The Division came to me in a roundabout way. It’s over two years old and hadn’t appealed to me at the time of it’s release. It’s third-person shooter viewpoint isn’t my favorite.
That was my first mistake.
The Division isn’t really a shooter. It looks like one and it’s easy to approach it the same way you’d approach any COD game or the like.
But if you limit yourself to that viewpoint, you’ll be missing most of what TD (as referred to hereafter) has to offer.
Sure, the essentials are here, weapons, armor, etc of different types and levels are here and it’s easy to mistake them as being identical to every other shooter, third-person or otherwise.
The difference is in the details and the depth. Also in the overall game flow.
TD is unique (as far as I know) as the intended focus isn’t on the SP campaign but the many gameplay options available after the user attains level 30. (The apparent highest user level).
At this point the user is presented with several new gameplay options. In fairness, although the hard-core single-player user (those who don’t care for the dangers of the Xbox or PS4 random multiplayer user lottery) can find something to like here, most of the content is directed toward multiplayer, coop and PVP.
Every weapon has three talents which change their performance drastically. This means that one SMG be identical in Gear Score but perform very differently. Armor has similar attributes.
The overall effect is that you can equip your character in many different ways that radically affect how the game plays. You can make your character overall weak in health but very strong in attack. Or you can boost your health and have a weak attack. The third component is electronics. This affects the overall effectiveness of your grenades, turrets, and other devices. These three scores define how your character plays and there is literally no limit to the options here. There are also armor (or Gear) sets that, when combined with two to four pieces give your different bonuses.
It can be very intimidating to approach. There are, of course, various Youtube channels devoted to the ins and outs of gear sets and loadouts.
It would be easy to look at TD and see a Destiny clone. The similarities are obvious but the differences are as well. One mistake TD didn’t make was to have a shared SP experience. In Destiny, you play among other players throughout much of the SP experience (aside from the main story campaign). In TD you are only playing among other players when you choose to do so.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about TD is the developer support. TD didn’t have the best debut. Many of the game’s promised features were broken or absent. It would have been easy for the dev’s to just write it up to experience and move on.
Instead, they rolled the dice and elected to hang in, attempted to fulfill the game’s promised features and continue to develop new game content and modes.
Two years in, and new stuff is still being introduced. That’s remarkable. I bought the gold edition for $30 and the bang for the buck is simply incredible. The community is very strong and helpful.
If you’re an RPG or shooter fan, you’ll find something to like here, perhaps to love.
