Tom Clancy's The Division is an online-only action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, with assistance from Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft Annecy, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. After some of Ubisoft's previous releases, people would've been a tad skeptical about whether or not this game would be as good as in previous and demos.
Story: 8/10
A devastating pandemic sweeps through New York City, and one by one, basic services fail. In only days, without food or water, society collapses into chaos. The Division, a classified unit of self-supported tactical agents, is activated. Leading seemingly ordinary lives among us, The Division agents are trained to operate independently of command, as all else fails.Fighting to prevent the fall of society, the agents will find themselves caught up in an epic conspiracy, forced to combat not only the effects of a man-made virus, but also the rising threat of those behind it. When everything collapses, your mission begins.
The storyline is told through some cinematic events between main missions and radio dialogue from your commander (a female agent who's name I can't remember) or holographic shots of events and audio/CCTV that can be discovered. But the main crack is a small pox epidemic from bank notes, you're trying to restore order.
Visuals: 9/10
The visuals in The Division are quite nice; what you'd expect on a next gen console, not mind blowing but certainly nice. Set in post pandemic NY during winter, you'll traverse a snow logged city, rife with blockades, abandoned cars, trash piles, quarantined zones etc. The environment and detail does a good job of immersing the player and creating atmosphere. Running about at night time in the dark whilst it snows is cool.
Gameplay: 9/10
Here is where it gets interesting, The Division's main mechanic is a third person cover fire system like Rainbow Six Vegas, minus third person, but is also heavy on the UI (user interface) and how it works. The UI is implemented like a futuristic hologram supposedly displayed by your watch, this goes for way points, your map, even your HUD is in the same theme showing behind your characters backpack or next to them. There are markers that can be switched on and off showing where you can climb up, where you can take cover, or if in cover; a next piece of cover you can dart and slide to by holding x. Also enemy damage numbers. This UI heavy element and the RPG-esque menu and character/weapon customization menu may be a bit much for some people to understand or get along with, but it does give the game a slightly unique and tactical feel.
The cover and fire system is as you'd expect, you can blind fire, move to other cover, aim over or around it, it is fluid and easy enough to use. You can sprint by holding L3, change shoulder aim camera from left to right with L3 whilst aiming, though this resets each time annoyingly. Vault immediately over obstacles or up onto a ladder by running towards and holding o. Or climb down safely by approaching a ledge and pressing o.
AI, they are bullet sponges, head shots aren't instant kills, high ranking enemies with purple or especially golden health bars take an armoury to drop, do a mission on hard or above your Lv and the game gets brutal as you and 3 team mates are relentlessly forced to retreat as numbers of enemies advance and flank you. This can be both a blessing and pain. A blessing because the game has a tactical D&D style damage system or vibe to it, and results with the cover fire mechanics in a game that is more tactical than most, where's players literally must help each other to survive missions. But a pain because you're shooting humans, not Terminators. The AI are relatively smart, they'll take cover, react to noises or sight, throw grenades, and push forward or flank you, actually making it pretty tough by yourself at times. Play main missions with 1 or more teammates who are also online and the game becomes really fun and tense, players can revive others when they're downed, players seem to be matched by level brackets. Missions on hard difficulty offer higher rewards.
There is a fairly big PVP area called the infamous Dark Zone, it too has level brackets for various sections, going higher and more dangerous the more north into the map you go. There is also great loot in the Dark Zone, but it's eerie and tense, with very though AI or other players hiding about waiting to shoot you.
The map is quite generously sized, you can't walk into most buildings, but there are a number you can, whether safe houses, explorable apartments or shops for loot.
Loot can be found and scavenged from containers, or dropped by enemies, otherwise bought from various vendors (weapon, gear, mods) Certain loot such as weapon parts and fabric can be used at a crafting station to make specialist or good equipment.
You can fully customize weapons (muzzle, magazine, under barrel, scope, paint job etc) you can also customize your agents armour (vest, knee pads, gloves, holster, back pack etc) which play importantly into your characters build and stats. Whether they'll have high DPS (Damage per second?) High armour rating, or high tech skill (Damage/effectiveness of tech equipment) plus there are perks to unlock and other character abilities.
The game revolves around a central hub, the "Base of operations" which has 3 wings, medical, tech and security you must upgrade (taking them from trashed quarantine shelters to a highly capable command post), this is achieved by completing 3 different mission types that will respectively reward you with medical, tech or security supplies.
You can create your character at the start but only from a small selection of pre created faces and minimal hair styles. You can in game find and select different clothing items.
There are rival factions in the game, sadly they're not highly distinctive, only two groups really do so far, the cleaners are notable with their hazmat suits and flamethrowers, or rikers with orange prison looking trousers and masks.
Sound FX: 9/10
<iframe width="854" height="480" src="
frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>There aren't amazing musical scores, but a decent job no less. The guns sound nice, beefy and diverse, rather than all the same like GTA 5. The dialog is decent enough and BGM is in the form usually of tense themes, (think series like 24, NCIS etc) The city itself, car alarms, distant noises, smashing, dogs barking all created a good atmosphere. Sadly for a game rated 18 and set in a snowy post pandemic city, there's no blood really when you shoot enemies.
Verdict
All in all The Division is an absorbing and fun game, some of the missions may become a touch repetitive, but it's a very decent title from Ubisoft after prior mishaps. And during a mission set to hard difficulty with 3 other teammates, you won't find a more challenging, intense and tactical experience to date.
Sources: Review is done by me, Images
I bought the game when it first came out. I loved the atmosphere, the story, and the concept, but there were so many bugs and so many balance issues. I wanted to love the game when it first came out, but it was so hard to do so. The Dark Zone was full of griefers, players who spent waaay too much time grinding up the gear necessary, and wall hackers who could one shot you from across the map. The grind for gear to have a snowball's chance in hell of clearing the first instance with the APC (Can't remember the name to save my life) was incredibly steep. You couldn't get the gear to take it on without getting a group to carry you through it. So like many people, I uninstalled the game and wrote it off as another failed ubisoft game.
Thankfully, I was proven wrong. I ran across a video from SkillUp on Youtube talking about how the game has improved and fixed so many of the problems that have plagued it. I know SkillUp is passionate about the game, but fairly critical of the game. So when he says something is fixed, I believe him. On a whim, I reinstalled it.
Holy crap, the game is a different animal! I love that it's fixed so many of the problems that plagued it. I just wish there were more people playing online with any semblance of regularity. Without a party to work with, the game falters hard.
I had the same experience at launch. Now after reading this review and your comment, I'm installing the game again. Damn you! :-D
The world tier upgrade definitely helped. I'm having a much easier time getting gear appropriate with the grind. The classified set rework completely redid the banshee set (F) but made a lot of the earlier problems not nearly as troublesome as they were. It's still best to stack Firearms or Electronics, depending on your build and not go for the even spread, and I was able to FINALLY get some decent weapons. Thank god!
And there's still people willing to play underground missions, so you can grind through that with a party with some semblance of decency.
I'm on PC, btw. You?
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Nice review. Yes, when it first came out it did have a lot of bugs and was very repetitive...still is I guess, but it's fun to play with a friend or solo. Dark zone still gets my heart pumping. Not many other games have had that consistent effect on me. So that's a big plus. Cover to cover mechanics are awesome and I wish they were in other games. Nice review, solid post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Great review.
I am currently tempted on buying the gold edition, that is currently on sale on Humble Bundle.
Do you think The Division + DLCs are worth it for a mostly-solo player?