The Division

[Marduk1813 62]

Is anyone else playing the Beta of the so-called Tom Clancy Game "The Division"?

 

I'm following the game since its reveal trailer in 2013. When I saw it first I was amazed, but then Ubisoft happend. Watchdogs got massively downgraded and was boring and cheap, the MP-focussed R6 Siege is disappointing, Far Cry 4 was copy&paste. No good signs for The Division, however I got a Beta-key via the NVIDIA-event. I preloaded the Beta, started to play yesterday and I spent around 10 hours in-a-row in the game. For me, the Beta convinced me to buy the game after release. I'd never expected such a well-done and innovative game by Ubisoft.

 

• During the 10 hours I played 3 of my friends joined me. No one of us had a single-crash, so it's a very polished Beta. Never saw such a stable one before. Never had any issues to join the sessions of my friends.
• No bugs, no falling-out-of-the-level, as good as no loading-screens. 
• Tons of options you can use to edit the settings. That's not to be taken for granted in the days of "next-gen".
• Controls and menus feel optimized for PCs, I did not have any of the classical port-issues. Movement, the cover-system, shooting, all feels good and smooth.
• Technics are killer. The game isn't looking as good as in the reveal trailer, but is still gorgeous. NY is very atmospheric and interesting to explore, the darkzone is creepy. The animations are good, what impressed me most are the weapon models and the sounds.
• The gameplay works, if you don't mind the RPG-elements. The AI isn't that impressive, but does their job. The levels itself aren't that complex - hallway, action-bubble, hallway, action-bubble, hallway, bossfight. Still fine for what it is. The amount of enemies adapt to the amount of players, even if it is still to easy sometimes.
• The idea of the darkzone is cool. We played around 2 hours there. The AI here is very challenging (also spongy), the biggest issue here is that you can get enganged by players with far better weapons then you have. I hope that they are going to add some matchmaking for this.
• Only thing I would mention: NY itself is a bit empty. Many things to see, stuff to loot and to collect, but a bit more interaction with the enviroment would be nice. But I also know that it is very difficult to realy fill a open-world without mindless collect-quests. 

Overall, after the 10 hours I played I would say that this is a title which realy deserves the tag "triple A title", and those are the games I expect by comapnies like Ubisoft. A innovative gameplay-idea, great technics, and well ported from the consoles. Ubisoft got the ressources to hire stuff which can create such games, and it seems they did here. Never expected this after all of the disappointing titles in the last years. Those are games where I am ready to pay 60 bucks for. I'm curious to see what the rest of the weekend will bring.

 

 

Oh, and of course I know that this is not the final game, and this is no final assessment. Just wan't to say: it's very promising.   

[PuFu 4591]

it is only normal to be impressed by the quality of weapons for once every asset has be sculpted.

 

nice small pre-review

[IAmABlueJay 1]

I love the beta but I found a bug that doesn't break the game but is still very annoying. When i turned the video setting from fullscreen to fullscreen windowed I felt a massive frame drop that did not recover. I really hope they fix this because I do enjoy the game. See you in the zone fellow Operatives! Cx

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Don't forget to mention that they built the Snow Drop Engine from the ground up specifically for the Division, which is also a factor why their Beta was as smooth as it was. Through the entirety of their development until now, everything was design for the game, features, content, core functionality.

[x3kj 1247]

During the 10 hours I played 3 of my friends joined me. No one of us had a single-crash, so it's a very polished Beta. Never saw such a stable one before. Never had any issues to join the sessions of my friends.

No bugs, no falling-out-of-the-level, as good as no loading-screens.

Honestly, what did you expect? The release is 1 month out, it better be polished by now or it would end in disaster. I feel like the "beta" is more like a glorified demo, especially with all the gameplay restrictions in place.

[Marduk1813 62]

Honestly, what did you expect? The release is 1 month out, it better be polished by now or it would end in disaster. I feel like the "beta" is more like a glorified demo, especially with all the gameplay restrictions in place.

 

I played the R6 Siege Alpha and Beta, thatswhy I expected nothing. The more surprised I was when everything just went fine. And I agree that the term "Beta" is not correct in this case - it's a mix of a stresstest and promotion event. I doubt there will be any major changes in the current gameplay, it's way to late for that. 

 

There will be another Beta around the 17.2. - whatever is the point of that. 

[Wiki 1558]

R6 Siege sucks and so does The Division.

Not really interesting games, R6 Siege is far from what was the spirit of this franchise - give us back Rogue Spear or SWAT 4!!!

[Mozkelby 39]

I actually haven't played the beta yet, but would be intrigued to do so.

[pulstar 55]

Siege isn't a bad game, and it's sort of a guilty pleasure of mine to play it, but I think it's time Tom Clancy's name is put to rest. And Unlike TD, Siege's controls are fun, if a bit twitchy for eSports sake. Arma controls like Japanese mecha in comparison :blink:

[Marduk1813 62]

Ubi won't drop the name of Tom Clancy. I think they own the rights to use the name, they bought it for 20 million dollars. Still sad to see how they use the name for games which got no connection to Clancy himself. Or does anyone know if the scenario is created by him?

 

Why do people have problems with the controls of TD? So far the best 3. person shooter controls I ever saw, I haven't played many though. 

[pulstar 55]

Well for me I hate being unable to crouch

[Marduk1813 62]

Oh yeah, highly agree on that. Besides that, I'm fine with the controls. 

[kavoven 4]

Siege isn't a bad game, and it's sort of a guilty pleasure of mine to play it, but I think it's time Tom Clancy's name is put to rest. And Unlike TD, Siege's controls are fun, if a bit twitchy for eSports sake. Arma controls like Japanese mecha in comparison :blink:

 

Since they are still publishing new books under his name, I guess it will take some time until they will stop using it. Moreover, they rather use the name as "this is a Tom Clancy game, so you can at least expect anything that resembles armes and tactics in it" than "Tom Clancy wrote the story".