A dead sci-fi MMO that had a companion TV show of the same name, Defiance, is being brought back to life by Fawkes, a studio "dedicated to reviving treasured titles," and I'm angry at myself for not having heard about it sooner.
Defiance is a 2013 MMO about humanity and aliens trying to coexist on Earth after extraterrestrials invaded and terraformed the planet. The mix of futuristic sci-fi and gritty post-apocalypse sounds cool, but as PC Gamer reported, it never made much of a splash. According to SteamDB, its peak concurrent player count on Steam was just 12,690.
The tie-in TV show was canceled in 2015 after three seasons, but the game's servers kept on trucking until 2021, so it's only been gone for four years. "After many heartfelt discussions on forums like r/Defiance and watching enthusiastic video reviews [such] as this one on YouTube together with the comments, we realized that the spirit of Defiance still burns bright," Fawkes writes on its website.
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You don't have to wait long to jump back in or try Defiance for the first time, as servers will go live in April. It will be the original 2013 version of the game coming back, not the 2018 version, Defiance 2050, which is set four years after the original events.
It's just the PC version returning for now, too, with console versions to follow "if our community embraces the revival."
I'm keen to try the game, but I'm even more interested in the TV show. I live for that kind of sci-fi. One of my favorite shows that only got one season is Terra Nova, which tells the story of a group of humans who travel back in time to an alternate past infested with dinosaurs to escape the barely breathable air of the present. It was one of Naomi Scott's first acting roles and ended on a suspenseful cliffhanger.
If you're keen to check out some other games you might have missed, read our list of the best online games you can play right now.
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