XDefiant’s core modes offer temporarily amusing glimpses of the competitive multiplayer arena shooter, but Ubisoft’s recent attempt to take a piece of the lucrative esports pie feels half-baked. The basic modes, such as the practice mode and the classified queue, are closed by construction tape at the time of writing. This leaves a boring action passport with head-scratching progress decisions and standard weapon-based leveling systems as the only tangible means of rewarding yourself for playing the game or for doing so far beyond a single game. And with questionable network code and not found main functions and modes, not even his interesting hero shooter skills and minor improvements to Run and Gun, with the Call of Duty-influenced formula Little Time to finish, I want to return to XDefiant.

Ubisoft’s cross-shooter game could not have chosen any less interesting characteristics for the compilation. Although each of the five factions currently available in the game gives the game a cool approach, they are not exactly the superstars that you think of when you listen to Ubisoft. Instead, players enter the arenas as not-known characters from Ded Sec (Watch Dogs), The Cleaners (The Division), Libertad (Far Cry), Echelon (Splinter Cell) or The Phantoms (Ghost Recon); there is no Sam Fisher or Dani Rojas that you could recognize or get excited about choosing them because you liked their game. Each faction has three playable characters (of which you need to unlock two or more in each faction), but they have no distinguishing features between them, except for some cosmetic things.

The action is fast-paced, with a quick finish time so that every shot counts, and almost non-existent respawn timers that constantly push you back to pursue the target and increase the K / D ratio with its hyper-realistic arsenal of weapons and equipment.. The highlight here is Xdefiant’s selection of 14 cards, each with many artfully designed alleys and bottlenecks, with open areas and narrow corridors in different locations to encourage and reward different playing styles.

If you score enough finishs in one lifetime, an ultra cool skill will be unlocked that will help your team in action and score extra finishs or extra time on the target. This is where things start to change from the familiar ones: Ultras, along with a less powerful but still useful secondary ability and a useful passive, vary depending on which faction you choose. Each faction is based on an organization or group from another Ubisoft property and has its own specialties and abilities. You can switch between them at any time during a game, so you can adapt your strategy to the task at hand.

Let’s say you play Dominate, but the other team has a sniper in perfect line of sight, who strike you and your teammates one by one, preventing you from capturing the point. Installing one of the Phantoms’ magnetic barriers could help absorb sniper fire long enough for your team to establish themselves reliably and return fire. But however tactical these skills may be, the basic setting of XDefiant is not enough to promote strategic play, instead of just running towards the goal and trying to beat the opposing team in a draw until reaching the point limit.

However, this quick drawing game does not always feel right. The network code and hit detection of XDefiant are far away; I can’t tell you how many times my game registered a shot on an opposing player as a hit just to finish me and the game tells me that they had full health after I was knocked down. Even with a wired connection and the best ping in my lobby, I was shot through the walls while moving and even finished while hiding behind a cover that was supposed to block my whole body.

It’s been barely a week since I first installed XDefiant, but I don’t think I’ll miss it from my hard drive. While the gameplay is essentially fun, the game is sterile compared to most other shooting games, including free ones, even with basic basic modes like team deathmatch and free—for—all, or features like a ping system or skill matchmaking that can’t be found anywhere. The maps are definitely well done, but with no rank to action for, daily quests that ask me to play ten full games, and very little to look forward to in the action Pass, I don’t understand why this game would gain traction beyond others, besides being free.