch and as the population dwindled, never returned.
SummaryShoot any way you'd like, with a myriad of weapons, armor, and special abilities that evolve with experience. Custom character creation means you can play as human or alien, modifying your look to become a unique citizen of the Defiance world. Fight to survive in a consistently evolving environment with regular content updates and dynami... Read More
Rated Mfor Mature
Platforms:
- PC
- Xbox 360
- PlayStation 3
Initial Release Date:Apr 2, 2013
Developer:
Publisher:
