XDefiant praised for improving major visual issue in modern FPS games

Ubisoft has been getting a lot of praise for XDefiant, as the FPS plays like an early CoD title in all the best ways. However, one undersold part of the game is its visual clarity.

A player noted this point in a Reddit post, saying it’s “awesome” to adequately see enemies during fast-paced matches.

“Finally an FPS where everything isn’t just f***in grey and brown and shadows. I’d thought I’d lost the ability to beam people across the map, turns out I just hadn’t been able to see them in years,” the user said.

Other players shared the same sentiment, saying they love being able to see enemies across the map and differentiate them from the terrain.

“Agree, absolutely love the visibility in XD. Red outlines are an amazing choice for a fast-paced arcade fps,” another Redditor wrote.

In XDefiant, most playable characters have a distinct color scheme that makes them pop against the more muted color pallets of the various maps. For example, the Cleaner class is decked out in firemen’s apparel and is easy to spot thanks to their bright yellow and green colors.

Ubisoft

The game also highlights enemies when players move their cursor over them during a match, usually by outlining their silhouette or making their player tag visible above their head.

Unlike Call of Duty, there are no perks or abilities players can unlock to counter this mechanic. The Echelon Faction does have an ability that makes them invisible, but even that is easy to spot once players have experienced it a few times.

Outlining enemies has been experimented with in previous FPS titles, yet XDefiant seems to be the first that has nailed the concept.

This increased clarity might also explain why long-ranged weapons like snipers and marksman rifles have been so prevalent in the game’s early meta.

XDefiant has been a hit in the week after its full launch, and while players have found many things to complain about, it still seems to have hooked a sizable player base.