Some early thoughts on the Division (Gaming)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, March 09, 2016, 21:17 (2977 days ago)

I caved and bought the Division yesterday. Thanks to a perfect storm of events (late evening nap + sick daughter who wouldn't sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time) I ended up playing the game from about 1am-5am, so I'm starting to get a feel for how it all works. Some initial thoughts jump out to me (mix of positive and negative):

* No story is better than a really bad story

Destiny has taken plenty of knocks for its lack of story or character development, and rightfully so. While the Division clearly makes an effort to establish characters with motive and personality, and have you develop a relationship with them, I've already found myself wishing the game had a Destiny-like void in that department. The writing in the Division is that bad. I'm talking worst of the worst, overblown dialog that flipflops between painfully cliche and utter nonsense. Making things worse is the fact that the player character never says a word, never reacts to anything these idiots are rambling on about. I've already begun skipping cutscenes because what little info they communicate about the plot just isn't worth sitting through the horrible dialog and voice acting.

* This game NEEDS to be played with other people, which they make easy to do

So far, I'd say the combat in the Division is passable at best. Sloppy shooting mechanics, boring weapons, bullet-sponge enemies. I played a couple missions solo and was this close to putting the game down for good. Luckily, the game features easy-to-use matchmaking that you can use to put a squad together at any time. Playing with a group makes all the difference in the world, IMO. While the shooting isn't great, the environments are designed in a way that really supports squad coordination, flanking, and setting up cross-lanes of fire. Shooting the guns still doesn't feel good, but there is fun to be had in figuring out how to position everyone in your squad to effectively deal with the floods of bullet-sponge enemies.

Again, the Division features great matchmaking that you can use to join a group at any time, for any activity. From the mission select map, I hit the "matchmake" button and was paired up with another player looking to do the same mission I had selected. As we were running through the streets together towards the mission waypoint, a 3rd player was warped into our group, then a 4th. We played the mission together as a 4-man team, and after it was over the squad leader set a new waypoint on our map (for the next available story mission) and we just kept rolling together. We'd stop and do little side events as we came across them, then continue on to the next story mission. Missions start and end seamlessly; the squad is never broken up or warped to different parts of the map. Missions end in such a way that you just leave the area and are back into the main patrol spaces.
Overall, I found it to be a smoother and more well thought out co-op experience than Destiny. You can matchmake to do any activity you like, then leave the group or keep playing with them without ever "bouncing back to orbit" or any similar breaks in gameplay.

* This game is an impressive example of big-team production

While I generally find Ubisoft games a bit hit and miss, the one thing they consistently do very well is present an impressive package. Even if I don't end up enjoying the game, I love booting up a new Ubisoft title just to see hundreds of thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars up on screen all at the same time. The Division is no exception. The amount of detail in the world, weather effects, animations, sound design... it's all a bit staggering. It doesn't capture my imagination the way something like Destiny does, but there is still lots of artistry to the way New York has been realized and put together. It makes me wish that the story was better... the setting does a good job of making me feel a bit melancholy. I really do feel like I'm walking around a torn-apart New York. If the rest of the narrative weren't so ham-fisted, it would be a very powerful experience.

Just some initial ramblings off the top of my head. Anyone else playing it? Thoughts?