Defiance: The First Interconnected Game & TV Show

Released earlier this month, Defiance is an ambitious multiplatform, massively multiplayer online shooter created by Trion Worlds. The release was surrounded by more hype than your average MMO, largely due to the fact the game is tied closely to the sci-fi television show with the same name.

Defiance allows users to explore a huge game environment

Trion Worlds and SyFy network teamed for the project, with the purpose of offering viewers and gamers an extensive, complete adventure in a post-apocalyptic world. Besides sharing the same distinctive settings, the TV show and game are designed to interact on multiple levels: creators claim that events from the game will be referenced in the series and vice versa. The exact level of interconnectedness will become clearer after the Defiance TV show premieres on April 15.

The game is a third person shooter that takes place in a futuristic version of the San Francisco Bay Area, following a massive terraforming event which significantly altered the landscape. Players get to choose whether to play as humans or as aliens, as in the world of the game and TV show, Earth is populated by different species.

Gamers get to explore a very vast environment and carry out various missions in order to earn cash and bonuses competing against other players. The game borrows elements from Trion Worlds’ much-lauded previous release Rift, most notably the Arkfalls: chunks of alien spacecraft that contain valuable items and crash on Earth, attracting numerous players and enemies.

Defiance has so far received fairly positive reviews, but many users say it falls short of fulfilling its true potential. The gameplay is pretty straightforward and dynamic. However, it becomes a bit repetitive and leaves players wanting more diverse missions and a more complex storyline. There is a strong chance that this will happen, as the Defiance universe continues to grow and allow a virtually endless discovery of a truly huge game environment.

With a surprisingly large choice of weapons, engaging exploration methods and impressive battle sequences, Defiance makes for an entertaining MMO experience, although it sometimes falters. You may not feel instantly drawn to the world it creates, but this game has the potential to expand much further as its TV counterpart progresses, so be sure to give both a try!

[Image via Defiance]