Defiance Live-Action Game Trailer Channels Mad Max
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Syfy’s Defiance is going to be an interesting experiment. I’m optimistic about the show, simply because it’s the baby of Farscape’s Rockne S. O’Bannon. Assuming Syfy lets it survive longer than one season, I’m eager to see his vision of a post-war Earth where humans and aliens now live side-by-side. Of course, that’s not all there is to Definace. There is also a tie-in MMORPG that will, in some way, interact with the events of the show. Now we’ve finally got a new look at the game side of things…well, sort of.
What we’ve actually got is a live-action trailer for the game, much in the same vein as the excellent live-action Halo spots we’ve seen over the years. But since it’s basically a short film, it’s hard to glean how much of the action on-screen will correspond to the game world. It’s a live-action trailer for a CGI game based on a live-action TV series that hasn’t aired yet. I’m dizzy.
So, what we’ve got here is your basic wasteland full of unsavory types who frequently decide to shoot at each other. The three main “protagonists” look to be bounty hunters or mercenary types, so you can probably expect equivalent playable character classes in the game. Early footage and pictures have already established that gamers will be facing off against large, nasty beasties of varying types, and we definitely see that confirmed in the trailer. Also, the female lead appears to have some sort of optical display on her eye, and at one point she either teleports or turns invisible, depending on your interpretation.
It’s essentially a nice little Defiance short film, but it doesn’t sway me for or against the game. As many companies have learned in recent years, it’s hard as hell to launch a good MMO, even when it’s based on an existing property like Star Trek or Star Wars. I wish them well, but I’m not holding my breath on the game lasting very long. But if it does, awesome, especially if the show itself is good enough to make me want to spend more time exploring its universe.
Defiance the game will come out on April 2nd for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The series will premiere a few weeks later, on April 15th.
