All the stars are here.
XDefiant is not afraid to showcase its inspirations loudly. This is an online shooter that is a mixture of Ubisoft properties like Ghost Recon, Far Cry, and The Division, structured like a hybrid of Call of Duty and Overwatch. While it can often play to the strengths and weaknesses of those titles, as well as others like Apex Legends and Counter-Strike, it also suffers from not featuring some of the most basic elements people generally gravitate towards. Its lack of originality isn't really a make-or-break issue as of yet, but I would love to see more done to really let its franchised characters shine, or hell, give us characters we genuinely care about.
XDefiant is a six-on-six shooter built across a selection of familiar game types. Escort, which is the most Overwatch of the offerings here, sees each team taking turns navigating a robotic payload as the other team defends their territory. Zone Control has you attacking or defending capture zones, as does Domination; however, you’ll have three zones to contend with through the latter. Occupy is similar to the others as you’ll attempt to occupy a location that changes its position throughout the match. Lastly, is Hot Shot, which has you collecting bounties, ala Kill Confirmed. The change here is that the player with the most bounties becomes the hot shot, a faster and more deadly player. Well, until they are killed, that is.
Unfortunately, that is all there is at launch. XDefiant seems singularly built around objective-only bouts meaning there is no deathmatch or team deathmatch, capture the flag, or other modes that players generally navigate to when taking in an online shooter, free or otherwise. While additional modes have been rumored or reported as part of a series of leaks, it’s unfortunate that XDefiant shipped with so few options. While it was likely to get it out well in advance of this year’s Call of Duty, it can leave players scratching their heads and thinking, “Is this it?”
Now, while that may sound damning, and to a certain extent it is, XDefiant is still a damn impressive debut that has solid gameplay and enough interesting mechanics across its factions that has had me play this a lot longer than most of the previous Call of Duty games. While it still suffers from a noticeable lack of content, I know more is coming, but when and just exactly what remains to be seen.
XDefiant’s hook is that you are playing as various factions pulled from the Ubisoft catalog. From The Division, we have the Cleaners, a trio of pyro technicians that have incinerator drones, firebombs, and incendiary rounds. Phantoms join the party from Ghost Recon, granting us force field barriers that block incoming fire, a blitz shield to take that ability on the go, and an increase in health when compared to other factions. The freedom fighters of the Libertad army join us from Far Cry 6 and are equipped to be the game's support class, offering a wealth of healing opportunities. Third Echelon, from Splinter Cell, enters the firefight as they are equipped with a digital ghillie suit or an intel suit that pulsates a sonar scan of nearby threats. Lastly, is Dedsec, the infamous hacker group from Watch Dogs. This faction is initially locked unless you purchase them or push through a sizable objective in the game. This group can hack enemy-deployed abilities, let loose a spider-bot, or prevent enemies from using their abilities in an area of effect.
While each faction is equipped with a variety of different skills as you choose which of them to bring into battle, the biggest issue is that notable characters from these games are not part of these offerings. Sam Fisher is not present for Third Echelon, and while The Division is full of various characters and factions of their own, we only have the Cleaners to choose from. This makes each faction essentially have a single unit type, despite having three separate characters within each faction to choose from; effectively being just skins more so than unique characters. While more factions and characters are likely to be added later on, I feel having three unique character types within each faction would have tripled the variety here, making them worthwhile to grind away at challenges to unlock.
With five factions offering up their franchises as playable options, each franchise is also represented in having its own environments, even if one particular franchise is relied on far more than the others. Currently, XDefiant ships with 14 maps pulled from each of the five franchises. These maps are split into arena-based encounters and of progression-based Escort missions where they are not designed around being compatible with the other objective-based mission types. So, let’s break them down by their respective brands and game modes.
The Division offers up a sports Arena fans will immediately recognize, to a sizable chunk of a familiar city block, to a department store resembling the one from the first Division called Emporium. With the Division being an ideal franchise to pull from to give players a wealth of different environments, you also have two additional warzone locations in Liberty and Mayday, each of which feels truly ripped from the games. Lastly is the colorful and chaotic map, Showtime. Each of the other franchises only have a single map currently to portray their respective brands. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Phantoms has Attica Heights, a level that has a lot of open space and reduced height to provide a lot of visibility to you and your opponent. Third Echelon HQ represents Splinter Cell, while Pueblito is here to represent Far Cry 6. Nudleplex rounds out the arena maps as it is the Google-like HQ for Watch Dogs.
