Worst MMO Ever? - Defiance 2050

[@CursdBirth]

The game stopped receiving support after the studio was purchased by Gamigo 2 years ago, then proceeded to lay off more then 70% of the staff. The only people working on the game are there for server maintenance, and the occasional event which there's only like 6 of. The game is so much fun and there's a huge amount of content in it and that's good because there hasn't been any new content in 2 years. Gamigo has a history of buying games and keeping them alive just to milk them for microtransactions. Its a shame, the only real way were going to see more content is if another company buys the game and takes a leap of faith and invest resources into it.

[@robertpadua6096]

December 10 2020 bro and it's true what you say. It sucks they took Alcatraz out and there was something called Sillicon Valley that they took out. It's a crime to take Alcatraz out and not add paid expansions....

[@CursdBirth]

@@robertpadua6096 yeah I know, they say they don't have the resources (manpower) to implement it in game. When someone went to silicon Valley in 2013, they went to an entirely new map, with separate issues. The staff they have at the moment just keeps the lights on and rolls out content that has already existed in 2050. If they ever tried to implement new things in the game, the chance of a game breaking bug appearing would be high and, like defiance 2013 on 360, it would mean shutting down the servers, there's no one to fix the bugs.

[@robertpadua6096]

@@CursdBirth I agree. They should leave it alone then and just let it die slowly. A game breaking bug adding content will be worse. What I don't get is why on ps3 runs better than on ps4... It's an older console and has more content. It doesn't make sense.

[@CursdBirth]

@That Guy i agree

[@emikochan13]

@@robertpadua6096 the ps3 has very different architecture to the ps4. Power is useless if it isn't harnessed. It's why ports are so random on performance. Different set of skills making something work on different systems.

[@Magmagan]

I kept thinking throughout the video, "okay, but now it's going to go all downhill" but it never did haha It's fun to see Josh's first impressions on an MMO he expected to be bad turned good!

[@flamefierce998]

Title Worst MMO ever? Josh: Compliments it nonstop Me and everyone else: Wait that's illegal

[@slevinchannel7589]

The whole video reminded me of Teamtanks, one of the best MMO's i ever knew. Its such a damn, damn, damn shame it stopped getting support and lost its playerbase (but people still remember) so i would really appreaciate a video about it!!

[@turrboenvy4612]

It all went downhill when Gamigo showed up, ruined it, and shut it down.

[@chrismeyers5963]

Man I remember playing the 3 Betas of this game then waiting for the launch screen to pop up, the PS3 wasn't too bad, it lagged a few times but meh it was a really fun game even though with the release of Defiance 2050 with all the dlc included I was a bit miffed because with the original Defiance I had to pay for all the dlc haha

[@satai730]

@@turrboenvy4612 How is what Gamigo did (or didn't do) with the game any different than when Trion had it?

[@TheParasiteDk]

Just watched the review, thought "hey, that looks fun, I want to try that", then looked at the comments and see the servers closed down 2 weeks ago...

[@iover458]

Me too, new to this channel and this is the first time I see him enjoying the game.

[@extrnalsorce4974]

One game I wished was still around for this guy to try is “Firefall”, which closed in 2016 I believe

[@orrthehunter]

@@extrnalsorce4974 Ya Firefall had potential but the developers could not reach the ambition they had for that game. I really enjoyed that game and was interested in the potential of the Main Story it had but I believed they needed to find away to make the Main Story quests have a solo mode due to how very group focused the Main Story quest in Firefall was. Sadly being too ambitious has a price of never achieving the dream they set out to create.

[@AceStrife]

@@extrnalsorce4974 Firefall. :( Went through too many iterations with not enough funding, ultimately killed the game and the studio. Was one of the most promising "MMOFPS" that's ever come out. Looking back further, I wonder what Huxley would've been like if that ever got finished.

[@BusinessWolf1]

wait what?? I was playing defiance like a few months ago and was thinking about reinstalling it

[@Ravenford]

It's ironic how Defiance 2050 is one of the few games that Josh speaks highly of, and it's one of the ones that got shut down and we can no longer enjoy it. Rest in peace Defiance, you weren't perfect but you were a much better game than most MMO's still out there. Hopefully one day someone will resurrect you.

[@OnBrandRP]

Just waiting for its revival project to get good.

[@bigurethra]

God I have some amazing memories from this game when i was

[@bairdbiz]

OG Defiance was great too, the Sifi TV series kinda died and I it was downhill from there.

[@chphotophour3475]

This hurt my soul, I was just getting pumped to go find it😢

[@justdrop]

I enjoyed my time with the original Defiance and the 2050 version which was a slimmed down version but essentially the same game. Couldn't get friends to play unfortunately so once I ran out of solo story content I just kind of let it slip from my mind until it died.

[@bohrtz5326]

Defiance used to be my favorite game, and coming here to read the comments to see that they shut down the servers fills me with such sadness. Truly a great game

[@Helfirehydratrans]

It was truly a good game and I wish I played it more cuz I played it for everyday on my PS3 for a solid year until I got a next-gen console then I stop playing it but I regret not playing it because I thought it was going to be around for a lot longer I probably wasn't even that far in the game but you actually felt like you were earning progression by guess going out and killing big bosses in participating in missions with that other people are doing spent most of the game in the starting area because I didn't realize how big the map was I really wish that there is an offline version or a private lobby because I would play the game again

[@echomjp]

I enjoyed it, and played it when it first came out. I never really stuck with it though - when it first came out it had very little content. Was a great gameplay experience though. Something I wish we could see more of.

[@datscrazy4095]

Defiance and Paragon are the only games outside of Bo2 that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[@Zaiqahal]

Oh, that's why I couldn't download it on Steam.

[@abetacc]

i remember some boss raid? i could never finish. connection would always drop* and could never kill it, tried so many times. still enjoyed the game tho

[@Solas67]

The most exciting period for this game was honestly the first year and a half because the game and show were being produced at the same time with the express intent of crossing them over. So that Cass character was explicitly in the show, would turn up in the game the week after, we'd go help them in a mission made to coincide with the episode release and the next week there'd be dialogue mentioning 'our friends from California' on more than one occasion. You felt part of that world as it played out and I was very sad when that ended.

[@slevinchannel7589]

The whole video reminded me of Teamtanks, one of the best MMO's i ever knew.

[@slevinchannel7589]

The whole video reminded me of Teamtanks, one of the best MMO's i ever knew. Its such a damn, damn, damn shame it stopped getting support and lost its playerbase (but people still remember) so i would really appreaciate a video about it!!

[@I_Am_Wasabi_Man]

@@slevinchannel7589 why'd you come back three weeks after your first reply to say the same thing again, but with a new line?

[@slevinchannel7589]

@@I_Am_Wasabi_Man Its a Remake, duh! Everyone does that stuff!!! !

[@I_Am_Wasabi_Man]

@@slevinchannel7589 why'd you come back three weeks after your first reply to say the same thing again, but with a new line? seems like a weird thing to do when you have an edit option

[@Micron8888]

A couple of minor points, the 2 side characters are actually the main characters from the tv show. The '15 mins' after crashing is more like a couple of hours. The npc's calling for help after being rescued were actually another set of npc's near by still needing to be rescued (dynamic events/quests can overlap). The quest broke because someone else finished it, all story quests are dynamic events you, or any other player can repeat at will but have a respawn timer, negated by a player holding the story quest for it being present. When picking up weapons you can tap E to put it in your inventory or hold E to instantly equip it. The skills you were trying to unlock need more points put into the starting skill first, the game does explain it somewhere but it probably isn't obvious where. Very solid review & i miss Defiance a lot, unfortunately after Trion went under, the heavy cash shop pushing (especially later on in the game, bordering pay to win), lack of updates and shear bad handling of the game and it's players, it has pretty much died off, though i would still recommend anyone playing it if you haven't already.

