XDefiant is a throwback to a golden generation of Call of Duty

During both development and beta, XDefiant was often referred to as Ubisoft's answer to Call of Duty. But now that launch is here, it was understated just how true that is. The thing is, XDefiant doesn't necessarily feel like an entry in the current era of Activision's behemoth, nor is it positioned as a direct competitor to Modern Warfare 2 or the incoming Black Ops 6; it's more like a return to 2015, one of the periods that Call of Duty was at its peak.

No-nonsense gunfights

This was the year of Black Ops 3, which introduced specialists, abilities, and ultimates, along with the thruster pack to enhance movement. While the latter doesn't feature here, XDefiant factions are essentially specialists in disguise, as each comes equipped with a passive, active, and ultimate ability. While it's too early to determine how these will impact the metagame, early impressions are that they're not too defining. Most XDefiant battles come down to pure gunskill: accuracy, reflexes, and having a weapon suited to the situation you're in.

These straight-up gunfights feel immensely satisfying too, which is largely because the best XDefiant weapons ensure a fairly high time-to-kill. Call of Duty games often fall into the trap of having player health too low compared to the average damage dealt per shot, which leads to situations where you're being shot in the back and feel like you can't do anything about it when so many players have taken to hiding in corners. On the flip side, you have games such as Halo, where shields make for an incredibly high time-to-kill, and unless you have a power weapon such as the Energy Sword or Grav Hammer, you'll always stand a chance in a fight even if you get caught unaware.

XDefiant strikes the balance perfectly. If your reflexes are sharp, you stand a chance in practically any gunfight. Thanks to the complete omission of killstreaks, this also means you're suffering from far fewer infuriating deaths because let's face it, while manning the guns in an AC-130 or hopping inside a Juggernaut suit is a whale of a time in Call of Duty, it's not quite as enjoyable for everyone you're facing off against. Even basic killstreaks such as UAVs can suck the fun out of COD because they're almost essential to use, so everyone runs perks to counter them, and the cycle continues. Killstreaks are hard to balance – we've all been blown up by an RC-XD in Black Ops at some point – and forgoing them is a win for a healthier meta.

Esports adjacent

There's no definitive answer as to why XDefiant has gone down this back-to-basics route, but if I were a betting man, I'd suspect it's thanks to two specific people in the development team. Firstly, Mark Rubin is the Executive Producer on XDefiant, and he previously held the same role at Infinity Ward from 2005-2015. This means he was one of the leads on, at a minimum, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Excluding the latter, this initial Modern Warfare trilogy is widely considered to be among of the best Call of Duty games ever made, and did things far simpler than we see in more modern releases.

Patrick "Aches" Price is also one of the developers on XDefiant, and he is an ex-Call of Duty pro player. He competed at the top for around a decade, winning two world championships between 2010-2020, and likely had some influence on how similar XDefiant feels at launch to a Call of Duty esports ruleset after bans and restrictions have come into effect. Black Ops 2, 3, and 4 are often considered to be the golden games of competitive Call of Duty amongst top players and analysts, and it's a surefire bet Ubisoft will be looking to channel that era and get competitive XDefiant up and running.

Skill-based match making

However, one area of Call of Duty that the highly skilled players love to complain about is skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). It's a never ending debate because when you're in the top percentile of players and you're playing unranked matches, of course it's a lot of fun to be matched up with opponents worse than you. So there are lots of calls on social media for the SBMM parameters to be changed in Call of Duty, or even removed entirely, but it is very much a vocal minority.

XDefiant has listened and heeded these complaints, meaning there is no SBMM once you leave the introductory playlist beyond rank 25. As always, the response is mixed, with plenty of the better players online lauding this approach, while the more casual players are finding it to be more of a struggle. The problem is that while it's all well having plenty of dedicated players who dream of going pro, they'll only ever make up a small subset of the population, and if all the players who only hop on for an hour or two each evening for fun fall off the game because they're not enjoying themselves in lobbies with players far better than themselves, XDefiant's shelf life will be limited.

This could well be an instance of "git gud" for those complaining, but some players don't want to get good. They want to enjoy the latest FPS without running into skill issues and being demolished by players far better than them, which is exactly what could happen in the longterm when SBMM is disabled. After all, there's a reason it's so widely used in other games: the stats for player retention must far outweigh the players that quit thanks to it being enabled. If Ubisoft keeps SBMM on across the board – or at least continues experimenting with it as an option – then I'm certain that this fresh, exciting FPS will have a bright future ahead of it. How could it not? XDefiant does a fantastic job of emulating an era of FPS games that we haven't seen for quite some time. 

Looking for more games like XDefiant? Why not check out our list of the best FPS games to play today