Defiance launched in April 2013 as a gamble no one had quite tried before: a third-person shooter built to run alongside a Syfy television series of the same name. Trion Worlds developed and published it for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The pitch was a shared world and a shared story, and for a while it worked.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
The Bay Area After the Pale Wars
The game takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area, 15 years after the Pale Wars between Earth and the Votanis Collective. The Votans arrived seeking a new home after their solar system was destroyed. They did not know the planet was already inhabited. War followed, terraforming technology got loose, and the Earth was remade.
Players are enlisted as Ark Hunters by the industrialist Karl Von Bach, sent to recover alien technology called Ark Tech. It falls from orbit in events known as Ark Falls. An EGO implant, built by Von Bach Industries, gives the player abilities and a way to navigate the ruins.
Four Origins, One Tutorial
Character creation offers four Origins, and the source is blunt about what they amount to.
- Veterans: soldiers who survived the Pale Wars
- Outlaws: criminals who raid for fortunes
- Machinists: scavengers who strip alien tech for profit
- Survivalists: humans and aliens trying to live in a hostile world
| Choice | Effect after the tutorial |
|---|---|
| Origin | None |
| Race (Human, Irathient, Castithan) | None |
| Weapons and abilities | Equally accessible to all |
That table is the problem in miniature. The game asks you to pick a past and never asks you to live in it. Race and Origin are costume. Castithan is locked behind downloadable content.
Captain Grant and the Stratocarrier
The opening mission puts the player aboard a stratocarrier commanded by Captain Noah Grant of the Earth Republic Military, escorting Von Bach to the bay. Irisa and Joshua Nolan from the television series appear in the cutscene. Von Bach reveals he is hunting the remaining components of a terra spire, hoping to restore the Earth and be hailed a hero. Grant is annoyed by his disregard for protocol and his men.
Then the ship is hit by an unknown force. The hull is compromised. Escape pods jettison with Nolan and Irisa aboard. The player’s pod button malfunctions.
A Tie-In That Outlived Its Servers
Defiance went free-to-play in stages in 2014: June 4 for PC, August 14 for PS3 and November 18 for Xbox 360. Gamigo shut the servers, forums and social accounts on April 29, 2021. Fawkes Games then acquired the licensing rights from Gamigo and relaunched the game on PC on April 18, 2025 through the Fawkes Hub launcher.
The relaunch is the interesting part. A game sold on interconnection with a television program outlived the original studio and the company that killed it. What remains is a competent shooter with a thin role-playing shell, and a setting that still holds up better than the systems built on top of it.
The IGDB critic aggregate, across 10 outlets, put it at 7.1/10.
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