Anyone else playing... The Division.

Jezzah · Feb 21, 2016

The Division

I took part in the private beta some weeks ago and it's right now in open beta. Anyone can download and try it out. I was quite pleased with the game. They have captured the feeling of a virus ravaged city pretty well I think. The gameplay is solid and the dark zone in particular is some of the most tense multi player moments I have had in a game in recent years.

The open beta is open to all for another 24 hours or so...worth a go all!

Lobstris · Feb 21, 2016

I've been alternating between E: D and The Division Beta today. As you say, the look and feel of the city is absolutely great... Ubisoft really have the tech to do city architecture well (Assassin's Creed, Watchdogs and now The Division).
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BUT (and it's a big BUT) the whole gritty 'realism' thing is really let down by the RPG nature of the game. Having everything determined by stats, makes it all feel a bit... 'Morrowind with Guns'. Having to pump 2 clips worth of ammo into someone in a hoodie, with no visible armour, running straight at you with a baseball bat, just because he's a few levels above you, and you have a basic assault rifle, feels somewhat wrong. I'd love a 'hardcore' server mode with the NPC bullet sponges toned way down. (Yes I've read the Ubisoft forums, about how people like me 'just don't understand RPG mechanics' and TTK - yet here I think games like STALKER/Survarium really have the edge on The Division's take on FPSRPG). Plus, calling in a chopper to retrieve a new pair of gloves you just found is a bit... er... excessive?

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Having said that I definitely like the atmospheric feel of the game, of a holiday season gone awfully wring, and the organic way the Dark Zone shifts from multiple PvE to PvP. I'm also curious as to where the story goes and what happened to 'the First Wave'.
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Gawd - ARMA III's mechanics, with The Division's map would be utterly amazing. *Edit* Actually I can see that after a few map expansions, a mod that turned the entire city 'Dark Zone' would be amazing.

Jezzah · Feb 21, 2016

I initially found the whole bullet sponging thing a bit jarring but somewhere in my head I compartmentalised that and just went with the thing and I'm enjoying it a lot more. It's a bit of a leap to accept the "reality" of the thing but once you do it becomes much more entertaining. This game will live and die on the content from the dev's being:

Of a high quality
Regularly updated
Not buggy
Entertaining for both solo and group players.

I personally think that's a big ask but I've bought the damn thing so I'll go with it

Lobstris · Feb 21, 2016

Yes, it will be interesting if they can balance the whole single vs. multi player thing. Plus, given all of the bits of map that seem to have been teased over the years, that don't seem to be in the game I'm sure some later DLCs will expand north into Central Park, and south into lower Manhattan/Brooklyn.

lysan · Feb 22, 2016

Yeah, I'm going to wait for the gold release, There will be a single player story line right?

Insomnia · Feb 22, 2016

Graphics are really cool, and I think the Snowdrop engine could give even more in the future.

Wish we could turn off all HUD elements though.

Some random pics with me own Reshade profile:

Iskariot · Feb 22, 2016

Lysander lysan said:
Yeah, I'm going to wait for the gold release, There will be a single player story line right?

I recently read that it would be possible to play SP.
I hope so as I am not interested in multi player whatsoever.

Jezzah · Feb 22, 2016

It's been teased that there will be raiding parties in this aimed at the high level players. Groups of 8 I've read.

As for SP mode - yeah this is perfectly fine for the solo player from the missions I've played. It's fun in co-op though so don't discount it. The voice comms provided in the game are excellent also by the way so no need to muck around with 3rd party stuff unless you really want to.

Lobstris · Feb 22, 2016

I've played all of the Beta content in single player - and technically, it played very much like Watchdogs TBH. Whether there's an actual story beyond piecing together info on the virus, and what happened to the First Wave of Division troops remains to be seen.
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Some of the best snow effects I've seen in a game though. I did wonder why one building was white and all around it encased in ice, then noticed the ruddy great fire engine and hoses next to it. Fire was put out, but the building (and adjacent cars) froze solid after.

Jezzah · Feb 22, 2016

Ha! That had me confused for ages also then the penny dropped and it was obvious. Little touches like that are great in the game. I love the fog effects also really encloses you at times and you can barely see 5 yards ahead of you.

Looking forward to the main release I felt a bit burnt out after the 2 betas and the limited content so the full thing should revitalise it for me.

xxRUSTMONKEYxx · Feb 23, 2016

Lol, this sad loser is not even part of Time of Chaos.
he needs to get a life to be honest......as for Division...great game but I am truly at these types of game.

only thing I tend to kill is myself usually with my own grenade &#55357;&#56860;

Bob 2637643 · Feb 23, 2016

Some people are just trying to smear folks name because they're douches.

obvious troll is obvious. End. Bell.

PBSF play through all games, from Elite, division, rocket league, pretty much everything. always have more fun playing regularly with folks

PBSF Pendragon · Feb 23, 2016

Lol. As bos says, we do run over many many games, a lot of our roughnecks division (fps / war gaming) are really looking forward to The Division, while we're currently stuck hard into Rainbow Six.

the PBSF - Pathfinders are still heavy into Ark and it seems the R&R department has been taken over by Rocket league... just too many games!