[@brassbat]

I tried this game when it hit the ps4 a cpl yrs ago. Was fun all the way up until I could not progress because you were required to grp with other players...aaand...no one was anywhere around to grp with. I think I was level 9-ish.

[@Kairos_Akuma]

I mean it's all this scum-company does. Buying diying mmos/studios and push pay to win.

[@glycerosfournaris2512]

@@brassbat i first played it on ps3 loved the fact that it got remade and ported to ps4 ( before trion went bankrupt n gamigo bought the rights ). Unfortunately the game had major bugs ( like you could one shot with a buggy a major archfall boss and many pvp cheaters ) The game could have been great if the ppl that bought stuff could transfer them to the "new" game. Too bad the servers closed but yeah if you do mot care for the game you bought as a company ppl will abandon it fast.

[@FortyMillyMike]

“... I am going to walk.” *Gets stuck on same branch”

[@Teixas666]

"...i am gonig to sit here and weep"

[@pencilbender]

@@Teixas666 "fails that also"

[@zephyrstrife4668]

Just... A statistically sad number of Natural 1's

[@hansyolo8277]

Damn it's a shame I missed this. It's even more of a shame that the publishers murdered this game and now its gone forever.

[@MMOLibrary]

why are u spouting bandwagon rhetoric about a game u know nothing about and never played lol. stop trying to act like you know anything about defiance 2050 lol

[@deebun2015]

@@MMOLibrary same shitty gameplay loop that can be seen from the surface, its easy to tell what kind of game it was.

[@tartilasahid8056]

@@MMOLibrary i played it and quit when i got stuck on a wuest that is bugged and was never fixed. Also i played this game because i was so into the series

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Agree with OP. Sounds like a fun time.

[@r4yZorTV]

i miss this so much was the best Looter Shooter i know...but i played as its prime Time.....100+ players killing worldbosses 24/7^^

[@bigieu9299]

I worked at Trion Worlds shortly before it all started going downhill. Many issues went into why the first version did poorly (bugs), but in my opinion, the real problem was that they created time gates that corresponded to the show as it was airing in real-time. If you finished the current content, you had to wait until the next episode aired to move forward in the plot/content. Many players bailed fast once they realized they could complete the weekly content within days and be left grinding pointlessly. Love your content!

[@jakefoster7650]

You never played lol

[@CaptainDCap]

@@jakefoster7650 They worked for the company that MADE the game, you halfwit.

[@somerandomgamer8504]

​@@jakefoster7650?

[@jakefoster7650]

@@somerandomgamer8504 if he played he would know there is no such thing as grinding pointlessly on defiance 👊

[@ded2thaworld963]

I actually had a lot of fun in this game when it first came out. The huge battles was fun as hell, having literally 50-70 other players help attack some big ass alien things was cool as shit at the time. Plus things changing in the game according to how the show goes was nifty. I really liked this game, I can’t even remember why i actually stopped playing

[@yoshigba2749]

the Final Boss made me quit But I may GO BACK on PS4

[@napasaurus7424]

you probably stopped playing the same reason I and so many others did cause within the first 3-5 days it was out the cross platform was removed and every one dipped, it was initially pc-playstation-xbox all cross play but playstation and xbox couldnt play nice.

[@ded2thaworld963]

@@napasaurus7424 i thought after the show got canceled the game would die out to be honest, i liked how they tied together

[@SteamDeckGameplay]

You could do all the quests in a few days, and then there was nothing else to do other than PVP which was unbalanced as hell (IIRC you could turn invisible and use shotguns that killed in one hit...)

[@T4IN]

The show was actually pretty good until it got cancelled

[@XCVBNMC]

Rest in peace Defiance. You were a good game even on console

[@madsvigan2898]

Still have the show. Even Tho the Cgi is bad, still has a good story, and good character devolepment

[@DailyShortStreak]

@@madsvigan2898 are you talking about defiance? if so im pretty sure the support of the game have stopped and you cant play it anymore

[@madsvigan2898]

@@DailyShortStreak No the tv show. It lasted 3 seasons, and explained the world of the game, and was actually really good. There Was good characters, like season 1 had a Villian that Was only evil, because he Was forced to, to be able to keep his family safe. Then got some father daughter drama with the two main characters. The show Was really good, but sad it ended with such an open ending

[@DailyShortStreak]

@@madsvigan2898 ohhhh. sorry im dumb lmao

[@r4yZorTV]

it was my favorite Looter Shooter....especially at the start where 100+ peoples killing worldbosses....it felt so immersive what no other game gives me

[@Sorain1]

Wow, it's actually a pity I missed this game while it existed.

[@alancarrascolapeira9545]

It still exist, try it is free

[@orionford6675]

@@alancarrascolapeira9545 a couple of weeks ago the company who owns it announced it was shutting down in April.

[@jamiebrown1991]

@@alancarrascolapeira9545 All Defiance servers officially shut down in 14 days.

[@galleo9462]

Im sad to hear servers closing i played the first defiance mmo but it was so laggy and badly optomized i couldnt hardly play long i never knew they remade it amd made it this well oprmoized.... this is sad :(

[@robertojimenez4979]

Good night, sweet prince... 😿 I barely tried 2050, but Defiance was my go-to game for a long while. The TV series was also fun while it lasted.

[@NoName-uk2py]

Damn I remember playing this game and I still remember a specific moment where we had like 30+ people all shooting at a massive (and I do mean massive) bug and the fact that it was night time and you can just see the explosion flashes and bullets flying through the air made the fight so nice.

[@SSiXaXiS]

You ever been in a night fight with 100 v 100 on planetside 2? Amazing

[@datscrazy4095]

@@SSiXaXiS i messed with Planetside too but it was just wayyyy too big

[@SSiXaXiS]

@@datscrazy4095 it's a hard game to acclimate to.. but if you play long enough it'll get easy to understand and you'll know how to cut through the map and get to fights quickly

[@angrymetalhead]

@@SSiXaXiS I played planetside 2 on like 4 and a half hits of acid once. Watching all the lasers and bullets and missiles fly through the air was AWESOME haha.

[@ladymecha8718]

Oh yeah, I remember, the server could not process all the players on the events. There was thousands of players at its height.

[@ch1m3r4c0mpl3x]

The original release, Defiance, ran in tandem with the show, and each week, there was a special unique mission that players could do that the show would reference the following week. Josh and Irisa were the main characters of the show, and the early parts of the game technically took place before the beginning of the show. The show failed because they jumped the shark in the final season, and because SyFy is legendary in its reputation for canceling shows. The game itself didn't necessarily fail because the show failed, but rather it simply had poor marketing. I got the impression that they just assumed the transmedia narration would be enough to prop it up, and then just forgot to market the game after the show ended. Defiance 2050 was a soft reboot of the original game, and the 2050 refers to the year that the game and show were set in. Interestingly, there was another cross-promotion that happened apart from the television show; during the Defiance's launch cycle, in RIFT, occasionally Fire Rifts would open that Hellbugs from Defiance would spawn, and I believe they remain in the free to play version of RIFT to this day. If I recall correctly, during the actual promotion itself, closing the rifts would give players a chance to earn a code which could be redeemed in Defiance for cosmetic rewards. Players in Rift could also earn a Hellbug as a mount. I still have mine. You mentioned "the mutants of this planet" in the early part of the video. "This planet" was Earth. Specifically, San Francisco, California. The show was set in St. Lois, Missouri. The lore is revealed in bits throughout the game and show; a coalition of aliens with evil overlords arrived and began aggressively terraforming Earth, and a battle at Fort Defiance resulted in the terraforming device to explode, resulting in the weird geography and plant life seen in the game. This also set in motion the "lesser" races breaking away from the dominant alien leaders, and the show did a much better job of expressing the ensuing racial tensions. Overall the show and game were both really good, but in my opinion, fell victim to corporate meddling. It's a shame that Trion Worlds sold to Gamigo. They were still actively developing Defiance 2050.

