![]() But it feels like a classic case of a bloated game there's a whole bunch of stuff covering what might be a nice, clean experience. I didn't hate the few hours I spent with XDefiant, and I sincerely think the raw gunplay here is worth trying, especially since the game will be totally free. I also played payload on a more linear map that seemed to greatly favor the defending team in its checkpoint placement and overall pathing, and I say that after experiencing it as an attacker and defender. It's like trying to staple rain to a tree. Obviously, I didn't have much time to learn the maps, and maybe pre-beta lag or wonky spawning made things worse, but it felt truly impossible to predict enemy movements and approaches on several maps. I mean absurdly oversized, and with a ridiculous number of paths, bits of cover, and vantage points for a game that claims to focus on the three-lane fundamentals of arena shooters. Some maps felt nicely sized and tightly focused, while others felt way too big for 6v6. I don't think the map design is helping either. But almost every time I tried to focus on the FPS principles that make up the bones of the genre XDefiant wants to occupy, I'd get shut down by what felt like some extraneous bullshit. And it's pretty good at that! Skill expression is further layered in through wrinkles like the slide, slide jump, and reload cancels. ![]() The gunplay of XDefiant is telling me to peek carefully, control weapon spray, maintain map awareness, strafe effectively, lead shots based on consistent movement speed and hitbox size, and play in my weapon's effective range. The abilities are just kind of here, and I don't entirely know why. I'd be better off throwing a baseball hoping to concuss enemy players. And while I'm complaining, let me quickly add that XDefiant has some of the worst grenades I've ever used. Likewise, they're simultaneously less interesting and more annoying than abilities in the likes of Valorant. ![]() That includes several ultimates that you only get to use once or twice a match, and which couldn't be further from the play-maker ults of Overwatch 2. And if they didn't feel kind of cheap, abilities just felt wimpy. But even then, some of them just feel like a free kill – or, at the very least, a heavily favored engagement – given out every 30 seconds or so with extremely low skill requirements. So OK, I thought to myself after a few matches, I guess abilities are meant to be largely proactive.
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