Tom Clancy's The Division [Beta and Beyond]

[Pandas Galore]

For those of you who don't know, this game is basically Ghost Recon the MMO with a better near future art style, an MMO system that feels like what Destiny failed at trying to do, and a neat game mode that's sort of like Day Z if you got punished for random killing if you suck at the game or can't work well with a group (if you team up).

This game has sucked me in since I was selected for the open beta. There's so much versatility in gameplay in the dark zones but the normal game feels like futuristic Ghost Recon. I can definitely feel that a lot of work went into how the dark zones work because there's a ton to do and great interactions with other players (mostly paranoia).

Are any of you in beta? What do you think? Would you like to know anything from a person who is in beta?

 

[_blank_]

I'm actually intrigued by this game's premise, but my main problem is that I generally detest having to play with other people. How does this game work for a single-player experience?

 

[Pandas Galore]

I'm actually intrigued by this game's premise, but my main problem is that I generally detest having to play with other people. How does this game work for a single-player experience?

The game has a decent single player experience, you won't be able to get the best stuff in the game because you won't be playing Dark Zone but you should be able to play all the story missions on normal at least. I feel like to do hard mode you'll need a group of people at the same level or be overlevelled to begin with. Guns don't change their DPS based on your level but you get different types and ones with higher DPS that you can only use at certain levels. You can run Dark Zone solo but you'll be struggling to not run into other players, but it's not impossible i played for an hour killing AI in the dark zone and didn't see a single other player. You also get more DZ Cash and XP from killing rogue agents or running out your rogue timer so it encourages interacting with people in the dark zone.

 

[AN/ALR56]

People saying that is ubisofts destiny triggered some alarms to me.
I ain't touching that game.
Destiny sucked bad and any game that is promoted as "x company's destiny" isn't gonna be good to me.

 

[Pandas Galore]

People saying that is ubisofts destiny triggered some alarms to me.
I ain't touching that game.
Destiny sucked bad and any game that is promoted as "x company's destiny" isn't gonna be good to me.

As a person who played a ton of Destiny, trust me those people are retarded. They're calling it "Ubisoft's Destiny" because of the rarity scales. Gray, Green, Blue, Purple and Orange. That's the only similarity. The game's metagame is completely different and is more akin to DayZ than Destiny. I'd say give it a chance, don't be turned off something by people who don't know what they're talking about.

 

[Organic Fapcup]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/43ki8r/xpost_from_rthedivision_pc_version_will_be/

Don't plan on playing this, but here's something to consider if you're playing the PC version.

 

[_blank_]

As a person who played a ton of Destiny, trust me those people are retarded. They're calling it "Ubisoft's Destiny" because of the rarity scales. Gray, Green, Blue, Purple and Orange. That's the only similarity. The game's metagame is completely different and is more akin to DayZ than Destiny. I'd say give it a chance, don't be turned off something by people who don't know what they're talking about.

...but that is ESO's rarity skills, just swap out Gray for White.... and that also works for Borderlands. And Dead Island. And Dying Light. And halfway with Diablo... do people not play videogames?

Okay, some other questions then:
1) Since this is an Ubisoft game, I think I'm justifiably concerned about the controls and the game mechanics. I'm going through by back log and trying to get through Watch_Dogs and after recently punching through AC:Syndicate, I'm really beginning to notice Ubi's games tend to have a tendency to have a touch-too-tight, touch-too-dumb play mechanics. Like, telling a character in a tight spot to go left and instead they decide to hug the wall. Or, in the case of Watch_Dogs, stick to a cover position unless you give them a button prompt without touching the control stick, otherwise it feels like you're confusing the game. How does the Division play? Is it intuitive or does it have that Ubi-feel to the controls?

2) Another staple of the Ubi open-world game in finding a tower, surveying the area, and then spend a copious amount of time collecting stuff. Is that in any way the same in this game, or does it focus more towards objective-based content, rather than "collect all the sad journals" or the like.

3) I've been doing some research on the game today, and it mostly looks like you're fighting bandits and raiders for the most part. Although I know it's a beta and (hopefully) doesn't show the full extent of the game, how diverse are the enemies? Or are you just continuously shooting the same five dudes in orange jumpsuits?

 

[Pandas Galore]

...but that is ESO's rarity skills, just swap out Gray for White.... and that also works for Borderlands. And Dead Island. And Dying Light. And halfway with Diablo... do people not play videogames?

Okay, some other questions then:
1) Since this is an Ubisoft game, I think I'm justifiably concerned about the controls and the game mechanics. I'm going through by back log and trying to get through Watch_Dogs and after recently punching through AC:Syndicate, I'm really beginning to notice Ubi's games tend to have a tendency to have a touch-too-tight, touch-too-dumb play mechanics. Like, telling a character in a tight spot to go left and instead they decide to hug the wall. Or, in the case of Watch_Dogs, stick to a cover position unless you give them a button prompt without touching the control stick, otherwise it feels like you're confusing the game. How does the Division play? Is it intuitive or does it have that Ubi-feel to the controls?

