2.5/5 ★ – UpwardBoss's review of XDefiant.

UPDATE 07/02/2024: Okay, Season One has now launched, and I gave Ubisoft far, far too much benefit of the doubt regarding monetization in the review below. With the launch of the new season, there are now *three* weapons locked behind the Battle Pass, with one of them not unlocking until level 80 (the one weapon locked behind the Battle Pass in the preseason was a level 10 unlock). Therefore, these new weapons are locked behind either an *insanely* long grind, or purchase of the Battle Pass AND an absolute ton of tier skips. Additionally, the new faction is much, much more powerful than DedSec was, and that is also locked behind either an insanely long grind or a $10 purchase. Ubisoft have well and truly taken the piss here, and as such my comments in the review about monetization being "mostly fine" have aged horribly. I should never have given Ubisoft the benefit of the doubt, and I apologize for that. The original review now follows in its full, unedited original version: XDefiant... this is a bit of a weird one. First revealed in 2021 under the name "Tom Clancy's XDefiant" to immediate harsh backlash (this was also the same year Ubisoft announced a since-cancelled Ghost Recon battle royale game... yeah it was a rough year to be a Tom Clancy fan), it was eventually rebranded, with Ubisoft removing the "Tom Clancy's" from the name, but the core premise is mostly the same. XDefiant is a 6v6 multiplayer shooter that takes very, *very* heavy inspiration from Call of Duty, while using characters and settings from Ubisoft's other IP (currently Ghost Recon, The Division, Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs). Before we talk about anything else, I have to mention how absolutely terrible the name is. "XDefiant". Quite possibly the worst video game title in history, and this is from the company that already gave us Immortals: Fenyx Rising. They somehow managed to one up themselves. Well done lads. As for the game itself... it's fine? It's a blatant carbon copy of Call of Duty, with less content, and (because it's Ubisoft) an atrocious technical state. It's fun enough, because Call of Duty is fun enough. But it also struggles from a huge identity crisis, and I also wonder just how much space in the market there is for what is, frankly, a free-to-play Call of Duty knockoff, particularly with Black Ops 6 launching on Game Pass day one in October. Let's start by talking about the core gameplay formula. It's Call of Duty. It's fun. Gunplay is almost identical, the progression is very similar, the maps and modes are very similar (I'll get to those), and the time-to-kill is... a little slower, but still very similar. It's an absolute knockoff of Call of Duty with almost nothing unique to set it apart, but it's a very serviceable Call of Duty clone. The only gameplay element that is different from Call of Duty, is that instead of killstreaks, you have faction abilities. These factions are based on different Ubisoft franchises (the same ones mentioned above) and they vary wildly in usefulness, sometimes depending on the mode. Some abilities, like the intel suit (wallhacks) or the barrier shield (think Reinhardt from Overwatch) are INSANELY strong, with the barrier shield being especially strong on objective modes, while others like healing devices are almost useless. There's certainly some balancing work that needs to be done here. Apart from that... it's just CoD, man. The actual amount of content in XDefiant currently is a bit lacking (it is a live service game, with frequent updates planned, but I can only review what's in front of me). There's currently 6 modes (5 at launch, I'll get to the other one) and 14 maps, however none of the maps are available across all modes. The maps are mostly based on the different Ubisoft IPs that are in the game, with a few originals. However, they seem to be disproportionately based on The Division, with only one each at launch based on any of the others. The map design is overall very solid, they're all very well designed, both from a gameplay perspective and a visual one. The problem is... the modes that you play these maps on aren't particularly interesting. There's 4 "linear maps" for the two modes that rely on a linear attack-and-defense, checkpoint-based structure, and 10 "arena maps" for everything else. The two linear modes are essentially Escort and Assault from Overwatch (or many other games), there's nothing unique to the design of these modes at all. They're fun to play, but it's all very been-there-done-that. The other modes mostly aren't much different. There's what is essentially Domination and Hardpoint from CoD, a Team Deathmatch mode (which I'll get to), and "Hot Shot". Hot Shot is the only mode in this game that feels at all unique. On the surface, it's just Kill Confirmed, where you collect the tags from dead enemies to secure a point, but if you secure three, you become the "Hot Shot", and any tags you collect are worth 3 points. If you die, you also drop 3 tags. It's a neat twist and it's by far the best game mode in the game currently. At launch, the game did not have a traditional Team Deathmatch mode, which was a problem for two reasons. One, because XDefiant's style of gameplay suits Team Deathmatch