The Division (PS4) Review

Developed by Ubisoft Massive
Published by Ubisoft Entertainment
Reviewed on : Playstation 4

The Division is a 3rd person open world RPG that is set in a Post-Apocalyptic New York City. A virus outbreak has ravaged downtown New York leaving body bags piled high as you venture thru the snow covered landscape. Inhabitants are either in hiding or being chased and hunted down by rival groups trying to occupy the left over city and cleanse the disease itself by gunning you down or by being burned alive.

You start off with a character creation with about 6 choices to choose from and most of them are premade with not much more than a few differences. We are not talking Skyrim here, but it’s fine as they definitely make it up to you on gear and outfits to wear which is plenty as you can even purchase special gear off the Ubisoft Club. The game sets you off solo as to give the player the basics on how to cover and fire behind objects. The virus was supposedly set off on black Friday so you won’t go 2 feet with cars in your way. the tutorial and a brief traipse around the city and a visit to a safe house they set you on a couple missions to further hone your 3rd person shooting skills, but if you familiar with games like Gears of War and Uncharted you should be good to go. When the game title appears that’s when the fun begins and where you will spend countless hours traversing the city set to a 1-1 scale of downtown New York in search of the next level and weapon upgrade.

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Initially, I started a Solo game with the intent on playing with a couple of my friends as you can play with up to 4 people in a group. The city is quite gorgeous in the snow covered setting and graphics are on par with what is to be expected in a next gen title. Even the snow storms that are randomly generated throughout the game, will leave you blind as you try to find your way thru it. Game play is pretty much on par as well except as you will at times find yourself grinding to the next level as the city is broken up into sections with level suggestions. Players  might find it a bit tough as you find the enemy has a skull over his head suggesting you should go back and level up a bit more. Playing with friends is definitely the way to go as solo play can get a tad boring as you grind you way to level cap of 30. The missions are well done but if you’re looking for something with more oomph, I suggest setting it to hard mode, that’s when the AI gets nuts and they really try to take you down.

 

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The Storyline is nothing too crazy as most of it is trying to set up your base and unlock new wings as to open up more skills thru the missions you encounter. It’s a little more than Destiny had but not by much. Endgame however, you have some choices to work with. One could either continue to replay the missions that have been completed, but now on a harder mode that unlocked as you reach 30. The other option would be to enter in the Dark Zone, which is basically PVP. As you fight and kill bosses in the Dark Zone who drop purple(legendary) or orange(rare) gear, you now have to extract said gear as they are infected and need to be “cleaned”. You must fight your way thru not only NPC’s but other players who can go rogue and shoot and kill you as well as take all your hard earned loot. As for myself I stuck with the PVE drop loots as those rogue experiences left a bad taste in my mouth. Unless you are in a full hunting party of 4, then maybe that might make the difference.

 

 

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