With XDefiant, Ubisoft is releasing a competitor to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in summer 2023. MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller has tried the shooter through several testing phases and believes that a good shooter doesn’t have to cost 70 euros.
I am being completely honest. When XDefiant was first introduced, I thought: Who needs a CoD from Ubisoft? After several test phases, I was surprised to find: I need a CoD from Ubisoft. Preferably as soon as possible!
If you don’t know which game I’m talking about, let me summarize the gameplay for you. If you already know XDefiant, you can jump directly to the strengths of XDefiant.
Only Dariusz stays away from battle royal and extraction shooters, but otherwise, he plays almost every shooter he can get his hands on – including the open beta of XDefiant.
Free CoD alternative from Ubisoft
In Ubisoft’s new shooter XDefiant, you grab one of five classes, choose a class-specific gadget, the weapons of your choice, and dive into the PvP fray. You play various modes like zone control or payload (escort) and show on different maps which team is better.
The playable classes of the shooter, called factions, come from various Ubisoft games. Currently, there are:
- The secret agents of “Echelon” from Splinter Cell
- Freedom fighters of “Libertad” from Far Cry 6
- The fire-loving “Cleaners” from The Division
- The hacker group “DedSec” from Watch Dogs
- The elite unit “Phantoms” from Ghost Recon
Each faction has two class-specific gadgets. In addition, there are 24 weapons, five of which you can exchange from a total of seven components. You have 44 different attachments available to change factors such as fire rate, damage at short or medium range, or aim time.
XDefiant will be released as a free-to-play title in summer 2023. You can see a trailer here:
The strengths of XDefiant lie in the principles of a shooter
XDefiant does a lot of things right that I value as a shooter fan, which is why I had great fun during the beta.
The time-to-kill (TTK) is not so high that I feel like I’m going into battle with a toy gun. But it’s also not so low that I would just have to cough to get a triple kill.
Moreover, the weapon behavior is very intuitive, easy to master, and even rookie shooters should be able to control the comparatively low recoil of most weapons without any problems. For controller players, there’s also the aim assist familiar from CoD.
Overall, the gunplay fits well into the relatively fast movement of the shooter.
The character’s movement speed depends on the weapon chosen as well as the played attachments. With a machine gun, I run slower than with an assault rifle, and with a vector submachine gun without a stock, I can be about as fast as with a drawn pistol.
What I liked particularly about the movement in XDefiant is that it is fast and offers the possibility to “slide” and “bunny hop” without overdoing it.
Your shots become, for example, less accurate when you are continuously jumping. This can lead to your opponent gaining an advantage in a gunfight if they move slightly and deliver a precise headshot.
Additionally, XDefiant does without gimmicks like “wall runs” or “drop shooting.” Even though I am one of the players who shamelessly exploits the constant “throwing to the ground,” I think the omission is a good thing.
Developers respond to feedback
During the various test phases of XDefiant, I witnessed how Ubisoft changed smaller details in gameplay from time to time. Gadgets were subtly nerfed when I felt they were too strong and quickly dominated the game’s meta.
In general, the team behind the shooter reacted to public feedback, and you felt that the game was constantly improving.
Of course, it must be clearly criticized in the beta tests that there were numerous technical problems such as bugs and crashes, as well as severe server issues. But particularly, executive producer Mark Rubin was very communicative and refreshingly transparent on Twitter during each testing phase.
This made it clear whether a problem was being worked on or not. Sometimes Rubin also had suitable workarounds that provided relief until the proper fix was applied.
Can XDefiant be THE shooter of the summer?
Yes, definitely for me. In principle, fans of PvP shooters can only look forward to two releases in summer 2023: Counter-Strike 2 and XDefiant. Valve’s tactical shooter is, however, exactly what players have known for many years – just prettier.
XDefiant does not reinvent the genre and does nothing that is exceptionally innovative. But it does everything well that matters to me in a modern arena shooter – from the balanced TTK, to the swift movement, to the easy handling of the weapons.
Everything feels well-coordinated. Also, the selection of your firearms and the modification through various attachments is well done in my opinion.
XDefiant achieves this, even though the shooter will be released as a free-to-play title. The price difference is probably the biggest advantage of XDefiant compared to Call of Duty because XDefiant is a good shooter, even though it doesn’t cost 70 €.
Of course, there are other free-to-play arena shooters like Halo Infinite or Splitgate – although they pursue a different gameplay principle despite being in the same genre. Smaller projects like Shatterline or Hired Ops simply do not have the resources to compete with a Call of Duty.
XDefiant has a major publisher backing it and thanks to a struggling CoD currently has the momentum and attention to be a competitor.
Is XDefiant therefore better than CoD MW2? No idea, maybe. Maybe not.
One thing is certain, XDefiant is an alternative to Call of Duty that will be released this summer and is free. So checking it out can’t hurt, I’m already having fun.
If you want to discover more free shooters, take a look here:
