Tom Clancy's The Division Reviews
The Division is more fun with friends, but lets face it, what game isn't? After my group logged off and I was left alone in the world, the veneer started to wear off, and I was left facing the blemishes all on my own. The long term plan is to pump out more content. I'm unsure of its efficacy but for now there's more than enough there, especially with the organic PVP.
Repetitive by design, and at heart a fairly pedestrian third person shooter, but the online co-op and promise of never-ending rewards is hard to resist.
They say to avoid the pitfalls of the future, we must look to the past. At the very least for Ubisoft, this mantra could have been thought of a lot more in creating The Division. Like BioWare and Rockstar Games, the French-Canadian publisher has proved time and time again that they are near unbeatable when it comes to hatching up brilliant new IPs. Sadly, they are just as frustrating in what exactly these grand idea games add up to. Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed, and now The Division are all the kinds of worlds I love to lose myself in. But I think we're at impasse. Entertainment is ever evolving, and that goes double for videogames. It's just not enough to make a game that is big and richly-detailed, only to then tie down players by saying "look at all this, but seriously just do this… pew pew pew!"
The Division is a wonderful mix of genres and styles, resulting in a beautiful, fascinating and addictive game.
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The Division puts players on a treadmill without a carrot.
By and large, The Division lives up to the years of hype and high expectations. At its core, it marries solid cover-based shooting with a loot heavy RPG and an enticingly beautiful setting, but it really comes together when you can team up with friends and take on enemies, whether rebellious AI factions or other agents in the fraught and tense Dark Zone.
The Division is something special that's never really been done before in games, and while I don't expect perfection from such a bold experiment, I'm impressed with what they have been able to pull off so far. We're just one week post-pandemic. Imagine what's in store for us going forward.
Tom Clancy's The Division is overwhelmingly okay. It will drown you in its abundant okayness, so okay is it in terms of playability and content.
Taking the loot-based shooter to a new level, The Division features a gorgeous world to explore, full of interesting items to collect, and tons of players to team up with. The enemies are still bullet sponges, and the missions can get repetitive, but the social elements allow for a lot of fun to be had once you get a good group together. An engaging story and enjoyable characters are just icing on the top of what will likely be one of the best shooters of the year.
If the enticement of better loot and stat optimization catches hold of you however, there's a chance that The Division may well become your next addiction, especially if Ubisoft and Massive can keep a steady stream of updates and DLC coming.
Ubisoft's online shooter will be familiar to Destiny veterans, but its gritty take on New York amps up the misery and leaves us powerless to care
This collapse caused various factions of armed looters, rioters, murderers and thieves to pop up all over the city - along with stray dogs and scurrying rats - patrolling the snowy, litter-filled streets and killing indiscriminately, taking whatever they want. Fortunately, the government had set up an armed militia of cover-hugging sleeper cell agents, and they're sent in to restore order by... patrolling the streets and killing indiscriminately, taking whatever they want.
Any enjoyment to be found in The Division could easily have been smothered by its tremendously dull side content. Fortunately, it's saved from some all too familiar open world bloat by not only the high stake thrills of the Dark Zone but its top notch story missions. When added to a wealth of other positives – like its loot system and detailed open world – this entertaining action RPG manages to muster more than enough antibodies to overcome what thankfully turns out to be a mild case of the Ubisofts.
Playing The Division is a bit like having the flu - you can't get it out of your head and it doesn't ever want to let you go. But unlike the flu, you won't mind at all.
You could say it's their destiny to be better, and so far that is proving so. I'll need more time to observe them in the future but for now there is only a good outlook for the future of the Division and its many agents.
Post-pandemic New York City is a terrifying vision, but it's not one that you'll likely want to leave for some time.
With enough content to keep players busy for a long time, and a support plan from Ubisoft that should see the shelf life extend long past just the release window, you'll likely be playing The Division for a while.
Tom Clancy's The Division is a beautiful and addictive looter shooter that lacks depth and innovation in gameplay, mission design, and story.
Ubisoft has created a wonderful world for gamers to play in, but The Division is held back by a lack of mission diversity and some gameplay quirks.