quite well, and two, because it meant that everyone was playing objective-based modes, even those who had no interest in playing the objective, making matches worse for those who actually tried to win. Credit to the developers here, they listened to criticism and very quickly added a Team Deathmatch mode, but it is very much a patchwork solution as the maps feel a bit too big for Team Deathmatch. It's still fun, but I hope future maps are designed better for the mode. It is worth pointing out that Season One (which starts in early July) will add three new maps and a new mode, Capture the Flag, as well as a ranked system (which is technically in the game already but without a ranking system, there's not much point to playing it right now unless you like having only 4 players on each side instead of 6). Like I said, I can only review what's in front of me. As far as monetization goes... for a free-to-play game it's mostly fine. There's absurdly priced skins and a Battle Pass, but that's to be expected with these sorts of games, they need to make a profit somehow. Just don't be an idiot and spend $20 on a skin and you should be alright. There is, however, a weapon locked behind the Battle Pass, and a faction (with their abilities) locked behind a grind (and, obviously, an option to skip it). None of these are game-changers, but I STRONGLY object to any form of gameplay being monetized. It's a slippery slope. But like I said, it's a free-to-play game, it could have been a lot worse. On a technical level... XDefiant is a bit of a mess. It's very buggy, and these bugs vary in their severity. Some of the bugs are just visual bugs, but some do adversely affect gameplay and competitive balance, like doors for the attacking team in Escort opening a bit too soon, or an ability that is supposed to stun you simply... not doing that, allowing you to still shoot your gun and destroy the drone. I've also had a few crashes. The spawns are also very hit and miss, and I've been spawned right next to an enemy a few times now. By far the most critical technical problem though, is the netcode. XDefiant's netcode is *terrible*. I cannot tell you how many times I've died behind walls, shot an enemy and did no damage, or killed an enemy and died to that enemy at the same time. This is an absolutely crippling flaw at this point and something that certainly needs to be addressed. Rainbow Six Siege suffered from this issue after launch and it was eventually addressed. Ubisoft absolutely need to address it here too. So that's the game itself, in terms of its gameplay, structure, and technical state. Like I said earlier, it's... fine. It's not awful, and if you want a free-to-play Call of Duty clone, it does the job. But this game has absolutely no identity of its own. Ubisoft's decision to initially develop this as a Tom Clancy game, backtrack after backlash, and make XDefiant separate from the Tom Clancy brand with even MORE Ubisoft IPs awkwardly mashed together, means that XDefiant itself... feels generic. Like how Fortnite eventually became a mixture of every IP under the sun and eventually lost its identity. If this was a completely new game, with its own universe being built (maybe even a campaign to help build that, but it's not inherently necessary, Overwatch did this just fine), it'd be able to stand out. As of right now though, this feels like a game made by shareholders, rather than something with its own unique creative vision. It's as if Ubisoft's executives said "we want a Call of Duty competitor", treating games like competing products (think Bing, to Google) rather than crafted experiences with creative vision behind them. I could be wrong, maybe Ubisoft's developers were really passionate about the idea of this, but that's how this *feels*. I wondered to myself at multiple points while playing this why I wasn't just playing Call of Duty instead. And with Black Ops 6 launching on Game Pass day one in October, Call of Duty is more easily accessible than it's ever been. With this game not being available on last gen consoles, the only real market for this is "people who are too poor to buy new games (even on heavy discount) but own a PS5, a $500 console". I don't think that market exists, and for that reason I strongly doubt XDefiant has any real staying power in the increasingly competitive multiplayer shooter space. Tons of these games fail and inevitably shut down every year. I'm skeptical that XDefiant will end up much better. So, that's XDefiant. A bit of a weird game to review, in all honesty, because for one, live service games always are since they evolve continually after launch, and also... this game is fine. It plays well and I had a good time playing 20 hours or so of it for review. But live service games (especially free-to-play ones) do not live or die based on the first 20 hours. They live or die based on whether they can cultivate a consistent playerbase in the years that follow. The massive technical problems this game has, combined with the extremely generic setting, mean that I strongly doubt it will survive. Like I said, it's free-to-play, and if you want to try it, there's no reason not to. It's a good time for 20 hours. But would I recommend playing this game *over* Call of Duty? Definitely not. 5/10.