2) Another staple of the Ubi open-world game in finding a tower, surveying the area, and then spend a copious amount of time collecting stuff. Is that in any way the same in this game, or does it focus more towards objective-based content, rather than "collect all the sad journals" or the like.

3) I've been doing some research on the game today, and it mostly looks like you're fighting bandits and raiders for the most part. Although I know it's a beta and (hopefully) doesn't show the full extent of the game, how diverse are the enemies? Or are you just continuously shooting the same five dudes in orange jumpsuits?

Cover is based off a button press and it highlights which wall or cover you'll go to or where you'll go if you press the button. It plays like Ghost Recon, not Watch_Dogs or AC. You hold the control stick to the side if you want to turn a corner while staying on cover, and it has a clear visual indication in form of an arrow of how long it will take and where you will go.

No towers. Again, it doesn't play like normal Ubisoft to me. The MMO component is the part of the game that's "collectible" it's about loot not the "sad journals".

It's looters and rioters. You're fighting humans. There are subgroups like the cleaners who use completely fire based weaponry cuz they want to "clean the streets of the illness" and there's minor looter factions so far. The focus of this game is the Dark Zones though, I can definitely say it's an MMO and that you're meant to play with people. If you want a more single player experience I'd probably say Ghost Recon Wildlands is the place you want to go when more is revealed about that.

 

[Pandas Galore]

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/43ki8r/xpost_from_rthedivision_pc_version_will_be/

Don't plan on playing this, but here's something to consider if you're playing the PC version.

Just played a bit more today, that problem is now active on PS4 as well. After that Reddit post someone went invisible and shot through walls without a bullet sound. We were dying from infinite grenades that kept spawning below us. I'm done with the beta until it comes out because of that. That is a very good reason to be wary of this game on launch, keep that in the back of your mind. We could tell he was super speed invisible because of the recon scans.

 

[cumrobbery]

Is this any good?

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Is it any good?

 

[Pandas Galore]

Is this any good?

Is it any good?

I'll tell you guys when I get back from vacation but the beta was amazing as stated above.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

I'm currently running through this game with a couple of buddies of mine. Because of the fun of being able to hang out and fight in a 1:1 area of midtown NYC, an area I know a little of. It's fun taking two friends who haven't set foot in New York on a tour of a less tourist-ridden area.

The world is fun in the set up and there seems to be a lot of variety and the detailing is actually stunning.

The primary studio behind The Division is Massive, who were bought out by Ubisoft after their success making World In Conflict, an excellent strategy game that I highly recommend.

So, what of the game itself?

Well, there's already a decent amount of free content planned, something that is good in this day and age annoyingly some of it seems to already be in the game, but is not being treated as Day one DLC, it's going to be given away for free.

New encounters, weapons, daily/weekly missions, and one of the first big updates includes a new area and mission for you to do.

The three expansions (yes, they actually call them that in this day and age) do appear to be handing over a decent amount of content, at least on paper.

Unlike Destiny and the disaster of The Taken King, these have been broken down into 3 pieces that the season pass breaks down into chunks about $20 worth of content a piece. Unlike a lot of expansions and DLC we've seen, I've not seen any "YOU MUST BUY THE DLC TO ENTER HERE!" so far, they seem to be relying on the more subtle map editing that we saw in Fallout New Vegas, the entrances and locations are already there, and will change when you buy and download the DLC.

A second rarity is the fact this game was delayed twice in its release in order to allow for fixes and polishes. Yes there's still hiccups here and there, but they're niggles compared to the hideousness we've seen from some Ubi games recently.

None of my friends have experienced the "Line Simulator" issue when activating our agents, but we might have just struck lucky on a less populated server in a hub area at the time.

Gameplay wise. Sadly this game experience is a lot better running with a couple of friends. Encounters feel more dynamic and you can plan how to attack a group of enemies with your buddies, and when each of you specializing down one of the three tech trees you can become quite a formidable group.

Some of the missions are nigh on impossible without friends with you, which does count against it if you want to play it purely as a single player experience. Another friend of mine, who is playing the Xbox One version solo stated how taking on the boss of one faction is nearly impossible, but not insurmountable.

SO, tldr version:

I like it, because I wanted a game me and my buddies could play together and joke around while playing tourist.
The game is not without faults, but they're not "omg this game sucks" levels just yet.
I don't reccomend it as a single player experience unless you're a glutton for punishment.

 

[Pandas Galore]

I'm currently running through this game with a couple of buddies of mine. Because of the fun of being able to hang out and fight in a 1:1 area of midtown NYC, an area I know a little of. It's fun taking two friends who haven't set foot in New York on a tour of a less tourist-ridden area.

The world is fun in the set up and there seems to be a lot of variety and the detailing is actually stunning.

The primary studio behind The Division is Massive, who were bought out by Ubisoft after their success making World In Conflict, an excellent strategy game that I highly recommend.

So, what of the game itself?

Well, there's already a decent amount of free content planned, something that is good in this day and age annoyingly some of it seems to already be in the game, but is not being treated as Day one DLC, it's going to be given away for free.

New encounters, weapons, daily/weekly missions, and one of the first big updates includes a new area and mission for you to do.

