Tuesday 8th March 2016 saw one of the biggest game releases of all time – Tom Clancy’s – The Division, a game which broke all Ubisoft records within just 24 hours of release! Wow! But what is all the fuss about?

I’m an avid gamer, and there’s very few Triple A titles that I don’t manage to nab on launch date and give a go! The Division was one which slipped under the radar for me – I didn’t see much of the pre-launch hype that usually surrounds a title like this, and was more distracted by Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six launched just last month! So let’s look at the story in short – the player ends up pre-Christmas New York city, which is devoid of any kind of activity on the streets, mostly due to the entire nation being wiped out by a virus. Sounds very same-old right? You are enlisted as an agent in the Division – someone who will take back New York and restore law and order across the city. Sounds easy, right? Not so much…

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I booted up the game which installed quite quickly for a title of this scale – and got to creating my character. The variations are limited, but very reminiscent of most RPGs – a category this game loosely fits into.

The Division’s Character Creator allows you to paint your neck in a million tattoos, but chose from around 6 different faces!

The biggest credit to this game is it’s graphics – I mean, WOW! NYC has been recreated on a 1:1 scale in all it’s beauty – players can expect to participate in a shoot-out on the steps of Madison Square Gardens, look up at the Empire State Building, through a heavy snowstorm, and even take a trip around the infamous NYC Apple Store. But for me, that’s where the breathtaking innovation ended.

All enemies are scaled to your level, and are really bullet sponges – you can easily fire a whole round of ammo into an enemy and have barely depleted his health bar. This is where the RPG element really shows up – each character has an amount of Hit Points, and in short, you have to steal theirs, before they steal yours!! It’s great for the first mission or two, but it can become increasingly frustrating as you continue.

The Division offers breath taking graphics from the offset!

You can team up using Ubisoft’s very efficient matchmaking system, with strangers or friends, to take on these enemies and complete the missions. In many ways, working with others makes this a much easier feat. My issue was I do like to play alone – so I did feel I was being penalised a bit for my anti-social behaviour! Another drawback to this game being purely online is you can’t pause. I started a mission last night which should have lasted about 20 minutes, and 2 hours later I was still grinding through it knowing that if I backed out now, I’d have to start the whole mission again tomorrow!

This brings me to my last drawback – alone or as a part of a group, if you fail the objective, your sent back to the last checkpoint, like in most games. But some instances of this game were so frustratingly hard, me and my new found team mates were often-times repeating certain parts of the game 5-10 times before we actually succeeded in moving onto the next part! I’m all for a challenging game, but when something becomes that repetitive, I lose interest, and the health of my controller becomes at risk as I feel inclined to throw it against the wall!

I seemed to spend a lot of my time in The Division like this – lying on the floor, begging for help from anyone nearby, before slipping off into a peaceful sleep
– only to find myself spawning at the same place I was about ten minutes before!

The Division can be tactical. You can spend hours and hours tweaking your loadout, gear, skills and abilities – if you have that time to spare. For me, I’m more of a causal gamer. I like booting the console up at night, playing through a mission in 30 minutes to an hour and calling it a day. It seems like The Division wants a LOT of my time that I just don’t have right now (sadly!).

I’m sitting on around Level 10, and haven’t even ventured anywhere near the Dark Zone yet (The Division’s answer to PvP where you can explore with other players for rarer loot, but at the risk of being taken out at the last minute by another player!) – I’m hoping to grind my way through a few more levels before even considering that!

Is This Game For Me? 1.2 million users seem to think so. If you’re a bit like me, and must check out every big release, I’d give it a go! I’ll definitely update you all with how I’m getting on in a weeks time when I’ve had some more time. Truth be told I was ready to trade it in and something said “No, give me another try!” – so I’m definitely going to! The biggest game launch Ubisoft has ever seen – there’s bound to be something here I’m missing!

I’d really love to hear other visitors experiences with The Division and how they are enjoying it – and any tips you can give me to STOP DYING!!

Reviewed on PS4
Publisher: Ubisoft

Positives

• Amazing Graphics

• Great weather effects

• Great matchmaking options

Negatives

• Difficult, at times

• Repetitive

• Requires a lot of time

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