The Defiant Northeast Guerrilla Chapter

The first public hands-on of The Defiant was not Shanghai neon. It was the snowy mountains of China’s northeast, with the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army as the historical frame. IGN played that slice at a Bilibili First Look event in July 2026. The long official gameplay trailer embedded above (Hoothanes, about six minutes) is the same climate: Taihang-range firefights, burning bases, rooms full of enemies. This page is the chapter companion to the campaign overview. Spy work lives on Shanghai stealth.

What the chapter is

Press around ChinaJoy described the campaign as an anthology across four seasons and regions. The opening energy is winter guerrilla war: caves, trenches, flaming homesteads, a secret camp you are trying to reach. Steam’s store copy puts you in the unyielding Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army moving through snowy forest. Later trailers also name the Canal Detachment and a “Great Wall built with flesh and blood” on the Taihang Mountains of North China. Those are historical touchstones, not a promise that you play named generals.

Characters are fictional. The battles are researched. You fight with a Liao Type 13, a booming bolt-action produced in Manchuria during occupation — IGN’s actual demo gun. Keep a pistol from the sidearms page for the bayonet rushes this chapter loves.

The Defiant official gameplay trailer

How the slice played

IGN described a relentless infantry push. Japanese soldiers came through trees and smoke. Squadmates shouted in Chinese (English subtitles in the build; a dub is planned). There was a bayonet surprise in haze and a farmhouse knife QTE. The mission ended with captured comrades executed in front of the player until an off-screen ally opened fire. That tone is the chapter’s job: not a heroic spawn-trap, a costly hold.

Movement in that build: run, slide to cover, crouch. No jump, vault, or prone — details on controls. Health is a blood vignette; you wait it out behind something that actually covers your head. Two guns plus grenades. Stick grenades and frags were on the range; landmines were not.

Why this chapter exists in the anthology

A single spy cannot cover fourteen years of the War of Resistance. The northeast chapter is the Medal of Honor-shaped hour: unit, snow, bolt-action, overwhelming numbers. Shanghai is the opposite verb set. Rail sabotage (explosives on supply lines) is a third. Seasonal swing — including 1942 fighting near the Futuya Great Wall in later footage — is the fourth flavor, not a separate product.

If you only watch the six-minute trailer, you will think the whole game is this chapter. It is not. Use the campaign overview as the map.

Loadout notes for this climate

• Primary: Liao Type 13 or Hanyang 88. See rifles.
• Secondary: Mauser C96 for the moments a bolt is too slow.
• Throwables: potato-mashers for clumps in trenches.
• Do not bring a scoped sniper as your only long gun unless a later mission is all ridgeline. The preview rooms were close.

PvE co-op will likely reuse these snow spaces as horde maps. That is a guess from developer comments, not a mode name.

What is still missing

No mission list, no collectible tally, no named squad. No confirmation that this chapter is literally “chapter one” in the shipped menu. IGN’s demo was “a short slice.” The trailer is longer but still not a walkthrough. When Hoothanes numbers the chapters, this page will match the in-game label.

Until then, wishlist, watch the embed, and read How to Play so the next snow footage makes sense. Demo history for ChinaJoy and gamescom sits on ChinaJoy 2026 and gamescom 2026.