A funny story about Defiance - it was one of those impulse buys back in the day, and I remember really liking it. And all this time, I never knew it was based on a TV show. I mean, I couldn't miss the SyFy logo plastered all over it, but I just assumed they were another company hopping on the video game trend (yeah, I don't watch TV all that much). It's a game that starts off with a very good first impression, then...sort of fizzles out. I can't complain. It was an MMO without a monthly subscription, so there wasn't anything stopping me from taking a break from the game and booting it up when I'm in the mood.
What made Defiance fun was a lot of things. The game world was just fascinating, and for an MMO, it was satisfying gunning down enemies. Hell, Defiance is one of the few games that I enjoyed using a sniper rifle, to the point where it became my main weapon. The massive damage it dealt from far away enemies that I'd pick off until a few stragglers closed in and I'd whip out my SMG. In fact, that's what I enjoyed about Defiance...weapon tiers were more about bonuses to your weapons than making them obsolete as you progress. Weapons largely did the same amount of damage based their category, making it not only a fair competition for those Ark drops, but you'll also never fall behind because of *** RNG.
You could say that after cutting my teeth on Defiance, I didn't quite appreciate a game like Tom Clancy's Division...which, call me nuts, gave me the same feeling as playing Defiance. You had the oppressive world building, the addictive outfit collection, and it's another game that made using a sniper rifle enjoyable. It's just that...seriously, out of all the games to turn your once rare weapon into a laughable pea shooter...why does it have to be a brand name known for its military realism? It was a missed opportunity in my eyes. Had the Division adopted a mechanic like Defiance, I'd probably still be playing it.
The problem with Defiance is that at the time, it didn't have the content to feel like an MMO. It was a great romp, the main story was interesting (and I remember the final boss being hard as balls) but...once you wrapped everything up, there wasn't much to do aside from yet another group instance. Which I've done dozens of times already. Needless to say, I didn't stick around for the DLC expansions. Now that Defiance is free to play, I highly recommend playing one of the more interesting online shooters I've seen in a while. I don't know how much has changed since Defiance dropped the price tag, but I can't imagine its in-game shop being anything but weapons and outfits to ogle over. Still, it was at a time I paid good money for this game, and it was totally worth it, even as a game with MMO standards that didn't quite have the longevity of one, the $40 I paid gave me enough content to be satisfied and done with it.