The Division (PS4) Review
Interesting and fun, but certainly not the “Destiny killer” that was hyped.
By now, I’ve seen the world end in so many fictional ways that watching a cataclysm unfold in the first moments of a game hardly has any meaning. The post-apocalyptic genre has become a victim of its own success in the past few years, and there is often little to distinguish between these types of stories and games. Fortunately, while it isn’t revolutionary, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s Tom Clancy’s The Division does bring enough new ideas to the table to be worth your time.
In The Division, the apocalypse comes in the form of a modified strain of smallpox. A deranged bioterrorist splices together all our worst nightmare viruses into one superbug, sprays it on cash, and gives Black Friday a whole new meaning. The outbreak begins at department stores in Manhattan, but quickly spreads throughout the country and the world. The government rapidly implodes, and society collapses behind it. You are a sleeper agent, a member of the eponymous Strategic Homeland Division, activated in the wake of the attack to “save what remains.”
Massive has done a terrific job matching the game’s setting with its concept. The Division’s digital Manhattan is without a doubt its breakout star. Although it is a simplified version of the island, one can visit many real landmarks in the course of traversing the game’s hundreds of square blocks. Players are often treated to grand vistas of city streets littered with debris, bodies, and burning vehicles. Flashing traffic signs warn of the pandemic, wild dogs bark in the distance, and survivors beg for scraps. From time to time, I happened on the remains of army tents hastily erected to help treat the virus’ victims. And my first trip into Manhattan proper had me pass dozens of bodybags left behind when a refugee center was abandoned.
Agents progress through the story missions alone by default, though Massive has thankfully provided players the option to join friends or use matchmaking to find new allies. Some feel that the lack of other players in Manhattan during the story mode detracts from the experience. I, however, found the game’s long stretches of solitude haunting and entirely appropriate for its apocalyptic setting. When one activates an ECHO (a three-dimensional holographic recording) showing a food riot in progress, or listens to the phone call of a father desperately reassuring his young daughter that he will be home soon, it is impossible not to be drawn into this dystopia.
The realism of the setting contrasts sharply with many elements of The Division’s gameplay, which doesn’t always vault the high bar set by the plot. The idea that there could be American sleeper agents concealed in our midst is simultaneously intriguing, plausible, and discomforting. It’s exactly the kind of premise I would expect from a property bearing Tom Clancy’s name. But rarely does one actually have the feeling of being a good guy or of bringing humanity back from the brink. Those moments are by and large confined to occasionally handing out candy bars and medical kits to the civilians aimlessly walking the city’s streets.
Instead, we agents mostly run around Manhattan shooting hundreds of anonymous baddies at the behest of a voice on the radio. After slaying my hundredth rioter in a session, I often lost interest in where I was or what I was doing. The dissonance between premise and gameplay is further magnified by the basic constraints of video games, i.e. the fact that some enemies require dozens of shots to bring down. It’s hard not to be pulled out of the world when you are forced to empty three magazines of ammunition into one bad guy’s head. I realize this is par for the course in gaming. But when a game’s developers tout their product as realistic, perhaps its enemies shouldn’t have skin apparently made of adamantium.
The Division is a cover shooter, and in that it certainly does not disappoint. Having played through the Gears of War series, I know from experience that video game cover mechanics are often clumsy and difficult. For the most part, Massive has solved such problems. Only rarely have I found myself unintentionally exposed to enemy fire, and in those cases cover was almost always only a button press away. When it wasn’t, I still had fun seeing my character diving and rolling out of the way of incoming fire. I also appreciate the little additions Massive has brought to this genre. For example, when you prime a grenade, the game’s HUD shows you the arc it will take when thrown. You also get a handy indicator of which enemies will be caught in its blast. These thoughtful touches make it easier to exploit cover and use the environment to your advantage.
Massive has provided Division agents with a great many tools to take on the forces aligned against Manhattan. I’m partial to the “Scan Pulse” skill, which sends out a radar ping that shows the location of nearby enemies, even when they’re behind walls or other cover. Deploying smoke grenades and attacking while protecting yourself with a portable shield make for great fun. I also loved reviving fellow players from 30 feet away with the targetable “First Aid” talent. The game’s weapons certainly look and feel authentic. Unfortunately, most players now use only the same two powerful classes of guns, diminishing any sense of individuality. Hopefully Massive will soon rebalance the weapon archetypes to make them all viable.
I do wish there had been more in the way of character development, both of my agent and my enemies. We should have transcended the Gordon Freeman-esque mute protagonist by now, but The Division shows that we haven’t. So while I enjoyed selecting clothes to give my agent a unique personality, I would have appreciated understanding his motivations even more. And though at least a few of the bad guys have names, most of the time I was killing them just because they were wearing hoodies and were in my way. If the short tidbits of plot displayed during loading screens are to be believed, Massive apparently did create backstories for the leaders of the enemy factions. Not that you would know it, since you only encounter them each once, and then only to end them in a loud, bloody fusillade.
No discussion of The Division would be complete without mentioning the Dark Zone (DZ), which is the game’s PvP area. There, you can challenge the toughest enemies in the game for a chance at the best loot. You can also betray other players (“go rogue”) and steal their gear. Many people find the DZ to be the most diverting activity in the game. For me, the DZ was a great way to be griefed by people who have much more time to invest in playing the game than I do. Losing my progress (in the form of experience and items) is not my idea of fun. Nor do I particularly enjoy visiting misery on other players. So the DZ — perhaps the game’s most innovative feature — just isn’t my cup of tea. But if you’re interested in experiencing an electronic version of Thomas Hobbes’ state of nature, by all means give the DZ a visit.
The Division is at its heart an MMORPG — just one that features grenades and assault rifles instead of bows and swords. Since it is an exclusively online game, I waited to publish this review in order to see the direction Massive would take things in the first several weeks. So far, I have noticed quite a few parallels between their learning curve with this game and Bungie, Inc.’s with Destiny. The two games are both online “looter shooters” that share many similarities. Massive is unfortunately making a lot of the same mistakes Bungie did in their early days. However, to its credit, Massive has demonstrated that its staff is listening to the community’s input and trying to make positive changes. It is clear to me that they want to make a great game, but like Bungie, the question is whether they will actually be able to pull it off.
For now, my friends and I will probably take a break from The Division and return to Destiny for awhile. That’s not because The Division is a bad game; on the contrary, it’s very engaging, has some great moments, and demonstrates a lot of potential. Its main problem now is that it’s still pretty rough around the edges, and Massive needs some time to polish things up. (Remember, Bungie has a two-year head start with Destiny.) I’ll give them awhile to work on it, but I know I’ll eventually be back for more adventures in the City That Never Sleeps.