[@dylanherron3963]

I was really hoping there actually were people who had valid input on the timeline, after Josh said "If anyone knows what caused this games low player-count or reception, let me know in the comments." Thanks for the extra info. I have never heard of the game nor the show, and I'm sad that ideas like this weren't brought to full fruition. Watching this gave me the same kind of sadness as completing the "Otherland" 10-part series that Josh is basically renown for at this point. (Except this looked to be a REALLY compelling game that I could see myself playing, whereas Otherland seemed like an amazing experiment that I maybe would have liked to walk through, for awhile, but not play)

[@ch1m3r4c0mpl3x]

@@dylanherron3963 At its core, Defiance was a looter-shooter. The core gameplay loop once you've completed the main story got a little repetitive, but they made up for it by giving players enough things to do that they could theoretically do whatever they wished. It wasn't really around long enough for any clear meta to arise, and there's no telling if one would have arisen or not.

[@dylanherron3963]

@@ch1m3r4c0mpl3x The fact that it was Pre-Destiny is also impressive, considering that game defined the shooter-MMO's that would later release, copying the formula relentlessly. Dynamic temporary quests within the world would have been a huge wild-card that I would have enjoyed. (Again, commonplace nowadays)

[@ch1m3r4c0mpl3x]

@@dylanherron3963 Borderlands came out in 2009. Defiance and Destiny were only about a year apart, but Destiny had better marketing, and arguably better systems. Obviously, given enough time, the Defiance dev team might have been able to iterate and improve their systems, but we'll never know for sure.

[@dylanherron3963]

@@ch1m3r4c0mpl3x You may massage your temples hearing this, but I never played Borderlands past 12 or so hours of the first game. I didn't care for the art style and humor. Now I'm in my 30's and there is just a library of series I'll never open because I don't have the time.

[@erdrick8670]

It is actually pretty fun to see Josh happily surprised by a game he tries. Considering how these usually go it's quite a nice change of pace.

[@remixsolo]

The MMO version of Defiance was based on the Sci-Fi channel. It was a tie in with the show that was running concurrent with the series, but based in California instead of St. Louis, Missouri.

[@exodore2000]

The show was the worst part. I tried to watch it so bad. The game is kind of ok when I'm bored.

[@remixsolo]

@@exodore2000 I have to strongly agree. It's the pacing, I think. It just feels off most of the time.

[@siclatic7241]

Being someone from Missouri, there is a town about an hour away from STL named Defiance. Confused me a bit when the game and show was first announced but I gotta say I had a love/hate relationship with the game. Though after watching this I might pick it up again since 2050 is free if I'm not mistaken. The Arch in the show still messes me up to think about..

[@ubermaster1]

@@exodore2000 It honestly felt like they made the game first, then decided to make the show as well to potentially got more players/money. The game was meh but had good merits, but the show just felt so half assed.

[@exodore2000]

@@ubermaster1 Yes it seemed like one of those badly made scifi shows because it was.

[@arcady0]

Sad that a game that comes across as this good has been abandoned by it's makers and sold to the 'back alley bin' of MMO companies... Reminds me of City of Heroes' fate. Sold off at a time when it was still contemporarily good and liked.

[@joelbaker9366]

City of heros is still around and canbe played. It's been taken over by fans, and continues to be enjoyed by many.

[@deadmeat5150butt]

You should take a look at City of Heroes: Homecoming. Its back and very good.

[@luketfer]

City of Heroes wasn't 'sold off' it was fully shutdown by NCsoft. In fact the studio making it for NCsoft (Paragon Studios once Cryptic, the original studio, bailed on it to make Champions Online) actually TRIED to buy the IP off of NCsoft. Rumor has it there were multiple offers from different companies to buy the IP and the MMO but NCsoft refused to sell. The reason why they refused to sell was a cultural one. Korean companies almost never sell off a failed IP because the stigma that comes with the company that bought it making it a success when you failed, thus reflecting badly on your company, they don't want to take that chance. Thus they just sit on failed IPs and never do anything with them. Since the Shutdown of City of Heroes (which was still a mild success in the MMO market with some 200k players at the time of shutdown and many felt was a push by NCsoft to try to get people to go into Guild Wars 2 which released around the time of the shutdown) and the failure of virtually ALL their other IP bar Guild Wars 2 (which they're basically the publishers and had a very hands off approach) to take a foothold in the west (Aion crashed and burned spectacularly for example), NCsoft have basically become a 'korea only' company.

[@Kairos_Akuma]

@@luketfer And sad was that Aion could have been amazing if they either make it a purchaseable game or go the subscriptionroute proper instead of this godawful "VIP" gold system And the bs Asian mmo stuff.. And the fact (When I played) you couldn't create chars from both fractions..

[@telfo4500]

While the game had a lot of positives, the fact is it was buggy. Doing arkfalls was one of the best things about it but if too many players (10+) were involved then other players would disappear, they'd still be there but you couldn't see them, and it could get very laggy. The grind was extremely heavy for some things, though leveling and campaign were fine, PVP was unbalanced, AI enemies/events spawning from random spots, and a max range for long range weapons that could could not reach an already short distance for enemy spawns. And then there was the store and the loot boxes with the store moving closer to PTW which Defiance 2050 kept. Defiance was a good game... but it needed a lot more patches than it eventually got, as a singleplayer game it was fun but the campaign did have several areas requiring a team. Defiance 2050 was a shameless cashgrab by a new publisher with no fixes or improvements beyond what vanilla Defiance had before it ended with BUT the microtransactions were bug free.

[@nullunit]

It launched as just Defiance, the 2050 appellation was added after the show ended but the game kept going. I think it was sunsetted during the pandemic. RIP Defiance, you were a cool ass game based on a show that deserved a few more seasons.

[@pharaohsmagician8329]

I played this back on Xbox 360 when it first released, it was Awesome, epseically for an MMO normally I hate those. But it was very fun and the way those giant red common crab enemies screamed reminded me of the Hollow screams from the Bleach Anime

[@bobfuscator]

Defiance was released in April 2013 in tandem with the show for Windows, PS3, and XBox 360. The show was cancelled in October 2015. Defiance 2050 was actually a separate updated release (same plot, map, missions, UI, and other assets, but all new classes) for Windows, PS4, and XBox One in July 2018. Technically that is "after the show ended but the game kept going," but I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the new console support than with the show having been over for two and a half years. You are right about the game being sunsetted during the pandemic, though. I watched the show (I agree with you that it deserved a longer run, though I'm not sure I think it could have held up well for more than one more season), and bought the game (used) for Xbox 360 a few weeks before it went free-to-play in 2014, if I remember correctly. I played a lot at first, then off and on, particularly playing less after I started Destiny 2 in 2018. I found out about Defiance 2050 in November 2018. At the time I was uninterested because of having to start a new character, and kind of irritated with Microsoft and Defiance both over the fact that I hadn't been able to play original Defiance on the XB1 I bought the previous year. I think I MIGHT have installed and launched it just for a look. I was still trying to log in and play every so often for a while - including after the 360 servers had shut down in May of 2020, I'm pretty sure - until somewhere along the line I mislaid my 360 controller, so I went for a while without even firing up that console. On April 26, 2021, I commented to some of the folks I played Destiny 2 with on PS4 that I should really figure out where that controller was so that I could go back and play some Defiance. Three days later, all the remaining Defiance servers shut down for good, as had been announced at the end of February. On June 17, I finally found out that the reason I hadn't been able to connect to the ORIGINAL Defiance servers the last few times I'd tried was because of the XBox 360 shutdown over a year before, and speculated (to the same folks I was talking to about the game in April) that I guessed that meant it was time I tried out Defiance 2050. I think I then found out the rest of the bad news later that day. I still want to play the original more.

