The Pilgrims of the Guiding Light are making their move in Defiance’s latest update “Aftermath”. As the Pilgrims make ready to throw the world into Chaos, the stories continue where Season 2 left and lead us to Season 3. With seven new missions, an arkfall below Silicon Valley, a Thanksgiving Event and new features, this update is jam packed. I had the opportunity to talk with Trick Dempsey, creative Director of Defiance about Aftermath and the future of the game.
First thing Trick wanted to talk about was how Aftermath finally made it possible for Defiance to be Free-to-play on the Xbox 360 console, making it the first concurrent MMO that is F2P on all its platforms (Xbox 360, PS3 & PC). This is huge news and a remarkable accomplishment for Trion. Aftermath also brought with it numerous bug fixes that have been plaguing them for a while. The patcher bug being the most notable has finally been squashed. For those not familiar, this was the bug that would require (not all the time) you to completely reinstall the game instead of just patching and as someone who has encountered this bug, I am ecstatic the fix has finally been found.
Making sure to address the social aspects of the game, Scaling in encounters was made more reliable allowing high level players to join lower level players and keeps the encounter challenging for all. The difficulty of the encounters with balance out the Mobs and everyone’s EGO rating to encourage you to party and clan up with new players and veterans alike. With this also comes the ability to trade gear with your friends. Also there are no worries if the gear is too high level, just use the Salvage Matrix Action to reduce the EGO rating and gear up. Want to dance? Emotes and Callouts are now in a quick menu to make them easier to find.
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The Ending of Season 2’s TV series left a lot of cliffhangers and Aftermath picks up were that leaves off. Beware of spoilers from here on in. Karl Von Bach is alive and is in need of your assistance. Of the seven new missions, three are instanced missions to challenge ark hunters to stop the Arkrise. Two big storylines are being brought to a close in Aftermath, the Defiant Few campaign and the mysterious Assassin Nujekpe. With these new missions we will also get to enjoy some new voiceovers that bring them to life.
Aftermath also brings the New Frontier Harvest event with Cornucopia Supply Crates, Pilgrims, and Turkeys. As the first annual Thanksgiving event has begun bringing with it all kinds of Turkey pleasures, from new costumes like the Pilgrim Hats to weapons like the Gobbler Bazooka that launches a rocket loaded with Deadly Turkeys upon your opposition. It is absolutely hilarious watching turkeys charge forward attacking your enemies and exploding, feathers flying everywhere. Want to destroy your enemy’s armor? Break out the Plate Slicer, but be aware it also builds buffs upon the same enemies making for interesting encounters. So get out there and stop the mutants and Biomen and gobble up all the new Pilgrim outfits and gear.
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You will get to enjoy two weeks of Turkey Goodness, earning all the choice new items, after that they will only be available via Lock Boxes until next year. Not a big Turkey fan? No worries we are right around the corner from a Christmas event with its own costumes and gear to earn as well as some new features. We can’t say what they are at the moment because that would ruin the surprise; you’ll just have to wait till you open your present.
Aftermath is an update full of great content that is just begging to be explored. If you haven’t had a chance to see what is left of Silicon Valley, now is the time. Just watch your step as there may be a rogue turkey waiting to attack you.
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The future is also looking bright for Defiance and to kick off Season 3 Trick stated we will begin to see major story updates at an aggressive rate starting in the first quarter of 2015. It will be time to start investigating the state of affairs with the crippling of the Earth Republic and how that will affect everyone. And what is happening in New York are just some of the mysteries that will need to be solved.
