“I missed low stakes mayhem gameplay”: XDefiant is Supposedly a Throwback to a Simpler Time of the Late 00s, and ‘mid 30s dad-gamers’ Can’t Get Enough

Not a CoD-killer, but that game's special for Gen X/Y.

Xdefiant Gameplay

SUMMARY

  • Ubisoft's XDefiant is set in Tom Clancy's universe featuring different factions from in there.
  • It's closed beta proved outstanding, as it effortlessly overshadowed Warzone 2.0 and Modern Warfare II.
  • The game is deemed a CoD killer by fans, and some of them went nostalgic playing it.
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Ubisoft’s newest game, XDefiant, which brings together factions from around Tom Clancy‘s universe, launched to a lot of server issues that left many players stranded. But that doesn’t mean the game wasn’t fun. In fact, it sent some of the fans into a world of nostalgia as they enjoyed their time there.

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It’s not just this generation but the one before it that entered the newly released game. While many gamers of today, who are used to the realism delivered by the next-gen games, may criticize it for the ‘unrealistic’ feel, the ones who used to enjoy games like Call of Duty 4 don’t seem to have any problem with it.

This is What we Call a Traditional Gaming Community

Many will find the game oddly similar to CoD.
Many will find the game oddly similar to CoD.

XDefiant cannot be a Call of Duty killer when it radiates the same vibe that old-school arcade shooters and mobile games do. But that’s what the gamers from generations X and Y want in it. But that doesn’t mean they don’t love how video games have advanced with engines like Unreal Engine 5.

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A gamer dad in his mid-30s shared this as he went on to play XDefiant. The user HBKShawnMichaelz (no, that’s not who you think) jotted down a detailed experience of the game on the social platform Reddit.

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As other users confronted the post, they felt the nostalgia and didn’t waste a pinch of time to chime in on the conversation. User KairuSenpai1770 misses the “low stakes mayhem gameplay.”

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To many, the game just doesn’t feel right. This is probably due to gaming community adapting to advanced video games today. A reload animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2007) won’t give them the feel the series reboot delivers. That’s natural, given that we tend to be inclined toward an improved variant of a product.

XDefiant is Still Ahead of Call of Duty in Some Ways

XDefiant was supposed to be a Call of Duty-killer, it failed.
XDefiant was supposed to be a Call of Duty-killer, it failed.

Sure, the game has failed to outrun Call of Duty upon launch, killing the expectations springing after it emerged as a potential competitor over Warzone 2.0 and Modern Warfare II during the beta run, but XDefiant has managed to outshine some other video games in the FPS arena.

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Talking about weapons, players might already have found their favorites. Some of the most popular at the moment include the M4A1 assault rifle, the Vector .45 ACP sub-machine gun, the SVD Dragunov sniper rifle, and more.

While Call of Duty certainly remains the better game to the majority, the fact cannot be ignored that XDefiant has done a better job when it comes to matchmaking. Unlike the infamous SBMM Activision Blizzard employs, the game’s executive producer, Mark Rubin, decided to let go of the algorithm so it wouldn’t compromise on variety as well as fun.

Did you feel the variety in the game? We would like to know your experience in the comments section below.

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Written by Anurag Batham

Articles Published: 244

Anurag Batham is a video games correspondent at FandomWire. With over two years of experience in writing for different industries, his past works show his passion for the metaverse and his awareness of the environment. He's always playing with ideas to turn them into captivating stories.

A gaming enthusiast who can prove it when you have a round of Call of Duty (COD) with him. And it may take more than a coffee with him if you are to talk to him about Marvel. One can find a reader in him who's always keen to perfect what he already knows and to learn everything new.