XDefiant Is a Fun Arena Shooter That'll Struggle to Stand Out | Push Square

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Ubisoft’s latest bid in the live service space comes in the form of XDefiant, a free-to-play first-person arena shooter. That might sound pretty run of the mill, but in a bid to stand out, it features maps and factions inspired by some of Ubisoft’s most popular franchises, like Far Cry and Splinter Cell, and mashes them all into an arcade Call of Duty-esque experience. Last week we were able to get some hands-on time with a PC build of the game, and the question on our mind remained throughout our entire session: is this enough to break into an already crowded live service market?

Truth be told, it is nigh on impossible for a publisher to bring out a truly original and attention-grabbing live service game in this day and age. In a world filled to the brim with titles like Fortnite begging for your undivided attention, how do you break through the noise? Ubisoft has fallen victim to the brutal live service market before, and it will be hoping to avoid those mistakes here. Although across our time with the game, XDefiant felt more like Hyperscape than Rainbow Six: Siege on the potential hit scale.

At its heart, XDefiant is an arena shooter inspired by the likes of Halo with just a dash of Overwatch in there too. Teams of six will face off in arena battles, where both the factions you play as and the maps you play in are inspired by Far Cry 6, Ghost Recon Phantoms, The Division, Splinter Cell, and Watch Dogs 2. Ubisoft is crafting up what it calls the “Ubi-verse”, and what we have at launch is just the beginning. It’s a pretty niche selling point, but if hacking your way through a match as a Deadsec operative from Watch Dogs in the tropical setting of Yara from Far Cry 6 sounds like your kind of thing, then maybe XDefiant