Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

WellPlayedWellPlayed

Review

XDefiant Review

Tom Clancy’s Far Division Ghost Dogs Six™

In the leadup to the official release of Ubisoft’s free-to-play first-person shooter XDefiant, the early buzz was about its resemblance to the simpler days of Call of Duty of yore. That pitch immediately pricked up my eyebrows, as somebody who found comfort in the wild-west custom lobbies of OG Modern Warfare where the kids (me) got schooled by the elite. Having now slid and sprayed my way through some 30-plus hours across its debut and last two seasons, I have come away from XDefiant rather positive. Despite featuring a medley of generic Ubisoft IP without a clear identity of its own, the core six versus six competitive matches are tremendously tight and speak to a team well-versed in this space. However, that free-to-play price tag does some heavy lifting for the many minor flaws that this title hasn’t been able to shake in its five months of officially being live.

Right off the bat, the couple mates I could drag into yet another new live service were surprised by the hero shooter-iness of it all. We expected CoD, and while this is pleasantly a serials-filed-off homunculus of nostalgia for that series’ earliest games, there is a smattering of familiar modes and DNA from contemporary titles like Overwatch. Taking the place of hero classes are XDefiant’s factions, generic ‘heroes’ that represent the goodies and baddies from various Ubisoft franchises. Far Cry 6’s rebellious Libertad, The Division’s pyro-enthusiastic Cleaners, Splinter Cell’s stealthy Echelon, you get the picture. Each of these factions has unlockable heroes which only change up the cosmetics with a different character model, but more interesting is the pair of skills players can choose from that define each of these factions. Players will choose one of the two diverse and situational factional abilities that can be swapped between with each respawn. The Cleaners can launch a pesky incendiary drone that flies forward and eventually explodes, leaving a trail of fire behind it. This can be swapped with an explosive Molotov that erupts around the player, perfect for clearing zone disputes in the area control game modes standard to current competitive shooters. 

Seeing faction abilities clash with one another is a thrill

There is also a neat passive and ultimate ability for each faction. Cleaners use incendiary ammo for additional damage over time at the cost of weapon range, while their ultimate ability lets them wield a destructive flamethrower briefly or until they’re eliminated. Going for ultimate abilities over killstreaks is a handy balancer to stop the better players from snowballing to victory. Players will be lucky to even get their ultimate ability off once in most matches, which helps keep these powers in check. While these abilities are nothing new in the current shooter landscape, Ubisoft deserves applause for borrowing the best on the market, resulting in simple yet interesting decisions when complimenting your team’s lineup in any given mode. 

My first impression of XDefiant was initially not so positive, though. I was intimidated by the smattering of challenges across my lobby screen when starting out, but over the hours came to appreciate this bit of directional goal-building. Meeting practical milestones such as “Get 10 shotgun hip-fire kills” is just one example of how to unlock a new shotgun. Mixed among these are goals for unlocking new factions and characters, all requiring simple and practical application of the game’s weapons and equipment. I much preferred this deliberate, deterministic progression to other shooters that would reward me with new armaments that are incompatible with my preferred playstyle. In XDefiant, I’m instead being given new submachine guns and their relevant attachments for simply using them as intended: blasting opponents. 

Unfortunately, newly added weapons aren’t unlocked in this way. The season passes contain the latest weapons added to the game, most of which are locked behind tiers 50 and higher. When the season finishes, those weapons can be unlocked by “activating” one for your acquired experience points to funnel into. Unfortunately, XP can only be assigned to one unlock pathway at a time, so it’s either a new weapon or a faction, and factions can take the better part of 10 hours to unlock in my experience. I just think it’s a shame that the additional weapons released from the battle pass don’t follow the existing challenge-based weapon progression.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.



The weapons feel impressively diverse, with transparent info on their strengths and weaknesses

Then there’s the cosmetics, which are still in a pretty dire state. Because weapon skins are mostly tied to specific weapons, the battle pass is filled with bland skins that you unlock repeatedly. You will unlock the same single-toned skin multiple times in a battle pass, with the F2P staples limited to very few options beyond baby diarrhea yellow and garish swamp green. It’s hard to be thrilled when these same few skins ding time and again, each time for a different weapon; the more palatable premium options in the battle pass few and far between too.

