Defiance is a fun game to play, but there’s never really a good reason to play it. A third-person shooter by way of the MMORPG, the game drops you in an open world al🅺ongside thousands of other players and presents an overwhelming menu of quests and events to pursue. These involve lots of shooting and their aftermath boasts an astronomical death toll. B🌠ut what’s the point?

Many games answer this question with loot--think Gearbox Software's Borderlands, one of Defiance’s most obvious influences. Plot progression or character upgrades are equally valid. Defiance will offer you all three of those things in exchange for your time and effort, but none of them ever feel satisfying enough to compel you 🦄forward with much enthusiasm.

The game shares its name, setting, and characters with a new television show on the SyFy Network. The two works are attempting to provide different looks into the same world, and they are said to eventually influence each other (how, exactly, remains to be seen). It’s important to note that while the show takes place in the ruins of St. Louis, the game takes place in and around San Francisco. You will see some overlapping characters 🧔and plot points, but the two stories are intertwined, not one and the same. All this is interesting, but does little to impact the game right now.