[@allaion2897]

I used to play the hell out of this game when I was younger. I have so many good memories from it, and that "Ah, life on the new frontier" instantly punched me in the nostalgia

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

15:30 into the video, and I cant stop smiling cause its nice to hear Josh *happy* about a game for a change. I'm hoping no other shoes drop :S

[@denmanfite3156]

Reading your comment like "Are you me?"

[@DrowChyld]

I just found your video! Sadly Defiance and Defiance 2050 sunset a few months back.... I was a long-time player of the first Defiance (they made an 'updated' one to milk more money from the player base and to rebuild the game's code to install on a new less laggy server). Honestly, I really liked the game. I remember watching the TV shows every week and playing the game. At some points, the game updated to reflect things that happened in the show. It was supposed to be at the same time in a different location so we got some updates with cast members' voice acting on a few characters in new missions and stuff. Some new enemies and other fun things when it happened in the show. After you finish the main mission, side quests, and mini event things (like your car challenge) there was not much else to do. The original game was 99% the exact same but we didn't get any sort of transfer for our characters, loot, or even DLC. Not even a big XP consumable! People had to rebuy and rework everything. When you are level 5,ooo in the game with sweet drops you spent a year grinding, improving, upgrading, grinding challenge to get the currency daily/weekly... even spending lots of real money on lock boxes for special new sets (sorta like diablo sets but with guns and a shield). Yeah... only people that we're absolutely obsessed with the game switched. Or new. Or wanted to see. I personally just stayed on the original Defiance even though the lag there was unplayable some nights. High level it is just a grind. Loot boxes you pay for were a major source of income but I doubt they were making enough to justify operations + paying staff in the end. I have a love-hate relationship with this one because in the last 2 or 2 years of the game's life I never got any loot that really was worth keeping. Maybe 1 thing. As mentioned you can upgrade your weapons level, rarity, rng stat roll but it all costs a currency you had to grind. And by that, I mean dailies, weeklies, and stuff which usually took me about 3-4 hours. That was just too much so I dropped down to a casual with it. The game was a lot of fun though so every so often I would get that itch to play Defiance again. That fun borderlands-like gameplay with my EGO constantly petting me with praise was so cool. If there is a fanmade private server out there for this game (which I highly doubt) I would totally start over to play on. This was a game I really got feels over when I heard of the Sunset. But yeah, greed, lootboxes, and a weak end-sandbox were what killed it. The process for the journey was great! The end was just a deep tar pit they made us walkthrough for scarps of 'progression.'

[@demon_spawn1535]

If anyone finds a fanmade private server let me know, I want to go back a relive this game

[@adamdobry5517]

I played both and kinda ditched 2050 when i saw they removed/didnt bring over swords and bmgs

[@denmanfite3156]

Sucks I missed this one. I remember way back in Tabula Rasa, which was very little like this game but at least had the "shooter style" that nearly all MMOs skip on in exchange for full RNG and right-click-attack. It's a shame this subset of MMOs is so underdeveloped. It could be great.

[@korbytheorby6151]

@@adamdobry5517 facts

[@shenysys]

Do you remember how each week a code was given out to get loot ?

[@senzavolto]

Really look forward to these - great series and I hope there’s plenty of material for you to keep making them!

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Oh there are SO MANY bad mmos!

[@GoldTheWriter]

This was a huge blast of Nostalgia for me. I was there day one for the original Defiance game. I watched the show, I played the game, and I loved it. I was so hyped I even bought the collectors edition, and when the game went free to play I was able to find another collectors edition really cheap. It came with a statue of a traditional Hellbug and it is so cool. It sits on my shelf to this day. I had so much fun playing the original, and I still remember the hype I felt when they released an expansion for the game that added Swords. I literally rushed thru content just to get to the point where I could get one and I loved that thing even if it wasn't very well made. A few years after 2050 came out I hopped in to try it out and it still made me so happy to play it, even if it was very much just the same game with a slight amount more polish. Finding out thru your comments on later videos discussing Gamigo that they shut down the servers entirely really hurt to hear, and finally getting to this episode after slowly working backwards thru the Worst MMO Ever series makes it sting all the more. Defiance was a surprisingly important, if brief, time of my life and while greedy corporate asshats may have drove it into the ground and called it a day, I'm still glad that I got to experience this, and I'm glad that I still have physical items that can remind me of the fun I had. Rest in Peace, Defiance.

[@charliezelenowski2701]

I played this with my friends and had some of the most fun times I've had in gaming. We all expected it to be crap but some of the most unique MMO scenario's happened especially with VOIP. I was once just farming Mobs and heard a guy speeding past in his car singing "on the road again" in the most Texan accent ever... back then, this was a complete new experience to me.

[@KollinsPlays]

The original Defiance game (now nicknamed D13 for Defiance made in 2013, as opposed to D2050) was made in conjunction with the SciFi Channel TV show of the same name so it had a decent budget and that allowed the game to use some of the show's assets like voice actors. The lady that says you would make a great team makes sense as if you have seen the show. Defiance 2050 took all the high quality assets from the original D13 game and changed some of the game mechanics to make a new game. Both games have great potential, but fall short of being great for a few reasons. Some areas are obviously recycled assets so a few locations look very similar to other areas. The quests are your triggered scripted events but happen in the persistent world where others can join so when you start it, it keeps going in the world until you finish it or all players leave the area. For a bugged mission, all players have to leave the area for a bit for it to reset. There is a mob scaling dynamic where mobs scale up to your level or when more players are in the area, but it has it's flaws, mainly making some fights too tough for low levels in the area. The fake cursewords came from the scifi show's family friendly rating. There are still, years later, many world object and collision glitches. The endgame gets repetitive and grindy with P2W cash shop items and loot boxes that are more pay than win, but it's possible to play most of the game for free. The current owner doesn't do much but re-skin assets for the cash shop, but even the previous game owners were more about selling assets than fixing bugs. I spent a lot of time in both games and the early game was a lot of fun, but at some point after you finish the main story line, it just gets boring and repetitive. If you don't run into or can get around the bugs like terrain or when a mission bugs out, it's a unique game you can have a lot of fun playing. It's got much more going for it than the negative reviews would suggest and it's worth a play through and maybe watching some of the scifi channel show. I simply got burnt out after doing most of the story missions and just grinding end game with repetitive events and random chance at any upgrade. I also kinda feel sad for the game because it's sort of unique and had the potential to be a much more polished and better game than what it is.

[@Guhonter]

I had the same positive experiences as you had with the first game and many memories came back with the video.

[@kazumablackwing4270]

D2050 integrating the paid dlc from D13 was definitely a nice touch.. but I was disappointed to see they got rid of the melee weapons that D13 brought in

[@MushVPeets]

Trion did not make ArcheAge, they just (badly) published it in the West. ArcheAge is an XLGames title with a long and rather tragic backstory under their control.

[@eliinameow8658]

He needs to read this. He's said Archeage is by Trion in several videos :D

[@ezenkrul]

Caught that as well and glad someone else mentioned it.

[@LikaLaruku]

I guess it's a forgivable mistake as he mentioned he played this BEFORE doing his RIFT review. I know someone made a top comment on his RIFT review telling him Trion didn't make ArchAge & he liked it. Really should actually do more research on this stuff before making these videos though. Anyways, ArchAge was the biggest shitstorm of an MMO launch I'd ever personally been part of. I imagine Sim City Online went worse.

[@inkromancer_studios]

"Why does no one play this?" "Well Gamigo..." "Oh. I understand now."

[@lihavalokki5705]

I had like 200 hours on the original version of the game, and I wondered the same thing as to why it wasn't more popular. I even watched the TV series and totally enjoyed it as well. The reason I ended up dropping the game personally was the lack of updates. After doing all the quests, the gameplay boiled down to just doing world events with other players to collect some currency to get new weapons, or getting faction rep from other activities and using that to get new weapons. There was no true ''endgame'' so to speak, as anyone at any level could take part in these events and get the same loot as everyone else did. I think the quality of the loot was loosely based on the amount of damage you dealt during each world event, but I cannot remember for certain anymore.

