Tom Clancy’s – The Division

Announced at E3 2013 and starring some of the biggest controversies of recent times in games, “The Division” is the new open world overproduction of Ubisoft. The game comes with extensive mistrust of players because of a series of adjournments and significant changes in the visual part of the title from the first time it was shown to the public.

But there came the moment of truth: will the hype was matched and the wait was worth it? That’s what you’ll check out below in the analysis of “The Division”, based on the version for Playstation 4. The title is also available for PC and Xbox One.

Tom Clancy

History

The story of “The Division” shows the culmination of a bioterrorist war that has no deadline to complete. The place is Manhattan (New York), where a genetically engineered virus from the merger of some of the most destructible virus spread the world and culminated in the annihilation of the largest financial center in the world.

The remaining now struggle to survive fetching water, food and supplies that can prolong your life already doomed. The player, part of the military group that named the game (The Division), is in charge of finding viral samples to enable the manufacture of a vaccine. Some allies join in this journey that, at first, arouses much curiosity, especially as a reality of this kind is not so far so of today.

It is interesting to know the origins of the problems and intentions of the characters to find an urgent solution. But these same characters do not exactly have personalities that create identification by the player, you need to rely on video, audio and documents collected by the scenarios to get some more concrete context. The dialogues are cool and explain the basics of what happens in the plot, but do not have enough strength to keep the player’s attention on the screen.

In the end, nothing truly epic, amazing or is not cliché happens; causing the plot does not reach the depth necessary to become relevant in the proposal as a whole. The result is average and almost no one will feel hooked to continue playing for the development of the plot, featuring a hell of a missed opportunity to further take into account the enormity of the experience of “The Division.”

Gameplay

Bluntly, the strongest point of “The Division” is the gameplay and its complex infrastructure gameplay. Mechanical combines masterfully solid elements of RPG, MMO and third – person shooter (TPS) an addictive formula that favors the player who likes to hunt rewards. This dependence by the constant search of the best equipment comes naturally from the very first moments when only walking through Manhattan guarantees some clashes against local militias.

The fighting is dynamic and occur based on much coverage in waiting for the best opportunity to attack, creating ambushes and taking advantage of the most favorable time to generate the maximum possible damage. The enemies respond the same way: the artificial intelligence is not revolutionary, but it fulfills its role not to be at the mercy of the player’s actions. The enemies are constantly moving and often act as a group, can run towards the protection to avoid being swept away.

When killed, enemies drop a variety of items that can be garbage, weapons, accessories or any other kind of junk, at first, it does not seem very important, but that later becomes a great source of basic resources to develop your soldier. All game development system is based on the acquisition of experience (XP), won by damage to enemies, discover new places, meet main missions, secondary, random events and collect a collectible immensity of the scenarios.

As ” The Division ” has a well – balanced and consistent system with the mechanical structure, the player feels that is naturally evolving with the resources at hand, never have that uneasy feeling of being enslaved for nothing simply because the amount of experience to rise to the next level is much higher than before. For this reason and the extensive amount of activities to do, the game has excellent longevity and, best of all, do not get sick, even if you get to level 30, the maximum possible in the adventure, and continue playing after that.

Achieve a new level ensures the possibility of using equipment consistent with this same level. This includes primary and secondary weapons, vests, gloves, knee pads, holsters, backpacks. All can be modified, dismantled or improved to condition the experience of adventure in favor of the player combination possibilities to mount your soldier are many, exactly the way you’d expect of a well-organized RPG that is based on what really matters in the mechanics of gameplay, not just in aesthetic banalities.

Equipment still has degrees of rarity, which are divided in gray, green, blue, purple and orange. The first is the most common; the last, the legendary, most powerful and ultimate goal of the player. The higher the level suggested starting a mission, the greater the degree of rarity of the final reward received after winning it. This is how you earn the best items in the game, gaining access to extra attributes that enhance the most basic and statistical functions of these devices, such as increasing the percentage of received experience, the success rate headshots or extent of the damage caused by carcase.

But the map “The Division” brings the typical elements of games from Ubisoft, with dozens of dots that indicate the objectives available. The most prominent site is the Base of Operations, the momentary rest center of the player can be evolved three wings: medical, safety and technology. Each function as developments add even more variety of customization to the game, giving new options for passive skills that do not come to be extremely essential for progress, but that can make the difference between life and death battle, depending on the profile of who and who plays.

Taking all this against, it seems that the gameplay mechanics of “The Division” is perfect. There are some points that show implementation problems that could have given a little more attention before the release…

1) The button that triggers the coverage is the same bearing: this duality hinders the most critical moments of the game and can commit hours of play . into the missions that require cooperative at high levels

2) There is a slight delay in capturing inflicted damage: you know you took aim and hit the target, but some of the bullets are not counted, causing a brief feeling of anger for wasting ammunition and by the fighting last longer than they should.