The three expansions (yes, they actually call them that in this day and age) do appear to be handing over a decent amount of content, at least on paper.

Unlike Destiny and the disaster of The Taken King, these have been broken down into 3 pieces that the season pass breaks down into chunks about $20 worth of content a piece. Unlike a lot of expansions and DLC we've seen, I've not seen any "YOU MUST BUY THE DLC TO ENTER HERE!" so far, they seem to be relying on the more subtle map editing that we saw in Fallout New Vegas, the entrances and locations are already there, and will change when you buy and download the DLC.

A second rarity is the fact this game was delayed twice in its release in order to allow for fixes and polishes. Yes there's still hiccups here and there, but they're niggles compared to the hideousness we've seen from some Ubi games recently.

None of my friends have experienced the "Line Simulator" issue when activating our agents, but we might have just struck lucky on a less populated server in a hub area at the time.

Gameplay wise. Sadly this game experience is a lot better running with a couple of friends. Encounters feel more dynamic and you can plan how to attack a group of enemies with your buddies, and when each of you specializing down one of the three tech trees you can become quite a formidable group.

Some of the missions are nigh on impossible without friends with you, which does count against it if you want to play it purely as a single player experience. Another friend of mine, who is playing the Xbox One version solo stated how taking on the boss of one faction is nearly impossible, but not insurmountable.

SO, tldr version:

I like it, because I wanted a game me and my buddies could play together and joke around while playing tourist.
The game is not without faults, but they're not "omg this game sucks" levels just yet.
I don't reccomend it as a single player experience unless you're a glutton for punishment.

You're also not playing Dark Zones yet. Try Dark Zones please that's where all the replay and variety in gameplay comes from.

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

We're intending to hit the Dark Zones tomorrow.

Fairly certain the hotel I stayed out in Mid Town is in there too. Should be fun trying to find it....

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

Figured I'd throw a few more things in.

I still really would not recommend this game for solo play, even though a friend of mine is doing just that on his xbox one, but he's kind of crazy and enjoys wandering the Dark Zone hunting down Rogue Agent groups for sport.

The world is a lot of vignettes and stuff that really requires some banter and chatter amongst yourselves to fill the long periods of dead air. This game is pretty damn quiet outside of skirmishes, which again is something unusual and really unsettling. You're in the guts of Manhattan Island, a place of millions and it's practically silent.

There's a lot more variation in enemies and factions than seen in the beta, seeing the arrival of snipers, heavy gunners and engineers who deploy their own turrets against you. They can be quite difficult to tackle.

Factions will regularly skirmish with each other, I've seen Looters and Cleaners and Cleaners and Rikers groups fight each other so far, it helps make the world feel that little bit more chaotic.

The Dark Zone got a bit of a makeover between the open beta and full release. Enemy groups spawn quite regularly and this helps with the sense of danger with the Dark Zone itself.

The problem comes with the spawn rates of these Dark Zone areas. The Dark Zone is supposed to be dangerous and little populated. This kind of falls apart when you mow down a group of Looters, move up the street to take on the group of cleaners (who are next door) and the looters respawn behind you while you're at the end of your cleaners firefight.

I suspect these spawn rates got upped and the number of enemies were tweaked because agents who tended to go rogue while I played the Beta tended not to last too long. One group of rogues that occurred during the Beta found themselves facing down some 9 agents and had to hide out in a dead end area and spammed turrets.

 

[Pandas Galore]

Figured I'd throw a few more things in.

I still really would not recommend this game for solo play, even though a friend of mine is doing just that on his xbox one, but he's kind of crazy and enjoys wandering the Dark Zone hunting down Rogue Agent groups for sport.

The world is a lot of vignettes and stuff that really requires some banter and chatter amongst yourselves to fill the long periods of dead air. This game is pretty damn quiet outside of skirmishes, which again is something unusual and really unsettling. You're in the guts of Manhattan Island, a place of millions and it's practically silent.

There's a lot more variation in enemies and factions than seen in the beta, seeing the arrival of snipers, heavy gunners and engineers who deploy their own turrets against you. They can be quite difficult to tackle.

Factions will regularly skirmish with each other, I've seen Looters and Cleaners and Cleaners and Rikers groups fight each other so far, it helps make the world feel that little bit more chaotic.

The Dark Zone got a bit of a makeover between the open beta and full release. Enemy groups spawn quite regularly and this helps with the sense of danger with the Dark Zone itself.

The problem comes with the spawn rates of these Dark Zone areas. The Dark Zone is supposed to be dangerous and little populated. This kind of falls apart when you mow down a group of Looters, move up the street to take on the group of cleaners (who are next door) and the looters respawn behind you while you're at the end of your cleaners firefight.

I suspect these spawn rates got upped and the number of enemies were tweaked because agents who tended to go rogue while I played the Beta tended not to last too long. One group of rogues that occurred during the Beta found themselves facing down some 9 agents and had to hide out in a dead end area and spammed turrets.

Snipers and heavy gunners were in the beta dark zones just an fyi.

 

[José Mourinho]