XDefiant
It’s been a long time coming, but Ubisoft’s arcade FPS XDefiant finally comes out today on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC via Ubisoft Connect (frustratingly, the game is not coming to Steam at least for now).
This is a big deal simply because it’s the first first-person-shooter in a long time to actively take on Activision’s behemoth, Call Of Duty. The gameplay is very similar across both titles (with some pretty major differences) but Ubisoft’s shooter boasts one big change: No skill-based matchmaking in casual games. SBMM has been a hugely divisive mechanic in Call Of Duty and other shooters. It’s intended to keep matches as competitive as possible by grouping players of similar skill levels, but many players believe that a system that places greater emphasis on ping makes more sense and leads to more enjoyable matches.
We’ll find out today when the game goes live at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Here’s the trailer:
I’ve played XDefiant during several of its pre-release betas and server tests and I have pretty mixed feelings at this point. As a huge Call Of Duty fan, I’m generally a lot less critical of SBMM than many in the community. I also find the common online complaints about modern Call Of Duty mostly quite silly. On top of SBMM these tend to be:
- “There hasn’t been a good Call Of Duty since [insert Call Of Duty game here]” often from people who haven’t really played the franchise since said game.
- “The game is just trying to be Fortnite now” because it sells skins and a Battle Pass. I’m never sure why this is worse than paid map packs that divide the install base, but okay.
- “Modern Warfare III is just overpriced DLC” for a game that has all new guns, a totally revamped perk system, tons of new maps on top of the MW2 2009 maps and the smoothest movement and tightest gunplay of any game in the entire series.
I’m pretty sure a lot of fans just haven’t kept up with the series, or play one beta weekend and make a judgment without getting used to the new systems, movement and so forth. Nostalgia is all fine and dandy, but blind nostalgia—like blind fandom—makes even the best of us act like idiots. The fact of the matter is that if you go back and play older Call of Duty titles, they’re far more janky and less smooth than the current games. You don’t like them more because they’re better, you like them more because you played them at a certain, important time in your life. You miss those days, and that’s fine. (And sure, some of the older single-player campaigns were better, no doubt about that; I’m talking about the multiplayer here, since XDefiant is multiplayer only).
That’s also a big reason why people are mad about SBMM. The fact is, there are more, better players now than ever before. Lobbies are sweatier than ever before. People have been playing Call Of Duty for two decades now and kids are growing up with these types of games. SBMM might make that feel worse, but I guarantee that XDefiant will have tons of sweaty players and frustrating matches.
Still, I think it’ll be a terrific experiment. I don’t think XDefiant is a Call Of Duty killer, but I’m happy to have the competition and I’m happy to have another game to play when I get bored of Call Of Duty. This is good timing also. Modern Warfare III/Warzone have one week left of Season 3 before the big launch of Season 4, and that gives XDefiant a full week to snag as many CoD players as possible.
I’ll be playing today and will report back with my findings.
UPDATE:
I will not actually be playing since servers apparently aren’t working! Yay! I guess it’s back to Call Of Duty, which is working just fine . . . .