Review: Defiance, “Painted From Memory”

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Will the real Kenya Rosewater please stand up?

A promotional image for Defiance“Painted From Memory” deals almost exclusively with Kenya’s return to Defiance, but what starts out as a joyous reunion quickly takes a darker turn as more and more questions pop up surrounding her sudden reappearance. Kenya has odd gaps in her memory, and what she does remember is ominous: A laboratory where she is the test subject.

Nolan attempts to find the truth, while Doc Yewll and the returned Mayor Pottinger are a bit less eager to solve the mystery. Stahma is a panic, desperate to keep her attempt to murder Kenya secret, and Amanda willfully ignores any signs that things aren’t fine, choosing only to enjoy her sister’s return.

But the Rosewaters aren’t the only ones having a family reunion. Quentin McCawley finally reappears in Defiance, a much changed man.

I’m a little unsure how to rate this episode. It feels like a bit of a tangent to the main story, and considering how Defiance generally splits its attention between many different arcs, it feels very strange to have virtually the entire episode focused on Kenya. It feels a little thin — a snack, not a meal.

It came close to a lot of big reveals — things that could radically change the relationships between the characters and the ongoing arc of the show. But it managed to avoid all of them. All secrets remain secret — to the characters, if not to the viewers. Feels a bit like wasted potential.

On the other hand, it was a fairly entertaining episode. The hour flew by in no time at all.

Mia Kirshner as Kenya Rosewater in DefianceStahma, and her desperation to keep Kenya’s murder a secret, was probably the highlight. She’s such an ice queen most of the time. It was quite fun to see all that flawless Castithan poise ripped away and her completely losing her shtako.

I’m also quite enjoying how her relationship with Datak has evolved now that they’re on more equal footing. I reckon if those two could ever overcome their differences and actually work together well, as equals, they could probably rule the world.

Although I’m not the biggest fan of Kenya’s character, I also quite liked how they showed off her relationship with Amanda. You could see their closeness, and their love for each other, as well as a certain friction and good-natured squabbling one would expect from siblings. I may not be an expert, being an only child myself, but to me, it seemed very authentic.

It occurs to me that, given the ending, Kenya is likely to show up in Defiance the game soon. Perhaps I’ll dust off my account to see what her missions are like, assuming I’m right. Let’s hope she doesn’t have too much of a negative association with Castithan women… (:P)

All in all, “Painted From Memory” was a well-executed and enjoyable episode, but I don’t expect it’s one that will prove very memorable in the long run — no pun intended. It doesn’t really mean enough to the long-term story, and it was too narrow in focus.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

There Is No “One True MMO” + Warlords of Draenor Cinematic and Release Date

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If you spend any time in the MMO community, you’ll know there’s a tremendous amount of bitterness and cynicism to be found among players. Part of this is undoubtedly just down to the usual Internet crankiness, but a lot of the negativity springs from the fact that people are seemingly waiting for a “one true MMO.”

A space mission in WildStarCall it a WoW killer or whatever you want, but people are constantly waiting for that perfect game that will be all things to all people and dominate the genre. And of course, such a game never comes, leading to an unending cycle of disappointment.

In my latest article for WhatMMO, I speculate on the origins of this desire for the perfect game, and the toxic effect it has on both players and developers alike.

Warlords of Draenor cinematic, release date, and Lords of War animated series:

Blizzard has just wrapped up their Warlords of Draenor livestream.

It was really a lot longer than it needed to be, featuring a lot of recaps and interviews on things we already knew about the expansion, as if they were announcing it all over again. It seemed like an attempt to reclaim some of the momentum they lost after last year’s BlizzCon.

But eventually, they did get to the good stuff.

They began with the first installment of a new animated series in the style of the Burdens of Shaohao. This one, Lords of War, spotlights some of the more prominent warlords of Draenor.

It’s pretty good, I have to say. Framing it with Varian and his flashbacks to the horrors he witnessed as a child was a good idea, and the whole thing is very badass and Warcrafty.

Then there’s the cinematic itself.

Despite my ambivalence (to put it kindly) towards Warlords of Draenor, I have to admit this is pretty cool. Definitely a step-up from the extremely disappointing Mists of Pandaria intro. Seeing Grom confront Mannoroth again, albeit in a totally different time and setting, and all of the throwbacks to Warcraft III were definitely nerdgasm moments.

My one complaint is that they don’t appear to have brought back the Warcraft III voice actor for Grom Hellscream, and I’m not sure I like the new guy right now. Doesn’t seem to have quite the same gravitas as his predecessor.

On the other hand, Gul’dan sounds amazing. Captured his character so perfectly.

The cinematic concluded with the release date: November 13, 2014.

Oh, that’s bad.

We were all expecting a mid-October release, and even that would have been shockingly late by anyone’s standards. Now we’re looking at an utterly unprecedented fourteen month content drought.

That’s insane. That would be unforgivable in any game. For it to happen in a subscription game, and one as successful as World of Warcraft, with an expansion as small as Warlords of Draenor… it’s madness.

A screenshot of Telador in World of Warcraft: Warlords of DraenorWe’ll likely never know what, but something clearly went badly wrong during the development of this expansion. This is a disaster.

I may not be terribly enthused with WoD, but even I’m ready for it to come out by now. The game needs new content — any new content. If nothing else, I want to get to level 100 so I can start soloing Cataclysm raids.

And I must admit, I’m warming to the idea of WoD a little. I still don’t like it, and there’s a long list of things I’d rather have for an expansion, but it seems like it’s meant to be more of a Mirror Universe-style tangent than a total rewriting of WoW lore, so that’s a bit more palatable. And some of the new zones look pretty cool.

That release date will also give people only a handful of days to reach max level in time for the ten year anniversary event. Not good.

Well, the upside of my extremely low interest level in WoD is that it doesn’t bother me overmuch if it’s absurdly late. And this means I’ll get to do Hallows End this year.

What say you, dear reader? Are the cinematic and Lords of War to your taste? Does the release date have you angered? Share your thoughts.