Tom Clancy's XDefiant

Okay, now that there's a thread for XDefiant, I can share my thoughts on the game from 14 hours of play.

XDefiant is a product of circumstance. It's a free to play hero twitch shooter that is looking to capitalize off Call of Duty's recent faults as a selling point. Should you try it? There's no price for admission, so it doesn't hurt to give it a download to try if shooters are your thing. 30 GBs compared to Call of Duty's 75GBs+ isn't bad.

I compared XDefiant to Call of Duty, but it borrows from the hero shooter genre as well. There are five factions with passive abilities inspired from various Ubisoft franchises. There's a medic class from Far Cry 6 that offers AoE healing; there's a shield class from Ghost Recon that offers more health and shields; there's a pyromaniac class from The Division that deals damage over time; there's a stealth class from Splinter Cell that cloaks/reveals enemies; lastly, there's a hacker class from Watch Dogs that disrupts the opposing team. Over time, your performance can build up an Ultra which could aid in turning the tides of a match.

It stops becoming a hero shooter in execution because the TTK doesn't allow for that sort of asymmetrical gameplay. You can create weapon classes independent from whichever faction you'd choose. You can be a medic wielding a sniper, for instance. Ultras have a slow charge rate. It is possible for you to NOT be granted an Ultra to use unless you absolutely rack up your kill count. Also, there's nothing to fully distinguish who's who through observation. The fast TTK works against the supposed team synergy that the hero mechanic brings because everybody fundamentally plays the same.

Gunfights are inconsistent. You could have a bead on an enemy only to have them counter-kill you because the hit detection/registration doesn't register your shots properly. Ubisoft is aware of this which hopefully will be addressed soon. Movement IS surprisingly balanced. There's no slide cancel, no bunny hopping, no "snaking" across the ground like in modern Call of Duties. Your animations would need to finish before you could proceed with your next action. I like that.

There are five game modes in XDefiant, four of which "encourage" teamplay. Escort, move a robot from one end of the map to another. Domination, secure three points on a map. Occupy, king of the hill where the hill rotates. Zone Control, defend/capture five points that unlock over time. Hot Shot, confirm kills by collecting tags from fallen players. I say "encourage" because XDefiant doesn't incentive you to play the objective.

There's nothing interesting to say about XDefiant as a product since it's a standard first-person shooter that harkens back from Call of Duty once upon a time. If this released ten years ago, it'd be rightfully labeled as a Call of Duty imitator. Now that Call of Duty has abandoned its twitch gameplay foundation, XDefiant has a place in the shooter market for those looking to relive those glory days.
 
  • Informative
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The Last Stand said:
Also, there's nothing to fully distinguish who's who through observation.
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That's what I hate the most about XDefiant and CoD post-MW2019 in general. I can't see shit and if I do, I hesitate to shoot.
Also one thing XDefiant needs to do is get rid of that bullet-sponge feeling when you shoot.
 
Miller said:
Also one thing XDefiant needs to do is get rid of that bullet-sponge feeling when you shoot.
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It's the hit registration. Good aim doesn't do anything if your bullets just disappears upon firing. I thought it was me, but it happens the other way as well.
Miller said:
The weapons don't feel right, it's like a mobile game.
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I had the same thought. XDefiant feels like something I'd play on my phone. It's void of any personality.

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This looks like a mere overlay with a static animation.
 
Movement IS surprisingly balanced. There's no slide cancel, no bunny hopping,
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@The Last Stand
There is absolutely slide cancelling and bunny hopping and to add the cherry on top you can change your direction mid air to be very unpredictable in movement. Its very spammy and doesn't feel skillful but thankfully the devs have said they are going to balance because its not the kind of movement they wanted.

My big issues with the game are as follows:

1. Hit-reg and netcode are as bad as BF4 at launch.

2. Snipers are spammy and way too easy to use

3. Movement(as mentioned above)

4. Those fucking spiderbot cunts that seek you out and paralyze you are only on a fucking 15 second cooldown.

5. The intel suit feels somewhat overpowered because it gives wallhacks to your team and not just you.

6. There is a lot of wasted time spent in loading screens and post-victory screens that you can't quit out of.

Aside from these issues I have actually really been enjoying the game. Ive always hated CoD multiplayer and this game feels a lot better and plays differently then CoD. The game is much more objective oriented and teamplay is going to be huge once people learn how to synergize abilities. For now people are just running around like its CoD and focusing on getting kills but the games are decided by who PTFOs, not who has the best K/D.

Seeing the CoD kids seethe at this game being successful and them unironically asking for SBMM to be added is the funniest shit Ive seen in years gaming wise.
 
TroonsDid911 said:
@The Last Stand
There is absolutely slide cancelling and bunny hopping and to add the cherry on top you can change your direction mid air to be very unpredictable in movement. Its very spammy and doesn't feel skillful but thankfully the devs have said they are going to balance because its not the kind of movement they wanted.
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I've never noticed it from my experience.

