Trion Worlds recently invited the press corps to come to San Francisco to check out Defiance, the ambitious MMO being developed in conjunction with the Syfy Network. We've got a hands on report from that event as well as a first-ever game play video. Don't miss it!

Jumping into the gameplay, we were given the chance to create characters and take some of Defiance's gameplay modes for a spin.  Character creation was relatively robust for such an early build of the game, offering the two races of Human and Irathient, four Ark Hunter "Origins," which unlock special abilities for your character from the get-go, and several cosmetic customization options.  I chose to be an Irathient, because aliens.  I then picked the Survivalist Origin, rather than the other three of Machinist, Outlaw, and Soldier, so that I could toy around with the Cloak stealth ability.

Read more of Som Pourfarzaneh's Defiance: They Got Borderlands in My MMO!

Hmmm. 

Hmmmm. I need to see what it feels like.

Sweet! Looks fun to me! This is a project that has gone undermy radar, but looks fun. So this game is going to play side by side with the tv show? When does the tv show air?

It is funny because I LOVED Tabula Rasa and was so sad when it closed but now the horizions look like they have some games coming out to my taste (This and Firefall) 

I will be keeping an eye on this =)

Originally posted by drtack1

Sweet! Looks fun to me! This is a project that has gone undermy radar, but looks fun. So this game is going to play side by side with the tv show? When does the tv show air?

It is funny because I LOVED Tabula Rasa and was so sad when it closed but now the horizions look like they have some games coming out to my taste (This and Firefall) 

I will be keeping an eye on this =)

Last I heard the show airs spring 2013..but Syfy is working with Trion hand in hand..and they will hold the show off if the game gets a delay ( dont quote me, im just gessing).  Very ambitious..and I miss TR too  :)..but to play TR and then pause for an hour to watch a show on the off chance that my character is mentioned in background info..too cool.

Originally posted by drtack1

Sweet! Looks fun to me! This is a project that has gone undermy radar, but looks fun. So this game is going to play side by side with the tv show? When does the tv show air?

It is funny because I LOVED Tabula Rasa and was so sad when it closed but now the horizions look like they have some games coming out to my taste (This and Firefall) 

I will be keeping an eye on this =)

The first episode airs on April 15th http://www.tvrage.com/shows/id-30724

The game and the show both launch in April - I found the game engine amazing, it's Trion's own engine, but the build I played at Pax is dated to what was demoed here.

Also minor correction, Defiance is actually developed by Trion's San Diego studio, you mention Redwood City, which is the Rift dev studio.

this is the most anticipated game for me personally, the first 15 min I played it I knew this game will be the next major MMORPG. You have to have that super responsive and scalable engine like WoW has to be any serious competition, and Defiance has it.

Now the hard part is developing the game into a fun an entertaining world, I think Trion will pull it off.

 Oh I am also going to watching the show, but I am a lot more interested in the game - has PvE, open world PvP, dungeons, and bad ass huge aliens - I am in :)

I dont like the look of the combat so far.. but i like the idea.

I shall probally check it out..

Originally posted by Vannor
So I decided to randomly watch this video while bored and have gone from 0% interest in this game to looking forward to release.

The videos do not do it justice - you can't get the feel of how open the world feels and just zooming and jumping hills on your ATV is fun in itself.

the only game at Pax that left me wanting more and I kept thinking about it after the show, and that is very rare for me as I've been playing MMORPGs since UO back in 99, so I know I am very jaded at this point.

ill be playing the PC version as I prefer higher resolutions and higher textures, plus I am still,not that good at the controller play, but keyboard and mouse feel like an extension of my hands at this point :)

I hope we get to see some dungeon play, that's something I am pretty interested in.

ego upgrade thing is me to me - I guess that's level up basically, and the soldier skill tree was visible in the video, looks like quite a few skills.

tabula rasa - as flawed as it was I loved that game, if I could I'd love to play some TR now.

Borderlands style MMO would be pretty damned awesome - especially with a Halo-esque alien feel to it.

I like the sounds of that, and respect Trion for their level of polish and quick turn around in content and patches/fixes.

Definitely on my radar.

And my #1 interest?

Xbox 360 play - I have been waiting for a MMO to play on my 360 for 7 years. FFXI just didn't cut it for me.

Uh, how is this anything like borderlands? God that's worse than IGN's "It's like Skyrim with guns!"

Anyways, it's a slightly modified Geo-Mod 2.5 engine, I'd expect that graphically speaking you should be fine with a Geforce 260.

Seriously though, "Borderlands MMO" is possibly the dumbest thing I've heard all week!