Tom Clancy’s The Division held an open beta took place over this past weekend on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, but you probably already knew that as Ubisoft is boasting over 6 millions players participated. Not much has changed since the game’s closed beta, aside from a relatively small number of bugs that were both eliminated and newly introduced, but there was a new mission and we got a look at how the server perform under pressure.
Like Destiny, and many other titles before it, The Division is an MMO. Thus you’ll see players running around from time to time, mostly in the the starter hub area but occasionally throughout the world. This was nice, but unlike games like Destiny it hardly ever created a situation that benefited any of us.
The Division’s big pulls are its gritty realism and single-player quality narrative within an MMO framework. Manhattan has been decimated by a bio-engineered virus that’s been released on America’s biggest shopping weekend, Black Friday. Those who weren’t killed are now refugees, looters or defenders of the city. Most of the missions in both the open and closed betas were extremely limited ones that revolved around setting up a home base (think Destiny’s tower). And even more like Destiny, the missions were perfectly enjoyable solo but were also well-tuned and more fun when in co-op. Aside from this there were a few side missions here and there, which made interesting use of the “echo” system, a 3D projection of surveillance footage, in-game and helped the grind up to level 8 (the beta max). The various power-ups are fun, although at this low-level it’s too early to tell how varied the classless skill system as right now there isn’t much difference from player to player.
What really stands out here, even in these early stages, is The Divison’s Dark Zone. In short, the Dark Zone is a semi-lawless PvPvE area of Manhattan where the virus hit the hardest. Loot is rare, valuable, and must be specially extracted via helicopter. Players can also kill other players for loot or any reason really. Now this isn’t exactly DayZ, there are some safeguards in place so that not everything is kill-on-sight shenanigans. If you intently harm or kill a non-rogue player your status is updated to “rogue,” and players will now receive a reward for killing you. As you kill more players your rouge time and bounty value increase, until pretty much the entire server is after you. All of this combines to create some spectacular scenarios that include a lot of teamwork and a lot of betrayal, both of which have their pros and cons. This system isn’t perfect by any stretch (try explaining a misfire to a server with a bounty on your head) but it is an incredibly fun way to gather loot and kill a lot of time.
There are always going to be issues in a beta. To just name a few, some enemies seemed far too difficult to be enjoyable, some animations became bugged and the rogue system could use some tweaking. But all in all, both the closed and open betas have been far more presentable than many titles that have released in the past 2 years, and both the game client and servers held up well.
While the gunplay isn’t top-notch, the visuals are astounding regardless of platform. While the Xbox One’s modest graphics can’t quite compare to the PC version running at 1080p 60fps on ultra settings, I found both to be simply beautiful.
The mission structure, loot and upgrade systems are reminiscent of many other MMO titles before it and although I may draw many comparisons to Destiny, it is only for a lack of any other MMO shooters to do so with. The Division is its own unique experience. Stunning realism, gritty 3rd person combat and a tantalizing and dangerous PvP mode make me so intensely excited for this game, even if it’s not quite as stunning as some E3 demos may have implied.
In short, I can’t wait. Since Destiny’s died down a bit I’ve been dying to get my grind on in a new shooter MMO. The Dark Zone, loot system and open-ended RPG elements have me plenty excited, but what I’m really holding out hope for is the undisclosed endgame. If the Division can even come close to the experience of Destiny’s raids, then I may not put this game down for the next year. Be sure to check out the game for yourself when The Division officially releases on PS4, Xbox One and PC March 8th, and good luck out there.
