If issues with The
Dark Zone can be ironed out, and the
final product has solid endgame
content, then The Division
can easily turn out to be a giant
timesink for RPG fans.
First announced at E3 in 2013, UbiSoft’s online RPG
Tom Clancy's The Division has been a long
time coming. Set in a future where the country has
fallen into chaos thanks to a weaponized virus,
players explore an open-world version of New York
City looking for the origin of the virus. Tom
Clancy's The Division has been compared to Destiny,
and while they have a large number of differences,
the core idea of repeatable missions and multiplayer
in search of ever better loot was on display in the
beta of the game. While my time with the beta left
me with some major questions about the game’s
longevity, overall it was a positive experience.
Players begin The Division by creating their
character. There’s a number of different
customization options, but no character classes to
speak of. Instead, customization happens through
equipped skills and gear, which can drastically
alter play style. Skills are unlocked as players
level up and complete various objectives. Some of
the skills featured in the beta included an area
scan that showed nearby enemies, and a deployable
riot shield players could use for protection and
fire a sidearm at the same time. Players can equip
two of these skills at once, and swap them in and
out at any time. As for armor, in addition to
varying levels of protection, provides bonuses to
the game’s three core stats, along with various
other effects on higher level items. The game’s
three core stats, firearms, stamina, and
electronics, correlate to ability using guns,
health, and skills. Focusing on one skill or another
with gear can greatly change how players approach
the game, allowing for a lot of customization.
Guns have their own stats as well such as stability,
accuracy, reload speed, and range. Higher level
weapons will provide additional perks, such as
increased critical hit chances, for example, if
certain stat requirements are met. The player can
equip two primary weapons and one sidearm at a time,
so there is a lot of mixing and matching of gear for
players to experiment with. The beta provided a good
amount of gear to purchase and get as drops, so
hopefully the full game will have an even larger
variety.
As for core gameplay in the game, it The
Division feels a lot like the latter two Mass
Effect games. It’s primarily a third-person
cover-based shooter, with all the typical features
such as blind-fire, moving quickly between pieces of
cover, vaulting over obstacles to charge in, etc.
Being an RPG, enemies don’t go down quickly, and
elite foes and bosses are especially challenging to
take down. Though skill with shooting mechanics
certainly helps, the stats of the player and their
gear are more important than anything else. Those
attempting higher level combat at a lower level,
with poor gear, will be very unlikely to succeed.
In addition to story missions, which can be tackled
at higher difficulties and with a party of up to
four, various encounters pop up as players explore
New York. These can be simply running into groups of
enemies, or mini-missions such as rescuing a hostage
or helping out NPCs who are under attack. As for PvP
content, The Division includes an
interesting area called the Dark Zone. In this area,
some of the best gear can be acquired from tough
elite enemies. However, players need to successfully
extract this gear from the Dark Zone, which is where
the PvP element comes in. In addition to simply
dying from enemies resulting in a player dropping
their loot, leaving it free for anyone to take,
players can go rogue. Any player can simply start
shooting, creating a dangerous kill or be killed
situation, where the victor walks away with
everyone's loot.
There are risks of course, as this will mark the
player for other players to find. A bounty is
rewarded for killing rogues, though players who
manage to survive until the timer expires will get a
bounty of their own. The Dark Zone can be entered
with a team of up to four, and can also become rogue
as a team, making the area very dangerous to solo
players. In addition to loot acquired within the
Dark Zone, a special currency and rank can be
acquired while adventuring in the dangerous area
that can then be used to purchase gear at special
vendors. This currency and loot naturally decrease
when dying in the Dark Zone, and can also be leached
from other players when going rogue or killing
rogues.
The Division appears to be a very interesting
game. Though there was only one story mission to
speak of it, it was well polished and fun to replay
on harder difficulty. The city is interesting to
explore, and the variety of guns was impressive. The
Dark Zone is a neat idea, but felt much too sparse
in the beta. Enemies were few and far between as
well as players, meaning most time was spent
wandering around empty sections of city. It’s also
unclear what the end game for maxed out players will
look like, given the low level cap in the beta. If
issues with The Dark Zone can be ironed out, and the
final product has solid endgame content, then The
Division can easily turn out to be a giant
timesink for RPG fans. At the very least, the beta
left me eager to play more.
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