By and large, the fundamentals of movement and shooting here are tight and responsive. Players can slide around freely – movement speeds are determined by the held weapon and the weight of its attachments. The sense of speed is stark when switching from a sniper rifle to a sidearm, for example. Weapon balancing has remained interesting, with no one weapon type dominating the meta for very long. With the reasonably low time-to-kill, shootouts are exhilarating, and killstreaks feel legendary. 

Alas, this also means the persistent issues around connectivity in Australia are all the more obvious. For the past four months, playing during Australian daytime with the widest possible matchmaking network (crossplay on, input-based matchmaking turned off) has been all but impossible. If you do get a match, dealing with any players’ suboptimal connection results in bullshit shootouts. You might catch an opponent off guard and unleash a shotgun blast to their face. Despite getting the visual and audio feedback to suggest you landed some buckshot and even managed to turn into cover, they somehow offed you and are scooting off to their next fight with full health, according to the kill screen aftermath. Often, you will also find yourself dead after thinking you’ve successfully avoided a firefight by sliding to safety. Too bad, a stray bullet followed you around the corner and now you’re murked. This is still happening to me a few times every match in October on both PS5 and PC, with a sub-30 ping in line with the majority of the lobby.

A gold star if you can guess which Ubisoft game this map is based on

Final Thoughts

Ubisoft’s XDefiant is a compelling live-service offering that is remarkably substantive in its free-to-play offering. As a competitive shooter, its blend of satisfyingly agile movement and liberal lifting of modes and map philosophies from every other shooter makes a strange first impression. There is nothing new or surprising about what XDefiant offers. But those curious few eager to go through the initiation hellscape of purely random-skill matchmaking will find a clean and well-structured shooter that should broadly impress anyone who doesn’t mind their competent online shooter to be a personality-lacking, serials-filed amalgam of all its best competitors. Flaws and all, I was continually drawn back in the hopeful search for any active, local lobby.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.



Reviewed on PC // Review code supplied by publisher

Click here for more information on WellPlayed’s review policy and ethics

XDefiant Review
Defying expectations
Ubisoft still can’t land on any compelling identity for XDefiant, but it remains a genuinely exhilarating F2P shooter I wish was more active.
The Good
Satisfying movement and weapon feedback
Faction and hero abilities are a nice bit of seasoning
Rewarding, challenge-based progression
Borrows the best map and mode designs of its contemporaries
The Bad
The free-to-play model is occasionally eye-rolling at worst
Connectivity woes still impact gameplay
Lacks identity, with a few too many yucky cosmetics
Dead during the Aussie daytime
7
Solid
  • Ubisoft
  • Ubisoft
  • PS5 /  Xbox Series X|S / PC
  • May 21, 2024

XDefiant Review
Defying expectations
Ubisoft still can’t land on any compelling identity for XDefiant, but it remains a genuinely exhilarating F2P shooter I wish was more active.
The Good
Satisfying movement and weapon feedback
Faction and hero abilities are a nice bit of seasoning
Rewarding, challenge-based progression
Borrows the best map and mode designs of its contemporaries
The Bad
The free-to-play model is occasionally eye-rolling at worst
Connectivity woes still impact gameplay
Lacks identity, with a few too many yucky cosmetics
Dead during the Aussie daytime
7
Solid
Written By Nathan Hennessy

Comments

Latest

Review

Royalty, conspiracy, getting to go bang-bang with magic

News

Jodi Benson shares the tail of becoming 'Suzetta Miñet'

Board Game Review

Ah yes, I see you know your English well

Competitions

You gotta be in it to win it

Review

Max Caufield's return to Life is Strange sees time break bad

Latest Podcast Episode

You May Also Like

News

Bullet witch casts 'Headshot'

Advertisement