What’s Wrong with The Division (so far)
After so many years of E3 presentations, marketing videos, delayed launch dates, The Division surprised us by actually being released and not succumbing to the same fate as Fable Legends or PT. It’s being hyped as a the new Destiny and which appears to be in high demand as Ubisoft reports record sales and gamers eagerly anticipate any substantive reason to revisit Bungie’s seminal MMO shooter.
We’ve had only a few hours to explore the dilapidated New York wastelands so our verdict is still a long ways off, but overall the game has us intrigued – at least when playing cooperatively (PROTIP: the game is significantly more fun to play with a buddy). But even in our brief 5 hours rampage through midtown NY, we’ve noticed so many things wrong with the experience; elements that keep this from becoming the AAA experience and true Destiny-killer we’re craving. Some of these are fixable so maybe a concerned Ubisoft will hear out its fans and make changes, others, not so much.
Sure, half the world is dead but at least you can take in the NY sights without too many tourists
Here now are 7 Things Wrong with The Division (so far)
1. Things get off to a insanely slow start
Like any good story, the opening should hook you immediately. The Division doesn’t do that. Instead it grabs you by the hand and slowly walks you around parts of Brooklyn for way too long until a chopper of people you really don’t care about yet gets blown up and it throws yet another intro cutscene at you. We hate it when any game forces us into the sewers as it’s never interesting – that happens during the tutorial here.
2. Floaty controls
Maybe it’s slow server performance in the MMO or maybe it’s because the city is so meticulously rendered. Either way, we’re experiencing way too much drift when aiming. We haven’t ventured into Dark Zone yet, but not having tight controls when you’re up against fellow players sounds infuriating.
3. Don’t mistake silence for profundity
Too often Ubisoft trusts the silence or white noise of a destroyed New York to immerse us in this world, but as the intro drags and there is considerable downtime between levels, the absolute vacuum of a compelling score was unfortunate. There are times during tense gunfights when a song will start, but’s largely absent and a noticeable deficit compared to what Marty O’Donnell did with Destiny.
4. RPG-lite elements are really lite
While we’re leveling up it looks like we’re going to get the exact same abilities as everyone else – gun turrets, health bombs, radar pulses, etc. We’re not making hard choices yet about our character’s abilities. It’s a weird design choice that will limit replayability.
5. Why spend so much time with accurate representations
Ubisoft seems to have painstakingly recreated every square inch of New York in this game. It’s awe-inspiring really when you compare this to reality. But, who cares? Like when has this ever been worth the effort? LA Noire? The Getaway? We’re much happier patrolling far off planets of Destiny or the fictionalized Tibet of Far Cry 4 than a very real looking Madison Square Garden.
6. Who are we fighting again?
So far we’ve managed to kill close to a hundred enemies with hoodies – some have bats, most have guns, some have shields. On occasion someone decides to bring a short range flamethrower to a sniper rifle fight but we’re not going to point out their fallible logic. There just isn’t much diversity in what we’re shooting so far – we hope that evolves as the game unfolds.
7. Why, oh why, can we kill dogs?
Seriously, you spent man hours to establish dogs that we can kill? Why?
The dog even looks you in the eyes as you pull the trigger, you monster.
We’ll see you all in the Dark Zone!
