Defiance 2050 Closed Beta First Impressions Game Review

Defiance 2050 is an overhauled reboot of Defiance, a scifi, free to play MMORPG published by Trion, set in the world of the TV series with the same name.

It is a third person action MMORPG that has 4 unique classes, 3 different races, and a lot of customization.

Ahhh, it’s that time of the year again. The weather is beautiful, the birds are chirping, and OH GOD WE’RE CRASH LANDING INTO AN ALIEN PLANET! Oh, nope. That’s just a really fucked up version of Earth. Nevermind.

And with that, we are welcomed into the world of Defiance 2050, Trion’s completely, 100%, significantly overhauled relaunch of the Defiance MMORPG.

I’ve never really had the opportunity to play a Scifi MMORPG. I’ve played a little of The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, I tried EVE but I got so confused that I ultimately ended up just abandoning ship, floating off into the sweet nothingness of space..
Ahem. But I digress.

In Defiance, you take on the role of an ARK Hunter. Not.. that I really know what that is at this point in the game, but hey. Apparently we hunt.. ARKs. Or something.
Upon beginning the game and making it through all the cutscenes, I was greeted with the ability to create my own character. One of the best parts of every game.
There are 3 races in total, and 4 class- wait, no. Yes. No. There are 4 total classes, but only 1 available. From what I read, you can either buy the other classes like you do in Rift, or you can unlock them in-game.. somehow.

The character creator itself wasn’t bad. It gave me a few presets for my nose, mouth, skin color. You know. The usual. I did enjoy the selection of voices – one in specific. It sounds just like the voice in my head.

All in all, I expected more from the game’s character customization.

Upon finally getting in-game, I was scared half to death by the ghost of my last lover- I mean, by an unusual ethereal being.
She promised me money, women and power. All I needed to do was go on a killing spree and murder the inhabitants of the planet.
Naturally I told her no. Hah. Hahaha. You don’t believe me? Fuck you for questioning my honor and dignity.

So, upon finally getting in-game, I was met with.. absolutely nothing. No quest list. No NPC to take quests from. I was confused as I hadn’t received instruction on what I needed to do but I figured I’d just #yolo it.
I took the time to look around the first area you’re given access to and it’s beautiful. The game itself is beautiful – something I did not expect going in in the least.
However, at the same time it is buggy as all hell. After wandering the small enclosed zone for a solid half hour, I realized I had no idea what I was doing. Or what to do, even.
So I checked a Youtube video to see what I was doing wrong and low and behold.. the NPC was supposed to be where I spawned. She.. was not. This was the first of multiple bugs I had the pleasure of experiencing during the beta.

After relogging, I had my first real taste of combat. And it was glorious. It’s an MMORPG that acts like a third person shooter. I was essentially playing the online Mass Effect, which was incredible!
Never, ever, in my 341 months of living have I gotten pleasure to such a degree from mowing something.
Mmmm. Yeah. Come to daddy.

There are an enormous amount of weapon- and weapon types you can equip in-game, each weapon having the ability to be enhanced through the addition of weapon attachments and weapon bonuses.
The class skill tree also has some interesting combinations you can mess around with. I didn’t go into it too extensively since 3 out of 4 of them are locked, but hey.

It was at this point that I got my first taste of the true Scifi MMORPG genre.
Annnnnnd, I was weirded out. So I left.

There are apparently areas in the game that function as quest hubs. You can continue both the main story, and pick up additional side quests to pursue instead for additional XP and rewards.
From what I experienced, ranging from salvaging information from weird mutant-human.. things, to raiding outposts of.. weird, mutant-human things, to saving our troops from.. you guess it!
Weird little bug-things.
What, you thought I was going to say weird, mutant-human things again didn’t you? Hah. Nope! There’s more to this game than that.

Oh. *cough*. So about that.

Questing is handled somewhat dynamicaly, in so that the quest is currently ongoing for everyone on that particular quest.
I joined when the raid was already slightly in progress so I helped one of the guys that were there doing the quest. We ended up teaming up and clearing it together – forging a bond in the flames of war.
Then we promptly parted ways after the quest was complete.

There is also a mount system in-game, although not a traditional mount system.. more like a vehicle system.
Like the one I’m driving.
Awww, look at the cutie. He’s so jealous that I have a bike and he doesn’t.
That bike is all mine. Alllll minnneeeee.
So, I would like to point out that the driving in Defiance leaves a tad bit to be desired.
I hit like.. everything. I swear to god I could not, for the life of me, drive in a straight direction. I spent multiple minutes repititiously hitting rock after rock, wall after wall, until slowly succumbing to the fact that I would just.. never drive in-game.

Unfortunately, both myself and everyone around at the time of the recording were bugged at the same point in the story.
The NPC required to continue the story – in essence, allowing us out of this God-forsaken hell we were trapped in.. was stuck underground.
We all spent a solid 15 to 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get around this but we couldn’t. So in the end, we all gave up and stopped playing.

Which was a damn shame, as I was having an ass-load of fun.

The graphics were fantastic, the combat – utilizing its third-person shooter style combat system was very entertaining, and I enjoy being able to do all of this in an MMORPG-world.
However the game is so buggy and broken right now that I would advise against playing it until it officially launches.

Operating System: Windows XP SP 2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or AMD equivalent
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT / ATI Radeon HD 2900 / Intel HD 4000 Integrated
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Space: 15 GB

Operating System: Windows 7 or better
CPU: Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz of better
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 / ATI Radeon HD 4750 or better
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Disk Space: 15GB