Ah, the most covered game of Ubisoft yet, a F2P COD killer that is probably what Ubisoft would think to be their way out of the current financial hellhole. I don't believe that part is changing anytime soon, due to how lackluster it is in the important areas, like content, gameplay balancing, lack of atmosphere, terrible design choices, technical issues, and so on.
But.... I do have to admit, I never got this hooked in a game before in a while. Something about it lures me, it's at the tip of my tongue, but I can't seem to get it out. Maybe it has to do with it feeling a little better than current COD games. The Dirty Bomb objective based game modes.
It's not consistent in its design and quality, not in its entirety, yet maybe with the right community feedback, and developers making the fixes and changes needed to get this game better, it might. And I have to be real, they upped COD with actual good map designs here. XDefiant, to put it lightly, is a 6v6 team objective based shooter. But I wouldn't mind if they added deathmatch as well.
It has the quickest time to kill, frantic mobility, air strafing which believe me, is a double edge sword here, this game is based around COD's weapons customization and unlocking them through an XP progression system. Which is kind of biased towards XP boost, because those gets you to upgrades easily. One of the core issues I have with the game, as well as how unbalanced the weapons feel. The Sniper rifle became my favorite due to how easy it is to clear opponents out.
I mean, to a certain degree, it would have to be grounded in order to be considered a military FPS, but it's not, it's an arcade version of that. Running around shooting people, getting killstreaks, sometimes the player forgets the objectives and that really ruins the fun.
This isn't to say that the progression system is grindy, which even if it is, the daily challenges encourage me to try different things, like playing magnums, shotguns, or get kills from LMGs. Each character from 4 different factions choose from two different gadgets.
There aren't many weapons to try out, which is stupid considering you have faction characters from Splinter Cell, Division, Ghost Recon, Watch Dogs, and Far Cry games, but not many weapon choices. And as mentioned before, grinding is necessary to unlock their attachments. No worries about unbalanced games, because the preset loadout comes with attachments for beginners.
Easy to get in, get started with thanks to how smooth the controls feel and responsive the shooting mechanics are, though I've seen hit registration certain times, it's not a big issue, and they seemed to have recently released a patch to solve that problem. This plays fast-paced, I am sliding, jumping and strafing midair, climbing over things, it's not full on parkour, yet feels like parkour.
So where does the team based design comes around? I guess outside the mission objectives, it's in the abilities. This isn't Overwatch, I get to use one character unique gadget, and throwables. But after a certain point, my ultimate comes around and I'd unleash hell when I can.
Like, say I play the Echelons, the ultimate is me being able to see where my enemies are, and easy pull killstreaks with my silencer pistol. Yes, that's a thing. Or the Cleaners when they get a flamethrower out, and burn anyone close range. Libertads create a zone where health is increase two folds, and healing rate skyrockets, which is very useful when dealing with enemy pressure. I've seen people win games simply by teammates altogether using their ultimates.
Libertads heal, Echelons cloak for few seconds, Phantoms deploy shields, these abilities are handful too, and help change the flow of the games. But I'd argue you could even win games without using them, because again, all people do is shoot one or another, without even following objectives.
I put about 5hrs I believe into the game, and so far, with a couple of boosters bought using Ubisoft Connect's currency, which is one time only purchase, I managed to get 6 different weapons past level 1. Like, if I want a useable weapon, least upto level 3 is where unlocked attachments help.
Completing challenges got me flashbang, EMP grenades, but even if they're accessible from presets, putting them in my customs is what I wanted, and not going to lie, the flashbang is way too OP. Direct contact blinds anyone for 2 seconds with a white screen. Not even COD would allow that kind of subversive power, even more so than the freaking snipers.
Some of the map design from aesthetic point of view, look amazing, I mean, they take place across various different levels based around each of Ubisoft's games. They're fun to look at, good to explore, but often times a little difficult to navigate, also, the chokepoints they have are crazy. Make a huge difference in attack and defense game modes, some points of the map aren't fairly made.
I never got around to unlocking new character skins, and I was wondering why that was the case, and then I look at the battle pass before realizing it was pointless for me. I can't have access to everything until I paid for the battle pass. Which is utter bulls***.
One of the prime examples of greedy live service practices on a F2P title, like this company hasn't learned a thing at all. There's nothing truly invasive about this when it comes to affecting the play experience, outside of account and weapons XP boosters, most of it revolves around cosmetics. All faction members have the same abilities and ultimates.
This is an easy game to get into, for almost anyone, but I'll be honest, if they don't make much of radical changes soon, this will die pretty fast. Not to mention, it's exclusive to Ubisoft Connect. People in Reddit already gave their feedbacks, it's pretty mixed somehow.
I liked the hodgepodge mixed of Ubisoft game characters, and mechanics inspired by team based shooters while playing like a military shooter itself. But adding something like deathmatch or bomb planting mode would be really nice for variety's sake. Also, for the love of god, you're a big company, why can't you give a good battle pass with free stuff for once?
It's nothing new, inspiring, but it works and is dumb fun. It reminds me of other games I missed playing over the years, but I also wish it did its best to at least respect the players putting their time into it. This company needs a shake-up too, or throw Rainbow Six faction next update.
