By Ian Abbott

In the four months since I reviewed Defiance for the first time, Season 1 has come to an end and been released on DVD, 5 packs of DLC have been announced, Season 2 has been commissioned, and I’ve finally completed the main single player game. Taking a reflective breather, SFL also caught up with Stephanie Leonidas to chat about Irisa, gaming, and the future of Defiance.

“I know there are some exciting things coming up for the game that is going to continue between series one and two” Stephanie Leonidas beams. “People can just keep playing, the world will still be there and will keep getting bigger and bigger and then the second season will start off with some amazing new stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.”
At launch, Defiance was trumpeted as a world where the character’s respective narratives will inform one another and evolve together into one overall story and the characters are certainly colourful. “That sort of attracted me to it all in a way” Leonidas reveals. “There really was heart to these characters and I think you do see that heart even in the game. I think that’s why the TV and game go so well together; you get to know the characters in different ways and it brings something new to the game. I also think the music is incredible, it creates this huge atmosphere and I love that. Being on set with the green screen, you never really know what it will look like. It was a surprise for us once we saw it and it’s beautiful as well with the colours that they have chosen.”

I’ve found that the reality is it’s often actually hard to comprehend and keep up with grand narrative; the TV series takes place in St Louis while the game events unfold in the San Francisco Bay area with little reference to each other and the genuine two-way immersive, influencing and intertwining of video game and TV series that I was expecting has still not really fully materialised.

There have been fleeting moments in the TV series - where Rynn escaped from Nolan whilst being transported to prison and she appeared in game for several episode missions in the Bay area for example – but it felt artificial in its construction, with an entirely scripted outcome which was a trifle dissatisfying.

Defiance remains a work in progress, and it will be interesting to see if similar transmedia projects start to happen. “I think it will definitely happen!” declared Leonidas, thumping her crossed fingers into her knees, “I’ve got a feeling. I mean it can’t not! The ball is rolling now and who knows where it will go? Maybe we can jump into the TV next year or Smellovision or something” She laughed. “Coming into the project, knowing I wasn’t just going to be working on the television side of things but on the game as well was kind of mind blowing even from the beginning, because at first I didn’t know too much about how it was all going to work. When we started filming, there were characters that were leaving the series or like Nolan and I, started off in the game and we ended up in the series with a lot of players annoyed with us for stealing. We had a big talk before we started filming about how those things would work. As the series progressed and the storylines began to come into play, we knew who would be jumping between the two. I was doing ADR for the game and Grant did loads of motion capture stuff, so the game was a real part of what we were doing.

It was exciting seeing Irisa in the game then coming into the series. Even I was like ‘How did they do that?’ I remember thinking when I was a kid, I used to love those choose your own adventure books that would say ‘Turn to page nine for this ending.’ and I felt a bit like that with this as stuff happens everywhere. For me it’s a bit like a big adventure watching it all and I hope that other people are finding that as well. I was a bit worried though that someone playing the game might also hate me and try to kill me. The first inkling we as a cast heard about that was at comic con last year. We looked at each other’s faces on the panel and we were all saying ‘Please don’t kill me!’ but who knows where it will all go?”

Irisa certainly has become one of the more iconic characters from the Defiance universe, not just due to her feisty personality, but her striking looks. “I guess I felt really invincible and I think that’s one of the things that’s good for Irisa because she’s a tough character” continued Leonidas as we chatted about all the hours she endured in the make-up chair having Irisa’s huge forehead, large contact lenses, auburn wig and costume put into place. “She is firey! She goes from one to eleven in seconds so it was great that that was how I felt once the costume was on. It really brought the character to life and made me feel like I didn’t have to force anything. I felt that as soon as I was in my prosthetic, my personality changed. It was kind of odd really and a lot of people noticed it, especially during stunts. I used to mess up all the stunts until I had my costume on, and the team would always say ‘She’ll be fine once she has her costume on.’ and they were right up to some degree. I was enthusiastic!” Though Irisa is becoming a popular choice with cos-players, fans of the show rarely recognise the petite, brunette actress with dark, almond shaped eyes out of costume as she lives and works around London. “I was out with a fellow dog walker who started telling me about this new series called Defiance that he was watching. I mentioned that I worked on the show and he had no idea I was Irisa!” laughed Leonidas again.

Back with the game, though I defied the irksome patches which delivered two more 40 minute waits (and it was good to see what had been fixed), I still encountered bugs a plenty (sadly not the hell variety) on the Xbox 360 version, where several of the matchmaking co-op maps were unplayable, were not loading bosses, or burped four players into a room but did not allow us to progress. However, for all the flaws, blips and glitches encountered I have really enjoyed playing this game; the dungeons added much needed complexity, the ability to modify and personalise your arsenal and appearance ensured personal investment, and working with others on your own or other people’s story missions has been richly rewarding – creating a generosity of spirit not often seen in other games. When I finally made it over to San Francisco, the difficulty increased with the introduction of new mech-animals (Scrappers) whilst Dark Matter patrolled every corner of the bay. The final boss took a while to down because it kept regenerating and one particular phase really tested my decision making skills.

Now the first series is over and people can access the TV narrative at their leisure, developers Trion have wisely enabled mission episodes to be played through again, so newcomers to Defiance can find their feet in the new world and play through at their own pace. With the extremely popular, arrogant Castithan race being made available as a playable race in the first DLC and the second TV series coming in June 2014, the first season of Defiance – with its bumpy birthing and technological teething troubles – has offered potential and oodles of possibility for the future. Can Trion make the world of Defiance a compelling world to play, watch and interact with? We do know that Irisa will be back. “Definitely” Stephanie confirmed! “I don’t know where I will end up or how alive I will be, but yes, Irisa will be back.”

We watch with baited breath.