Trion, Syfy and the Defiance team have announced that the first beta event for the upcoming MMO is slated for January 18-20th. Called “Advanced Mission Beta 1”, players will have access to several zones including the tutorial, massive co-op boss battles and a 'competitive multiplayer map'.

Participants in “Advanced Mission Beta 1” will be transported to a futuristic San Francisco bay area, and will take on the role of an ark hunter.  Part treasure hunter, part mercenary, ark hunters are genetically enhanced operatives who are fearless and lethal, dedicated in their mission to recover valuable alien technology and sell it to the highest bidder.

Sign up for beta testing on the Defiance VonBach Industries site.

Originally posted by BTrayaL

Originally posted by adam_nox
Something about that tidbit concerns me.  Like is this just an all instanced game, with story modules, etc?

[mod edit]

sigh. i remember this same type of post word for word with SWTOR. anyway, defiance just looks like Firefall with a different visual style.

Originally posted by Rthuth434

Originally posted by BTrayaL

Originally posted by adam_nox
Something about that tidbit concerns me.  Like is this just an all instanced game, with story modules, etc?

[mod edit]

sigh. i remember this same type of post word for word with SWTOR. anyway, defiance just looks like Firefall with a different visual style.

with the exception that it plays much better (atleast did on gamescon last year).

Signed.

Fingers crossed.

Originally posted by adam_nox
Something about that tidbit concerns me.  Like is this just an all instanced game, with story modules, etc?

no.  lots of open world overland from the looks of their videos.  even with opt-in OWPVP.

Signed up for it - hope to get in for sure. This game has some great potential especially if they elaborate on the features, world and gameplay even further in the future.  Nice to see a great looking action MMORPG shaping up well - Trion has my respect as developers.

I hope they'll make it more than 'BORDERLANDS ONLINE' and eventually have some sandbox features that allow the players to really move into this world they're crafting and make it their own.

Originally posted by Rthuth434

Originally posted by BTrayaL

Originally posted by adam_nox
Something about that tidbit concerns me.  Like is this just an all instanced game, with story modules, etc?

[mod edit]

sigh. i remember this same type of post word for word with SWTOR. anyway, defiance just looks like Firefall with a different visual style.

Certainly have more confidence in Trion with their MMO experience than I do in the Firefall team.  Going to be interesting how this game works out.

Defiance is not firefall .. believe me, it's not.  it has .. hmm .. let me say it is a mix of Metro, Stalker, Fallout, Borderlands and of course Tabula Rasa.

this game have so much potential in it  and the adaption to the scifi show .. is something new.

Originally posted by adam_nox
Something about that tidbit concerns me.  Like is this just an all instanced game, with story modules, etc?

They said it's largely an open world game with open world pve and pvp. It does have instanced stuff too, one of the E3 videos shows them doing a PVE instance.

Originally posted by Deeter
So is RIFT just an afterthought for Trion now? I don't like it when a small company works on two MMOs at the same time. See: Cryptic.

Nope. From what I've read, RIFT and Defiance are being developped by seperate teams located in a different state I believe. (Still made by Trion, but a different studio in a different state)