The Division Open Beta – Duel Review

We have a duel review of the The Division Open Beta that was released last weekend. Enjoy!

Robert plays The Division Open Beta (PS4):

Okay so this weekend, I downloaded & installed The The Division Open Beta onto my PS4. It didn’t take me long to get rocking on the game. Before you can even do anything there’s a short tutorial video played to give you a quick “how to play The Divsion” and it’s enough to get you all started. Away I went, now I played with a friend and had a good time running around in New York city post a major world-wide pandemic type world. Seems that current news is that over 6 million people played the Open Beta this past weekend over the many platforms (PS4, XBoxOne & PC). Wow.

Game Play. I found the controls fun and very different from other shooters like GTA, Destiny & Star Wars. Even differs in how it feels from other top PS4 games like KillZone & even Uncharted in how you control your character in all high action. The aiming is something to learn but it’s not hard, you just need to remember to relax & not get too stressed out, find cover & take your shots.

Cover. This game is all about getting the best cover & there are controls for moving, rushing and hoping around cover without being either spotted and/or not a big target moving about. It’s actually a bit of fun with the cover, moving and getting better placement when the action hits.

The Story. I enjoyed what was teased in this Open Beta. You learn more about the big pandemic attack and how the city of New York tried to deal with it before it almost all fell apart. What I REALLY enjoyed the story and that YOU’RE not going to be saving the world. You’re slowly, and I mean, slowly trying to rebuild just parts of New York. Parts. Won’t happen overnight which is encouraging for the long game, if The Division is planned to be a long shooter MMO type game. Similar to what Destiny wants to do. One huge advantage is that unlike Destiny game, which gave a broken story for it’s Beta, this story seems like there’s much more to do, almost endless. I’m sure it’s not but I never got that feeling with Destiny. It always seemed as though Destiny had some end and it did. Once my friends and I finished the first big story, we really had no interest in going back and re-doing the same maps for a “new story” which seemed disconnected from the first big story. Again, I didn’t last with Destiny and all it’s DLC as I never found it entertaining enough to continue. The Division on the other hand intrigues me.

The Graphics. The look & feel of the game captured me in many ways. I’ve never been to New York but WOW does the game give me that feel. From the snowy, dark nights to the bright shiny days, it’s another game setting a new graphical benchmark for gaming.

PvPvE. What does this mean? Player vs Player vs Environment. In The Division, there are going to be large parts of New York called The Dark Zone. In these areas, you will compete (and perhaps fight) with other players against the Environment. Anything you receive in the way of weapons or equipment will need to be extracted out which then gives a big RED MARK in the game for all to see. Suddenly it’s a free for all on the stuff you’re trying to get out by both other players (Division members who go rogue and shooting / killing other players) and other gangs out there wanting what you have. I’m not the biggest fan of PvP, I enjoy it in parts of some games like GTA or Star Wars Battlefront where it’s YOU vs THEM. Here, I found it was too easy to go rouge with one miss-fire of your gun against another player. What I did LIKE though was seeing all the players who aren’t rogue hunting down rogues. See how long this lasts. Some of our gaming had certain high leveled players just hanging around checkpoints, going rouge and stealing your gear once you’re dead. That. Wasn’t. Cool. See how this all plays out in the final release of the game.

Overall. I enjoyed the crap outta this game and quickly pre-ordered it. I can’t wait to get started playing with friends online in a few weeks and building up in this post pandemic New York. Downside was The Dark Zone as I’m huge on Player vs Player type open world games but oddly enough, I like it in GTA. Might grow on me here.

Ian plays the Division Open Beta (PC):

Going into this, I was unsure what exactly to expect as the marketing for the game has been sparse but with only small doses of info. Mainly, I knew that it was set in NYC during a biological outbreak that cripples the city and that the focus was team work with some gunplay. As Robert mentioned, it’s mostly cover based 3rd person shooter that throws in some RPG skills but in a very similar style to Call of Duty.

