Ubisoft’s crossover shooter XDefiant recently hit open beta, giving the community a chance to share their feedback on the game, for better or worse. One feature in particular is attracting ire: the in-match commentary, which some fans describe as the most annoying feature they’ve encountered in any game.
Granted, automated in-match commentary is nothing new in gaming. Games like Team Fortress 2 even make it part of the appeal, injecting the world with a level of depth and personality through intelligently written and well-delivered voice lines. The trick is striking that balance of practicality and entertainment value, but it seems like XDefiant‘s take on this mechanic falls short of both.
XDefiant has been available for less than 24 hours, but players are already decrying its match commentary implementation on social media. One Reddit post crowned it the “most annoying I’ve ever heard in a video game,” with the bulk of the criticism directed toward the voice lines’ frequency. With every imaginable in-game event, from deaths to kills to objective updates, receiving its own quip, players can quickly get overwhelmed.
Worse still, there is apparently no delay between each voice line, meaning multiple can trigger in the span of seconds depending on how frantic any given match is. Finally, with only a small pool of voice lines to pull from in the first place, repetition will rapidly begin to grate all but the most patient of players.
Redditors shared many clips of this egregious mechanic, with many suspecting it might be bugged, given the many errors the game features right now, or just commiserating over just how bad it is. There is a solution, however, albeit one that comes with a significant tradeoff.
In XDefiant’s Audio Settings, you can simply switch off Dialogue entirely, which includes these commentary voice lines. Unfortunately, this also turns off automatic player dialogue as well, but some view that as a worthy sacrifice to make. Maybe just focus on the music for the remainder of the beta.
