If XDEFIANT Ships Without 3 MAJOR Changes... It's DOA
0The closed beta for XDefiant has come and gone.
Hundreds of thousands watched on Twitch, thousands played, and Ubisoft got a ton of valuable feedback and data.
After a week of playing, here's the main takeaway:
XDefiant is surprisingly in a unique spot to succeed but it needs to make these changes.
Let's be real honest, if XDefiant wasn't free-to-play, no one would bother buying it — we have Call of Duty for our online arcade-arena shooter.
Love it or hate it, Call of Duty will always be king.
But can you answer this? Name one current, popular, and free-to-play arcade-arena shooter that doesn't prioritize heroes.
Every popular arcade shooter is a battle royale. And the arcade arena shooter market, specifically, is dominated by Overwatch. But that's all about hero abilities.
XDefiant prioritizes gunplay — the heroes' specials are an afterthought.
XDefiant is basically a free-to-play, small-player count, Call of Duty experience being made by a competent AAA developer.
There's nothing else like it in the FPS market. But that won't be enough.
If XDefiant just launches with more content and bug fixes, it won't last long.
Think about it this way, if Black Ops II got a 1-to-1 remaster in today's market, it wouldn't be the banger everyone assumes.
The market and player base has evolved and moved on from that experience.
And that's what XDefiant currently feels like — a barebones, decades-old arcade shooter. It's a fun, but very shallow experience.
Ubisoft is going to have to make 3 fundamental changes to XDefiant to create a meatier free-to-play product with staying power.
The movement in XDefiant is good — I'm sure you've seen the "movement king" videos floating around.
It looks and feels great from your point of view, but from everyone else's, it's impossible to consistently hit high-movement players.
Ubisoft can go one of two ways.
I don't think anyone wants them to nerf anything. Movement has become one of the expected skill gaps in modern arcade shooters.
Instead, they need to make the transitions between hopping, sliding, and strafing look more fluid from the spectator's perspective.
Apex Legends handles complex transitions perfectly.
If Ubisoft can smoothen everything out in this game, it's going to be like butter to play.
The number one complaint during the closed beta for XDefiant had to be the weak aim-assist for controller players.
The current possible movement mechanics didn't help them either.
And while it's refreshing as a mouse and keyboard player who has to deal with aimbot-level rollers in Call of Duty, Ubisoft needs to bump it up.
XDefiant is entering a tough market and they need to attract as many players from as many platforms as possible.
I don't know how easy or difficult it is to tune aim-assist but it doesn't matter. If XDefiant releases with the same level of aim-assist as the closed beta, look forward to a dead product.
Mouse and keyboard players might have to take an L on this one.
XDefiant's weapon progression system is old school — great for nostalgia, but really boring.
During the closed beta, within 4 hours I had completely unlocked all of my MP7's attachments. They have to make it more difficult.
We've had the same progression system for decades where you easily unlock the same attachments in the same order as everyone else, and the real grind is in earning skins.
XDefiant’s weapon progression is just too linear and straightforward.
I want a few normal or special attachments to be included out of the reach of your average player. It can't simply be kill-based.
Ubisoft should implement headshot, kill range, secondary gun usage, and utility kill challenges that reward the player with attachments.
One of the main criticisms of Modern Warfare 2 is its lack of challenges to complete in-game. XDefiant can't afford to make that mistake.
Conclusion
XDefiant has a lot of potential — it's the only game like it coming out anytime soon.
But in its current form, it's great nostalgia bait that will flop soon after launch. Roadmaps worth of content won't save the game, it needs some tweaking to its mechanics and game loop if it wants to survive.
See you on the battlefield and as always, stay cool, gentlemen.
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