Defiance Diary Episode #1 : The Beginning

20. April, 2013Tags: Defiance, Defiance Diary, MMO Blog

Defiance title Defiance will always have a very special place in the history of shooter games even if it doesn’t become one of the legendary franchises in the future. I claim this mainly because of the game’s synchronized launch with SyFy’s TV Show. That surely makes the game incomparable. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it will help the TV show or the game but it’s a very promising concept that we -gamers- can benefit from. Today we’re starting a new series special for Defiance. The Defiance Diary. In this episode, we will first summarize the storyline and then create our first Irathient character.

Story of Defiance

Before we jump into the game, let’s take a look at the main story of Defiance. When their star system was destroyed, Votans; a collection of seven alien races from Votanis star system started to look for a new home. When they found the planet Earth in 2013, they initially thought it was an uninhabited planet. When they discovered the humans on the planet, they wanted to connect but humans responded with hostility.

It took almost 10 years for the Votans and Humans to come up with a peaceful plan. Unfortunately this was shattered when the Votan ambassador was killed by a radical human on TV. This was the beginning of the war.

Defiance Diary - Gameplay - Character Creation

The War and Aftermath

The war continued for 7 years. Votans had millions of Votans hypersleeping in a fleet in the orbit of the Earth. When the Ark fleet exploded in 2030, both sides blamed each other and started to seek revenge. The Arks rained down on Earth and it exposed a terraforming technology which was never the intention of the Votans to use on planet Earth. The Arkfall changed the planet forever. The beautiful planet of Earth was now a catastrophic planet covered with dust and debris, with hybrids and mutants evolving on the surface.

Can Von Bach survive this?

This uncontrolled and powerful terraforming technology unleashed animals and plants species from the Votan start system. They made hybrids with the Earth plans and animals and created new mutants, which some of where dangerous new species.

This was the fault of both sides and it didn’t take them long to decide they had to stop the war and join forces to survive on the planet.

Votan Races

That’s the summary of the story behind Defiance. While the humans knew the Votans as a race, they were actually a collection of seven different alien species. Castithan, Indogene, Irathient, Liberata, Sensoth, Gulanee and Volge.

Yeah, yeah...

In Defiance the game, we have the Humans and the Irathients available for now. Our first character is going to be an Irathient. The reason I chose an Irathient was because I wanted to find out more on this Votan race and mostly because I usually go with humans in most shooters.

Character Customization

Defiance lets you to customize your character decently. I can’t say it’s particularly flawless but the character creation has several options, you can create a character that doesn’t look like every other character in the game. If you have played MMOs released in the last two years, we have got the facial scar and facial painting options in Defiance too. That helps make your character stand out in the crowd. (If you look close enough.)

As the game is years after the war between the Humans and the Votans (aka the Pale Wars) we have the new technology Ark Hunters. Ark Hunters are soldiers with hybrid alien and human powers. When the Ark rain begins, Ark Hunter go out there to salvage rare minerals and Arktech from the arkfall. This dangerous mission involves killing dangerous creatures.

Creating a character in Defiance - Irathian Female in picture

The Technology Behind

Ark Hunters use the technology provided by the Von Bach Industries. With the special implant called EGO, Ark Hunters have access to super technology at all times.

That’s how we enter the game Defiance. We meet Mr Von Bach going into a debate with a human commander who doesn’t seem to enjoy the companion of Vaon Bach and the ark hunters. Before we know more about Von Bach, the ship crashes and as one of the few lucky survivors, our mission becomes locating Von Bach as he has a key role in this survival. (At least that’s what they tell us.) And of course because he is our employer.

That's your first ride in Defiance

The EGO implant is a neuro-muscular bionetic implant that Votans brought to Earth and Von Bach Industries developed. It reminds me of the symbiots we know from Stargate series. The symbiot alters the host at the genetic level and gives him/her extra powers such as superior instincts and valuable and in-detail information about your environment. You can even cloak yourself and attack your enemies. Soon enough we find out that this has been one cute little tease as only one of these abilities will be available at first.

Side by side with your EGO...

My Ego

The short tutorial teaches you how to use some of the main EGO abilities such as the overcharge and the clone. From what I have seen so far, the abilities will be unlocked as we make progress and we get to decide which power to unlock.

After the crash, we are out of weapons but thanks to the EGO, we get to find one easily before we start looking for Von Bach. Once you gather a couple of weapons and a grenade, you are ready for action.

As I played these parts during the Closed Beta, I already knew about the first missions but we will go into the missions in the second episode. Enjoy the video and let us know about your own Defiance experience in the comments section below. Until next time, good hunting!