Reviews of Tom Clancy's The Division

Tom Clancy's The Division

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Dukefrukem

Retired

Windows PC

I’m reviewing this game as it exists in June 2018. I understand, there was some complications during launch and with the end game stuff after initial release, but that is not of my concern. Because as this game exists right now, I personally feel Massive Entertainment, (and Ubisoft) has found a balance between unique non-repetitive farming gameplay that has eluded most developers. For reference, I am about 60 hours in, completed the main story, base of operations is 100%, reached level 30, found all the collectables, and roughly level 20 on both dark zone and underground… and there’s still much to do.

First, the story; an infectious contagion was released and New York City has been decimated, abandoned by the infection. A sleeper agency known as the division, is put in place to bring order back to the city. I’m impressed by the level of detail that is in this game outside of the main story. The collectables; phones, survival guides, drones and echoes are an excellent way to add to the lore and backstory, as they add audio recordings and surveillance footage to the chaos. In fact, most of it is quite immersive and emotional as you come across a phone message from a young woman, who doesn’t know if they will ever see their mother again, coming out of the closet for the first time. The writing in in this game can pull at the heart strings in the middle of some of the chaos.

The game takes place in the winter time, shortly after Christmas. The weather and time are dynamic, switching back and forth from snow, to clear sky, from night to midday. Times Square in the middle of the night is quite the sight but what is even more impressive is the level of detail through the streets as almost no models are reused.
So what drives you to play after you’re done with the story?

Well the end game modes are fun for one, and two, you are constantly intrigued by exploring the Dark Zone; the deeply infected area in the middle of the map where the military as pulled out and all that is left there is mountains of dead bodies and PvP. It has its own level system and is one of the areas where high level drops can occur. Sometimes players will attack you, sometimes they won’t, and sometimes they will pretend to be your alley, attack you as you are about to extract all the gear you were collecting for the last hour and take all your stuff. There’s a nifty balance of anxiety and excitement when you’re in the Dead Zone. And it’s addicting.

There’s also the Survival DLC, which is my favorite game mode. This game mode strips you of all your gear, drops you in the middle of a blizzard and lets you fend for your life. So you need to find guns, armor, and clothing (which in this game there feels like an infinite different clothing options to customize your character) otherwise you will freeze to death. You are also infected and need to craft, an antidote and a flare gun to extra yourself out of the blizzard.

Then there’s the Underground, which is essentially the game’s dungeon mode. Make your way through three or four levels of difficulty defeating enemies and collecting gear.

In additional to all game modes, the Division has hundreds of “challenges” or commendations that you can complete to get keys, to get customizable gear and clothing. And there is thousands, and thousands of customizable stuff in the Division….

Moving on to Division 2, I hope Massive Entertainment has learned from their mistakes