Trion's 2013 MMO shooter Defiance is a defiantly decent game. It's got "mostly positive" reviews on Steam, and we said it was fun in our review: "Not the kind of fun that warrants an unreserved recommendation," but certainly acceptably solid. And while the current player count doesn't quite live up to the promise of "thousands of players" scouring a transformed Earth, there's apparently enough of an audience (or at least Trion hopes there is) to warrant a remake, which was announced today as Defiance 2050.
The new game is set 20 years after the Arkfall, the catastrophic event that ended the war between humanity and the alien Votans who came here intending to colonize the planet, apparently without knowing that we were here. By my calculations, that places it four years after the original Defiance game, which was actually a tie-in to the Syfy television series. (Update: Trion PR informs me that the TV show was actually a tie-in to the game. The original Defiance announcement describes the two as "interconnected." Make of it what you will.) Trion said Defiance 2050 "recreates the original game from the ground up," with improved textures, higher resolutions, and better framerates, but it will also feature major improvements to gameplay systems that will enable larger-scale action.
"Defiance 2050 has been created with the original game’s community in mind," producer Matt Pettit said in the announcement. "The team has been listening to feedback and taking some helpful cues from fans to really create the Defiance experience that people have wanted for a long time. Defiance 2050 marks a shift for the game that goes beyond the change from the year 2046 to 2050, and we are absolutely thrilled to hear what people think of it."
Defiance—the game—launched in 2013 as a conventionally-priced release, but transitioned to free-to-play in 2014. The television series was canceled in 2015 after three seasons, but Trion has continued to support and expand on the story via the game, and even described the Dark Metamorphosis update released in 2016 as a fourth season. Defiance 2050 may be more of a remake than a proper sequel, but setting it four years after Defiance will enable Trion to advance the story further.
Defiance 2050 will undergo a closed beta prior to release, which is expected sometime in the summer. Signups are open at defiance2050.com, and you can find out more in the brief developer update video below.
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Andy Chalk
Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
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