I was looking for a new shooter to shake up the genre and I might have just found it
GAMING is full of first-person shooters and each one has to do something different in order to stand out.
Some games like Apex Legends focus on fast-paced movement as you zip around the arena, while Call of Duty focuses on more realistic cover-based shooting.
XDefiant is Ubisoft’s latest take on the genre, and it seems that the developer has aimed squarely at the latter.
Your boots will be firmly on the ground as XDefiant hits you with old-school nostalgia.
Climbable walls are clearly marked with yellow tarp, and movement is even more limited than in the latest Call of Duty games.
To contrast the limited movement, all of the characters feel light and responsive. They can’t run on walls or rocket jump, but they sprint lightly and slide effortlessly under cover.
Like Counter-Strike, XDefiant offers players limited paths and lines of sight, meaning that you know what to expect.
This means you can formulate your game plan based on where the objective is, and where the enemies can spawn, and your skill will carry you.
It sets XDefiant up as a competitive shooter, one that would be stale if the gunplay wasn’t so fast-paced and fun.
It’s fun to sprint down lanes with a pistol, to slide undercover swapping weapons and shooting down enemies as you do so.
While the movement options are limited, the fast pace of the weapon swapping and shooting creates that smooth balance.
XDefiant has a very standard selection of guns, but it’s what you can do with them that makes it special.
There are also five factions from other Ubisoft games, which helps to separate it from the pack.
Choosing to side with characters from The Division, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Watch Dogs 2, or Far Cry 6 makes XDefiant feel more like a hero shooter.
While the characters are not particularly recognizable by themselves, the factions work to separate out special abilities that are unique to each game.
However, unlocking extra characters and upgrading weapons can feel a bit of a grind, as you do so by completing in-game challenges.
These encourage you to be diverse with your weapon choices, but you’ll still need to use each one a lot to get the full potential out of it.
To make up for this, there are 14 diverse and interesting maps to play from each of these Ubisoft games, and if you’re a fan of these they’ll feel familiar.
It also has the usual game modes you expect such as Escort, Hot Shot, Zone Control, Domination, and Occupy.
However, the latter three are all pretty similar, which makes the grind feel even more repetitive.
XDefiant is free-to-play, and at the time of writing in-game purchases are limited to skins and a 50-level Battle Pass.
The Battle Pass takes a long time to unlock completely, but if you are into XDefiant it could be worth it for you.
As a free-to-play game, if any of the above sounds interesting, then it’s worth trying out without feeling any buyer’s remorse.
It’s an enjoyable shooter that straddles the line between CoD and Counter-Strike with a number of pages borrowed from Hero Shooters.
We doubt it will change the shooter landscape, but it will likely be a good time for gamers looking for something new.
If you want to read more about recent releases, check out our Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 review.
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