You know I had to jump at the opportunity to play a free to play arena shooter!
XDefiant is the new F2P hero arena shooter from publisher Ubisoft. Leveraging existing IPs and jumping on the SBMM hate train Ubisoft is looking to grab some customers away from games like Call of Duty and Overwatch. The game has officially launched on May 21st and I have played a fair bit to provide a first impression on the title.
So XDefiant is basically if old school CoD knocked up Overwatch, this would be their love child. The game is an arena shooter with conventional modern weapons like M4s and AKs with some futuristic powers like shields and cloaking devices. The game has objective based game modes like domination, occupy, and escort. Escort is a mode similar to Overwatch or Paladins where you have to escort and move along a robot carrying supplies through the map crossing checkpoints until you reach the end. Nothing revolutionary here at all but still fun to play. Gun play is pretty good, I know people have experienced some netcode issues where shots are not landing. I have personally not had that issue, but I have hit some lag here and there. The guns are standard real life military weapons, nothing futuristic or fictional. Leveling up your gun unlocks attachments like sights, stocks, grips etc. Again, no one is reinventing the wheel here. It is your standard weapon system found in your standard FPS.
The heroes are split into factions based on Ubisoft titles. There is factions from games like Splinter Cell, The Division , Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs. Each faction has two abilities that are shared between the heroes. The abilities are typical of a hero shooter. Big shields to reduce damage, medicine to heal teammates, stealth abilities to sneak by baddies, and fire abilities to deal damage. There is also an ultra you get by playing the objectives and getting kills, but to be honest I rarely was able to trigger it because I was terrible in match. This leads me to SBMM. There is no SBMM in casual unranked play. So sometimes you get into a match and its balanced and fun and the next you can taste the sweat as you are getting totally rocked. I felt like the try hards have jumped from CoD to give XDefiant a go and have a bullet with my name on it. Althought I have been playing FPS since internet dial up I am definitely a casual. I don't have the time to "git gud" and just like to jump on here and there to shoot up the place. I feel like the lack of SBMM might actually damper my fun in Xdefiant.
Lastly, wanted to talk about the free to play mechanics. The game has been marketed as fully free to play. All weapons and heroes can be obtained by playing and only cosmetics are paid for. We've all heard that line before. Going to reserve my judgement until the game has been on the market for a few months. The store prices seem inline with other games like CoD. $13.49 for the premium battlepass which I think is the same as CoD (Minus the $100 price tag for CoD) so cannot complain. I have purchased the battlepass and will see how far I actually get with my casual playing schedule.
So my first impressions of XDefiant? If your looking for something brand new that has never been done before then this is not for you. If you want to play a fun FPS that feels like an old school Call of Duty with weird power ups then check this out because its free.
Alright gamers, that's it for now. Take care and stay safe out there.
XDefiant is the intellectual property of the Ubisoft Entertainment SA
This article is subject to Fair Use (US Law) and Fair Dealing (Canadian Law) as it is informational in purpose and is a critique of the product. All rights and credits go directly to the owners. No copyright infringement is intended
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