‘Tom Clancy’s XDefiant’ Will Be Ubisoft’s Attempt At A Class-Based Shooter

With every generation of games, there are usually a handful of genres that we see above all else. It’s usually game studios that attempt to follow up on a popular trend, add their spin on it, and sometimes redefine the way it’s viewed. These days those two genres are battle royales and class-based shooters.

So when Ubisoft began to tease a new entry into their popular Tom Clancy franchise, with a little teaser from IGN, the direction they were going in was clear. They were throwing their hat in the ring of the class-based shooter. On Monday, they revealed Tom Clancy’s XDefiant, a game that is going to pull from previous Tom Clancy games to form factions that will compete against each other while accomplishing objectives. Typical class shooter stuff. That said, the trailer made sure to emphasize that this is a game that is going to focus on the shooting part of their shooter so we can expect a heavy emphasis on gameplay. The modes gameplay will be focused around include:

• Personalized Playstyle: Players can personalize their Defiant to match their playstyle. Players can choose a faction with unique traits, abilities and ultra, then select from an arsenal of primary and secondary weapons, attachments, and a device to complete their loadout – and even tweak it on the fly (after respawning) to adapt to an ever-changing battlefield.
• Competitive Clashes: A variety of competitive 6-v-6 arena and linear game modes, such as Domination and Escort. This will will also feature a large pool of uniquely designed maps in rotation in an effort to make no two matches feel the same.
• Diverse Factions of Defiants: XDefiant will initially feature factions such as the Wolves (Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon), Echelon (Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell) and the Outcasts and Cleaners (Tom Clancy’s The Division) battling across iconic locations. Additional Defiants will be added as the game evolves, drawing on a range of characters and abilities from the Tom Clancy universe and potentially beyond. Maybe we’ll see some other Ubisoft franchises in here?

The developers in the video were right to put an emphasis on the shooting aspect of their game because class based shooters typically go one of two ways. They either take the Overwatch route and give everyone unique quirky powers, or they take the Apex Legends route and make the game about who is better at using their guns. This game appears to be more like the latter, but there could be some unique quirks to it that make it more than just an Apex clone. For starters, the factions from previous Tom Clancy games are all very unique and that feels like an opportunity to get really weird with the classes. If Ubisoft leans into that weirdness then they may have something on their hands here.

It will be interesting to see what direction they choose to take this game post-launch. A lot of these kinds of games have aspirations of being the next great esport, and put a heavy emphasis on their competitive modes, and with how much the trailer emphasized the shooting it sure feels like this will also be heading in that direction. If that is the direction they are taking, however, then they’ll need to make sure that the unique aspects of their game really stand out.