Ubisoft Announce New F2P Tom Clancy Game

This is just what we need after Riders Republic, which I’m surprised isn’t spelled with a Y and “..publique” given gaming’s recent history of misspelling, and Rainbox Six Extraction getting a delay. The former we knew about for quite some time, about a year prior to this year’s E3, but Extraction was very dully drawn out to open Ubisoft’s horrid showcase. The point I am trying to get to rather quickly is that both games are exactly what Tom Clancy’s XDefiant happens to be, but melted into one very dull game.

Over the weekend, Ubisoft social accounts made a small “something is happening Monday” statement with a Tom Clancy graphic, and for a dead fella Clancy is prolific. Ultimately, they were teasing the announcement of a new free-to-play first-person-shooter that is filled to the brim with characters that you’d stab on a long bus ride. I think it is best ripping apart the PR line that GameInformer had in their title, stating it is “Fast-Paced Firefights Meets Punk Rock Mosh Pits.” I’ll tell you this for free, no one who calls themselves punks looks like these guys.

It is the same communal asset bin Ubisoft has been using for every “punk” since Watch Dogs 2. Tattered clothes, a tiny bit of color from a high-vis vest/shirt, and heavy boots. Welcome to wearing normal work clothes, it is the new “punk.” Ok, while that does annoy me that isn’t the game, which also gets on my nerves. I need to ask, who needs another class-based arena shooter, free-to-play FPS, and all of these multiplayer live-service hellscapes? The trouble is, every time a new one comes along, it takes a small audience away from the previous one which will go on for another few years. It has been out a year, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember the name of Ubisoft’s battle royale thing.

I bet you forgot about Hyper Scape too, and that’s my point. Every single one is trying to corner a saturated market, meaning there isn’t enough time in players to go around. When players aren’t giving their time to these things publishers (such as Ubisoft) shut them down after maybe two-three years. The thing is, even the PR lines that are meant to make you jump to play this six-Vs-six shooter are borrowed from one another. It is described as “high-octane” and that XDefiant “combines realistic gunplay with personalized classes.” So you are the same as all the others; Apex Legends, Valorant, Titanfall (1 & 2), Rainbow Six Siege, and isn’t Call of Duty even doing a free-to-play battle royale?

Maybe I am just old (at 24), but I don’t get it. When talking about characters and gameplay Jason Schroeder notes that it is all “…unique to our shooter,” where? You could splice in shots of Apex Legends, Call of Duty multiplayer, and a video of a donkey licking ice cream. I wouldn’t know which was which. Even the factions in the game, Echelon, Outcasts, Wolves, and cleaners are all a question of “Do you want a bunch of blokes dressed in black, or do you want a bunch of blokes dressed in black wearing yellow to be spotted across the map quicker?”

If this is all new and unique, good on you. It doesn’t look one bit different from the several others running about today. If somehow XDefiant does excite you then good for you. You’ll want to mark the 5th of August on your calendar, but you can register now. You will be able to play across most of the previous generation consoles (Xbox One and PS4), all current-generation consoles, PC, of course, and you can stream it over on Google Stadia and Amazon Luna.