Tom Clancy’s XDefiant alluded to: is the Ubisoft shooter serious competition for Call of Duty?
We’ve played the XDefiant Open Beta extensively. Can Ubisoft’s Free2Play shooter really compete with Call of Duty? In the article we reveal what we liked and which construction sites still need to be improved.
It’s the big shooter hope of the year: XDefiant . The closed beta in April attracted a lot of attention. Players were enthusiastic about the gameplay of the Ubisoft title and since then terms like “CoD Killer” have been making the rounds. Let’s face it, the Call of Duty brand has been faltering for years, but sales figures for the latest game in the series – Modern Warfare 2 – aren’t showing any major consequences. The lack of competition is certainly one of the factors behind this fact.
xDefiant is being developed by former CoD employees, among others, and is scheduled to celebrate its release this year: with the Free2Play model . A map selection, good menu navigation, manageable loadouts, exciting gameplay and, above all, no skill-based matchmaking : What sounds like quite simple features in the Ubisoft shooter will probably please many players who are currently being hit hard by Call of Duty. But in some corners it still gets stuck. Some weaknesses were revealed in the recently playable open beta.
What is it all about?
Released by Ubisoft in 2015 , Rainbow Six Siege still has a relatively active fan base. The French-Canadian developers have been trying for a long time to establish a new shooter brand that will replace the tactical PvP shooting booth.
XDefiant could follow in those big footsteps, albeit with faster, more action-packed gameplay. The game mechanics and gunplay are more reminiscent of CoD shooters from the Black Ops series than Rainbow Six Siege.
In 6v6 battles against human players, we capture flags, escort robots or collect tokens to emerge victorious from the battlefield. We will come back to the quite classic but fun game modes in the course of the article.
Source: Ubisoft
Known Factions
First of all, we want to talk about the operators, which we choose at the beginning of a round, but can also switch after each death. The factions from which the characters originate are all based on Ubisoft titles.
We grab characters from The Division, Splinter Cell, Far Cry, Ghost Recon and Watch Dogs and charge into battle with them. However, we don’t have icons like Sam Fisher or Aiden Pearce at our disposal. But they can be added to the finished game.
Source: PC games
Rather, our skins are unknown characters, for example from the group Libertad from Far Cry or the Cleaners from The Division. Each class has two unique abilities and a special attack.
However, we must choose one of the two abilities. For example, the Echelon operators have the option of making themselves invisible for a short time or revealing the positions of opponents using a reconnaissance suit.
The Phantoms from Ghost Recon, on the other hand, can set up an electromagnetic barrier against bullets and grenades in front of them or carry a melee shield. All factions are fairly balanced, resulting in varied battles.
Sometimes simple is better
When it comes to weapons, we are already drawing on plenty. Across classes we can use any weapon with all characters. There are, among other things, classic assault rifles such as the AK47, the ACR or the M4, as well as submachine guns such as the MP7, P90 or MP5 and of course sniper rifles and handguns.
