KGK Dragon’s Reviews:
Ubisoft’s post-apocalyptic multiplayer looter shooter of 2016, Tom Clancy’s The Division, puts a new take on the winterized Urban Jungle of New York City’s Central Manhattan. A city once so full of life, now plunged into chaos with sickness, rioters, and hostile factions threatening the very confines of civil order amongst an already tarnished city in a large-scale sandbox.
Campaign & Environment
Tom Clancy’s: The Division offers a lengthy campaign consisting of 18 main missions 15 side missions easily clearing the 24-hour mark in main objective content alone. For the completionists focused on obtaining 100%, they can expect to exceed 80+ hours to scour the entirety of Manhattan. The atmosphere of Tom Clancy’s: The Division has a unique touch, taking place after the holiday season, January 2016. Players can find holiday decorations scattered across the chaos-torn city, strewn with hostile factions, all of which the player will experience through the story. With plenty of interactables all throughout the city, collectible evidence, audio recordings, and notes left by survivors of the virus can be found to paint a picture of what New York was like during the outbreak and the events after.
Worry not, for players can squad-up to 4 friends in matchmaking, change mission difficulties, and complete the story together without having to jump into another’s session as it saves over for each player. Go even further beyond with the equipment system as you progress, swapping vests or holsters to add to different stats, inventory space, health, or even sub-abilities unique to Armor Sets.
The Dark Zone
For those who like cutting their teeth in Player vs. Player combat, the Dark Zone sits as an ominous PvP area in central Manhattan. Separated from the rest of the map via checkpoints, players can purchase goods from the Dark Zone vendor, restock on ammo, frag grenades, and medkits, or access their stock just as any other safehouse across the playable area of Manhattan. Unlike most shooters, PvP combat isn’t so simple as player-made armor builds, stats, Gear Score, and weapon damage comes into effect. But, to make sure that level 30 players aren’t picking on the low levels, The Dark Zone places each character into a different category of tier levels. The higher the tier, the higher the enemies found in the Dark Zone, other players, loot and rewards. The Dark Zone remains a gamble, but with the game’s currently low player count, the odds of running into a hostile player are considerably lower, but remain a noteworthy percentage for hose looking to merely explore what central Manhattan has to offer.
Last Stand: DLC
If you’re primarily interested in PVP, The Last Stand game mode is also available as a purchasable DLC. The game mode offers the most out of the PVP side of Tom Clancy’s The Division. In an arena-based game mode, 16 players split into two teams compete to attack and control three objectives from the enemy team. Put your armor set builds to the test and strengthen your PVP skills without the consequences as seen in the Dark Zone.
Underground: DLC
One of The Division’s DLC is Underground expands the explorable area of Manhattan to the seemingly endless labyrinth which is the subway system. With its own seed system, players will almost never have the same route or number of rooms. To further add onto the already dark environment of Underground, a chance for enemies called Hunters who actively track the player, mimic movement, and use gadgets that the player also has access to. Tom Clancy’s The Division Underground brings a new environment for players to explore, along with an expansion to evidence and collectibles to give a peek into what life was for survivors living in the underground subway systems after the outbreak.
Survival: DLC
With an entirely different take on survival mode, The Division takes it a step forward on Extraction Survival. Stripping the player of all gear and leaving them with only a pistol and a single medkit to defend themselves, not only must the player worry about the threat of other humans, but the environment itself. The implementation of a sickness, heat, hunger, and thirst mechanic forces the player into a timer. They must scour central Manhattan for food, warmer clothes, better weapons, gear, food, water, and medicine to halt the sickness from turning into sepsis before gathering enough resources to create a flare gun, a mask filter, and extract in the Dark Zone. Players are left with a choice to matchmake with others or go it alone, but to add an inviting comfort for those who aren’t versed in PVP, the game offers an outing for a PVE only mode.
Visuals and Graphics
Running off of the Snowdrop Engine created by Massive Entertainment, it remains to be quite reliable on multiple platforms such as Playstation 4, and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and Windows. Pushing even further beyond, owners of the Newer Gen, Xbox Series X/S, can use the “FPS boost” in the Manage Games and Apps tab to expand the visual graphics of Tom Clancy’s The Division.
Summary
Tom Clancy’s Division has reached its eighth year of operations and still continues to prove a spectacular game to explore for its unique environment and atmosphere, but also the player base that allows the game’s survival. With its multiple game modes and oftentimes lower sale prices during Ubisoft Sale events, the Division remains an experience worthy of note and a staple for players of all sorts such as the casual mission grinders, the PVP combat specialists, the Lone Wolf survivalists, and even the completionists.
Pros
Multiple game modes to choose from
Allowance of mix-matching gear allows for players to expand options and add a unique approach to their styles of play
Unique atmosphere and environment gives Division 1 a completely different feel from other Ubisoft titles
The Division 1 held the highest IP record for 6 years after release until it was dethroned by Elden Ring in 2022
Cons
Global Event support has stopped as of January 2024, locking away many rewards, commendations, and cosmetics from newer players
The use of “metas” in PVP and certain gear sets have taken away the unique gear building experience
Lowered player counts for certain game modes have left some game modes or content abandoned
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