XDefiant /REVIEW
Say what you want about Ubisoft games, but they can definitely be amazing. Sure, some turn out to be stinkers, but stuff like Rainbow Six Siege, Anno 1800 or the recent surprise Prince of Persia metroidvania The Lost Crown? Undeniably great stuff, I’d say.
And then, there are all those Ubisoft Originals that fall somewhere in between greatness and Skull and Bones. From Riders Republic, to The Crew Motorfest and dozens of by-the-numbers open worlds, Ubisoft certainly has quite a range of solid — and sometimes even really good — games that find their audience despite all the naysayers.
That brings me to XDefiant, Ubisoft’s newest free-to-play shooter that looks, plays, and feels like Call of Duty multiplayer. And it doesn’t take a genius to realise that — one look is more than enough to recognise the style of play dominating the game, which is to say one where players move with faster than drugged up squirrels, running, sliding and jumping all over the place, usually killing you in a blink of an eye. Even if you shot at them first — or at least that’s what it feels like to me and other players lacking the lightning fast reflexes required for high level play.
Yet, the game keeps me coming back to it, mostly thanks to its snappy and satisfying gunplay, which makes up for sometimes annoyingly low time to kill that doesn’t let me be as tactical as I would like. And that annoyance can get even bigger in a mode like Escort, which is basically a copy of Payload from Overwatch. Why? Well, if you ever had to escort any kind of macguffin to the enemy base, knowing that every death is followed by running back to the action all the way from your base — with hope that you won’t get blasted again immediately by an unseen enemy with a shotgun… well, you’ll know why.
On the other hand, you at least won’t be constantly killed by some killstreaks or ultimate skills — instead on those, XDefiant relies on different character classes to spice things up. And sure, each of them does have its own ultimate skill, but those don’t dominate the game — you’ll usually get to use only one during a match, if even that, which definitely helps with the already chaotic pacing of a regular match.
Classes themselves are represented by different factions from other Ubisoft games, each with their own unique skills. For example, DedSec hackers from Watch Dogs can hack and disable opponents’ special skills, while Splinter Cell’s Third Echelon enter the fight either with temporary invisibility, or a scanner that shows enemy outlines through the walls for the rest of the team. Of course, the game will get new ones on a regular basis — it’s a live service shooter with season passes after all — so we can look forward to some of the Rainbow Six Siege guys and gals joining the fray.
And when they do, I’ll likely be there to check it out, because — despite its lack of originality — XDefiant does what it does well, and it is one of those games that are easy to jump into, whether for hours on end, or just for a match or two whenever you want to have some fun, but you don’t have enough time to commit to something more substantial.
XDefiant | developer: Ubisoft San Francisco | publisher: Ubisoft | platforms: PlayStation 5 (played), Xbox Series, PC