[@musicandaffection6363]

I like the no endgame aspect and that it was just a world to explore and multiple stories to take part in.

[@jakefoster7650]

​@@musicandaffection6363There was end game content, you did not push far enough hunter.

[@musicandaffection6363]

@@jakefoster7650 That's fair since I never make it any game 😂

[@umpum3963]

I remember my dad and I playing the original on the 360 when it first came out. There was so much hype around the game and the show, and the idea that the two would cross over (things that happened in the show would influence the game and vice-versa). I believe if you pre-ordered you also got the Dodge Challenger from the show as a mount as well.

[@MODGAMINYT]

Actual Josh, Defiance actually was released before Destiny, 2050 was just a title change with extra content years later with more optimization for the newer consoles/tech of systems

[@Stadlau22]

Extra content? You mean with cut content and bad changes from the original

[@galloviking4766]

Feels like Gamigo is the EA of MMORPGs.

[@Sorain1]

An eldritch nightmare that drags things to their doom and warps them into such horrors that the eventual death is a mercy? Yeah, EA does that for game studio's, Gamigo for MMO's.

[@notsae66]

Pretty much. The easiest piece of advice in the video game industry is very simple; never work with EA and always research any company that offers to buy you if you're desperate or stupid enough to consider being sold.

[@malkav0488]

Spot on

[@GepardoS666]

I would even dare to say, that Gamigo is worse than EA. The amount of games it killed just out of pure greed makes EA look like a good guy

[@kaydenhom1696]

@@Sorain1 I'd say that at least EA has good games that don't die as fast. While gamigo basically is like a bad landlord for a cheap apartment that demands you pay high rent lol.

[@Liquidpain3000]

This game had a lot of potential. I played the original, and there was a bonus where everyone got a supped up Dodge Charger as their first vehicle. It was pretty awsome seeing a hoard of Charges going to an ark fall.

[@nonethelessfirst8519]

Good memories

[@ThunderEwokB]

This and Global Agenda were one of my most favorite MMOs I played. One day I decided to return to Defiance, downloaded it, started playing and noticed there's a lot fewer players but kept playing regardless as I really loved this game. Then three days later I decided to check news on it's Steam page to see what changed while I was gone... there was an article on servers shutting down in a couple of days. Made me sad as hell.

[@gunman3000]

defiance was so fun when doing an arkfall with huge groups of players

[@DanielS2001]

Joshua Nolan and Irisa are the lead characters from the show portion of Defiance. There's episode-based missions that tie into the show, and the first episode mission involves them, and when it's complete, they leave the Bay area, and one week later, the first episode starts and shows them with the item you helped them get in the game episode. You should check out the show as well.

[@ThisNameIsVeryClever]

This makes me really want a proper Starship Troopers game that completely embraces the tone of the film. Glorifying the war machine fully, just making it seem like the funnest thing ever.

[@xbamfo8199]

it's not officially Starship Troopers but Helldivers is clearly inspired by it.

[@simplus1980]

You might want to check the Earth Defense Force franchise.

[@dawnrazornephilim]

I worked with a guy that absolutely loved this game, he would talk about it constantly and try to get me to play. I never did.

[@christophershafer1857]

I love a story with a happy ending.

[@connor_lockwood]

Well this story didn't end as happily as it could have I've got some good memories of this game played it off and on for about 2 years and ran into some really fun people and places but in the end the game kinda became pay to win why grind for 8 hours doing ark falls when you can buy weapons and advantages in shops even buying one of the premium cars gives you a massive edge in ark falls where you try to score higher on a leaderboard to potentially get better stuff

[@mortis3732]

Hey at least you weren't like me that played for hundreds of hours and spent a pretty penny on the game...

[@AThing0]

Let's hope one day Defiance will be revived. This game had great potential to it with plenty of room for ideas. Since videogames are now evolving, this also gives Defiance a huge opportunity to compete with big names. Too bad it was shut down. Maybe if it were to be revived, more classes can be added as well as EGO units with different personalities of their own. More races to choose from like Liberata, Castithian, Irathient, Sensoth, Bioman, Mutant Humans, Cyborgs, etc etc. As well as a vehicle customization where we can take our vehicles to Torc and he customizes our vehicles to our liking, as well as having more realistic weaponry that can suit well to the game. There's so many things that coulda happened but it's a shame the devs no longer wanted to play around with it.

[@MrRAFalcone]

I played this when it released on the 360. I remember taking my seeder gun into a big ass raid, I think there were up to 100 people in them, and just melting through the bigger mobs. Good game.

[@sapobipede]

This was my First mmo game, and I remember passing hours and hours playing It non stop. I love that game and It marked my life.

[@OffensiveFarmer]

I really enjoyed this game when i played it, i probably had my "coolest" game moment on it when i got two of my friends to play the game, they were working their way through the early quests and got a bit lost, they got attacked by a few hellbugs which were kicking their ass, from out of nowhere i came flying through in my car, squished 2 hellbugs, flipped out of the car and started to spray the hellbugs down saving my friends. Needless to say it made me look like a total badass.

[@sharkjumpingwalrus6744]

This was a rare case of an MMO that deserved more than it got. It might not be perfect, but from what you showed it was damn good. It's a shame that it got added to the list of truly dead MMO's.

[@Hosenbund1]

it didnt deserve more.. maybe all the stuff was done decently.. but a mmo is more than a "decent" single player experience xD no word lost about endgame or anything here. josh does videos on first impressions..and thats it.. also josh doesnt really critize stuff here which he criticizes on other mmos..open your eyes

[@sharkjumpingwalrus6744]

@@Hosenbund1 It would be nice if you could point out the issues that Josh missed or did not cover here that he covered on other videos. It would take much longer for me to cross compare every video that he made with the title "the worst MMO ever" in an effort to find what you are talking about then for you to simply elaborate on your point.

[@DailyShortStreak]

@@Hosenbund1 it absolutely did. It was an amazing game. It did a good job keeping the player interested in the game. I wouldnt get bored of it for hours.

[@blasteffect19]

@@sharkjumpingwalrus6744 he won't elaborate a point because there is none to elaborate, Josh covered every aspect and just liked the game bc it was a good game

[@Steampunkzter]

I’m late… but the only real point is he really mentioned single player experince there…. Which this was a mmo of a mmo, game is big and 2050 had less players due to how they were handling the product by that point. All our boy had to do was go to the bigger large red event, he shows he went to one but then left it and never went back to one. Every player on the server would props be there fighting 1 massive sexy boss battle in all out team work chaos, competing against each other for top position for the best loot drop. This game truly was a rewarding and very fun mmo to experince and play. ( It being a mehh good fun compelling single player game, helps a lot ) when you take the fact you can coop up to 4 people I think? 90% of the game.

[@moonasha]

it's not only depressing that we can't play this game now, it's frustrating. This practice of shutting servers down and not releasing the software so people can run their own servers needs to be made illegal. It's financially wrong since people paid for it, and it's morally wrong because this piece of art history is gone

[@Justshrimpsfine]

Cool thing about the show it was launched with the game with an intentional of things players choose in the game will affect the show as well and vice versa didn't take full advantage of it but was a really cool consent for a combined world ever changing and effecting each other

[@s_cky6872]

This game ran really badly for me on PS3, and when i played it on PS4 on launch day the server issues really gave me flashbacks to how it was on PS3.