When you die, you get to "react" to the killfeed with emojis. I've saw star emojis and Rabbids emojis as well. Another suspicion that XDefiant was originally a mobile game.

TroonsDid911 said:
For now people are just running around like its CoD and focusing on getting kills but the games are decided by who PTFOs, not who has the best K/D.
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The short TTK makes it similar to CoD with discourages objective play if one team is loopsided into eliminating opponents.
 
The Last Stand said:
I've never noticed it from my experience.

When you die, you get to "react" to the killfeed with emojis. I've saw star emojis and Rabbids emojis as well. Another suspicion that XDefiant was originally a mobile game.


The short TTK makes it similar to CoD with discourages objective play if one team is loopsided into eliminating opponents.
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Maybe there is a misunderstanding on the definition of slide cancelling in this game because I don't play CoD. In this game you can jump to cancel a slide and you keep the momentum. Here is a random video from searching "Xdefiant movement" on youtube. This guy is one of those people that sets their FOV and Aspect ratio to ridiculous levels and jumps around like a spazz just to give the illusion that they are some god player. Any decent player with aim will still destroy them but it helps show some of the movement techs these kids are spamming:


I can't comment with any accuracy on the TTK values because somehow its impossible to find a simple TTK chart for the most popular FPS game on the market but Xdefiant has a 300ms TTK on the vector at close range which seems in line with the AS-Val on BF4. The TTK seems pretty long enough that gunfights matter but its hard to tell because the hit reg is so shit.
 
My experience with XDefiant:


Ubisoft needs to fix its hit detection ASAP.
 
XDefiant proves to me that, just because a game is free-to-play, it doesn't exclude itself from criticism. Specifically, with how it monetizes its player base from its entry fee. The store looks no different from an AAA game. Why pay at least $10 to instantly unlock a faction?
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Hugbox Kommissar
Hitreg is better but I'm still getting the occasional death behind cover. Close range gunfights don't feel like complete coin tosses at least.

Dedsec facehugger is decent at neutralizing sniper campers but their announcer is incredibly annoying. Ironic nerd shit humor.
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: The Last Stand
Hugbox Kommissar said:
Dedsec facehugger is decent at neutralizing sniper campers but their announcer is incredibly annoying. Ironic nerd shit humor.
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Oh, the faction announcers. Two factions get on my nerves: the Dedsec and the Libertiad. A common complaint with Far Cry 6, the game that faction is based on, is how little it takes its guerilla warfare theming seriously. The Libertiad announcer hams it up as it's some joke. That's why I rarely play that class.
 
>10 Million players in the course of two weeks
>Already receiving new content
>"We are not interested in winning the sprint, we are interested in winning the marathon"
Not a bad start. I wish this game the very best, it has been so long since we've had genuine competition on the FPS front.
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: The Last Stand and Hugbox Kommissar
So far I have really been enjoying the game even with its flaws. I do have a few extra points to pick out:

1. Grenade spam on Occupy is horrible because small map, 1 second respawn and free grenade every death.

2. Intel suit is by far the most dominant ability on Occupy and solid on Domination as well. Less so on Escort / Zone Control but still decent.

3. I don't know what it is but the P90 feels terrible, maybe it was just the matches I played last night but I swear it has ghost bullets and sudden recoil spikes. I instantly switched back to Vector and it was way better.

4. The second points on the Escort and Zone Control maps can become choke points because there is usually only 3 lanes instead of four like the 1st and 3rd points. The team has to be incompetent to not prevent a flank.

5. The LMGs feel very good, like scary good. M249 is currently my favorite gun by far in almost all game modes. Fast mags, folded stock and other attachments to lower ADS speed and increase movement make it feel very agile. The headshot multiplier is strong and its easy to get headshots even at range. Its TTK is great at all ranges which makes it feel like the best all-round weapon.

6. SMGs feel underwhelming to me compared to Assault rifles because the damage drop off is just too steep for only a modest TTK improvement up close. Aside from the Vector on close range Occupy maps I hardly ever use them unless its a challenge.

7. Phantoms having 20 extra health without a penalty is just plain stupid. The Cleaners have a 10% range penalty to all weapons to compensate for the burn damage but the Phantom can outlive so much that they basically guarantee they will win 1v1s better then any class.

8. Libertad healing station feels like its stronger then the health boost. More bang for your buck then heal boost.

9. Sniper flinch that was added helps deal with the snipers a bit but Im still getting crazy quickscoped while landing all shots and slide / bunny hopping unpredictability. Not sure if its console aim assist helping or PC cheaters but Ive got some crazy clips of the shit they pull off.
 
There's a bug now where after you spawn, you cannot shoot, sprint or use your ability. But, you can walk and look around.
 
Weapon level progress for your weapons have been retroactively increased ~15-20 levels. Bug? Act of goodwill? Who knows? It helped with the Weapon Master achievement.
 
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