XDefiant Hands-on Preview – Call of Duty ft. Ubisoft IPs

wccftech.com:

The existence of XDefiant was first confirmed by a leak in July 2021, when we learned that Ubisoft was developing a free-to-play crossover first-person shooter game featuring characters from some of its most prized Tom Clancy IPs: Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and The Division. Later that month, Ubisoft officially confirmed the game and announced the beginning of testing phases.

The developers of XDefiant went silent for nearly two years, though the game is now finally ready to be showcased again. Wccftech participated at a recent press event and played a preview build of XDefiant ahead of the Closed Beta, which is live now on all platforms (PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X) with cross-play.

Whereas the announcement referred to it as a hardcore shooter, the presentation discussed XDefiant as a return to the arcade shooter focused on 6v6 matches, featuring a classic three-lane approach to the design of most of the game's 14 starting maps (Emporium, Pueblito, Echelon HQ, Attica Heights, Nudleplex, Times Square, Dumbo, Midway, Liberty, Meltdown, Showtime, Arena, Zoo, and Mayday). The developers also said they wanted each weapon class to shine at what it does best, so SMGs are strong at close range, Assault Rifles at medium range, et cetera, though the 44 customizable attachments can tweak that in various ways. There will be 24 weapons in total at launch.

However, what's supposed to make XDefiant unique is the existence of factions drawn from some of the most popular IPs owned by Ubisoft. These act like classes and can be changed at any time on respawn. Splinter Cell's Echelon spies can activate a brief invisibility skill useful for infiltration, and their ultimate reveals the location of the