The Division

[Black Rose]

I just got my beta invite to "Tom Clancy's The Division"

Downloading it now. Its only 25 gigs which is actually 1/2 the size of the Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor which gives me pause as to the graphics quality. I know the initial game play trailer and some interviews with the designers led me to believe that the graphics were 'cutting edge'. Well I'll know tomorrow as I'll have to let it download over night.

[blazingmaniac]

I had a fairly intensive go of the Beta over the weekend, I thought it ran from the 29th for 3 days ? unless this is a follow on Beta from the closed one I had a go of.
Anyway that aside, i thought it was really good, I had high hopes for this but at the same time was cautious, a brand new game engine by an unknown company etc. I have to say.... I was impressed.

I am definitely going to buy it. It is different enough from other games to be enjoyable, certainly for me anyway. There is a huge selection of weapons plus further customization to then go along with them. The game play is fluid and the interface is actually enjoyable to use. Plus it looks stunning, the environments are rich with detail and really feel like a living/dying city.

There are lots of different loot levels and the good stuff is in the Dark Zone, which is the PvP area but I am sure with a decent squad, raiding parties could be exhilarating to do when you know there is going to be full on gun fights to get the items you have found out of the area to use in the main game.

Glad I got to have a go of it as I was undecided before playing the Beta, I wanted to like it especially after the months/years of hype, and I now know. I do like it.

[Black Rose]

Initially I was told by Ubisoft that there was no way anyone on the waiting list was going to get to play the beta. Although everyone that pre-ordered the game would get to play. No surprise there and I really didn't care, then yesterday I got an email saying my beta entry was activated.

I logged in today and saw the message stating that the whole game was not loaded and allot of the screens, like character creation was dumbed down so that was why it was just a 25 gb download I guess.

I had some issues getting it going, kept getting the message that the server was not available, but like I do with most signs, I ignore them

I played for about 4 hours and I was impressed with the graphics and the play style, mechanics were solid, animations were excellent, NPC chatters decent, it looked exactly like the original teaser that was aired last year.

I made it to level 5 and only died once at the hospital trying to rescue the doctor and her staff. I'll play some more tomorrow. I love it so far

[blazingmaniac]

Open Beta starts tomorrow for this for those that want an early look see to decide if its worth getting or not.


http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com/game/en-gb/beta/

[Black Rose]

Open Beta starts tomorrow for this for those that want an early look see to decide if its worth getting or not.


http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com/game/en-gb/beta/

Here are two actual game play vids on U tube if anyone wants to see it: I am pretty excited over it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4GxWdA6ZNo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLFy7lCr7U

Checking the file size on my HDD revealed that the beta is actually 32.6 gb and for those that already had it downloaded from the last beta test, there is a 1.25 gb patch.

All advancement from the previous patch had been wiped and any advancement with this week end's beta will also be wiped. Anyone participating in the this week end's patch will be getting some mystery gift, by the devs, when they get the full version.

[blazingmaniac]

I have pre-ordered it I liked it more than enough to justify buying it, so I did

[Black Rose]

I played a few hours on Friday and then again late last night.

I find the grouping to be totally lame. I go to match up, join someone else instance and I am ported to a random spot on the map then I hace to run all over the place to get to the rest of the group? LAME

Friend's invites/invitations can't be acted upon unless I log out? Is that the social part they keep talking about?

I know its a team oriented game but its touted as being an RPG as well as a shooter. The enemies don't scale to the group size, so its pretty hard to impossible to play solo.

I wont even go into the horror stories in the dark zones of gankers camping the entry points and the extraction points.

So yes the graphics are great, the premise is outstanding and the animations and chatter are all good. The mechanics are bit off, the social aspects as I see them suck and the PVP zone is a joke at present.

So I will give it a pass and see if they balance it better and the price comes down.

[Primeh]

Yep, i'll be passing on this one aswell. Originally I was quite hyped for division, but playing the vast amount of the content walled off in your own instance is just totally fail imo. Dark Zone was just meh, to be honest. I think the game as a whole will have a short life, as everything is very samey and looks to get repetative quite quickly.

