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Tom Clancy’s The Division Review

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I’ve been wandering the streets of New York.

Sometimes alone. Always with others. Occasionally with friends. Frequently with strangers. Consistently on guard. Invariably on edge.

I’ve been giving food to the needy. I’ve healed friends during combat. I’ve stolen weapons from adversaries. I’ve sold rubbish to merchants. I’ve bought goods from traders. I’ve observed violence. I’ve received gratitude. I’ve gone underground. I’ve run the rooftops. I’ve got lost. I’ve lead the way.

I am The Division.

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Tom Clancy’s The Division, to give it it’s full name, is Ubisoft’s latest attempt at a massive multiplayer title that can deliver the goods for all gamers. Set in New York City, straight after the outbreak of smallpox, the city is in chaos and under lockdown, with the last remaining survivors looting buildings and attempting to wipe out anyone whom they believe is infected with the deadly disease. It is up to you, as part of The Division, to help restore order. Things obviously don’t play out as simply as that though and you’ll need to join forces with the emergency response teams, create a new base of operations and help save some of New York’s most important personnel…all whilst dealing with the gangs and criminals who are littering the streets.

Visually, things come across with the very highest quality. New York may be pretty deserted but it is portrayed beautifully with Ubisoft detailing every little nook and cranny. From the open streets filled with abandoned vehicles, through the dark dank alleyways that play host to numerous backyard encounters and right up to the interiors of the buildings which you can check out, the graphics are stunning. With a weather system and day/night cycle in play that both blur your senses and those of your opponents, the whole feel of a city in chaos is extremely well created. The audio signals are well positioned and occasionally are your only hope of keeping alive. The world of The Division excels in multiple ways.

With numerous missions ready to help you progress through the campaign, and a whole load of side missions and encounters for you to stumble upon, all that you do in The Division revolves around XP and currency. It is these two things that will see your Division agent leveling up in stats, garnering new gear and being given the requisite skills needed in order to sweep through Manhattan and the various districts it brings, all whilst attempting to take back the streets from the Rioters, the Rikers and the insane Cleaners that wander the roads – flamethrowers and all.

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Getting around is done on foot and the included map works well, at least once you’ve bumped into the required people who can help fill it with goodies for you. With a waypoint system that urges you on to your next goal and the option to fast travel between unlocked safe houses, getting around really isn’t that difficult. In fact, all you’ve got to worry about are where the next gangs are coming from. There is however an awful lot going on at any one time and it’s fairly easy to become distracted from the task at hand, especially as new opportunities pop up on the mini-map at a rather brisk pace. Stick to what you know though and you’ll find yourself cleaning up the streets in no time. Get distracted looking for that next little collectible (of which there are hundreds) and you’ll find the minutes turn to hours and the hours turn to days. Yes, I’ve been there – multiple times.

To survive on the harsh NYC streets, you’ll need to go equipped and The Division has a huge array of weapons on offer. You may think that you’re happy sorting out bad guys with a lovely little pistol, assault rifle and submachine gun, but it won’t be long before you pick up a new improved version – a faster firing, higher specced weapon –  ensuring that the previous love of your life is cast aside, never to be returned to, usually sold for pennies or turned into scrap. With each weapon bringing a full damage rating, rounds per minute stats, differing accuracy, a multitude of ranges and stability data, you would no doubt think that the bigger the initial number, the better the firearm. Whilst this is a rough guideline to help you choose your battle companion, further bonuses and the options to mod and equip attached accessories mean that no two guns are the same and you’re very unlikely to find something that you won’t ever get on with.

Throw in a load of nades and you’re pretty much a walking, talking (well, mute) machine of destruction. And that is something which is needed from your very first minute of crowd control, right up to your last as the rather aggressive, but tactically aware, AI enemies try to hunt you down.

