The Division review
There comes a point in some games where the initial excitement and enthusiasm has worn off and you slowly come to realise that you are engaged in the same few types of busywork over and over again. In The Division that feeling happens rather sooner than you’d expect, and comes on the back of a sufficiently bombastic opening to the game. It feels like the ultimate betrayal, why is the game no longer fun? Haven’t I seen this mission somewhere before? It’s the same few issues that plague most open world games and The Division is no different.
It starts so well, after a rather dull opening hour of taster missions you are thrust into the contaminated streets of New York and tasked with bringing order to the chaos currently reigning there. You do this by blasting through story missions, upgrading your agent with purloined gear and weapons of varying rarities and taking down various nefarious factions that stand in your way. You also get a chance to upgrade your base of operations too, turning it from a rundown dump to a bastion that gives you a number of perks and resources.
The story is only so-so. Each mission sees you rescuing someone who might help you out or engaging one of the various hostile gangs. As you progress you uncover more information about the virus itself and the various players that have taken over the city, but none of the characters feel overly fleshed out to the point you’d actually care. Often you’ll get given side missions and the like by completely random people that you’ve never even seen, or hear from again. It makes caring about you mission almost impossible and instead forces you to focus on blasting the next goon to step in front of you, which soon gets old.
On the plus side New York looks superb and the recreation of is exemplary, with crumbling facades, dilapidated thoroughfares and festive locales providing a wonderful backdrop. Though it has to be said that the various litter encrusted streets start to merge together after a time, as only major landmarks really stand out and the rest tends to merge into the same few alleys and byways. It’s also worth pointing out that there is little reason to visit most of the hidden nooks and crannies beyond the obligatory (and far too lengthy) collectible hunt, as there is really nothing of interest in most areas. The obligatory NPC people that wander around are little more than window dressing too, often standing yards away from a firefight without battling an eye but then running in fear if you simply move towards them.
Obviously combat is the name of the game and it least it’s well done. Third person shooters tend to be solid ground, and this is no different. You can hop into cover and then designate alternative points to dash too while under fire, it’s easy to make every firefight tactical and getting the drop on opponents and flanking them is par for the course. You can switch to aim from each shoulder on the fly, which is handier than you realise, and the guns all feel meaty and realistic. Assuming you find the right swag you can also modify your gear to truly tool it up.
In order to make your agent stand out, and give you a boost in a fight, you can equip a number of skills, talents and ever present perks. The sticky bomb is a particular favourite, though a good group heal or ballistic shield never goes amiss too. They feel powerful enough to be able to turn the tide of combat without ever seeming totally unrealistic or over the top, which I guess was the point. As ever you have to scrap for a drip feed of weapons and gear to boost the damage you give and can take, with progression feeling pleasantly natural as you complete the main missions and tasks.
Of course the game is best experienced with a group of likeminded friends and that’s where it truly shines. Playing alone is, for want of a better word, dull. Enemy numbers are toned down depending on your group but it can still feel like a slog to get anywhere. This is especially true of the numerous side missions which seem to just be repeated continually. Oh, another chance to retrieve supplies you say? I need to restore the water again? Another gang leader with a bounty, gosh! With a limited number of main missions you have to turn to the side quest to hit that all important rank 30 and actually open up the end game. It just feels interminable to actually get there.
New areas reveal new enemies from regular looters and the way up to a rogue Private Military Company but, barring better gear they all tend to act exactly the same. Some members of each faction will always rush you, some will always snipe you and some will set up turrets or have armour. Only the Cleaners feel truly unique and they disappear quite early on. Of course, as you progress these same enemies beef up to become massive bullet sponges too and while that makes sense in a stats based game it can make every firefight a long drawn out affair.
Assuming you see and do everything you can to make that elusive level 30 then you next goal will probably be a visit to the much vaunted Dark Zone. Though you can also do challenge missions and replay earlier ones for better rewards if you so wish. This area is entirely off the grid and features mainly players versus tough A.I. enemies, but all loot needs to be extracted and any player can decide to go rogue and shoot up random strangers to steel their stuff at any time. Well that’s the theory.
In practice not a lot happens in the DZ, you can wander up and down the streets and not see another soul for ages but then you’ll be in a firefight and a bunch of A.I. enemies will spawn right on top of you and rip you to shreds. Sure there is the odd moment when you form a dream team with random strangers and end up with some decent swag, but for the most part you just end up roaming around accomplishing very little and wondering what all the fuss is about. It doesn’t help that most of the chests and items you can open/buy here are gated until you hit a Dark Zone specific rank of 30 or 50. This rank is separate from your regular level and rises as you kill foes or rogue agents but dips every time you die, which can be often when you end up running into a group of tough enemies with full armour. It’s the worst risk reward scheme ever and forces you to invest a ton of time to actually benefit from the whole area.
The Division starts off great, full of action and excitement, but then peters out into just doing the same repetitive tasks over and over to make any progress. The endgame content in the Dark Zone feels ill thought out and flimsy too, with progression and item gains proving extremely frustrating to come by. If you wanted to see and do everything then this is theoretically a fifty hour game – the problem comes with the fact that you’ll have seen and done all the unique content in the first five or ten hours and been stuck in a loop of content for the rest of it. It’s an above average shooter but not much more than that.