There’s perk charts that unlock new abilities as you level up from completing missions which go towards rebuilding your base of operations. I found it interesting that there’s very little emphasis on the player character but rather the idea is stabilization and gaining control over the chaos that the virus has left the city in as you are a small piece in a much larger world and you can really feel it sink in when you’re exploring the mostly empty streets.

Of course, it isn’t just you – There’s other elements such as the various criminal elements that range from hood sporting gang bangers known as Rioters, the more industrial sporting group known as the Cleaners and the mentioned but unseen forces of the Rikers. Given that the game state was limited due to being as an open beta, the two main story missions acted as a preview for what’s in store for you when it releases in March.

If you’ve played other MMO like games before such as Destiny or the lesser known Defiance, this game has the same feel of being a shooter first and MMO second. The structure is there when it comes to the progression as you enhance your character and unlock new content but the real highlight is found in The Dark Zone.

What I expected was a complete free for all situation. I assumed that there would be more players milling about than NPCs to take out so you’d constantly feel like you had a bullseye on your back but what I actually got was more surprising. There was a strange sense of gentlemen rules in place as entering the zone doesn’t flag you as an enemy but that as the player, if you step out of line by attacking another player, the area would shift against you.

Going Rogue as the game calls it paints the bullseye and shines a giant metaphorical beacon of attention on you which leaves you completely vulnerable to being taken out. The funny thing is that while other players are content in taking out enemy NPCs, sometimes helping you out with a difficult encounter, it can all change if you are highlighted as being rogue. Going Rogue comes with a short life span as the strangers that once were helping you take out that enemy boss will all team up against you on the spot – Nobody lives that long as a Rogue which creates this unique gentlemen’s agreement amidst the potential anarchy that I thought would take place.

As Robert mentioned, this kind of mentality is a double edge sword – While at the start, everyone is mostly on equal grounds for equipment so even if you were able to take out one person, you’d get taken out just as easily however if it was a group of people gone rogue, the survival period could last longer but even then, there’d be limits as the payoff for taking out someone is a certain amount of items they found which is pretty low and mostly a mystery until the gear gets dropped.

The real highlight of the experience was just exploring the city. The only other MMO that I’ve played recently that had the same organic sense of the world unfolding as you went around was the Elder Scrolls and this game had very similar moments of finding encounter points to gain experience points and supplies for the base.

The small details really sell it as you go through abandoned apartments, finding clothing and open cupboards as a sense of panic can be felt from the environment alone. The other interesting visual note was how the UI functioned as labels for vendors or map locations were displayed in real time against unused areas in the environment. One of the samples of this is in the station being used as your base of command as a progress chart can be seen floating against boarded up wall area.

The weather effects are pretty astonishing without a doubt. The fog like conditions of a winter storm during the night cycle could really have an interesting effect in the Dark Zone as most players tend to sport darker clothes to blend in with the environment.

Overall, it’s a pretty good experience if you’re a fan of 3rd person shooters. It’s a game that has plenty of ambition and I’m curious as to what they have planned for future additions specially for the Dark Zone. I feel like that since I was able to finish the story missions fairly quickly, the long term content for the game will be found in the Dark Zone so if you’re more inclined to be a lone wolf, this might not be your cup of tea.

The game really encourages working as a team and even the marketing sells the game as a team based experience as the ads remind me of CoD. After playing through the beta, I’m beginning to see why there’s such a lack of disclosure about elements of the game such as the enemies you face or the importance of the Division in itself, they’re such minor details compared to the moments you’ll experience in real time as you play the game itself – it’s those details that Ubi Soft wants you to remember.

Since I was playing this on PC – I can offer a side observation that Robert mostly likely won’t have to deal with. I started playing the beta using mouse and keyboard as it offered the most precision for aiming. I also tried using the Steam Controller since the aiming aspect uses a tracking pad style, it felt accurate but really only when I was using ironsights – It takes a bit of tweaking to get use to it.

Here’s some screenshots I managed to capture during my play sessions.