This past week, Tom Clancy’s The Division turned one year old.
It had a really rocky start, but this new IP from Ubisoft wasn’t going to go down without a fight. After several patches and fully released DLC, The Division gets ready to turn another chapter as it was announced this week that two new DLC’s are planned for this coming year – and a full featured movie is also in the works.
But is this one year old title worth your time?
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Tom Clancy’s The Division was a pleasant surprise.
While most post-apocalyptic, atmospheric, RPG type games catch my attention, the bad press, fumbled release, and confusion of exactly what kind of game this was kept me from looking any further into it.
My brother I have been gaming online with each other now that I am living in the United States, and after two solid months of Battlefield 1, we needed to change up the pace. So after searching around for a good multiplayer or coop online game, The Division surfaced.
Since The Division is a year old, we were able to snag the Gold Edition (which includes the Season Pass) for 50% less than when it was first released.
A great story, I’m sure you’re touched, but let’s get down to what you want to know: What’s it like?
The Setting
The game is set in a modern day New York (maybe slight future, considering the technology used by your character). The open world map is very large and there hardly seems a shortage of apartments, store fronts, and back alleys you can find yourself searching about. The look and feel is impressive – especially when you consider the environment isn’t located in an exotic or fictional location like most games.
The short backstory is this: On Black Friday, a deadly virus is spread throughout Manhattan via tainted money. The entire area is on lockdown, crime gangs try to take control of the city, and the remnants of the holiday season are seen throughout. The game has a night-day cycle and dynamic weather that brings both cloudy days, sunny winter skies, and various snow fall conditions.
It’s impressive to see the snow slowly accumulate on your character as you walk about.
[Video via YouTube]
Throughout the world, you’ll find “echos”, lost phones, and other bits of information that may turn into small side quests, but always give you background information that explain the destruction and despair that surround you. The only problem with the story-line currently, is there’s no endgame. Even after finishing the main missions, you’re left without a conclusion. A double edge sword, because even after the main quest line, you’re still wanting to play.
The endgame is a criticism, but also a strength.
Gameplay
The Division is an open world, cover based, 3rd person shooter with RPG elements.
This is my first cover-based shooter and I’ve really enjoyed it. Directing my character from cover point (behind a car) to cover point (to behind a corner of a building) has been a lot of fun. It’s rare that you can approach a situation with guns blazing. You have to plan, execute, and adjust according to the ever changing situation. I’ve never played solo (even though I could), but The Division is much more enjoyable if you can play with friends – or at least meet-up with other players in the different Safe Houses throughout the city.
In some ways it sounds like a lot of other games out there, but it has combined online game-play in a very unique way. You can play up to four players in your squad, but when you play in the Dark Zone (an area of the city that is highly toxic), you can also face other online players that can choose to help or hurt you. I’ve never played a game with such a curious mix of coop, PvE, andd PvP play.
[Video via YouTube]
I mentioned RPG, but don’t think in terms of character creation per se. With games like Fallout and Mass Effect, creating multiple characters and classes has it’s rewards. With The Division, the RPG elements come more in the form of the gear you collect, so you won’t find any skill trees in the usual sense.
Which brings me to the element that keeps bringing me back to The Division: Better gear.
In full Borderlands and Diablo fashion, The Division is a looter. There are so many different guns, gear, mods, and clothing elements to gather from fallen enemies, supply chests, mission rewards, and contaminated gear from the Dark Zone. As your player levels up, your gear gets better, as your gear gets better, you can make the enemies harder, which give you more XP, and the cycle continues.
It’s a grind. And it’s so much fun.
Conclusion
I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. There’s much more I could say about The Division – so feel free to ask me any questions you might have in the comments below and I’ll be sure to reply.
I play on PC, so if you would like to connect, hit me up on Uplay (dyecasting).
Learn more about Tom Clancy’s The Division.
A free trail is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Brandon says
Got to be honest – not sure why this post is even on your site. Has nothing remotely to do with church and/or tech, and the game is far from church values. You never once mentioned the insane level of profanity in this game, including taking God’s name in vain countless times. If your site’s focus is church related things, then keep it that way and let readers know that this game – as do most games – flies in the face of church values. Just my opinion….
Phil Schneider says
Hey, Brandon. I got on here to be snarky, and then I realized that this wouldn’t help anything and would only hurt. So, I’d like to go a different route with all respected to you and your opinions intended.
Now, in keeping with Paul’s letter to the Romans, I’m going to explain something to you: swearing isn’t that big of a deal.
Now, I get your concern about using the Lord’s name in a profane manner, and perhaps Eric should have mentioned that. (Though, as anyone who’s ever played a game even close to this knows—and this apparently includes you?—these games swear, so it’s not that much of a secret.) However, swearing, in general, is a cultural construct.
In Europe, swearing is hardly anything, even for Christians. It becomes a big deal, however, when it offends others, as it clearly does with you.
And that’s where Romans comes in. Paul warns those with faith strong enough to eat meet (that had most likely been sacrificed to a pagan god) to do so, but only in such a way as to not cause someone with a less-strong faith to stumble. So, in this regard, I’m sorry that this post caused you to be offended.
However, Paul also cautioned that those whose faith wasn’t strong enough to eat meet to not judge those who did, so long as they did so out a strong faith in Jesus, without going contrary to the voice of the Spirit within them. I’m fully confident that this is the situation that you and Eric find yourselves in.
I’m not saying that Eric’s a stronger Christian or that you are a weaker one. I’m just saying that the Spirit doesn’t convict or convince him of sin when he plays this game. Personally, there’s a podcast that I listen to on occasion that I enjoy immensely, but because it swears a lot, I have to limit my exposure because I too quickly give in to that habit, and for me, it does register as sin.
I’ll cut this here because I don’t want this to come off as a tirade. Just honestly trying to clear the air.
Brandon says
Thanks Phil for the response, but I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with your thinking. And for the record, I haven’t played the game. My brother owns it, and said he absolutely loves it but hated that there was a ton of profanity in it. He likes to play games with his teen children but said he couldn’t let them play this one because of how harsh the game was. But the profanity was wasn’t my main point – it was the second one.
The main point in my original comment was to say that Churchm.ag in my opinion has strayed far from it’s roots. In it’s early days I hit your site up EVERY day to see what was relevant in the church world concerning tech, and especially WordPress. You guys had a niche, and it was fantastic!!! I LOVED YOUR SITE! I sincerely looked forward each day to see what was new. But that stopped a while ago for me because it seemed you guys would write about anything – church related or not. Your site’s mission – as stated on your website – is the following:
“It is our mission to resource the Church with timely, relevant, practical, and exceptionally awesome content focused on technology and creativity. We are passionate about how the Church, ministries, and non-profits use technology to effectively fulfill their mission to the world.”
A review of a video game which has no outreach or ministry value whatsoever, and repeatably spews blasphemies against God is not in line with your mission at all. You’ve fallen away from your true love and it shows man – big time. And no carefully crafted theological comments and scripture references can argue that. When 40% of your post have nothing to do with church tech anymore, it’s openly evident you guys aren’t the same as you used to be. And that’s totally fine if that’s what you want to do with your site. But please don’t claim to represent the church and the cross when you are creating posts that promote things that are against both.
Respectfully – Brandon