Myself and a handful of other TSA writers have taken the time to look in depth at The Division’s closed beta this morning, with a written hands on and a video roundtable that discusses its virtues, its potential and its failings. Now it’s time to hand the microphone over to you, as we bring WeView out of retirement once more for you to voice your opinions.
Having been announced back at E3 2013, just a few short months before the current generation of console were release, The Division wowed with a simply gorgeous rendition of New York, covered in snow and ravaged by a pandemic driven collapse of society. The game looks rather different to that original showing now, but is it fair to cry foul over a “visual downgrade”, given the power that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ended up having? Certainly, there are screenshots of the PC version of the game that can live up to that initial reveal.
Turning to the gameplay, and it has gradually come out over the course of the last few years that the game blends certain aspects of MMOs and action RPGs with its third person cover-based shooting. You have a number of stats to improve as you play, and futuristic abilities and gear alongside an array of conventional and near-future weaponry. However, not all gear is made equal, and The Division will have you replaying missions and earning cash to find or buy new guns with progressively better stats and perks. It’s something that worked well in hooking players to keep coming back to Destiny, but can it be as compelling a twist for Ubisoft?
And finally, competitive multiplayer is often the lifeblood of an online shooter, as you go toe to toe with other human players to decide who’s best. The Division skews that aspect within the Dark Zone, and it’s perhaps here that the beta most closely resembles that original E3 trailer, as calling in extraction helicopters alerts those nearby to your presence and intentions. Their intent is much more difficult to infer, and can quickly descend into a furious flurry of gunfire and players being marked as going rogue. It’s what all four of us in the roundtable video pointed to as our highlight from the beta, but will it have the same longevity as plain old Team Deathmatch?
Hop into the comments below and sound off with your thoughts on the closed beta. Has it got you more excited for the game? Have you been disappointed by certain aspects, or has it reaffirmed a certain indifference?
Avenger
It’s definitely got me hooked. I enjoyed Destiny alot but it had several problems and it feels like The Division avoids those problems, takes the best bits, and builds upon them.
I don’t think the repetitiveness of the game is a negative thing. It’s a shooter looter (to borrow Teflon’s brilliant term), one that definitely seems more in-depth than Destiny. It’s a bit of a rinse and repeat, but there were cheeky glimpses of weapon/mod crafting, talents, perks, and modded abilities that promised a lot of variety to upgrading my character.
One thing which wasn’t in the beta but was in a previous version was a detailed map showing the whole of New York, with areas over the far end reaching up to level 30. Each area had a level range (23-27), and for me that showed a lot of promise in being able to explore, hunt, loot and upgrade on a much grander scale.
The single player was enjoyable enough, although I reckon some of the encounters might get a bit repetitive, but I loved that there are cutscenes and a story to be had. The Dark Zone was very good. It reminded me of EVE: Online where in the low-sec space you can trust no-one and PVP encounters can be over before they’ve started. I reckon in the full game it will be even better, because there’s nothing to stop level 30 guys from killing you, and it will give good reason to stick with the game to keep upgrading and become competitive.
My only one disappointment was the Dark Zone didn’t have that much depth. It would’ve been nice to have more interactions available like trading gear, assigning bounties and recruiting players for protection missions. At the very least I wanted the landmarks to be more fulfilling. Sometimes I’d search around all the areas only to find all the loot and enemies had been done by someone else, and I was waiting for them to respawn. Hopefully that bit might change in the full game.
Otherwise I enjoyed every bit of the game. People will no doubt insist on comparing it to other Ubisoft games and to Destiny, but I think The Division is original enough to warrant plenty of excitement. Graphics were pretty awesome, perhaps not the best but I think the art design more than made up for it, and on a console you have to admit it looks amazing considering the scale and level of detail being pushed onto the screen.