3) The game follows a unique formula of progress: eliminate enemies along the way, operate some devices, please lifts and beat the final boss to fulfill the missions. This pattern is repeated throughout the gambling and will definitely alienate some players. It is hardly an extreme case as “Destiny”, which barely options to circumvent the doldrums of exhaustive repetition because Ubisoft capricious in the quantity and variety of side missions and random events to make this system. Still, the caveat is that there could be more elements that at least this mechanical restriction.

Multiplayer online

Play “The Division” alone is cool, but does not compare to the fun of the cooperative. The true potential of the game is only achieved when playing with other players: the entire organization structure and development of the missions demonstrate this premise all the time.

Even going into games with random players without any established form of communication, the experience becomes much more complete and reaches a level of commitment and greater fun to most other games that also deliver cooperative modes. Once you try this option, it is almost certain that you will not want to return to play as a lone soldier.

But it is in Blanking (Dark Zone) that the most dedicated players “The Divison” will venture. This is the traditional way PvP, which puts all the players in contact to measure global forces. You can wander alone or follow accompanied by friends, also need to complete a series of objectives to get the best items.

The first way, the chances of survival are very small; in the second, the game becomes an experience that requires the player to analyze and balance the risks for the acquisition of rewards. And this compensation does not always happen the best way possible: you could end up leaving empty-handed.

Since you cannot use the items as soon as you collect, you need to call a helicopter to extract them from the site. But the extraction point is marked on the map for all other nearby players including new enemies controlled by artificial intelligence and other random players. We must defend this point for 90 seconds to have the right to later claim the earned items.

This is where the real competition begins, you are vulnerable, seeing threats reach everywhere, and almost everyone wants to take a cone that has already been provided by you and your friends, putting at risk all the work done up to that point.

There will also be times, when you will be part of the thieves groups, want to steal items from other groups who fought hard to survive and win valuable items. If you want, you can still betray their fellows who do the extraction and try to win only the gifts that all fought together to get. When this happens, you become in Rogue for a limited time, becoming the main target of them all.

Here come two options: kill all who appear in front to stay with the prize or run away and leave the counter to zero, receiving large amounts of experience and money to invest in new features. In the end, it is a very tough competition, charged with high doses of fun in moments of triumph and complete frustration in the defeat.

Graphics

The most controversial issue in “The Division” is the graphics. Forget the first game of the presentation videos that appeared in E3 2013. The visual is below the pattern shown at the event, featuring downgrade evident in the final version. This means that the game is ugly? No way: in general, the graphics are good and are compatible with the capabilities of current platforms, achieving and sustaining the proposal to open the world Ubisoft.

And as usual in any title of French production, the setting is the strongest point in “The Division.” The scenarios are extremely detailed; with numerous visuals fill that suck the player into the experience. Much of this merit is the snowdrop, snow engine created exclusively for the game, acting as a basic element in their typesetting to add dynamic climate and very convincing effects of snow and fog; the result is even more cool night in the shootings.

Otherwise, the light reflections on metal surfaces and water puddles are entitled to what you see in other games today. Already textures are well used in most of the time, but sometimes are too blurry in some less important objects, in addition to being rare witness late shipments on surfaces and more grandiose structures such as billboards and posters extended in large buildings. Otherwise, the game performance guarantees 30 frames per second constant, typical condition in video game.

Audio

“The Division” also features an excellent job of audio. The soundtrack marks unerringly the pace of gambling. Silent operation of icy scenarios Manhattan to epic gunfights against the bosses at the end of the missions, the sound always plays in favor so that the player has the feeling that is part of a military group in which all members are essential to meet the goals. It is common in these moments feel observed, threatened and helpless in the face of so many types of threats that are often stronger than you and roam all corners of the map.

This same effect was transported to the location of the game. In addition to texts and menus completely adapted to our language, the voiceovers are quite natural and consistent with what is expected of overproduction, highlighting the care of Ubisoft to hire experienced professionals to lend their voices, already known in movies and TV series, the characters of the game. The interpretations of the roles and the intonation for each type of situation the voice actors are very convincing and almost never strange, once again showing the pioneering company in the business.

Conclusion

“The Division” is a great experience in many ways. In addition to the extraordinary ambiance, the mechanics of gameplay combines RPG, MMO and third-person shooter with mastery, resulting in a world full of things to do and items to win.

The graphics do not match the game’s announcement and the story cannot be interesting, but this is offset by the huge range of options to customize your soldier, by immersing the cooperative gambling and the dozens of hours of fun in the online war of the Dark Zone mode (PvP). Briefly, it is the best 2016 game so far.

PROS

  • Absolute fun for dozens of hours, whether in gambling solo or with friends
  • Mechanics combines MMO genres, TPS and well-structured form of RPG
  • Absurdly detailed scenarios and much inviting exploitations
  • Evolution system is extremely addictive in the search for the best rewards
  • Create items, modify equipment and develop skills guarantee many customizations
  • Easy to create and organize competitive matches or cooperative
  • Dark Zone and its online savagery bring moments of pure happiness or despair

CONS

  • Badly used history
  • Online requirement, including gambling soil
  • Even button to use cover and bearing hinders the worst hours
  • Repetitive formula can tire ahead of schedule