Recent reviews by Calico Jackdaw

Picked this game up for about $4 on sale and I must say, I've definitely got my money's worth from it with about 114 hours worth of gameplay at the time of writing this review.

This game plays out very much like an online Borderlands, for better or for worst. The game play is a pretty straight forward with a basic run and gun core gameplay. There are a wide variety of weapon types to choose from, allowing players the ability to customize their character exactly how they like them with no real restrictions as to what weapons can be used by which class or race. There are also a host of abilities that can be used to aid in breaking up the monotony of the run and gun format, much like Borderlands, but often times I have found that they are not essential to game progression. The world is large and feels adequately inhabited, with a number of random missions going on at all corners of the map at any given time. The map itself is gorgeous, with a fair amount of variety from region to region. There are also a number of different gamemodes available to offer a little variety with the world. Everything from time trials on ATV, to special events where you battle progressively more challenging enemies, to multiplayer PVP.

And now for the drawbacks. Because the game has the same gameplay mechanics as Borderlands, it can get very monotonous. For the most part, this is counterbalanced by a wide variety of weapons which offer different challenges when fighting enemies, but still the format of running around shooting enemies over and over can get boring. While there are a number of different random missions that crop up all across the map, giving you the opportunity to get additional money, the missions fall into only a few different categories and after a few hours of gameplay, will become less interesting and more of an annoyance due to the lack of variety. Another disappointing aspect is that while the weapon types are varied, the number of available weapons of each type are not so much. There is no real variety to the weapons themselves, unlike Borderlands. In Borderlands, if you found a specific weapon you liked, you could search for additional variants of the same type that offer additional perks or slightly varied stats. In Defiance, once you find a weapon you like, you're pretty much stuck with that same weapon. The only possible choices you have is to find some mods to give it a few additional stat bumps or find the same exact weapon in a more rare version for a few tacked on perks. There's no real variety and aside from personal preference, no obvious reason to choose on weapon over another. Finally, my last gripe is with the PVP... PVP can be a bit glitchy at times. Sometimes when you go to join PVP, its supposed to teleport you to the area where the PVP is going on, but it doesn't, leaving you to commit suicide to fast travel to PVP since often times its a few kilometers away. I've also seen the respawn screen glitch and not allow you to respawn. I waited nearly 10 minutes, with the sounds of the battle continuing in the background. The buttons would respond on mouse over and when clicked, but it would not allow me to respawn. I ended up having to restart the game to clear this fault.

Overall, for a pretty fun casual Borderland-esque game, I feel that it is worth the money, especially if you pick it up during a sale, but be warned that a lack of variety can make this game feel a little monotonous, especially on longer play sessions. Also, I hear that the game is a lot more fun if you drag along a few friends... I'd rate this game a solid 4.5 out of 5, since really only a few minor tweaks to the game could definitely improve the overall play value...