Defect
Three Phase Interactive Pty Ltd · 2016 · Strategy, Action, Indie, 2D, Sci-fi
PC
Mostly Positive74% · 57
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Screenshots
About Defect
As a lowly captain on a dead-end planet, you must build a ship, complete a mission and wave it goodbye when your crew defects to the other side. Then design a new ship to hunt down those mutinous traitors in an endless cycle of punishment and revenge. Don't make your designs too good, because odds are you'll be fighting them pretty soon.
The game has two phases: Construction and combat. The construction phase involves placing a power core that determines the size of the ship that can be built, and then adding a selection of ship components. These can be placed, scaled and rotated in any arrangement and will operate according to game rules/physics, affording you a high degree of creativity.
Ship components have a range of stats and behaviors based on their main function. There are three main visual styles; TriStage components are very industrial and mass produced, SSN is a streamlined vision of the future and 2255 is a retro throwback to the days of pulp magazines and the space race. New styles and themes are planned and will be based on feedback from our community.
Build your dream space craft from key components:
The combat phase involves you controlling your ship from a top-down 2D perspective and taking on enemy ships. If victorious, you move on to the next mission. If you fail it's back to the drawing board to design a new ship that might fare better.
You will cycle between the construction and combat phases, creating and fighting in a continual progression through better and bigger ships as the missions and the story progress. After each mission, however, you will lose your ship to defection and will be forced to defeat your former crew in the following mission. This creates an Achilles heel conundrum for the player. Build the perfect ship, but build in fatal flaws you can exploit later.
Planet Asbestos - Fighting has broken out between corporations, governments, pirates and private citizens over the rights to prospect for a theoretical particle that exists in only one place in the universe. Theoretically, that's planet Asbestos. The research and mining costs have already bankrupted several planets, thus inflating the value of the probably-nonexistent particle and creating a stock bubble that supports the entire economy of the galaxy.
Your job - Defend the planet for the Suppressed Systems Navy. Your crew has been drafted from prison, which is turning out to be a less enticing policy than was promised. Morale is low. Mutiny is inevitable.
Missions - Consist of a primary objective, after which your mutinous crew will turn up in your previous ship and try to finish you off. Primary objectives include a wide range of scenarios, including taking on simple waves of fighters, capturing space stations, evacuating passengers off a burning cruise ship, and building a ship that looks enough like an enemy ship that you can fool your way past their shields and drop a nuke on their stupid face.
Challenge mode gives you the ability to fight against ships designed by other players, be it friends or anyone in the community. It’s not direct multiplayer, as the opposing ship will be AI controlled. The missions can be quick skirmishes based on core size or a chosen enemy, or fight for survival against waves of enemies, or complete one of the campaign missions with no scrap limitations.
- Unprecedented freedom of creation - Create the most powerful ship in the galaxy piece by piece, with more than 180 components available and many more to come.
- Exploit your designs - Create the perfect design to complete the mission, but remember to build in a weakness you can exploit later when your crew inevitably turns against you.
- Epic scale - Unlimited combinations available from tiny fighters up to battle stations the size of a small moon.
- Fight your friends' ships - Upload your successful ships and take on the best designs the community has to offer.
- Dynamic Music System - Compose a distinct musical theme for your ship based on the components used to build it.
Shipyard
The game has two phases: Construction and combat. The construction phase involves placing a power core that determines the size of the ship that can be built, and then adding a selection of ship components. These can be placed, scaled and rotated in any arrangement and will operate according to game rules/physics, affording you a high degree of creativity.
Ship components have a range of stats and behaviors based on their main function. There are three main visual styles; TriStage components are very industrial and mass produced, SSN is a streamlined vision of the future and 2255 is a retro throwback to the days of pulp magazines and the space race. New styles and themes are planned and will be based on feedback from our community.
Build your dream space craft from key components:
- Core - Install the power source of a ship and also the ultimate weak point.
- Weapons - Choose from lasers, blasters, missiles, torpedoes, mines, rail guns, turrets, flak guns, point defense guns and much more.
- Crew - They're just going to turn against you and chuck you into space, but sadly, you still need crew to run your ship.
- Hull - This is where a ship gets most of its armor from.
- Wings - Despite what 'scientists' will tell you, space dynamics is a real thing and wings will help you to design a much more agile and maneuverable ship.
- Engines - The real difference between a good ship and floating space garbage.
- Special - Certain components will boost or specialize the abilities of your ship. Fighter decks, shields, radar, heat sinks, exhaust ports, ion intakes, flares and counter measures can all be used to give you an edge, but can also leave you vulnerable if you can't protect them.