[@jasonhenson7946]

Yeah it would render everyone with the same model whenever there was too many people so it looked like a clone war lol

[@thebobman56]

so few small notes, from someone who played defiance 2013 for 1500 hours, and defiance 2050 for about 500 edit: sorry this became a WALL of text.... guns auto equip when picked up - only if you hold the button, tap it to just put in inventory (games tutorials and tips SUCK) the blur thing, actually also makes your melee attacks 3x stronger i think, you can unlock an energy sword later in game.. and stims that temp make melee 2x strong.. melee is a viable option in this game. my load-out is sword and LMG. other basic ones are, overcharge which makes ranged attacks 2x. cloak which makes you invis, and decoy, which makes a hologram of you, that they will shoot at instead of you... but you can swap places with it... send it running off towards safety while still in cover, once it arrives, teleport to it. guardian makes a giant energy shield for people to hide behind, and is a 1-way shooting window.. when you had someone join you, the reason you didnt feel safe, was more players=more enemies.. and if a high level player jumped in, they would level up to about 60% his level, and you get a temp boost to about 40% his level. but the more high levels that arrive, the more they enemies are boosted. not sure why you couldnt upgrade ego powers, looked like you should have been able to mission bugged out, yeah that can happen. fast travailing, or abandoning/re-starting the mission should work, or re-logging the instant return to fight, does have a consequence later, you loose 5k points in the fight, more points=better loot. why the difficulty curve is perfect. as you get stronger, so do the enemies, which is why it felt so good. but areas also have a minium level of power, hence killed when your timetrial failed... speaking of which, day 1 issue that things can dynamically spawn on the timetrail route, and instantly kill car it even bumped.. why you did that mission twice (where you first got downed, and later first loot) basically, this world, has locations that people will go to. and the enmies know this.. and attack from time to time. just so happens when your mission takes you there, is also an attack.. if you return to that place now, you will get the same fight again. it just happens to be another supply convoy, that stopped in same place and was attacked. the car you used in the timetrial, if you get gold in all of them, you get that car to use.. theres also an actual ATV quad, and a 4 person car. (max group is 4) the glowing shop things, come in several versions.. you used a mod store, theres gun/shield/nade stores, and consumable stores. plus later in game, theres factions, and if you do missions (contracts) for them, you get rep points, you can use to get their weapons. ie a sniper that has a chance to cloak you after a head shot... if you willing to play again, keep an eye out for the next event. halloween should be the next one. unique guns (one shoots out pumkins) and many players, will return just for these events. why is it so poorly received and thought of? it came out 1 year before destiny... yet people call it a clone of it... it had ISSUES with bugs and server stablity... still has the server issues, but with the lower player base, its not as noticeable also when it first came out, its wasnt F2P, it was a full priced game.. also D2050, changed the class mechanics hugely from D13. the old one, you had same character select, but then could choose any of the ego powers.. well 1 of the 4 it had (D50 has 8 or 9 i think now) and the tech tree was silly, was a huge grid, and you could accidently spec into a perk that was say overcharge cooldown, but your a blur user... and the level system was different as well. but i dont think that justifies the hate. ----- things you didnt see (or show in video at least) 1. PvP - theres pvp maps, but you would be agaisnt players near max level and just DIE.. you will get a temp boost to their level. but... 2. equipment tiers - theres 6 tiers of stuff in the game, and the higher ones do more base damage, and then also have modifiers on them, ie more crit damage, faster shooting, lower recoil etc. 3. co-op maps - the mission you did, where you protected cass, you can go back there, and join the queue to do it again, but with cass, and 3 other humans... and the enemies are boosted. maps also have 3 basic levels to choose, and when low level you cant choose the higher dificulty, which gives better loot. but if grouped with high level player, they can take you in. 4. cars - theres so many cars, the buggy you had, a quad bike, small car, larger car, dodge challenger, dodge durango, cerburus. some events will give cars with special skins as unique items. 5. ark falls - you went to one crystal in your video, but that was one of many, and once all destroyed, an actual boss fight will spawn. durring holiday events, you can easily have 200 other players there with you, and see them... (well they phase in and out) but the event then isnt easy, as more players=more enemies and higher tiers of them. the valenties volge swarm event, can spawn so many of these guys that i as a max level player, would need to run away from.. 6. incursions / sieges - incursions are a yellow/green circles on map, and have you following the roads taking out tagged emergancies, all with a theme.. ie all raiders, or all zombies.. and end at a place you did a hard mission (ie where you did first extraction) and have a 30 min timer, and jsut keeps spawning wave after wave of guys. more the players kill, the better loot everyone can get. also silly amounts of exp. Sieges are just the final stage of this, no emergancies and are a light blue circle. 7. pursuits - i think you niticed the driving one at one point, but theres 200 of them i think, they give cars/guns/nades/shields/costumes or just straight up level ups 8. contracts - mentioned above, but you unlock at like power 500 i think. 1 daily and weekly contract per faction, usually go to X base, and do mission again. or do co-op map. 9. nano effects - all guns and nades, can be dropped, or upgraded to be one of the following- fire/kills hp - electric/kills shields + chance to stun - corosive/kills armour - syphon/heals you - poopfeet(cant remember name)/slows all efected targets with black blobs on the feet, combat rolling will clear it faster for some reason 10. enemy factions - zombies(yes...), cyborgs, the volge(tanks on legs, run away), scrappers(kill bots) josh nolan and irisa (father and adoptive daugther) you helped in the arkfall, are the main characters of the TV show. you have a set of missions with them, and you get a cool bit of loot, which he takes, and pays you for your time. they then use that bit of loot in the first epsidoe of the TV show, to save the town of defiance. each season, had tie in missions in the game. ie charcter is kidnapped, nolan calls you to help, and you break them out, next week tehy return to the show, and are like, ahh thanks nolan, that ark hunter was a great help. happy to answer questions you might have.

[@EmiFolkMusic]

I'm definitely reading this.

[@EmiFolkMusic]

Ok, that's it. I'm downloading this game.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Thank you for this, i read the whole thing. I understand there's no real way i can fully experience an mmo in 10 hours, i played as fast as i could but i knew I'd be missing stuff, if I play more ill definately go and look for all this!

[@thebobman56]

​@@JoshStrifeHayes oh yeah, wasnt criticising you, just giving some context.. and even tho i stopped playing, im still quite passionate about it. so when i see someone finding it now, i try to give info.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@thebobman56 your info was really helpful and when i play more ill be keeping a look out for that stuff :)

[@AlAtar360]

This review was wholesome AF. You get in expecting the worst and it turns out to be a hidden gem.

[@KelpGull]

Ohhhh this hit me w that nostalgia. My husband and I used to play this together when it first came out in 2013 (we were still dating + long distance at the time, so it was a nice date substitute LMAO). It actually came out paired with the TV show and the big 'hook' of the game was that certain things the community achieved in-game were supposed to affect the outcome of the show. We were fans of the show too, so it was very exciting! I don't think it ever actually ended up amounting to anything since the show was cancelled, but it was still a fun idea! A very fun game, too.

[@katerinaFM]

I LOVED the Defiance show even though it became a bit messy at the end. Never got around to playing this but was always curious. Reading the comments shows that I missed my window of trying this out, what a shame. Looks like I might have had a good time based on this video.

[@KrazyKain]

I loved this game when it first came out. It just felt like a genuinely good shooter and a pretty good MMO. but when it got re-released as 2050 I was pretty disappointed by the lack of a character transfer. I got a LOT of cool stuff in the original (some unique vehicles being the highlights) so losing them was very offputting. But it was and is a great game. Was really something special when it had a high playerbase and you'd get massive convoys of players in the Arkfalls, especially the multi staged arkfalls where everyone would hop into their various Cars and ATVs to drive to the next stage... it was just really freaking cool. Oh! and playing it while the TV series was still coming out was something truly special. You'd get a special episode mission a few days before the episode aired and they'd tie in together. My favorite for example was when a sort of zombie virus infects people in the game, you synthesize a cure, and then send the cure to the town of Defiance (the one in the tv series). And then the episode was about an epidemic (not of the zombie variety) and the episode ends with them getting delivered the cure... which, watching the episode, I know I sent to them!

