I’ve been pretty hard on Tom Clancy’s XDefiant today, but I think that’s justified considering how Ubisoft has been trying to change all of its single player games into multiplayer outings. This was attempted once before, and it led to a saturated market and fans crying out for more single player content. The industry responded, but now it thinks it knows better again, and I think that’s where XDefiant has been born from It’s a result of people thinking that everyone wants a new multiplayer shooter to hop into. In reality, there are too many getting way too much content for anyone to keep up with. It all needs condensing, and we need a lot more single player expereiences.
With that said, I think we should give XDefiant a chance. It’s a game that hundreds of people have probably worked on, and I don’t see all of those people working on a game that they don’t believe in. Every game should be given a chance no matter how horrific you think it might be. This one in particular is going to be free-to-play, so you don’t actually have to put any money on the line. Just try it, and if you hate it, never touch it again.
Ubisoft has a knack for building enjoyable worlds. I’m not saying that I’m on board with what they’ve built here at all. In fact, I think I’ve been pretty clear that it’s a mess. Yet I am intrigued to see how it all gets pulled together. There must be something at the core that makes the game compelling enough to come back to, otherwise what would be the point of continuing? Ubisoft could surely see if the game is rubbish at this point, so it would know whether to continue with it or not.
One final thing I want to add is that Mario and Rabbids is a terrible combination, yet it works. That’s the worst crossover I could have thought of until now, but it really does pull together some great elements, and it’s saved by the gameplay. Maybe if the gameplay saves Xdefiant, I’ll be able to overlook the rest of the game.