Tom Clancy’s The Division video-game review
After the relative disappointment of 2014’s Destiny, all eyes were on the recent release of Tom Clancy’s The Division to see whether something new could be made of the third-person shooter/massively multi-player online genre. What developers Ubisoft deliver us is something speculatively harrowing, yet incredibly entertaining.
Set in a post-pandemic New York City, the plot revolves around a government sleeper-cell known as The Division, whose aim is to bring peace and stability back to the death-ridden city. The player will traverse the open-world game, fighting off various factions trying to overthrow the government, whilst in turn searching for a cure to the disease.
Watch New York descend into chaos in Agent Origins. (LINK IN OUR PROFILE DESCRIPTION)
A photo posted by Tom Clancy’s The Division (@thedivisiongame_us) on
The Division’s game-play is a direct step up from Destiny’s, with the intuitive tactical ‘cover’ mechanics working perfectly alongside the debris-heavy environment. The added sense of engaging in fire-fights behind a left-over car or road block adds greatly to the immersive experience of the game, leaving players to consider that this could in fact be what happens in the aftermath of a pandemic.
The game’s visuals make it far easier to live among the chaos, with the unique lighting and fog interactions making the streets of Manhattan look all too realistic. Ubisoft have obviously spent their time refining the game, with detailed snow particles and the addition of being able to create bullet holes in flags, really lending to the overall feel.
The game shines the most however, through its use of multiplayer and loot grinding. You can gang up with a team of friends to complete missions –which at times is almost necessary- and more importantly engage in the terrifying ‘Dark Zone’ (DZ). The DZ is a player vs player area where some of the game’s most high-end weapons are found, though they are deemed contaminated and cannot be used unless they are extracted via helicopter. The fun in the DZ lies in online players being able to kill you and steal your loot – obviously you can do the same, so there’s nothing more entertaining than killing a player right as they wait for their loot to be extracted, and taking it as your own.
The mission and DZ gear looting features make The Division much alike games such as World of Warcraft, with gear grinding becoming key to progression. The desire to attain better gear is just too addicting. It’s like watching a show on Netflix at night where you tell yourself you’ll watch just one more episode; in The Division you tell yourself you’ll kill just one more boss – the possibility of that new pistol you wanted dropping is just too enticing.
The game disappoints though, through its unimaginative gear system and lack of meaning in the story. Gear-wise, it’s almost identical to Destiny, with a very similar gear layout and quality classification system. Sadly, the game’s missions are overly similar, which can make leveling up rather tiresome at times. At present, there is no real plot ending either, with Ubisoft choosing to deliver future content over the next year; and that only happening if you pay extra money for the season pass.
All in all, if you’re a sucker for dystopia-themed shooters and want a game that is not only enjoyable but truly immersive, then Tom Clancy’s The Division is for you.
Footage courtesy of Toby Finlayson.
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox1
Written by Ryan de Souza.
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