DR-DAVROS
Loving what I’ve played so far. I’m hoping for destiny but with more to do without it feeling like a job. I hated that you could spend a few hours in destiny and achieve nothing. I’m sure it’s going to be as addictive but hoping not too much. Finding environment very dense with npc etc adding a lot to the feel. graphically very appealing even after what was shown at E3. Content needs to be good to hold me unlike battlefront which as a star wars fan has let me down I want to play it but nothing is drawing me to do so even after patch. Even though this is a beta and I’m going to loose fear in drawn to play and find stuff. Again going with a destiny comparison I like that appearance doesn’t reflect stats therefore not everyone will look the same. I have a feeling that Brooklyn may be the lead up level to level 4 and then your flown in by chopper to Manhattan. I also expect some doc to expand the map north into the national park would love the zoo there to wield in some more challenges with not only human AI but the zoo animals. Maybe it’s also in the game as the last campaign level :) anyway great beta can’t wait to get back to it with 3 mates which again is 1 more than destiny. Hopefully this beta is scratching just a small piece of the main game it sure looks like the campaign might be good.
gazzagb
Annoyingly I didn’t get into the Beta, but I watched a fair bit of it on Twitch.
To me, it looks like a third person Destiny. Unless you’ve got a good group of friends, you’ll probably find it pretty boring, and I think even with friends I’d get bored of it pretty quickly. The map, while amazingly detailed, felt pretty small (I get that the Beta was just a part of it) and I think that once you’ve run through all of the missions once, there won’t be much else to do other than replaying missions in order to gain more loot. The PvP aspect looked fun, but I can imagine that it’s going to be annoying once the full game is released and there is a greater difference between the experience of players. And with loot being such a key part of the game, I fear that higher level players will simply grab any decent loot you manage to get your hands on without much trouble.
Like with Destiny, I think it’s going to be a marmite game, and I think I can be safe in saying it’s not my cup of tea. I’ll keep an eye on it though, as I have been really looking forward to the game since its E3 reveal.
Stefan L
The Dark Zone filters you into different level brackets, based on your level from the PvE side of the game. The beta had a level 1-7 bracket and a level 8 bracket (8 was the max you can get to in the beta), at which point you could use some of the best gear available.
There were also plenty of times when extracting didn’t end in a mass shootout, and the level disparity wasn’t so bad that it matters. Once something’s been extracted, it’s yours to keep until you no longer want or need it. So the only things you’ll be able to lose are from that specific session, and the gear that’s still contaminated. Not having any luck extracting? Aim to earn enough DZ cash to buy stuff at a vendor.
Avenger
I was on my own through the whole beta, and it seemed enjoyable enough to me unlike Destiny which quickly alienated me and demanded I go with a private group to do strikes and raids. Even the campaign missions in Destiny feel a bit uninspiring and as though they were built for groups, but The Division felt a bit better for a lone wolf. Thankfully there is also matchmaking, for both missions and the Dark Zone.
Also there is the level filter which Teflon mentioned. Plus I don’t believe the SP/MP level makes that much difference to the actual stats. It just limits the gear you can use, and it’s the gear which makes up most of the stats.
gazzagb
From the streams I watched, I’d say 75% of extractions I saw ended in a big shoot out. They were great to watch, but I’d get annoyed if I lost good stuff.
If I see it cheap not long after release, I could be tempted, but for now I’ll hold tight.
tatoemonkey
I was really excited about this but I have kindly had my preorder cancelled because I really did not enjoy the game at all.
Nocure-fd
I managed to play with some friends last night.
It was OK. I enjoyed the base establishment/building aspect. And the combat was smooth and felt visceral enough. Though honestly, it felt kinda slow. But that may just be because I’ve been playing a lot of warframe recently, and speed is life in that game.
I’m not quite sold on the dark sector stuff yet. I had some good moments, but the mechanics behind going rogue seemed to be a bit wonky. A few times I was shooting someone marked as hostile, but then I got marked as rogue as well for some reason. So I just got gunned down.
I also don’t like that the whole group gets marked rogue by the actions of one player. I mean, I understand why that is necessary, but one guy in my group felt he had to shoot anything that moved. It made life very stressful :P
Is there a “buy it, sale it, bargain bin” for this? My verdict is to wait for a few weeks after release so all the major multiplayer glitches, exploits, and balance issues get fixed. Then take another look at it.