POSTED 13/5/13


DEFIANCE

Trion Worlds
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, PC)

DE, a dash of Deep Space Nine
FI, not Joss Whedon's Firefly
AN, A-li-en Nation vibes
CE, Close Encounters gone awry...

We’d apologise to Julie Andrews, but we fucking despise The Sound of Music, so stuff her.

Defiance started life a curious beastie. The TV show launched concurrently with this game, a third-person ‘massive multiplayer online role playing game’ shooter, and there’s promise of overlap as things on TV will affect things in the game. Characters from the former pop up in the latter occasionally, but generally you’re just another scabrous ark hunter.

Wha’?! OK, try to keep up. The Votans – kind of like Vogons, but even crappier poets - seek home on Earth after their planet goes ‘PHUT!’ Other than a handful of colonists, they’re mostly stuck in hypersleepy orbit, but following attempts at interspecies harmony an assassination makes things messy, war ensues, the arks going round-round (baby) round-round Earth crash, ‘BOOM!’ and accidentally terraform the joint.

Now if you’re thinking, “What the fuck’s ‘terraform’ mean?” then thanks, we’re not alone. Basically it’s ‘earth-shaping’, or customising an environment to your habitability requirements. Like Populous. Already knew that? Hey, your elephant stamp’s in the mail.

Anyway, you pick one of four types of being, customise a little (we did NOT want grey bloody hair), get injected with an EGO (nothing to do with Skyhooks, rather a built-in hologrammy companion thingummy) and go looking for dollartastical alien tech – ark hunting.

You’ll run, jump, shoot, upgrade weapons and abilities, conjure magic quadbikes from thin air (of fat air if you’re near ex-LAX) and embark upon main missions, side quests and challenges like speed racery speed racing. All with the added sometimes goodness of other real life beings in avatarical form helping or hindering.

Despite occasional quirks and some BS re-spawn points, it’s reasonably fun-esque. Unlike the show, which is sadly more Dynasty than Firefly. Which brings us back to “D’oh!”...

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