I feel like by now we’ve pretty much seen every battlefield from World War II in games. But somehow, The Defiant immediately caught my attention. The game shows you a part of the war that I personally knew very little about and had barely seen before. And that is immediately one of the game’s biggest strengths. That was also the reason why I decided to book an appointment at Gamescom.
I really like the concept of The Defiant. It combines history with gaming, but not in a boring way! When I first saw The Defiant, it reminded me a little bit of Battlefield 1, but with an Asian setting. I really like how they are taking Chinese history and turning it into a shooter set during World War II. It also doesn’t immediately give you that grey and boring feeling you might expect when someone mentions history. No, you’re just having fun playing a videogame and learning something along the way. This is how I wish my history lessons at school had been.
A quick introduction
The Defiant is a first-person shooter from Chinese developer Hoothanes and is published by 4Divinity. You might recognise the publisher from a few other titles that were shown at Gamescom. And I must admit, I also can’t wait to play some of those games. These include Showa American Story, Guns of Eschaton, A Whisper of Fall: Jinyiwei, Genigods: Nezha and Sword Sage: Awakening. The Defiant takes place during the Second Sino-Japanese War, focusing on a part of World War II that we don’t see very often in Western games. I barely learned anything about this at school either. And let’s be honest: instead of reading a history book, I would much rather have been playing videogames. 4Divinity describes The Defiant as a story-driven FPS in which you’ll make your way through occupied villages and dark streets.
The campaign reminded me a little bit of Battlefield 1. That game splits its campaign into different War Stories, each featuring different main characters, locations and types of missions. The Defiant goes for a similar approach with four separate chapters, each with its own story, environment, season, weapons and playstyle.
Shooter fatigue
I must admit that lately I had become tired of shooters. When it comes to multiplayer, I don’t really mind that much. I’ll happily keep running around in circles, dying, spawning back in and doing it all over again. But what I really missed was a shooter with a great campaign.
Just something that feels good to play while also having a story that feels fresh and interesting. And I really hope The Defiant can give me that. That doesn’t mean The Defiant is suddenly trying to reinvent the entire FPS genre when it comes to gameplay. When I got to play the game at Gamescom, the build felt traditional. But I don’t mean that in a negative way at all. There was plenty of action, lots of scripted moments and, most importantly, plenty of spectacle.
Think shooting, moving forward, shooting some more, while all kinds of unexpected things are happening around you. My play session eventually even ended with an ambush. And it just felt good! No gigantic open world where I’m still clearing question marks and icons off a map after thirty hours. Just its own story, split into different chapters that you can simply play through and enjoy. As far as we know, completing all four chapters currently takes around ten to twelve hours. And honestly, that sounds like a great length for this kind of game.
Together with your friends
Another addition I really like is that The Defiant is getting a co-op mode.
I read that this mode is supposed to support four to six players. That’s a lot of people! How exactly this is going to work hasn’t been explained in much detail yet. So right now, it’s still not completely clear which missions you’ll be able to play together or how big this part of the game will eventually be. When I look at The Defiant’s Steam page, it does at least confirm that the game supports both Online Co-op and LAN Co-op. I’m curious to see how this turns out. For me, the singleplayer campaign is still the most important part, but if I can jump into some missions with a group of friends afterwards, you won’t hear me complaining.
Not just some random weapons
The weapons you use aren’t just a random collection of guns that the developers decided to throw into the game either. The Defiant features several weapons that played an important role in Chinese history. Steam mentions weapons such as the Hanyang 88, Mauser C96 and SIG Bergmann Model 1920. Another thing I found interesting is how much attention Hoothanes seems to be putting into recreating this period as authentically as possible. Game director Kong Yuheng said that the team visited locations to take photos and record videos. According to him, someone on the team also has military expertise. Hoothanes is using all this reference material to recreate both the environments and weapons as authentically as possible.
Of course, we’ve heard developers make these kinds of statements plenty of times before. Every studio wants to tell you that they’ve done tons of research and are trying to make everything as realistic as possible. So, I’m mainly curious to see whether all that work will show in the final game. If The Defiant manages to combine that attention to history with the satisfying, traditional shooter gameplay I experienced at Gamescom, I think this could turn into something cool.
In the end, what makes The Defiant so interesting to me is that it shows me something I haven’t experienced very often in games before. The gameplay might feel traditional, but the Chinese setting, the different stories and the focus on history still make the game feel fresh. After playing it at Gamescom, I’m a lot more curious to see what the full game has to offer.
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