Little about me and my gaming experience. I am coming from Ghost Recon Phantoms, almost 5 years of gaming. I have had the chance to be part of ESL admin staff as volunteer.
Currently, I am playing Call Of Duty as main game (CODMWII 2022, CODMW2019, CODCW). Occasionally, I am also playing Apex Legends, Valorant, CS:GO, RainbowSix Siege, Battlefield 2042, Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite and other not much popular games.
Here is my major feedback after playing around 5 hours of the Cross-Play Test Session last weekend.
GAME PERFORMANCE
Obviously the game is in alpha stage. But, by some reason there was always a little stuttering right after a respawn. It is like the game sometimes went in background. And frames are dropping for a moment.And before jumping on a question what is my PC spec:Intel 12700K@5Ghz, GeForce 3090, DDR5@5200Ghz(36 latency), no mechanical or SATA drive, only M.2 PCI-Express.
GAMEPLAY
The game does not scream enough team play and team effort. Not even appealing to players. Mostly feels like everyone playing for him/herself, to show off. And yes, some player still utilize the team effort, but isn't intuitive. Nothing scream, stay close to team mates or move together.
Ping System is crucial for team play and team effort gameplay. Why is missing?
As I see, for one of the faction, Ghost Recon Phantoms is the inspiration. Would be nice, if you get the inspiration from that game, one step ahead. And provide after death stats screen. Showing how many dmg you dealt And how dmg have been dealt to you.
TTK is too long. Weapon's dmg feels too low. I do understand it's probably do to game design, but may be average of 4 hit should be enough to drop 100HP character.
The screen flash dmg effect, is too much disturbing. Annoying. Literary feels like the screen flick for almost a second and make you blind. Disrupting the aim.
LEVEL DESIGN
World textures are a bit confusing. Too much flashy bright, vibrant color. Creating distractions. Character's skins are blending to easy with the environment color. Difficult to spot at some area of the map.
Lanes aren't very intuitive or clear, to direct to objective location. Almost you just run hopefully to find the objective. At least initial thoughts. At least are short.
AUDIO
VOICE CHAT
Didn't heard any voice chat. May be are my settings, but still.SFX
Enemy player footsteps sound effect is weak. Sometimes are even missing from the sound queue.
GAME SETTINGS
Deploy Device keybind, in-game overlay show as assigned to grenade.
UI
Too much information appear at the same time. Creating distraction. Watermark of the test session wasn't the only thing. Somehow the font and length the information text are distractive, the font being large, text too long.
The Guide Lines, showing the path to objective, are not very intuitive and not easy to see at some world texture. First few times I've lost trace of the Guide Lines.
WIN SCREEN
If Overwatch after match screen is inspiration, for the Win Screen Design. Better make it like that. Having the player's Skins and voting button with map background, everything is blending together. Not intuitive. I get the idea on my second day of playing the test session, that there is a voting button.
May be better design is to blur the background (world area), to make Character and Voting menu stand out. Or as I mentioned above, create separate voting screen like in Overwatch and let the current screen be a player's showcase.
Weapon Customizations
Some weapon stats, not showing visually as graph line.Sniper rifles seems very powerful. The aim sway isn't concern. Easy to exploit
The Weapon stats after applying attachment, sometimes are confusing. Applying attachments, change some stats in green, but higher value and other in red but lower value, than the base value.
For example, why Lower ADS Time reduction from base 0.9 m/s drop to 0.7 m/s, after applying attachments is in red color, than green color? Isn't supposed lower value for ADS be better in this case? I need to say in this example, few more attachments was also applied that had negative or positive influence on ADS time.
Additional feedback, answering some questions form the survey.
What do you like the most about XDefiant?
The game feature dynamic fast paced gameplay. Featuring different Factions. Featuring different abilities per Faction. Gameplay concept is team based and objective oriented. Gun play is ok, but I like most, headshot is a headshot approach. Running on a modern engine.
And what do you like the least about XDefiant?
Maps are too colorful. Creating distraction and sometime confusion of where the objective is and how to reach the objective. Gun play still need more realistic approach in a terms of weapon and character animation. Factions in the game, features 3 different characters, but they don't differ in a terms of equipment, gadgets or devices. Only apparel purpose. The game does not emphasis enough on team play, players collaboration.
Do you have any last comment for the Dev team?
Please improve the following and add more features.
Weapon stats are not very clear after applying attachment.Sniper rifles almost have no sway. Easy to exploit.Keybinding sometimes shows incorrect key bind.After match voting screen.To much information appear on screen during matches.Foot steps aren't clear enough and sometimes does not get in audio queue.Screen effect when you take dmg is very distracting and disturbing.Makes even blind for split of a second.World textures is distracting and not good for competitive play.Characters are blending very easy and make them very difficult to spot.Team play and team effort isn't well presented in the game.TTK is too long and some weapon dmg does not fit the game paced.Health boost ability is very exploitable. The health boost should be less.The game stuttering appears right after respawn. Somehow the game went in background and frame drops.Add Ping System.Add Competitive Bracket MatchmakingAdd Spectating, match gameplay capturing and option to review the entire match from each player's perspective.
Any feedback and comments on my feedback is welcome and open for discussion.
Thank you for reading!
pervious inside test still not getting access