[@loganmcallister4635]

Also the syfy show was freaking awesome, we need more sci-fi series these days.

[@mattmccaff1]

You forgot to mention that the events in the TV show affected things within the game. Which was a key selling point. For example the two characters you meet first are the main characters from the show.

[@geoserenity]

"i am a good driver" "i am an average driver" "i am going to walk" -not just me on my last driving test

[@Matthew-.-]

Defiance was my favorite MMO ever. They nailed MMO borderlands. The reason the 2050 remaster got panned is because they split the already small playerbase when they released it by keeping both games running at the same time and also because they ham fisted the class system you saw into it. Before 2050 you had no classes, just a ginormous perk board you could do whatever you wanted with which was way better. For 2050 they actually removed some perks and sold them back to you as part of paid classes. Additionally the graphical upgrades were minor and there seemed to be more server issues with it than the original game. I miss the massive PVP battles. There's someone working on a Defiance private server. I hope if it succeeds he runs it better than Trion did in the later years lol.

[@MadjGB]

Also one of the areas was cut from 2050 I'm pretty sure. I vividly remember SV not being accessible

[@ollieshark]

omg, this video unlocked a deep memory i thought i'd repressed.

[@MultiSweetkisses1]

Same

[@mortis3732]

Same

[@CaliHime]

I seem to recall that the idea was that actions in the game would effect the plot of the series. I actually played the original Defiance when it came out. The servers apparently closed down in April of this year.

[@diexor7967]

Bear McCreary also worked on the Godzilla King Of The Monsters OST, to be fair he reworked the most iconic classic themes but did an amazing job nonetheless

[@naDalous]

My god I miss this game so much... this was my first ever MMO back when it came out on Xbox 360 as just 'Defiance'. Some of the best gaming experiences of my childhood

[@vert2552]

Im going to walk... Proceeds to walk into a tree

[@AMX_12t_God]

Damn I remember playing this game on ps3, despite how messed up and buggy it was I still loved this game it was the very first mmo I ever played

[@ChoasXrunneR]

My very first mmo was Defiance on the 360. Never got any dlc but made it really far just running events and story. So glad to see positive attention for it like this.

[@bradquerl]

I can't deal with the way the characters hold rifles in this game, with the butt of the gun almost hovering over the shoulder XD

[@tacoenvy]

Yeah it looks bad.

[@n3rdy11]

I still remember when this came out back in 2013, they marketed the crap out of the overlap with the TV show on SyFy channel, promissing the game would evolve with the story of the TV show in a "live service" kind of way. The game was a difficult sell because it was based on fresh new TV from Syfy, most TV/movie adaptions had a bad reputation back then. Also had a lot of technical issues on launch, like most MMOs, and not really much endgame content, so the hardcore players rushed through it as they did with many MMOs at the time, only to move on to the next one. When the first patches didn't introduce much new content more people lost interest, and the TV show was canceled after only 3 seasons, which left the game kind of dead in the water.

[@zombibyte]

Remember playing the original on the 360. Thought it was funny that on the back of the case it literally said “online multiplayer 1-10,000+” lol

[@jeebus2313]

It's a damn shame to hear this ones shutting down. I haven't played since the original version of the game back on the 360, but I remember enjoying it and the show actually not being too bad. Hey, maybe I'll give it one last go before April 29th comes around for old times sake. Say goodbye to an old, forgotten friend.

[@OldFellaDave]

The Original Defiance was AWESOME when it first came out. People everywhere going HAM on everything that moved, MASSIVE ALIEN MONSTERS hurling glowing crap everywhere. Massive public events etc ... it just died a slow death ... it just got very 'same samey' after a while, then it just got grindy and the Devs didn't introduce much in the way of new gameplay ... just some extra maps and 'same samey' gameplay and enemies ... few more factions to grind out. In the end the Devs basically ripped the good parts from the game and re-released it as Defiance 2050 to try and drag new people in - and then sold it off to the fun suckers at Gamigo .... and that's all she wrote. It was a fun game, even more fun with groups ... but it doesn't sustain the fun sadly :(

[@silversheep7369]

I miss my Surge Boltor and Infector, lol

[@silversheep7369]

And the BMG and flaregun

[@Krowtic]

I remember being really hyped for this and playing the hell out of it along with watching the tv show. The idea of watching a show and then wanting more and being able to go into that world and run around and do stuff was freaking awesome. I liked it well enough, just got distracted with other stuff and by the time I came back the show was cancelled and the game was basically dead. A shame really.

[@pickled-melon]

Such a great video, grew up on defiance, was probably about 9~10 when I was playing watching years after the servers shut down was surreal, I always loved it but understood it probably wasn't the best game but felt so good hearing your overwhelmingly positive thoughts on the game :3

[@ajayjackson7089]

3 years out, so this probably doesn't matter anymore. I played Defiance when it first dropped as a tie-in with the Syfy show. There were supposed to be a lot of events where things that happened in the game could affect the show and vice versa, but that never really reached the levels of interactivity that they promised. The game loop was great, controls were tight, graphics were solid, and the variety in guns and upgrades scratched the loot itch. Progression felt good, there was an okay amount of endgame (including raids), and the time trials/side events got pretty competitive. I think I held the top score for one of the sniper challenges by 20 points for 2 days. The community was fantastic, guilds that loved to hold server-wide events (shout-out to the 47th Legion), PvP that was actually well populated and varied (even if it wasn't always well-balanced), and world events that you could actually complete because people actually wanted to do them. Not to mention, the first few expansions actually introduced fun new mechanics and activities, especially the introduction of the Volge. I think what killed it was a lack of enthusiasm after the gimmick of the show happening simultaneously fizzled out. Some of the later expansions felt tired and underwhelming. Then, Trion had the gall to close Defiance when the numbers started dropping and re-release it as Defiance 2050. Everyone thought it was gonna be a sequel when it was announced, but it turned out to be a barely-noticeable graphics update packaged as if it was a new game. It didn't even come out long enough after the original to really be considered a Remake or a Reboot. I enjoyed my time with Defiance, and appreciate the friends I made. But, the studio obviously did not care about the game.

[@juangalvez2404]

Just throwing in my two cents cuz I, too, played this game when it was new and loved it. It was genuinely a good game in many respects, and I have nothing bad to say about my time going through it... the only problem was that everything was story-driven, and the story ended with the base game (which ended on a cliffhanger, to boot). I don't know why, but the story never continued, and since there was no real endgame like raiding like in other MMOs, once you finished the story there was kind of no good reason to continue. I would honestly play through again, but the 2050 version jacked a lot of the playability from the original game (you used to have access to all the EGO abilities from the get-go, and you used to be able to make more presets than you currently can) and put it behind microtransactions (since originally the game had to be purchased wholesale), and I can't see myself playing through without access to everything I used to have access to.

[@sirken2]

I remeber playing this game when it first came out was a blast back then That first year was just top notch it was a shame it dropped off though.

[@snares187]

I quite enjoyed Defiance when the first MMO game was released on PS3, The concept was that it would loosely follow/connect to the TV series, and events from the show could have some cross-over into the game world etc. Sadly the TV show was cancelled after a few seasons, so we didn't really see much of this.. Shame, it's a cool idea. Fun game overall, I heard the 2050 'remake' wasn't much different though never played.

[@VixensCupcake]

I have so many memories of this game. Is still my favorite childhood moment.

[@fairguinevere666]

It does somehow feel very destiny. Small agile vehicle that can be damaged, objectives sometimes fall out of the sky, robot companion that helps you hack things and gives you superpowers, aliens are not immune to guns, people fix things and get attacked while you defend, etc.

[@Tenaka30]

I miss this game. It was never my main game at any point but everytime I came back to it I enjoyed the time spent.