As mentioned, The Division is really used as a crutch here for most of its maps as it dominates the offerings at launch. In fact, Every Escort mission takes place in a Division-themed location. Melton, Midway, Times Square, and a Zoo, all taking up the four progression maps on offer, lifted from both The Division and its sequel. While it’s great that this game is getting its flowers within XDefiant, a progression-based jungle level from Far Cry would have visually offered up some variety. Hell, a hacker complex from Watch Dogs could have hit the spot as well. Again, while most of that is likely in the works, it does feel like XDefiant shipped well before that type of variety could have been released at launch.
Part of a good shooter is how the combat feels and its traversal as you attempt to stay alive. Thankfully, gunplay is solid here despite some significant issues with hit registration presently plaguing matches. Guns feel and act like you are used to in Call of Duty as many of the same guns are present here. The M16, Ak-47 joins the likes of the P-90 and the ACR 6.8 as well as a ton of other options. Guns all level up as you use them with gun parts, projectiles, and more that are earned as you gain experience throughout each match. It’s a tried and true system that Call of Duty fans will easily recognize.
Depending on your loadout and what you are equipping to your kit will factor into how you approach combat. Again, shooting feels great and with plenty of maps allowing for some tense standoffs, especially in Escort missions, gunplay does remind me a great deal of Call of Duty in how fast-paced it can feel, but despite that familiarity, it is the faction abilities that tend to flavor it with just enough of Overwatch or Apex Legends that it really allows XDefiant to deliver something rather engaging. Now, Call of Duty has offered a “hero-like” class system before through Black Ops II and III, and might very well again, but for right now, if XDefiant can leverage what is here with more content, its class-based system could stand the chance at really elevating this game forward.
Currently, hit registration is really affecting XDefiant and Ubisoft is currently working to address it. The amount of times I’ve been killed behind cover and shot through a wall is quite a lot and checking out several examples across YouTube of players clearly hitting their target, only for their opponents to walk away with full life after they’ve died is staggering. Thankfully, Ubisoft has mentioned they are working on fixing this and that patch can’t come soon enough.
Given that XDefiant is a very objective-focused game, it really demands that you play with a few friends to ensure there is some level of communication as a mechanic like a ping system is not currently present in the game but is looking to be added in the future. Playing in random matchmaking as a solo player, you rarely find players working together and often you are getting picked off, especially if you attempt to take on enemy forces in Escort without waiting for your team, double so if it is one of the notable chokepoints present across a few maps.
As XDefiant is free to play, the monetization comes in the form of a Battle Pass and a storefront. These come in the form of offering XP boosts and cosmetics. The overall system here is pretty typical of Free to Play games and doesn’t genuinely offer up any real pay-to-win systems. And thankfully, Ubisoft has stated that they have no intention of implementing any pay-to-win systems throughout the game’s future. I mentioned it before, but the Dedsec faction can be bought through the store or unlocked by accruing 700k experience, which is a pretty sizable chunk when you are not using XP boosters. Still, it is accessible to players that put in the time and doesn’t have to cost you a single penny.
Powered by Snowdrop, I am conflicted on certain elements of the game. I think environments look detailed and clean, but have a blurred softness to some of their edges, at least on Series X. Character models equally have hits and misses as the details surrounding their outfits and gear all look incredible, but faces, or those faction members that have a visible face, just don’t look great. This is visible mainly across a few members of the Third Echelon, Libertad, and Dedsec. A lot of this comes down to facial modeling that looks considerably last-generation with facial animations that feel incredibly dated. Granted, you are not noticing this too much apart from when you select your character or during the results screen, but I’m actually surprised the game doesn’t look better in some cases due to the Snowdrop engine largely being a solid tool for Ubisoft in the past.
XDefiant has a chance to be something pretty impressive and while there are traces of that excellence here, it’s too soon to say considering the lack of significant content and the slim variety within each faction. Once XDefiant begins to grow and add to its core systems, modes, and factions, then Ubisoft will have a major contender in the Free-to-play space that could be something special. When and how they go about that remains to be seen, but with tight gunplay, fun faction abilities, and some clever map design, XDefiant is an impressive game that has a potentially bright future.
Developer - Ubisoft San Francisco, Ubisoft.
Publisher - Ubisoft.
Released - May 21st, 2024.
Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Amazon Luna.
Rated - (T) - Mild Language, Violence.
Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X.
Review Access - XDefiant is a Free to Play game and was accessed via the Microsoft Store.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.