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Author Topic: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25  (Read 1429 times)

Folly

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Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« on: June 21, 2018, 10:21:59 am »

I'm sure some of you remember a game released back in 2013 called Defiance; an MMO FPS focused on public events where players could come together to fight off Hellbugs and salvage Arkfall loot. Also there was a decent TV show tie-in on the sci-fi channel that ended abruptly on a cliffhanger.

Well, apparently Trion studios have run out of new ideas because they are attempting to reboot Defiance with the subtitle 2050. It will be the same game, but with updated graphics, reworked progression systems, and all of the expansions and DLC, now free to play. My understanding is that they plan to make money off of boosters and instant unlocks of classes that can otherwise be grinded in-game.

https://www.trionworlds.com/defiance/en/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/743090/Defiance_2050/

Most reviews of the original game agreed that the gunplay and exploration were both solid, but the game lacked any significant progression; everything could be unlocked in a few short weeks and there were no big boss raids with rare drops to keep players coming back like in other MMO's. It is unclear exactly how 2050 plans to shake things up; mostly we have just heard buzz-words like 'streamlined' and 'definitive experience'. So at best, we may get a reboot that fixes all the flaws of the original and becomes a must-play experience. At worst, we may get the exact same mess with upscaled graphics and micro-transactions. After the mess that was ArcheAge and the lack of originality since then, I'm not super optimistic. Still, there's not much else of interest on the gaming scene right now, and free is free...




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Shadowlord

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2018, 12:14:36 pm »

I thought it was already free to play? I only ever played it on console before it was free to play, and didn't find it particularly interesting, though. (Of course, I also never watched the show.)
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Folly

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2018, 12:19:40 pm »

The original game had an up-front purchase price, but no subscription fee to continue playing afterwards. 2050 has neither.
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Shooer

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2018, 12:50:02 pm »

No, it was a free to play after only a year after release.  It had packages for sale after you no longer had to buy to play, like most free to plays.

Honestly looks like they are trying to copy Destiny/Warframe.
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Folly

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2018, 01:07:07 pm »

Well, the first day of open beta was a bit of a mess, with the tutorial area being game-breakingly bugged. What is really disturbing there is I remember the original game having the same problem at launch.

They've disabled the tutorial now and people are able to play. There is a lot of negative feedback, due to other minor bugs, and the general dated feel of the game. These are all entirely valid criticisms, and much more pronounced due to this being touted as the definitive version of the game. This game has been out for years, and a much higher degree of polish should be expected.

All of that being said, I'm still having a lot of fun. Riding ATV's, boosting off of mountains, crushing enemies like bugs. Finding public events scattered all over the map, finding other players doing them with me, and finding the difficulty is actually scaled in every encounter so it's challenging but not impossible, and often rewarding. This is an open-world cooperative experience that other games have been failing to reproduce for several years now.

Again, I'm having fun right now. I don't know how long that will last, and I don't know that I'll be spending money on this reboot, but I will definitely be playing at launch, and I'll be counting the days until then.
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ukulele

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2018, 01:59:10 am »

Its this just the same game with fresh graphics or did they modify gameplay/mechanics/etc?  The original was a "good" borderlandsy MMO, but it felt kind of generic and didnt kept my atention for more than a few days. 
As some one not interested in graphics, is there any reason to revisit?
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Biowraith

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2018, 02:43:56 am »

I made a brief foray into this during the beta weekend and from what I experienced it's about 90% the same game with 10% of tweaks, the most significant of which is the addition of the rudimentary class system.  The actual gameplay seems pretty much identical though, it's mostly just a question of the layout and structure of the character upgrades you can earn.  There was talk in the chat of new content being added, but I don't know if that's a full overhaul (the beta content was the original content as far as I could see) or just some new side missions and such.
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Shooer

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Re: Defiance 2050 - Open Beta July 22-25
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2018, 03:12:16 am »

The combat felt faster, in a good way.  Didn't feel AS dragged down by watching numbers as before.  Still a "shooting" game with numbers, but it feels more shooty than before.

The graphics are improved, just very little.  Character models look less than 4 years old and the draw distance isn't PS/N64 era anymore (a little exaggeration, but not by much).

I may play some after the "release".
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