The Division is soon upon us, and with the open beta behind us we can finally start the countdown to what is one of this year’s biggest and most anticipated titles. The release date is set for March 8 and the game has been on many minds since it was first announced in 2013. With the release so close we wanted to give you 10 reasons why we think you should play The Division.
One of the biggest reasons to play The Division is to get into The Dark Zone. This is the game’s PvP area and something that looks and feel like something new. In this zone you will gather loot from difficult NPCs and crates found around the map. This loot is locked in a way that it needs extraction by helicopter for you to obtain. This may sound simple and very PvP like, but the twist to this is that players can fully engage one another here and take their loot, even the friends in your party. This creates a unique situation that opens up for varied tactics, paranoia and role-playing that will keep the game going for a long time.
Ubisoft Massive is being very quiet above the story and the beta only really touched upon what the story could be. They have still managed to make a really intriguing lore and background regarding an outbreak and the game’s setting at least takes place in New York. Why this is happening, how to stop it and what’s happening all over the world are questions that the story missions hopefully will help us with. And using memory fragments of the time period right before the outbreak to help with story only mystifies and humanizes it even more. Being able to explore this post-apocalyptic New York and its story is one of the great reasons to play The Division.
The Division creates a perfect atmosphere for what it is trying to show us from what we have seen so far. The setting could actually be present day, where everything has collapsed and where thugs try to rule the streets. The detail in and on the buildings, with all the Christmas decorations around the streets, really makes the environments immersive and one of the great reasons to play. This is a world that was left in an instant, something really bad happened and it happened quickly. The dynamic weather system, which their own Snowdrop engine handles, helps create a hostile atmosphere where the snow can come in and make it hard to see while being chased on the streets of New York.
There has been a lot of talk of how the game doesn’t look as good as the first footage we saw of the game when it was first demonstrated. However, no matter how you look at it, The Division is a spectacular game in terms of visuals. Seeing how this is by far one of the best, if not the best, looking online games we know of, the game’s graphics are one of the better reasons to play The Division. Having played through the game with all settings at maximum, it really does come close to the in-game footage we initially saw. Having developed Snowdrop for this game, seeing its potential and how well it handles details and weather, this is clearly Ubisoft’s answer to Frostbite and something we expect many of their games will use in the future.
If anyone still did not know it, The Division is a loot driven game and everything you do is rewarded with new gear and weapons. And there are a lot of things you will need and want, the most important being the mask with filters so you can get around infected zones and powerful guns. The weapons in the The Division come in many different forms and are based on existing weapons you will be familiar with them if you have played shooters before. But not only do you get to loot awesome guns, you also get the chance to modify them so that they suits your special needs. There are scopes, mags, barrels, and handles to improve you weapons. As you improve your weapons, they will open up for further customization.
The Division has a great progression system that moves away from class boundaries and makes you capable of playing a wide variety of different roles, when and how you want. While the beta hasn’t given us access to more than a few skills and no access to passive skill trees, we have already seen how vast and diverse they are. This opens up for a great way to progress your character on how you want to play and offers the ability to easily switch to another set of skills if you want to play in a different way. The Division is much more of a role-playing game then the third person shooter it might look like at a first glance, and the deep structure of the progression makes it one of the reasons to play The Division.
It is not only the progression that helps make The Division a great role-playing experience. While the progression system helps you create the character that suits you, the world and gameplay itself help create a great role-playing experience. Most of this happens in The Dark Zone, which is the perfect environment for role-players to gather. This is a big playground where you more or less can play cops and robbers, gang up and control the extraction points taking profit from everyone using it, acting as bodyguards for solo players and much more. This is one playground that has more in common with survivor games such as DayZ and H1Z1, but with progression found in standard MMORPGs.
Running around the beautiful but hostile streets of New York is a great experience, but doing it with friends makes the experience even better. Having the option to play with three more friends in missions and in the streets, gives The Division an extra edge on the co-op experience. If the missions seem a little too easy for you, they all come with a hard mode that you can attempt with your friends or use the quick and easy matchmaking system.
In The Division you begin with a rundown building that is the starting point for your adventure, and one that acts as a personal base of operations. The base is divided into three main areas, which all affects the mission you get and how the solo zones look. Depending on what missions you choose to tackle while out in the world, you will get points to put into the three different wings of your base. At the base you will also find merchants to buy, sell and upgrade your equipment. Crafting will play a big part of the game but something we still know very little about, and it will probably also take place in your personal base. Think of your base as the usual outpost for quests from other MMOs, but with more customization.
Yes I know, The Dark Zone is already on the list, but it deserves to be on the list again. The PvP vs PvE with a touch of paranoia is something we have seen tested before, but having it in this AAA production and being one of the biggest part of a game is a new concept. If the beta is any indicator, the players will go full role-playing mode in here. On your way to the max level of 30 you will move in different parts and levels of The Dark Zone. But once you hit level 30, The Dark Zone will change and NPCs will be in different location. Even if you have a sound strategy and know every bit of the map, danger lurks around every corner and there are many ways to lose your loot.
With winter coming to a close and the sun starting to shine a little longer during the days, the dark and snowy New York found in The Division will keep you in the magical winter spirit without all of the cold. With the release of March 8 only weeks away, The Division is one of the most anticipated game of 2016. The hype started in 2013 and has been growing ever since. Now that it is so close we can really start tasting it. If you are thinking of starting a new online game this spring, The Division should be high on that list given all these great reasons to play it.
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