After the cancellation of too many games to count, Ubisoft has just released some new info for their upcoming first-person arena shooter called XDefiant.
Taking a page from Call of Duty, XDefiant promises to bring various characters from Ubisoft IPs together in a fight for battlefield domination. While we don’t get any story surrounding all the characters in the game, they are all well-known units from various other Ubisoft games. How they got here is anybody’s guess, and it seems that Ubisoft themselves aren’t trying to give it any sense. Currently, the game has five classes you can choose from, each with unique stats and abilities.
- Cleaners from The Division – while plenty of players have called them the weakest of the lot, Cleaners can still inflict plenty of damage with the help of their Incendiary Rounds passive, which adds burning damage to their guns. They can also launch an Incinerator Drone, which will turn everything to ash on their path of destruction. And if you want to close off an area, the classic Molotov cocktail is at your disposal. Last but not least, as an Ultra ability, Cleaners can pull out a flamethrower, which packs a hefty punch despite its limited range.
- Dedsec from Watchdogs 2 – this unit can replicate any deployed device with the help of their Fabricator. His main abilities allow him to hack enemy abilities and turn them into your own, as well as deploying a Spiderbot that will track the nearest enemy and stun them. Dedsec can launch an EMP as an ultra ability, stopping enemies from using any abilities in a certain radius.
- Echelon from Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell – focusing on stealth, Echelon is invisible on the enemy’s minimap at all times. His primary abilities are to turn invisible while not firing your gun for a limited time and a sonar that can reveal enemy positions to you and your team. His ultra ability will allow you to equip sonar goggles, which basically give you a wallhack, as well as Sam Fisher’s iconic Five Seven pistol.
- Libertad from Far Cry 6 – one of the strongest passives in the game, this character can heal himself and others over time in a set area. His main ability allows you to increase your own health and that of nearby friendlies. A second ability will have you throw a gas canister that heals friendlies for a limited time or until it is destroyed. The ultra ability can offer you or a friend a big health boost and regen for a limited time.
- Phantoms from Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Phantoms – with a straightforward passive that gives you more health, Phantoms can create a sort of forcefield that stops incoming fire and grenades while still allowing you and friendlies to fire through it. As a second ability you get a tactical shield that can also be used to smash some faces if you get close enough. His ultra will deploy a plasma shield that follows you around as well as equipping an electro-shotgun.
While these may sound interesting, plenty of people are complaining that the game is pretty far from balanced. And since the game features teams of six with no limit on how many copies of a character can be played, there are bound to be some meta combinations that will infuriate the opposing team. Hopefully, Ubisoft will listen to the fans, despite a storied history of not doing that in the past.
