XDefiant was playable again last weekend after almost a year, but everyone is wondering what has changed since the last test?
Last weekend, we were finally able to test Ubisoft’s upcoming shooter again. XDefiant was actually announced for 2023, but as has often been the case in recent years, this game was also postponed.
For months, there was hardly any information from Ubisoft about the shooter, which received good feedback during the last beta. Even MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller thought at that time that the shooter is a good alternative to CoD.
After a period of silence, Ubisoft announced that players could test the hopeful shooter. I was also curious about the current state of the shooter, especially because CoD’s strong SBMM is really annoying me now. But what Ubisoft showed us over the weekend makes me doubt the shooter.
I was just around the corner…
In true CoD fashion, I played the game test over the weekend with friends. Sometimes we played in groups of six against our opponents, and at first glance, I had a lot of fun with the game. However, after some time, more and more issues with XDefiant became apparent, which I was probably not alone in experiencing.
The game’s netcode, the piece that is responsible for the great “I was already around the corner” moments, was not performing well. Despite a good ping to the servers, the phrase was uttered several times in our rounds, and our opponents also needed more or fewer hits to go down. We quickly found out that we’re not the only ones with this problem.
On Reddit, user humanbenchmarkian shared an experience that has personally happened to me more than once:
Furthermore, the netcode is also responsible for whether the opponent actually takes damage when you hit them. Here too, there were varying experiences, good and bad, from round to round with the system. Some players on Reddit even found the netcode, which was said to be improved according to patch notes (via Ubisoft), to be worse than during the last test.
This is a big warning sign for me, as according to XDefiant head Mark Rubin, the netcode was one of the things that led to the release being postponed. Another problem was the social and party system (via X.com).
A trailer for the game can be found here:
A year and almost nothing has changed
The second problem I noticed around the second day is the few innovations compared to the first game test. In over a year of development, nothing has changed.
A look at the patch notes (via Ubisoft) confirms the suspicion, and Mark Rubin also emphasizes on X.com that not much has changed in the gameplay since the last test – and that after months of work.
To be fair: Working on the biggest technical weaknesses of the game is not a bad thing. But as a player, I still want to see something new after almost a year of silence – even if it’s just the gadgets that have already been shown in the announcement trailer and have not yet made it into the game. Other games deliver such updates every 3 months with a new season.
My conclusion: It’s actually a good game, but…
Content is what keeps a live service game alive. Only through new and especially interesting content can a game with this concept survive. If XDefiant releases in its current state, it will follow the same path as many games before it: It will start strong and then lose more and more players.
All in all, I can agree with the opinion of MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller from the last game test: I would have liked to have XDefiant, and preferably already tomorrow. The gameplay is fun and reminds me of the days in CoD when there wasn’t any SBMM yet. The weapons and the feeling are good, and it could potentially even compete with CoD.
The server test over the weekend also showed me that Ubisoft has even more work to do in the development of the shooter than was actually assumed – not to mention bugs like invisible opponents, which caused a whole faction to be disabled during the test.
It remains to be seen whether Ubisoft will come up with something that keeps me engaged for the release, whenever that may be. If you’re eager for a playable shooter right now, you can take a look here: The 25 best shooters of 2024 – These PvP and PvE games impress with their gameplay
