XDefiant Preview – Crossfire Crossover

A landscape with many top shooters adopting the free-toplay model makes it difficult for IPs to join the fray. Titans like Fortnite and Apex Legends don’t just have large, dedicated audiences—their respective development teams have spent years refining gameplay in response to player feedback. Although it is daunting to compete in such a competitive space, it’s not impossible. After playing for two hours Ubisoft XDefiant, it seems like it might be able to do it.

XDefiant puts the player in the shoes of Ubisoft’s top-flight franchises such as Far Cry and Splinter Cell. If you’re skeptical, I don’t blame you—I was, too. Even though I haven’t tried every franchise, I knew that the best part about any shooter was how it felt. After playing it, I can confirm that it is fantastic.

Although it isn’t a perfect one-to-one game, it feels very close to Call of Duty. The kills come quickly and the combat emphasises your position rather than your movement skills: quick reaction is crucial. The respawns can be done almost instantly, which means that even after you’re knocked out, you can still jump in and get revenge.

When you add factions to the discussion, it ends all comparisons with Call of Duty. Every match in XDefiant starts with you selecting who to play: Echelon, Libertad(Far Cry 6), Cleaners/The Division, Phantoms (Ghost Recon), Dedsec or Watch Dogs. These are the character classes that you choose at match start. There is no limit to how many factions can be present on each team. However, most teams have an appropriate mix. Weapon load-outs are entirely separate choices, so you can play as whichever character with any  weapons you prefer. Even mid-game, you can change your faction.

Each faction allows for a specific type of player mechanically. For instance, my most recent games saw me play as Echelon the Splinter cell series’ government agency. The aesthetic appealed to me first, and I soon found that their toolkit suited my style. Echelon agents are a covert intelligence agent. They have passive abilities to keep enemies off their minimaps, and activated abilities which allow them either to turn invisible or ping enemy through walls. These abilities are extremely useful as I like to surprise the enemy team by flanking them with a shotgun. It is very satisfying to use invisibility to escape from or ambush enemies, though it only has a brief window and can be used for only 30 seconds. This keeps the balance.

Libertad freedom fighters, who can help allies heal and expand their health pools, are the best choice if you want to take on your enemy head-on. Phantoms can summon forcefields to attack enemies and use riot shields to defend themselves. If you’re looking to set fire to an area and launch incendiary shots, then Cleaners is the right choice. My personal opinion is that I didn’t like the other factions nearly as much as Echelon. But I was still killed at a fairly even rate by all faction players, so it may have more to do about class preference than design. Dedsec wasn’t available for me to try during this preview. They will however be available in the closed beta.

The 14 locations where matches take place are from each of the game’s histories. These include Ghost Recon’s Attica Height or Watch Dogs 2’s Nudleplex. There is no in-world explanation for this. I would even argue that there should be. It’s just a silly crossover to honor Ubisoft games library. Although I am sure that I will pick my favorites over time, the map design was solid throughout the entire game. However, we were told they could be modified before launch.

There were five different modes. Domination and Hot Shot were arena modes. They took place on three-lane traditional maps. Occupy was the last mode. Zone Control and Escort are linear modes that place players on a single path. Hot Shot was my favorite spin on Kill Confirmed. The player who has the most points receives a fire rate boost and increased movement speed. However, the Hot Shot is also highlighted in enemy screens. Hot Shot seems to counter that by balancing the design of multiplayer rooms where one person is dominant over all others.

Although it remains to be determined if XDefiant can make an impact upon launch, the arcade-style shooter that is its heart shows promise for the future. Even though I played it for only a short time, I am now hooked and can’t wait for the next round.