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The options don’t end there though, as for every gun that you spend hours messing around with, there are further pieces of gear which will need equipping to ensure you stay alive during even the most intense battles. Body armor, masks and your backpack type will play a huge role in your Division experience and even your knee pads, gloves, holsters and more can be upgraded throughout. Not only are the pieces of kit in place to play a role in your survival, but the visual representation of them allows for each and every player to stand out from the crowd. Further abilities and skill mods enhance the experience even more and once you’ve whacked a few hours in, and have unlocked the various tech, medical and security wings of your base, will find that your amendable options and RPG elements increase ten fold.

The Division positively thrives for both those who are looking for a single player title, and those who prefer to team up with friends and strangers. I’ve long been a solo kind of guy, and have found every little aspect of The Division to more than cater for my lonesome needs, but team up with a mate or two or just find someone to fight alongside with the superb mission matchmaking options and you really will have no complaints. Giving you the opportunity to rake in that extra XP when going into missions or one-off fights against AI opponents who would normally be too strong for a loner, means that teaming up, helping out and relying on a stranger works brilliantly. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that The Division has given me the best online multiplayer experience and the chance to meet new online friends since way back with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory many, many moons ago.

And then we have The Dark Zone…Ah, the Dark Zone.

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As a PvP competitive area, The Dark Zone shouldn’t be underestimated. Completely separate from the main campaign that The Division brings, The Dark Zone comes with its own XP, its own skills and progression system and its own unique, completely badass weapons. And it will be these weapons which will draw you, and many others, in. Sometimes in a fight to the death.

Other times however, it is The Dark Zone which really plays on the cooperative elements of The Division. Indeed, my first foray in, as a fairly low rank, saw me hiding away behind pillars and vehicles as I watched a couple of strangers from afar. The more I watched, the more I wanted to get involved in their battle, but it wasn’t until they needed help did I jump on in, healing them both in order for them to take down some highly powered AI cleaners. After playing on Xbox Live for the best part of 12 years, I half expected them to turn around, shoot me in the back and pinch my gear, but they didn’t. They embraced me and let me join their team for the remainder of the fight, helping out where my lowly rank allowed before being thanked as they went on their way into the darkness, never to be seen again. It is this combination of teamwork that really allows The Division to shine above many other titles and The Dark Zone seems to come with its own moral rules, separate even from those which cover the online multiplayer scene as a whole.

Granted, my next trip into the dark side didn’t end quite so well, but that’s exactly what I’m getting at. The chance for many to steal contaminated loot from others, or to just help themselves to the best gear is seemingly too good for many of the Xbox community to turn down but it also allows for the kinder, more helpful side of people to come out – if only out of necessity more than anything else. With a twist in the DZ tale coming in the form of extraction zones, where all contaminated loot needs to be put through a screening process prior to it being useful, it’s a place where risk takers will flourish. Die in the Dark Zone though and you can expect to lose those all important experience points too. In fact, dying isn’t an option for many and so joining a gang may be your best hope of survival.

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So, with The Division being such a huge game, full of content, exploration opportunities and some of the best multiplayer I’ve seen in years, there must be something that I don’t like? After all, no game is perfect and chances are that none ever will be.

Well, if you’re into your driving, then you’re going to struggle to find much enthusiasm for Ubisoft’s latest, but should you have half an interest in any other genre, then you really should put that problem to one side and pick it up. It’s only when I begin to get really picky will any proper issues arise. Yes, there are the odd graphical glitches and there are a few moments of madness when your character will get stuck on the spot, unable to move his sorry arse down the street. Again though, is that something to knock a game that brings so much? Not on my watch.

Similarly, you may find the overall XP grind a bit too much to bear and I guess some of the missions could possibly be labeled as ‘repetitive’, but give me a game that doesn’t see that. Exploring the internals of a great deal more buildings would also have been super cool, but hey, we can’t have it all our own way, all of the time.

