Ubisoft has finally launched The Division‘s closed beta, and we’ve managed to take a closer look at what arguably the year’s biggest new video game release has to offer. With so much anticipation for the game from those who have been impatiently awaiting its release, and who are still a little sore at it having been delayed twice after initially being touted as a PS4/Xbox One launch title, the beta offers some insight into how the final product is shaping up.
Fortunately, initial impressions are very good, though it’s not all plain-sailing. Here’s what I like and dislike about The Division after sinking hours into beta:
Like… the Dark Zone
The Dark Zone is The Division‘s PvP area, and the beta really pushes it to the forefront of what the game has to offer. With The Division having been branded Ubisoft’s answer to Destiny, the game fits the bill of the MMORPG/FPS hybrid Bungie were aiming for with their sci-fi shooter, though the Dark Zone seems to be a little more robust Destiny‘s Crucible.
The Dark Zone is essentially a contaminated area (you wear a mask while traversing it) filled only with other players and computer-controlled enemies, with it featuring its own ranking system used to obtain exclusive gear that can’t be found in The Division‘s PvE component. However, rather than it solely revolving around players shooting other players in the head, the Dark Zone does encourage teamwork by way of its Extraction Points. When players obtain loot in the Dark Zone, it is contaminated and must therefore be extracted before it can be carried over into the PvE portion of the game. In order to decontaminate your earned weaponry and equipment, you must extract it, which involves you waiting for a helicopter to make its way to an Extraction Point that will be pinged on the map for other players to see.
During my time spent waiting around these Extraction Points, I found myself helping out other players as they tried to fend off advancing AI enemies, though I also became embroiled in combat with other players. Acts of aggression (i.e. shooting another player in the head) causes your name above your head to be highlighted red on other players’ screens, making them more wary of you in the process. I managed a few successful extractions, and got killed a few times to boot.
The finished product will preferably refrain from devolving into chaos, and there will be a good mixture of those looking to quietly extract their gear, and those who want to engage in a war around the extraction point. As it stands the Dead Zone is a lot of fun, but constantly having to fight for your equipment could swiftly become tedious, so hopefully this won’t turn out to be the case in the full game.
Dislike: The recoil
With The Division being part RPG, the key driving force behind the game outside of completing missions is obtaining better gear. This presents a slight issue, because The Division‘s weaponry is grounded in realism, meaning that it cannot go the route of most MMOs and introduce outlandish weaponry with ludicrous stats without it looking a little silly in the process; these guns are all still firing standard bullets, and they all still look like the kind of equipment that would be utilized by the military.
So Ubisoft needed to provide a way to make the guns you get later in the game feel much more powerful than the ones you’re equipped with at the start, with the developer seemingly tackling this issue by plaguing your equipped arsenal with massive amounts of recoil. Seriously, these guns fly everywhere whenever you’re so much as tap the trigger, with them perhaps being the most unstable weaponry I’ve experienced in a modern shooter.
I get that this recoil probably serves a purpose and, when we all get our hands on the higher tier guns available in the full game, their recoil will likely be drastically reduced and shooting down enemies more manageable. But for the time being, trying to gun down someone who’s standing even 10 meters away from my player-character sees me painting the floor and the sky with bullets.
Like: The lack of loading screens
It’s perhaps a boring feature to focus upon, but the complete lack of loading screens in The Division really helps build the sense of immersion in its world. Traversing between areas and in and out of buildings without being forced to wait makes playing The Division a very fluid experience, and as such I found it difficult to put the game down while playing it. Loading screens have been a natural stopping point over the years, giving you a few seconds of time to consider turning the game off and going to bed – The Division‘s seamless open-world doesn’t have this, and therefore come its full release I expect to experience a few sleepless nights as a result.
Dislike: 30fps and frame drops
Ubisoft previously stated that if The Division wasn’t running at 30fps on the PS4 and Xbox One, they would have had to make sacrifices in other areas. While this is understandable, and I appreciate that they didn’t go with the whole “it’s more cinematic” approach again, it still isn’t the ideal way to play a shooter reliant upon the swift reactions of its players.
It’s not the end of the world, but 60fps would have certainly been preferable, even if it meant dropping the resolution down to 900p from that beloved 1080p sweet spot. It also doesn’t help that the game sometimes experiences frame rate drops in graphically busy areas.
Like: The gorgeous visuals
Playing The Division beta on Xbox One, the least powerful of the three platforms the game will be available on, I was still taken aback by how good the game looks. While it’s not as immediately breathtaking as Rise of the Tomb Raider, the best-looking game on the platform, it’s still clear that plenty of attention has been put into the detail of the game’s post-apocalyptic New York setting. The Division‘s NY actually looks like a concrete jungle, with remnants of those who once lived there scattered throughout it. There aren’t enough areas unlocked in the beta to pass judgement on whether or not there’s variety in its visuals, but what’s there looks good.
The futuristic tech that litters the HUD of the game is also employed wonderfully, from the augmented reality map you can browse that is laid out on the floor around your character, to the flashback sequences you can trigger which show you AR recreations of the violence that took place prior to the deadly outbreak that forms the basis of the game’s plot. A minor gripe I had was my character’s ever-present life gauge hovering next to them, though this can be concealed in the game’s settings.
Speaking of settings, The Division may be the first console game I’ve played that includes PC-style graphics options, allowing the player to turn on/off chromatic aberration and use a slider to sharpen the game’s visuals. It’s nothing life-affirming, but it’s a neat little touch for those who like to tinker in menus.
Dislike: Inconsistent enemy AI
After playing through a selection of the few PvE missions available in the beta, it’s clear that the game’s AI enemies can be very hit and miss. Some duck and weave into cover expertly, taking it in turns to fire at you and flanking you as you cower behind cover. However, some just mindlessly charge at you with a melee weapon, batting away at you with a bit of wood and allowing you to cleanly shoot them in the head.
This tactic can prove to be a little overwhelming when you’re faced with a crowd of enemies and one guy is running up behind you and punching you in the mouth, but it still doesn’t make it any more ludicrous. What do these guys think they’re going to achieve? You’re holding a gun, for God’s sakes – even if they do get a solid hit on you, they’re still going to die either way.
Like: Go cooperative or go rogue
The most surprising thing I learned from playing The Division‘s beta is that although it is predominantly a squad-based shooter, it’s still a lot of fun even if you choose to go solo. The game does emphasise the importance of teamwork, and the last-minute addition of proximity chat really goes a long way to helping out those who may not necessarily have a selection of friends to head into battle with, but for those who aren’t concerned with fighting alongside others, taking to New York’s desolate streets as a lone survivalist is still an option and an enjoyable one at that.
The most fun I had with The Division was actually playing solo with a Rogue Agent status. This status is earned when you shoot another player in the Dark Zone, with a skull being placed next to your name to alert other players that you aren’t a pleasant chap to be around. A bounty will be placed on your head, and other players are encouraged to seek you out and kill you – you can also achieve Rogue Agent status as a group, wandering around the environment like a herd of bandits, terrorizing everyone you come into contact with.
It’s a good way to discourage people from wantonly killing one another, as becoming a Rogue Agent essentially means that other players are then hunting you down, though also gives those who want to step into PvP in order to ruin everyone else’s day an extra challenge.
Dislike: You can kill dogs, but not civilians?!
Seriously, what kind of sick world is this? When entering The Division‘s world, I immediately took aim at a civilian but, to my surprise, they ran away unharmed. On the other hand, you can mow innocent dogs down with wild abandon. Is Ubisoft unaware that dogs are better than humans?