If i can talk some mates into buying it, I might grab it on sale for a group game otherwise its on my pass sheet.

When getting the game refunded for 40 smackers is more rewarding than playing the game, then it's a big no-no

[Black Rose]

Follow up for me:

First major mission was to save a doctor being held captive in Madison Square garden. I've been there, the way they recreated it, is well, just plain stunning. The mission is a take back scenario so as the player inches forward, objectives are achieved and if the player dies they re-spawn at the last objective point. I got about 1/3 in and was overwhelmed and had to team up. So I went to match making and got it going. it took about a minute or less to match me up with someone. Now the weird part. I am already in the instance, I am loaded into the other player's instance and I appear in the city, no where near Madison Square Garden. The other player is already at the mission. I ran about 5 NEW YORK blocks which is roughly a mile dodging roaming gangs and other hostiles. I get to the mission site and we proceeded to do it. Now this mission is listed as a level 4 mission which is what we start at in the beta and our gear is mostly starter stuff.

The guy I was with was your average "head on, shoot it out" type while I am more of a stick and move sort and I will always look for a way to flank. He kept their attention and I was able to move in behind and we got the enemy in a brutal cross fire. the final battle was on a roof top and the boss was a 'bullet sponge" until I was, once again able to get in behind him.

Ok mission success and lots of cool loot that is there for all team members so its not a grab session.

Now the 2nd main mission is listed as level 6. I wasn't in the mood for a partner so tried it solo. Now my gear was better, I had a heal skill and I managed to get to the end of the mission with only 1 death. The enemy faction is called "the cleaners", they feel the disease has to be burned out and they are setting fire to every living thing and allot of real estate. They use flame throwers mostly with heavy tanks of fuel on their backs. Needless to say a few well placed shots and the tanks explode taking the wearer straight to hell.

Final boss appears: I hit the tanks on his back which blew up nicely and took off >< much of his health! Then 3 frag grenades, 1 sticky bomb, 300 rounds of assault rifle ammo, 250 rounds of sub machine gun ammo and then he killed me, using the flame thrower that I just blew up the fuel tanks on

I posted this event on "The Division" official forums and the response was "you need to gear up" to do a boss. I was like "its a level 6 mission, shouldn't I be able to do it with level 6 gear?"

So bottom line to me is: The game is a pseudo realistic setting with the trappings of a military combat simulator. But actually its your run of the mill RPG like WoW, or Rift, or Terra.

Its just not as much fun to me as I expected and like Defiance its ok for a few hours of letting off steam but its not a keeper and at $59.99 PLUS all the usual Ubisoft "BUY BUY BUY" and "Sorry but that will be DLC that you can BUY" crap just like Destiny makes it the usual moeny grab. Its a shame that the developer has to market it through another company.

[StaticRadion]

Final boss appears: I hit the tanks on his back which blew up nicely and took off >< much of his health! Then 3 frag grenades, 1 sticky bomb, 300 rounds of assault rifle ammo, 250 rounds of sub machine gun ammo and then he killed me.

I was going to start my own opinion / rant post, but I just cant get past what you wrote here. I can't really speak for the weapons, gear, or abilities you were using because you didn't really outline them, but what I can say is that your health regenerates, your skills regenerate, the flame thrower has limited range, combat roll easily gets you out of that range, the room you are trapped in has two levels of elevation, the boss only has a walking animation, and your pistol has unlimited rounds. If you were able to clean up all the waves of adds it should have been easy to kill him. I too found the fight exciting and challenging but I cleared it at level 6 with basic gear and no deaths.

I know I am coming off at the bad guy, I know that you seemed to have a bad experience in the game, but I had a lot of fun in The Division Beta and I was not alone so I plan on defending it. I am going to get to my own review a bit later today, but I think your review downplays game mechanics that either you were unaware of, indigent to, or ignoring.