Ubisoft’s free-to-play Call of Duty-esque multiplayer arena shooter (what a mouthful) has had quite a rollercoaster of emotions. Excellent word of mouth after betas, massive worry after suspicious delays, a bombastic launch, then a fairly unimpressive season 1’s numbers rapidly declining brings XDefiant to the imminent launch of season 2 – one that brings many new additions, including some pretty big ones. Here’s an early look into XDefiant Season 2!
Previously on XDefiant
The launch of the game, back in May, had me very hopeful for the future. In my review, I stated the following:
“Ubisoft have a great multiplayer first person shooter in their hands: now it’s up to them to make it a mainstay for enthusiasts via a convincing post-launch support. For one, I’ll be here to play for the foreseeable future.“
Then came season 1, and not a lot changed just yet. After all, it started a mere month or so after the game’s launch, so the addition of an extra class, a few extra maps and weapons and such didn’t do much to revolutionize the game. It didn’t quite need a drastic upgrade to be fair, but Ubisoft’s shooter had several things yet missing or in need of improvement. Various netcode woes, lack of private matches, unexciting cosmetics, barely any challenges to play for. The question seemed fair: was XDefiant a one-hit wonder, unable to ever live up to the great early impressions again?
After taking an exclusive sneak peek into season 2, before its official presentation around the time this article gets published, I can say that the direction the game is headed into is rather exciting, both for this upcoming season and beyond. Indeed, we not only got a neat look at what’s coming in Season 2 on September 24th, but even a roadmap for Season 3 and 4, revealing various features and additions a lot of fans have been asking for quite some time already. Let’s dive into all that, shall we?
Highway(men) to Hell
If you played Far Cry New Dawn, you already are familiar with the Highwaymen. If not, just know that they’re in said post-apocalyptic spin-off to Far Cry 5, with their wildly loud, colourful and violent gang members being a real nuisance to deal with at times. With XDefiant bringing some of the most unique war factions from various Ubisoft games into the mix, it sure makes sense to have these outlaws join the brawl as well. On top of their funky visuals, they bring… quite the explosive abilities and ultimates to the mix.
The first of these, is the M79 grenade launcher, signaling the debut of the first proper explosive weapon into XDefiant. Then there’s the Scrap Turret, an automatic turret you can place on the ground that will be shooting at any enemy in its sight, offering some useful support in the shootouts. We then take it up another notch with the Saw Launcher, a crazy weapon that feels straight out of a 90’s boomer shooter, able to spawn razer sharp circular saw blades that bounce between surfaces, leaving little alive in its path. As is the case with previous abilities in XDefiant, these weapons don’t become an endless spam either, since they have quite lengthy cooldowns. Ubisoft’s shooter remains a gun game, first and foremost, but these increasingly explosive options should help with some of the more passive gamestyles some players adopted to optimize their killstreaks.
I’ll shoot you here, but also there and in that other place
Similarly to last season, we once again get 3 new arenas to shoot each other in, once again with a segmented release no less. The first map is straight outta the Highwaymen’s playground, offering a post-apocalyptic waterfront in the map named… well, Waterfront. Smashed vehicles, abandoned concrete tubes and ramps that feel like they would be a blast to skateboard on – I dig it, and this map will be available when the season begins next week. Looking forward to it!
Later in the season, we’ll also get Signal – an even more colourful, again New Dawn-inspired map set around an abandoned radar station, now dominated by the rudimental cult-like paint, wooden constructions and so on. Then, in a complete change in tone and style, comes Air & Space, set inside a museum for all things planes and space flights, with various such vehicles to navigate around in this map that is, fittingly, quite vertical in its design. All 3 maps seems to continue the traditional 3-lane map design on a quick glance, rather than the “randomness” of modern Call of Duty maps, which I’m personally very happy about, as they are far more balanced in nature.
But wait, there’s more!
There’s a lot more to talk about, but I want to keep it simple, since anyone will be able to play most of these things very soon! The developers added various new weapons, with new assault rifles, shotguns and more to change the shootouts a little bit more. Finally, one hell of a game mode will join XDefiant, on launch day of season 2 no less: called Bomb!, it’s basically Call of Duty’s highly tactical and round-baed Search & Destroy mode in XDefiant fashion. There’s been a notable absence of tactical modes in XDefiant so far, so this is clearly one of the more game-changing additions.
There’s a very colourful new 90-tier Battle Pass as well, new ranked rewards, on top of various quality of life updates and new player progression updates, such as event challenges, new weapon mastery skins, leaderboards, various updates to ranked mode such as specific loadouts and map voting, and so on. There’s going to be a yet unspecified unique limited time game mode, and most importantly – custom matches will arrive sometime during the season as well! Will XDefiant make me relive the memories of the countless hours in Black Ops 2 custom matches? We’ll see, but these new changes seem to indicate that the developers are listening, though it’s unclear some of the technical aspects such as the netcode will be handled – but I understand not wanting to deep dive into the “nerdy stuff” in such a content reveal.
Going beyond
This next season will, again, last about 3 months, but as you can see from the chart above, that’s not all we have info from. Season 3 and 4 will not only bring new classes, weapons, game modes and maps, but even massive additions like bots, daily rewards, a prestige system, killcams and so much more. Personally, I’m still having a lot of fun in XDefiant Season 1, completing the final tiers of the battle pass just as I’m writing these words, but the new additions for Season 2 look good, and the major feature additions from Season 3 and onwards seem quite transformative. See you at the Waterfront on September 24th!
What do you think? Are you still playing XDefiant? Are these updates inspiring you to try it for the first time or to hop back in? What else would you like the developers to tackle? Let us know in the comments below!
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