Do you remember that game Watch Dogs which everyone hyped up back in 2012? Do you remember when our hearts were broken when we realized it was a shallow, action heavy title that lacked any interesting aspects? Well The Division’s got everyone’s hopes up yet again and now it’s finally out. What experience are we treated to with this effort? Something that made me rather want to play Watch Dogs. Oh dear Ubisoft, you did it yet again, by lying in your trailers and doing the same thing you’ve done over and over again. A sad review lies ahead: one that might just crush your hopes.
To begin, I must say The Division is one of the most interesting concepts for a game I’ve personally seen in quite some time. Players will take on the role of a sleeper agent, activated when New York is struck with the “Dollar Flu” during the Black Friday sales. Once activated, your agent must help the JTF (Joint Task Force) take back New York as the police have lost control and criminals roam the streets either rioting, looting or setting people on fire in a bid for control. It’s an interesting and almost Dawn of the Dead observation on capitalism and one that’s frighteningly grounded. There were many aspects I enjoyed from this including the enemy faction known as the Cleaners who are burning anyone and everyone to rid the infection. There are no zombies by the way and surprisingly, I felt this game could use them. Why? Because the remainder of the narrative is painfully dull.
In terms of structure the narrative is a generic formula that progresses in a predictable manner that just feels empty of investment. You’ll won’t feel the need to invest yourself as your character is just a hollow shell with no personality among so many other characters who are written with cardboard personas. I can see the concept being written by Tom Clancy but no way could he have written the remainder as his stories have much more interesting characters and events happening, while this just feels like a paint by numbers plot.
Playing as a sleeper agent also felt a little underwhelming, not to mention it’s a boring element that lacks any engaging or interesting aspects than say a survivor of the Dollar Flu. We also don’t see the flu affecting anyone, only those who’ve died. The game is stilted and uninteresting and the thin plot doesn’t help.
Visually however, the desolate and pandemic stricken New York City looks simply amazing. There is an immense amount of gorgeous details placed in the game world such as the organic weather effects, vast detail in destruction and other cosmetic factors. Body bags litter the streets, wreckages of cars and boarded up buildings create a truly captivating world to observe, going above and beyond than titles such as Dead Rising. I was chilled at the sights within the “Dark Zone” where bodies fill alley ways and the bright yellow signs with quarantine and burnt out buildings add a great sense of dread effectively.
In terms of presentation, it’s really nice, and considering you’ll be seeing a lot of New York as there is a total lack of transportation and for traversing, players will be doing a lot of walking. You can fast travel once certain safe zones are unlocked, but often enough, these take quite some time to unlock. It’s a tedious task and even the spectacular looking locations get a little dull to look at over and over again.
The main campaign of the game is constructed by helping the JTF rebuild three key areas of their base of operations. You must rebuild and improve the Medical, Security and Tech divisions (pun) in order to gain control of New York. You do this by gaining points and upgrades through completing missions and taking on the four main enemy factions. There are a great deal of missions and side objectives to choose from, which take you over a large area and to a number of locations. Yet main missions become extremely repetitive as they present the same structures of go in, shoot, defend and then kill the ridiculously tiresome elite enemy which is just a big NPC that soaks up 1000 bullets. There is a total lack of variation in objectives and enemies, resulting in a highly repetitive experience and no dynamic events to break things up; the game loses its grip on player attention very quickly. It’s best to play with friends and at moments, the game offers a pretty engaging tactical shooter where communication and skill plays in very well.
But the other main issue with The Division is its unbalanced nature. Beside from the stupid bullet sponge elites, the game allows NPCs with perfect aiming, be vastly over powered – I don’t care what level a baseball wielding thug is, 10 shotgun blasts to the face will kill any man! – or will overwhelm you with one elite and half a dozen guys who will charge your position. It’s incredibly unfair and majorly unbalanced for those who just want a single player experience.
The Dark Zone…. Wow.
Ok so unbalanced campaign is one thing, but unbalanced multiplayer? That’s another.
The Dark Zone is the PvP location where players can obtain vital loot for the main game. You can fight or join others to tackle on the more deadly foes or other players in this area. This of course opens a free for all where anyone can be friend and turn into foe at a drop of a hat. It’s annoying to say the least, and the Manhunt and Rogue systems are confusing in action. Making the smallest mistake or even defending yourself can be unfair and result in you being marked for death and lose any vital loot you’ve obtained. What makes it more irritating is that loot must be helicoptered out of the Dark Zone as it’s contaminated.
There are checkpoints around the Dark Zone which could clean any loot you find for a price. This would have made it a simple and more functional way to obtain loot as going to an extraction point could mean you losing all your loot to someone else that might down you before you put in on the helicopter and taking it. It’s an infuriating waste of time overall, but sadly the Dark Zone is deliberately made to make the player dependent on visiting this area to acquire the better gear and weapons. Otherwise the best stuff you get in the remainder of New York is either bought or extremely difficult to find. Most of what you’ll find during exploration are stupid cosmetic items.
I recommend you to be rank 15 at least before entering the Dark Zone as there are a vast amount of overly powered NPCs and not to mention those vital skills you acquire to help you out during extraction zone encounters. Even at rank 30, it still proves a struggle against NPCs of the same level, not to mention certain other issues that allow marked (rogue) players to be stronger than everyone else.
The Division is a major let down and its just another title that makes me question what the hell Ubisoft are doing. They have such great concepts but nowhere near the same passion as they did ten years ago to fulfill these ideas into amazing games. The right elements are there but the end result is that The Division is just a shallow and forgettable experience which made me feel Watch Dogs is a better game. The highly repetitive mission structures, unbalanced nature, bland story and forced dependence of the Dark Zone which is unbalanced make this painfully dull and annoying. I recommend either playing Far Cry Primal, Watch Dogs or even …. Destiny. At least you can fly hover bikes on the moon in that.