Tom Clancy's: The Division Review

DISCLAIMER: This is only a Review of the PVE side of The Division from my own personal viewpoint.

I give The Division an:

Ubisoft’s newest addition to its lineup, Tom Clancy’s: The Division, is a work of art. Developed by Massive Entertainment, The Division takes place in a stunningly accurate replication of New York city. Based loosely around an actual US Government simulation called Operation Dark Winter and the resulting Executive Directive 51, New York city was targeted by a bio-terrorist attack on Black Friday. The resulting outbreak leads to the activation of sleeper agents around the country to respond to the fall of society.

Massive Entertainment has done a beautiful job with their replication of the city. The game provides great immersion with the realism of the environment, weather systems within the game, and even the weapon responses. However, this is as far as the realism goes.

The once thriving city is barren and the small percentage of the population that you do encounter is often duplicated events that you saw three blocks over. There are often large spans of nothing in between the various encounters which leads to a lot of boring running for the player. But Massive did get a lot of things right.

Other than the initial loading screen, using the fast travel system, or respawning there are no load screens within the game. They are hidden with the game’s events of entering your Base of Operations (BOP) or entering/exiting the safe zone just before the Dark Zone.

The game can be played completely solo or with a group (up to four players total). When you are joined up with a group, the game balance’s the various enemies between the different levels of the players to provide an engaging experience for all. A nice touch that was added was the revive feature. Even after a player has died and is given the option to respawn, they can still be revived by their team mates.

However, I found that the gameplay was on the slower side when playing solo and thus opt to play with a team whenever possible. If you are playing solo, you only ever encounter other players within the social hub. This takes the strain off of the servers but makes the city feel even more empty. It would be much more engaging if I was to come across another Agent pinned down in a firefight while I was talking the long walk to my next objective.

Another plus for the game is the economy. The venders stock refreshes regularly and they sell a variety of different quality of items. There is also three different currency’s used. The Regular currency is good for any item in the normal game world. Dark Zone currency can only be used at Dark Zone vendors that normally sell better items than your everyday vendors. Then there are a number of Special Venders that take Phoenix Credits. These guys sell the top of the line items. The best thing is, you don’t have to go to the Dark Zone to get the best gear. After make the correct upgrades, Special Vendors become available in the Tech and Security Wings of your BOP that will sell you the golden High-End gear and weapons for a steep price.

The different gear that you can equip will do a variety of things. One they will actually change the physical appearance of that gear on your character. There are five levels of quality for all your weapons and gear (Worn, Standard, Specialized, Superior, and High-End). Each item will have different stat boosts (Firearms, Stamina, and Electronics) and a variety of different bonuses. These bonuses can be additional boosts for your stats or a boost to an ability. In addition to this, there are numerous collectibles throughout the game that you can equip on your player to change the clothing that they are wearing.

Massive also took a new approach to the leveling system for The Division. While you play the game and complete objectives or kill enemies you will earn the traditional Experience Points (EXP). These will increase your character’s level and open up stronger and better gear. But leveling up does NOT unlock new skills for you to use. In order to do this, you need to make upgrades to the three different wings of your BOP (Health, Tech. and Security). Each Upgrade will open up either a new skill, a set of mods for the skills, talents (equitable passive abilities), or perks (permeant passive abilities). In order to make these upgrades the player needs to collect different supplies specific to each wing (Medical Supplies, Tech Supplies, and Security Supplies). These are earned by either completing a Mission or an Encounter related to the wing.

I have heard a lot of complaints from various players about this system. Personally, I think that it is a great way to further engage the player in the world created by Massive. Other players feel that it distracts them from the primary storyline and prevents them from being competitive in the PVP section of the game. However, if you complete all of the Side Missions and Encounters in a section of the Map the various in-game collectible will be revealed. This is a great time saver for the 100% completion players.

As amazing as the game is, it does lack in its End Game content. Throughout the Main Mission you kill off the leaders of the different enemy factions. But this does not have a significant impact on the game world or the enemies’ presence. The current ending leaves the player with a major cliffhanger. To avoid any spoilers, I won’t go into much detail but it is slightly unsatisfying.

With three paid expansions already in the work, we have hope that the End Game will be flushed out over the course of the first year of the game’s life. There are also a few free updates that are expected to drop which will potentially finish off the game. I will say that for having defeated three enemy factions, the game was on the shorter side.

Overall The Division is an amazing game. Between the stunning graphics, the realistic weapon response, and the endless combinations of gear and cosmetic options there is plenty to do (and I haven’t even dived into the Dark Zone yet!). Massive did a spectacular job blending together a cover based action shooter with a RPG gameplay core. There are different avenues to obtain the High-End gear so that the player is not forced into the PVP zone.

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