Looking at it from a general perspective, there’s very little reason not to be excited about XDefiant, Ubisoft’s newest title. A realistic, free-to-play arena shooter with many familiar faces from Ubisoft. In essence, it’s a Call of Duty-style representation of the Ubisoft Verse (yes, it already seems to exist). But despite that, the introduction of XDefiant failed to excite people, even though it’s another Ubisoft shooter, because it’s a live service, and God knows that we don’t need more.
It’s been months (over a year, in fact) since XDefiant was announced, and after a long period of silence regarding the game, Ubisoft seems to be gearing up to put this project in the hands of gamers, as it officially kicks off today. today. closed beta. As part of this commitment from the French publisher, I recently had the opportunity to play XDefiant for a few hours and the truth is that I was pleasantly surprised by what I experienced, although I am still worried about the future of the game.
The gameplay is self-explanatory. You enter one of 14 maps to play in different game modes, as a collection of unique factions. Designed primarily as a 6v6 game, the game modes are ones any Call of Duty player will instantly recognize and include Dominion, Occupation (aka Hardpoint), Hot Shot, Zone Control, and Escort, which is pretty much a carbon copy of the game. Overwatch. fashion. From there, it’s just a matter of taking down the opposing team to the edge of the score by shooting each other and racking up as many objective points as possible along the way. If you’ve ever played an arena shooter, you’ll feel right at home here.
Advertisement:
XDefiant does not differ from other shooters in game modes, but in its faction system, which if you analyze it thoroughly, almost looks like a hero system. There are currently five factions, each tailored to a Ubisoft brand, meaning you have Far Cry 6’s Freedoms, Watch Dogs DedSec, The Division’s Cleaners, Splinter Cell’s Echelon, and Phantoms’ Phantoms. And while the term “faction” might imply that there are multiple parts to a single class, it’s actually split between the base abilities you choose to enter combat with, such as the stealth Echelon faction, which can wear an invisibility ability or costume that will act as a recon device and reveal nearby enemies. For example, DedSec’s Ultra ability (think Overwatch’s Ultimate) is still Lockout, which blocks and prevents enemies from using their abilities, and the same goes for each faction’s passive traits.
The factions system is very well implemented and there is no faction that seems stronger or worse than another, and in fact you can easily choose any of the factions and bring them into the game, because after all , XDefiant isn’t a hero shooter like Overwatch, which means the gameplay and meta aren’t as rigid as the Blizzard title.
While it’s not possible to customize factions very much, weapons are something else. No matter which faction you choose to play with, you can wield any weapon in XDefiant, and if you get kills and experience using them, you can upgrade them to unlock attachments that suit you. allow you to further specialize them depending on how you play. . The customization system is reminiscent of Gunsmith from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, but is more rudimentary and less complex to grasp. Basically, I see it best for gamers, if the “crafting” feels palpable.
Advertisement:
While I like the weapon customization suite, I’m not a fan of a game having too many progression possibilities like here, what I mean is that XDefiant requires you to upgrade your real account , each individual faction, then each weapon ., all individually. This will unlock new weapons and attachments and that’s where the live service items come in and start to worry me as I already know I won’t have time to explore this in depth when the game releases, I’ll just be those who exclusively engage in XDefiant.
But back to the game itself. Before getting into the gameplay and general vibe of XDefiant, I would like to add that it feels like a premium AAA shooter. Shooting and movement are smooth and responsive, and while kill time values are quite low, XDefiant’s pacing means you’re never out of the action for long, which is exactly what an arena shooter is looking for. The HUD is also precise and refined, and doesn’t overwhelm you with unnecessary information.
Added to this are the maps, designed with two words in mind, that will give any shooter fan a cold sweat: three lanes. All of the maps look like classic Call of Duty, with three lanes to navigate that intersect with different buildings, alleys, and more. And even though I only got to play XDefiant for a few hours, I found the maps intuitive and easy to understand, but with plenty of nooks and crannies to attack unsuspecting flankers. Oh, and the fact that most of them are based on scenarios from Ubisoft games makes it even more fun, since you can go to The Division’s ruined Times Square, Pueblito (based on a scenario by Yara from Far Cry 6), Watch Dogs Nudleplex, and many more.
While I attribute the awful servers and poor connections to the fact that this was a prepress session so far, the monetization worries me a bit. It’s a free-to-play game, which means it has to generate revenue in some way other than direct purchase, and that means XDefiant has a battle pass, store, premium currency and all those other systems that try to make you spend money on cosmetic attachments and other additions that add nothing to the gameplay.
But none of that changes the fact that the live services market is absolutely unforgiving, no matter what the game. engage in multiple games with these elements at once, and that’s precisely the fact that worries me the most about XDefiant. Because even though this game looks like a fun and entertaining shooter, in order for it to survive and thrive it will have to keep people away from titans like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, even Rainbow Six: Siege, and I don’t think its premise and gameplay are unique enough to do that in the first place, let alone sustain players weeks and months after launch. MultiVersus seemed like a definite hit with its unique concept and interesting cast, but three months later the game had only a tiny fraction of its initial player base. Live service games are at a tipping point.
XDefiant is a polished, quality and fun game, but I can’t say it will be a success just yet. With its free-to-play nature and tight action and shooter gameplay, I imagine this will be a game that will attract a lot of players at launch, but then lose them along the way. Hopefully the seasonal content plan and post-launch support (new maps, factions, promising weapons, etc.) can prevent this, as it looks like XDefiant could be the next big shooter and successor to R6: Siege, which he is already past his seventh birthday. In summary, I’m probably cautiously optimistic about XDefiant right now and really hope it finds its way into the market, as it’s a very fun and well-designed shooter.