The combat phase involves you controlling your ship from a top-down 2D perspective and taking on enemy ships. If victorious, you move on to the next mission. If you fail it's back to the drawing board to design a new ship that might fare better.
You will cycle between the construction and combat phases, creating and fighting in a continual progression through better and bigger ships as the missions and the story progress. After each mission, however, you will lose your ship to defection and will be forced to defeat your former crew in the following mission. This creates an Achilles heel conundrum for the player. Build the perfect ship, but build in fatal flaws you can exploit later.
Campaign
Planet Asbestos - Fighting has broken out between corporations, governments, pirates and private citizens over the rights to prospect for a theoretical particle that exists in only one place in the universe. Theoretically, that's planet Asbestos. The research and mining costs have already bankrupted several planets, thus inflating the value of the probably-nonexistent particle and creating a stock bubble that supports the entire economy of the galaxy.
Your job - Defend the planet for the Suppressed Systems Navy. Your crew has been drafted from prison, which is turning out to be a less enticing policy than was promised. Morale is low. Mutiny is inevitable.
Missions - Consist of a primary objective, after which your mutinous crew will turn up in your previous ship and try to finish you off. Primary objectives include a wide range of scenarios, including taking on simple waves of fighters, capturing space stations, evacuating passengers off a burning cruise ship, and building a ship that looks enough like an enemy ship that you can fool your way past their shields and drop a nuke on their stupid face.
Challenge Mode
Challenge mode gives you the ability to fight against ships designed by other players, be it friends or anyone in the community. It’s not direct multiplayer, as the opposing ship will be AI controlled. The missions can be quick skirmishes based on core size or a chosen enemy, or fight for survival against waves of enemies, or complete one of the campaign missions with no scrap limitations.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
✦ AI summary
Defect combines a clever central mechanic—designing ships then fighting them in cyclical combat—with steady progression through new equipment tiers. Players praise its creative concept, solid execution, and rewarding difficulty, noting it offers good value for the price with respectable replayability. However, the game suffers from uneven difficulty spikes that sometimes force grinding, inconsistent mission design where some feel too easy while others demand specific equipment, control issues, and an unfinished endgame where late-tier content feels sparse and incomplete.
Ded.4 found this helpful
Excellent classic ship building added onto the new idea of cyclical combat, great game. Maybe needs a little more replayability, but who am I to say after 40 hours, hah.
Defect transforms creation into a zero-sum game where today's triumph becomes tomorrow's existential threat. Its genius lies in forcing you to sabotage your own work—not as failure but as foresight. The game doesn't just simulate betrayal; it makes you complicit in it, architect of both your success and inevitable downfall. Perfect for those who understand that attachment to creation is the first step toward disappointment.
some bad controls some bad missions but it is fun for cheap
Defect is a clever idea - a constant cycle of 'design a ship and then fight it', with a steady flow of new equipment opening up, and increasingly challenging missions to complete (all ending with you fighting your old vessel). The idea is good, and frankly the execution isn't bad. However, it becomes clear rapidly that the game has some problems, and some serious difficulty spikes. You cannot defeat certain (critical) missions without unlocking certain equipment, so you have to go back and replay older missions to grind for the older stuff. Ironically though, many other missions can be completed with the same ship you had before (I must have completed 5 or 10 missions in a row with just one unchanging ship design) - as long as you're a better pilot than the computer (which you are). This means that the game feels like a boring grind with occasional bouts of 'completely start again and make something new'. Then, out of nowhere the game requires that you 'defeat these two way overpowered bosses to progress', which force explicit grinding of the completed missions to unlock better weaponry. I've no idea how to defeat the Pirate Prime Minister and frankly, I'm not sure i wa…
Criminally underrated. fun, replayable, with a nice level of difficulty, and levelsare always difficult thanks to having to beat your own ship(I'll admit, I can't beat my current ship yet) hours of fun and plenty of things to do, it's well worth the 6 bucks. progression is fun as well and super sized ships do not just beat out fighters like you might expect, there's some serious thought put into the balancing of this game. a fun but difficult game, I've personally almost finished the campaign, I have maybe 10ish levels left, but I'l certainly miss it when it's over reaching the end, it's clear that the game is very unfinished, I've unlocked the last tier of ships, and while I haven't beaten the last level yet, my loadout consists of one core and one weapon, where there are normally 8-12 pieces in each catagory. there are also noticable bugs, and issues with the game as well as the fact the developers have been incommunicado for around 7 years now make this a game I only tentatively recomend. fun, yes, awesome concept yes. well executed, probably, wasted potential? miles of it
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