[@MadjGB]

I miss sitting at the overpass bitching about event arkfall spawn rates. Joking about Trion eventually charging us for bullets. Nothing gives me the comfy feeling this game did

[@tracep.9900]

I kinda miss this game

[@Zen77741]

Same but I know it's never coming back probably:(

[@daggermore]

Really liked your quick review of the game. Personally, after a long day at work, I like to just run around and shoot enemies and Defiance 2050 has loads of enemies everywhere. When this game first came out the critics immediately came out of woodwork to complain that it's too similar to the original. But I see it as similar to Skyrim SE release in that it's an enhanced 64 bit version with better stability and performance. Plus, the DLC content from the original game are now free for the new players. It's win - win situation.

[@tom5890]

One of the nuzzleflash images is missing and it displays a checkered rectangle in stead (5:28), just noticed 🤷

[@appalachiangaming]

I really, really miss this game. It was so much fun and so, so good. I'm legitimately sad and to this day I still wish they had released things to allow private servers

[@thealaskanpiper]

I remember the game being very glitchy and annoying to play because of it. Admittedly this was a long time ago and after coming across this video and seeing it run well its inspired me to give it another go. Thanks man

[@skyesfury8511]

Correction on the TV show. It was not a spinoff of the game. The game and TV show were supposed to run concurrently, the game progressing through the story as the TV show did. It was an experiment by SyFy and Trion to try something new. It failed horribly. The TV show was mediocre, at best, and the game was received decently at first. Both quickly lost their good ratings after just a few short months, though.. P.S. Loving this series.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Thanks skye, ill give the tv show a watch sometime, cheers for the support :)

[@mrnice4434]

I really liked the idea and bought the game because of it, I was never a fan of shooter game but gave it a go anyway and it was fun and the show was also nice but I remember the plot was so slow moving.

[@deathwing860]

I remember the game being a ton of fun. And even returned to it some time later after ditching it and can say that starting it from the beggining is still as good as it was. It is sad to see that it got such bad reviews, cuz its flaws were definetly overpowered by the great gameplay loop, tons of content (both for solo and coop play) and a decent story. Quests weren't getting stale as for most mmos and the public events were enormous, even huge, including up to several dozens of players just doing the same objective. It downfall was just the fact that trion got sold out by gamigo and Defiance was just put on life support, thus all of the veterans of the game (who were like 90% of the playerbase) didn't have any reason to stay

[@TheDemigans]

I heard about Defiance when I was playing Firefall. Firefall also had PvE, but it also had jetpacks, a wide variety of weapons that weren’t bullets, a variety of abilities, a two factions of humanoid enemies with variety of unit types within, a large selection of fauna that changes based on the region you were in, towns that need defending a loads more. They even had secrets like special rare crates that spawned during a random event on the map which you had to find by exploring during or just after completing it. Despite that, seeing this gameplay loop I think I missed out. Firefall had a great idea and some of the best mini events and self-made events for the players, but the devs continually made things worse. Things were often imbalanced, events changed for the worse, if things were fixed they added something else that wasn’t well received. The game world was supposed to be influenced by the actions of all the players (“more than 50% won this event so now a special area opens up”) but it never got too far with it. Eventually it closed down and they made a “successor” game which took the somewhat sexualization (the usual short-pants/bikini armor) and went with strings and micro bikini armor instead. I thought that if that was the focus the gameplay likely wasn’t going to take the front seat.

[@DoomOfConviction]

Your series is so good I watch every episode I swear!

[@tut-4126]

It seems people are not fond of the game and I guess there is a reason for that, probably later in the game or something. I will download it and try it out because based on your video this seems very damn good! Thank you for making it, bro!

[@alexverhoeven3960]

I remember playing through the original version of this A LOT and enjoying it with its crossover into the show. I don't remember why I drifted away, but I think I did when it went F2P and just traded for another game. I feel like there was a new MMO every week at that time.

[@IRMentat]

Pretty much this. The sub fee put me off and when it went F2P I was swarmed by other games. Now it’s closed shop is when I finally have the time to go back :/

[@MadjGB]

@@IRMentat The only thing you may have missed was the 3rd area silicon Valley (silly crit valley) on 360 it ran like shit and you'd crit error quite often. Oh and the ark battery raid things people would spawn where dozens of us could go fight a war monkey and not do enough dps to kill it lol

[@Tacoman837]

I used to love playing this game back on ps3. I used to trade weapons and get alot of money early in the game😂

[@sdswood3457]

I enjoyed seeing Josh actually enjoy a game he thought was going to be terrible. There were the normal beats of his reviews and I kept expecting him to uncover the horrible cash shop or buggy features or godawful something or other... but he didnt. This reinforces why I watch his reviews as he tells it how he sees it and is perfectly willing to give a glowing review on a titular 'Worst Games Ever' type show. Good on ya

[@labdG]

The only thing I remember from playing this game was that when me and my friends got the quad bike we all just honked the horn as fast as we could. We thought it was hillarious. We were easily amused back then. x)

[@williamhououin]

Sigh.... I am kinda bummed out it didn’t suck lol Happy you had a great time for once though

[@BVargas78]

Was a fun game back in the day, but it gets repetitive.

[@noricoco4695]

I definitely expected you to uncover some major flaws in the game, and really appreciate that despite the theme of the series, you'd include a game that turns out not to suck too badly.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Thanks Nori, I mean if i play a game and it doesn't suck, i'll be honest and just say it doesn't suck :)

[@noricoco4695]

@@JoshStrifeHayes I mean, it seems obvious, but it's surprisingly rare to use honest content rather than fabricating "CoNtEnT" 😄

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@noricoco4695 annoyingly thats because the faked content normally gets way more views

[@xensonar9652]

I loved this game. Everyone on the map rushing to a public event when it dropped, hordes of enemies, everyone eager to get the kill count up to unlock the next wave, so many players and enemies that it felt like the game would crash any moment. I felt like I had been through something when an event was over. It was chaos and carnage and I loved it. I have not found a game since that scratches the same itch in quite the same way.

[@LikeGodzzila]

IIRC one of the big reasons this game had a very weak launch was because that series you mentioned in the beginning, originally was meant to be connected to the game. That is, whenever a big event happened in the game (such as a big guild taking over a big city or w/e) it would happen in the series, and whatever big event happened in the series would also happen in the game... the issue with that was... when the series started airing, people found out that it already had prerecorded 2 entire seasons, meaning no matter what happened in the game would not be happening in the series for at least the better part of the first year and a half. That made A LOT OF PEOPLE immediatly lose hope on the dev's word.

[@luizeduardo1375]

It wasn't poorly received at all. When it first came out on it's 1.0 state it was a massive success. The world was full of players everywhere. It was super fun and world bosses were amazing because of all of the people. It just aged and it was badly managed.

[@americominotti7248]

Hey, I had a few hundred hours in this game years and years ago and have some answers to why the game got such bad reviews. The primary reason is that the game was BUGGY AS HELL when it came out and you got into large encounters (large ark falls, invasion events, ect) when too many people where playing there. Players would constantly pop in and out, enemies would teleport or do odd things. The game was( and still is) amazing in smaller groups, but I imagine all of the day one reviews had an extremely rough experience. After that the game just kinda costed on life support. I regret 0% of the time I spent on this game, but eventually the lack of "new" stuff gets to you.

[@troygeorge9883]

I loved this game. Sadly, I came to it towards the end of its life. I would spend hours, with my granddaughter in my lap, buzzing around the map seeing how far and how high we could get the runner to go. F U Gamigo

[@randalvelvet9307]

Man I remember going hard on 2050 three to four years ago because I was trying to unlock a yellow bomber themed skin and get a weapon called the atomizer. It’s crazy how recently I checked on my character only to find the servers have been closed down. Good thing I never spent any real money on it but man all my hard work is gone

[@definitelygoku4924]

"I am such a good driver." Drives into tree "I am an okay driver." Drives into t r e e "I'm going to walk." *Walks into t r e e*