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In quick summary, Ubisoft have more than delivered the goods with Tom Clancy’s The Division. It’s a third person shooter that will appeal to all gamers and no matter what you think, once you’ve hit the dirty streets of New York, it’ll be some time before you find yourself straying away. Whether you decide to plough through the majority of it alone or with a friend or two taking in the campaign and numerous side missions, then you’ll find a cover shooter of the utmost quality. Similarly, decide to try your hand at going rogue in the Dark Zone and it’ll drag you in even deeper, refusing to let go.

The streets of New York City have never been so good.

Neil Watton
Neil Wattonhttps://www.thexboxhub.com/
An Xbox gamer since 2002, I bought the big black box just to play Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. I have since loved every second of the 360's life and am now just as obsessed with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S - mostly with the brilliant indie scene that has come to the fore. Gamertag is neil363, feel free to add me to your list.

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8 years ago

[…] Mark Brown on Tom Clancy’s The Division Review […]

Alec Pearce
Alec Pearce
8 years ago

Gonna have to disagree with you whole heartedly on this one Neil. The Division is not a great game at all, it’s average at best. Whilst there can be a good tactical element to the gameplay and it can be fun playing with friends or in a team, it is mostly just a repetitive exercise in shooting bullet sponges.

The story is bland and boring with no interesting or memorable characters whatsoever.

The weapons customisation is great but the character creation is completely pointless (everyone looks the same), outfits all look the same just with different colours and you can’t even see your armour when it’s equipped.

The Dark Zone doesn’t work in its current form – it’s supposed to be a PvP area but it’s completely unbalanced and there is literally no incentive to become rogue as the rewards you get for it are just not worth it. If you die as a rogue you lose a huge portion of your XP, credits, any DZ keys you are carrying as well as any loot you have picked up. If you survive a manhunt you acquire a tiny amount of XP and credits when in comparison, if you kill a rogue player you will receive a large XP boost, credits and anything that they drop. It would have been far better to have dedicated, matchmade team vs team combat like we saw in the gameplay reveal trailer back in 2014.

There is also the matter of the graphics downgrade which is probably the lesser of the many evils as the game does look good, but the macro building details (skyscrapers and such) look bloody awful. I haven’t even talked about the huge amount of bugs, glitches or crashes either – I could go on but for the sake of sanity I will stop there.

Having clocked around 35 hours of game time, getting to lvl 30 and finishing all of the missions, side missions, collectibles and achievements, I have to say that The Division is completely underwhelming and is one of the most disappointing games of 2016 so far. It’s almost as if we played completely different games since you rated it so highly haha – it deserves a 2 or 2.5 out of 5 max.

Neil Watton
Reply to  Alec Pearce
8 years ago

I hear what you’re saying Alex but you’re not telling me that you would have thrown 35 hours into a game, completing all the missions, side missions and everything else that is possible and still think that it is average at best? Why on earth did you continue playing if you only think it comes in at with around a 30-50% max rating? I know that I for one would have stopped long before that.

Perhaps you were expecting more from it? I went into things relatively blind, refusing as I do to delve too much into the hype of any game, most probably so I can’t ever have the same disappointment that you have. I’ve enjoyed each and every second of it though, with very little reason to hate on anything.

Alec Pearce
Alec Pearce
Reply to  Neil Watton
8 years ago

Simply put, I’m a perfectionist – I spent so long because I wanted to 100% all the achievements which are easy but take a long time (getting all the collectibles for instance). Let me tell you, it was not a very enjoyable time haha, I was glad to get back to Far Cry Primal afterwards!

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Reply to  Neil Watton
8 years ago

I’m with Alec here. The game was one of the dullest I’ve played in a long while.
Devoid of story telling and effectively with no PvP (going rogue is so pointless in terms of rewards). The dark zone was fun for the first couple of level brackets but once you get through the majority of the story, you quickly realise you’re farming loot for no purpose. With no decent end game you’re just looting better weapons for the sake of better weapons – never actually going to use them because rogue-ing is pointless and lets be honest…the PvE missions have next to no replay-ability. You’d have to reaaaaally enjoy the combat in this game to keep playing in to the end game. (I know they’re patching but you should really judge the game at release).

