Am experiment of epic proportions. A game, a tv show, designed from the ground up to be intertwined. How does the game measure up in this day of shooters marked by Call of Repetition, Halo 4, Battlefield 3, and others?

Released on April 2nd, it had a rocky start. Constant server crashes, disconnects, glitches plagued the first week. At this point, a hearty Thank You needs to be given to the developers. They have busted their butts over the last two weeks making the game stable and it shows and they have done a phenomenal job of keeping the masses informed on what is going on behind the scenes even to the point of posting the list of their priorities.

The Game of Defiance is a 3rd person shooter crossbred with an MMO. It plays like a cross between Gears of War, Mass Effect 3, and Borderlands, taking aspects of all of them and mashing them together. The shooter aspects are done well enough, but the guns do not have much variety in the damage they do between types. This was intentional as Trion wanted Newb's to not get owned and discouraged. The variety really comes from the weapon mods that you can add to the weapons.

But I digress. The game has a lot of flaws. For one, it does a piss poor job of letting you know how to do things. One example are the weapons. You earn skill levels by using guns. Guns earn XP the more you use them. The guns have an XP cap and once it is reached, you don't earn anything for skill levels. But that is just one example.

There is a story to the game, which takes place in the Bay Area in California (the show takes place around St. Louis), told through a series of missions. There are also "episode" missions which are supposed to relate to the TV show. Right now, there are 4 that are accessible until the show starts. There are also different challenges to do as well - races, time trials, killing sprees. All in all there is alot to do.

One of the more interesting aspects are the Arkfalls. Arkfalls are really BIG boss battles. This is the area that feels the most like an MMO with hundreds of people teaming up to take down some Monster creature. The down side is that, on the XBOX, there is massive screen lag.

All in all, it is very fun despite the flaws that it has, especially when playing with friends, like an MMO should be. It is definitely worth checking out.

Also...NO MONTHLY FEE! Thank GOD!