Competition in the team-based PvP genre is always welcome.
Snowdrop engine is still visually striking.
Leveling and weapon grinding feel laborious and unrewarding.
Factions from Ubisoft properties like Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell, and The Division are playable in XDefiant.
Matches feel unbalanced, resulting in crushing loss or overwhelming victory, but no middle ground.
Time-to-kill (TTK) is too long.
Maps are too large for play modes and player count.
XDefiant offers a handful of playable modes at launch, but no Team Deathmatch or Attrition playlists.
Limited accessibility, and no pings.
XDefiant is Ubisofts latest foray into the free-to-play first-person shooter genre.
On top of that, I prefer not to see any one game killed by another.
(Image credit: Cole Martin/Windows Central)
XDefiants player factions are inspired by characters from other belovedUbisoftfranchises, includingThe Division,Splinter Cell, andWatch Dogs.
The abilities available to players during matches are rooted in those other franchises, as well.
Other factions are equipped with invisibility-granting suits, deployable shields, and medical equipment for team support.
(Image credit: Cole Martin/Windows Central)
Could we possibly see Assassins,Avataror evenStar Wars Kay Vessjoin the roster at some point?
The potential is certainly there.
At launch, XDefiant has only a handful of objective-based multiplayer modes.
(Image credit: Cole Martin/Windows Central)
The team that gets the bot to travel the furthest declares victory.
Another mode, Hotshot, is the closest that XDefiant has to offer to Team Deathmatch.
Despite being a popular mode, it shows up infrequently in Welcome playlists.
(Image credit: Cole Martin/Windows Central)
If only they could just steamroll new players, their K/Ds and clips would be so much better.
The Welcome playlist does have SBMM turned on and a level 25.
Nearly every encounter for new players ended in a Crushing Loss.
XDefiant struggled to fill matches when players left during the Faction Select phase.
But the issue isnt skill-related.
Even being on the winning side of these encounters feels vapid.
SBMM isn’t just useful in matchmaking and finding players for a lobby.
Without SBMM, matches feel unbalanced and vapid.
It’s also useful for balancing out teams.
And it’s not as easy as flipping a switch to turn the algorithms on.
On one hand, it was nice to have that look and feel back.
The XDefiant accessibility menu.
The maps, however, were far too large for a standard 6v6 multiplayer experience.
Concerning audio, there is voice acting for the playable characters.
While there are some cheesy puns, no standout one-liners make any of the characters particularly endearing.
There’s no risk to at least trying XDefiant. It is free, after all.
Gun audio also feels muffled, even without suppressors.
Accessibility is a vital balancing act when were talking competitive PvP gameplay.
XDefiant review: Should you play it?
XDefiant is, at the very least, worth giving a try.
It is free to download, free-to-play, but there are microtransactions, including a battle pass.
As a former PvP fan of The Division, however, I found myself wondering what happened with XDefiant.
I want to see it grow into something better.
Id hesitate to become too attached to XDefiant.
The Welcome playlist in XDefiant does have SBMM turned on.
The review has been updated to correct the error.
Factions from popular Ubisoft IP help to bring familiarity and nostalgia to the battleground.