Also to suggest this game is huge – whuuuuuut? The witcher 3 is huge. Fallout 4 is huge. The division has so little content realistically. Just a grind Fest. Extremely repetitive side quests with almost no originality whatsoever. And the collectibles – couple phone calls and echoes were cool and quite harrowing so points for those but most feel tacked on. A couple of the video evidence clips were also cool but these things weren’t enough on their own. They could have created a super engaging, gritty and harrowing New York and instead, besides those few good echoes etc. there is nothing there to engage with.
Every character is so flat and some are just plain wrong! They don’t fit in to the interesting, gritty world that at some points they seem to have tried hard to create.

Overall the whole game felt like a big fat sack of missed opportunities to me. To give it a near perfect score seems astoundingly generous!
Yes they’ve laid some foundations for what may end up being a really good game but frankly, I don’t intend to hang around to find out (already traded in my copy at Game, in fact).

Also to not take in to account what was promised from a game in a review seems foolish to me. This was pretty much a totally different game from what was promised.
Ubisoft continues to earn their bad rep as far as I’m concerned.
That said, far cry primal does seem cool! And I enjoyed 4 🙂
I’ve only just started primal so we’ll see where it leads! 🙂

Also, while I disagree with your opinions on the game, Neil, that was all very nicely written so good work.

Neil Watton
Reply to  Mark Brown
8 years ago

Cheers Mark, thanks for your comment – especially the last bit 🙂 More than happy to read comments from those agreeing with or completely disagreeing with my thoughts.

I have to say though, 5/5 doesn’t mean a perfect score or perfect game. There will NEVER be a perfect game but if you look at our 5/5 ratings and convert that to a percentage, I’m more than happy to give The Division a score around the 90% mark. Give or take 10% or so to allow for personal viewpoints, I just can’t see how it comes in much lower than that.

To compare, I’m currently putting the finishing touches to a review of a small local co-op game that will receive something in the region of a 2/5 – to even think about that having a score anywhere near The Division absolutely terrifies me. It’s not broken and does actually work, but there is little to get excited about which imo is in complete contrast to what we have from the Ubisoft stable.

Hope you enjoy Primal though. Personally, and admittedly I’ve only played a little, I’ve found it to be less exciting and involved than something like FC4 – which I hope everyone is agreement with when I say that it is one stunning game.

Emme Emme
Emme Emme
8 years ago

The Division is a great game in many ways. It’s fun to play the single player alone and i suppose it would be twice the fun to play with a group. The gunplay and the smooth animations alone makes the game so much more enjoyable. The downside, for me as a lonewolf, is the Darkzone. The DZ is fun, but i’ve encountered so many higher rank loners and groups that hang out in the lower ranked DZ areas who just kills everybody on sight. The last two days i’ve been killed at least 10 times for no reason, without any loot, and there’s nothing i can do about it. Low rank players are easy pickings. There’s something about that unfair balance that high ranked players loves to take advantage of and it makes me quit the game and lose interest more and more.

Neil Watton
Reply to  Emme Emme
8 years ago

Agree that the Dark Zone is a tough place for a loner but it’s still a brilliant addition to a superb game.

Emme Emme
Emme Emme
Reply to  Neil Watton
8 years ago

Yeah, i definitely agree that’s it’s a great addition to the game and it’s a somewhat unique idea, but i’m questioning how well it actually works. Besides the flaws in accidentally becoming rogue (something that probably can’t be fixed), i can’t remember if i’ve ever played a game that’s so “bully” encouraging/rewarding in a sense. It’s very “eat or be eaten,” it’s very hard to become one of those who “eats” and a lot of people will get frustrated and leave the DZ and the game.
I would rather see a DZ with a more even playing field in some sense, that separate the high ranks from the low ranks. But again, a group of two will eat a loner, a group of four will eat a group of two, etc. So i guess that’s how the DZ suppose to work and suffer the potential consequences of people getting fed up with the game.

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8 years ago

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