Seriously playing a multiplayerFPSmeans attempting to engage with all the guns in its arsenal — even the ones that suck. I was out sick last week and mostly spent the hours on my couch attempting to complete all the daily challengesXDefiantthrew at me. I wasdoing well until I reached the task that asked me to notch 25 kills with the Marksman Rifle. Despite playing for about five hours, I just couldn’t get it done.
Low Marks With The Marksman Rifle In XDefiant
The gun is so bad that it ruined the experience for me whenever I had to use it. If you aren’t familiar with the terminology (I tend to just think of this gun type as a “rifle”), the Marksman Rifle is a gun with solid range and power, but can only fire one bullet at a time. In other words, if you don’t land an immediate headshot, it is practically useless in close range one-on-one encounters. If your enemy isn’t standing out in the open for a long time, it is practically useless from range, too.
This has been my experience with the Marksman Rifle: I charge into the fray in the way I would with any other gun. I get wasted by every automatic gun’s ability to spray ten rounds in the time it takes me to get a single shot off, and by every shotgun’s superior spread. So, I stay on the outskirts, find a perch, and attempt to snipe. But, the Marksman Rifle has significantly worse range than a sniper rifle, so I get spotted quickly and taken out before I can line up a solid distanced shot to begin with.
What is the point of a gun like this? I feel like I’m shooting an airsoft rifle while everybody else gets to use real guns. I feel like I’m driving a car that can only move five feet each time I step on the pedal, and before I can even make it that far, another, bigger car shows up to T-bone me. I feel like I’m going bowling, but the pins are nailed to the floor and also a guy in a hockey mask comes out to beat me up with a sock filled with batteries for having the audacity to think I could enjoy a nice bowling sesh with the fam.
Give Me Anything But The Marksman Rifle
Every other gun in XDefiant is better. The shotgun is more powerful at close range and has a wider radius. The sniper has longer range and hits harder. The SMG can spray ten bullets in the time it takes the marksman rifle to fire one. The LMG takes longer to get going, but is like a more powerful version of the SMG once it does. The assault rifle is also faster and more powerful.
Why would I ever want the marksman rifle? I’m better off throwing a sticky grenade at my own feet and hoping someone else runs by. I’m better off laying down a healing mist, hoping an opponent uses it to heal up, gets cocky, and runs into my team’s fire. This is a garbage gun and Ubisoft should bury it in the desert like Atari did all those unsold copies of the E.T. NES game.
Now, to be fair, I don’t have it upgraded all that much. I can’t get enough marksman rifle kills to unlock many of the attachments or alternate versions of the gun, so I’m not using the best version. But I’m comparing what the marksman rifle accomplishes at the base level with what all the other guns accomplished when I was starting out with them. And the marksman rifle? I’ve found it wanting. And I’ve found myself wanting… any other gun.
