We take a closer look at the first season of XDefiant

XDefiant has reached 11 million players. These days, even after such a milestone, it’s hard to judge how successful and healthy a particular live-service game really is, but it’s easy to convince yourself that Ubisoft should be relatively satisfied for now.

But while the launch is obviously an Everest in itself, the real challenge now awaits, which is to maintain continuous engagement and interest for… well, an eternity. XDefiant, like so many others, has a seasonal model that kicks off a new season every three months (approximately), adding new content from the beginning, but also introducing additional new things as the season progresses.

“Season 1,” is funnily enough called this first one, and it’s both an example of what really nails XDefiant to this day, but oddly enough it also only further reminds us of where Ubisoft really needs to go. Okay, let’s take stock.

• A faction from Rainbow Six: Siege is being added called GSK
• A new Battle Pass giving access to the three new weapons
• Capture the Flag as a central new mode with its own playlist
• A new map called Clubhouse (also from Siege) – new maps coming every month

There are also minor quality of life changes that generally make the game a little more rewarding. Your boosters now only tick off in an actual match and not while you’re just hanging out in the menu, you can double your Match XP from 1000 to 2000, and there are now many more ranks per weapon, which makes you get new attachments faster. Normally live service titles slow down players’ progress after launch, but here Ubisoft is doing the opposite, and I applaud that.

Capture the Flag also fits very well with XDefiant ‘s eclectic mix of relatively low TTK and fast movement patterns. It is fast-paced action that allows for frequent solo play while rewarding real team play. Furthermore, the existing maps have been tweaked quite well and are a bit more linear here, which makes it easier to play more carefully.

The new faction also works well, although it’s still absurd that they don’t arrive unlocked from the start for all players. Of course, you can unlock them in-game without too much trouble, but this Suicide Squad -like approach to fairly important new content should be changed in the future.

XDefiant’s primary problem is not the core gameplay, nor is it the amount of content, so adding more variety in terms of maps, modes and factions is undoubtedly fine, but also doesn’t solve the real challenge. No, the problem is progression, and while there are now more ranks and more XP, the game is still not rewarding enough, both with and without the Battle Pass. Cosmetic unlocks are still too slow and attachment progression systems are still too uneven. This is where Ubisoft should intervene, and this is where the game lags – Season 1 does nothing to fix this.

However, there are still plenty of reasons to gush about such a well-tuned arena shooter here, and arguments that the long-term health of the game immediately requires a completely different gameplay model, such as Battle Royale, seem relatively irrelevant to the more than 11 million players who have watched it so far. Whether this seasonal model and uneven progression systems will ultimately have an effect on the game’s growth potential will be interesting to follow.