Never in my life have I been more excited about being wrong. I played the beta for The Division and was left thoroughly unimpressed. But after a recent preview event in NYC I spent around four hours playing the game, and all I want to do is keep playing The Division.
The first part of the hands-on event revolved around the early game. We got to create our characters, choose our loadouts and skills, and off we went. The first mission we played was the same one from the beta, where you need to go rescue a doctor from a field hospital. It was fun playing with three other teammates, and definitely showed the Tom Clancy tactical-ness you can apply to The Division.
Because The Division is an RPG, there are three major play styles: there’s the medic, the assault character, and the character who uses gadgets and tools instead of firepower. Players don’t have to pick one class and stick with it. They can instead blend all three together, or completely remap themselves on the fly. This is great if your friends join up in a game with you, and you all want to become more compatible with each other’s play styles.
After playing through the main mission, our squad then dabbled in some side quests and encounters. There are plenty of other things to do outside of the main quest line, so don’t worry if you think you’ll be running out of single-player content.
After our ventures, we jumped ahead to some high-level content. As a comparison, we started at level 4 originally. This content saw us jump to level 20. Enemies were tougher, but not overwhelmingly so. I’m sure it also helped that the entire team was equipped with rare gear.
At this point, it is very clear how similar The Division is to Destiny. The gear is ranked in an almost identical color system, with purples, blues, greens and grays indicating different levels of rarity. There’s the three skills, mapped to either bumper with the third being both bumpers at once. Of course, there’s also cosmetic features and emotes thrown in as well.
This isn’t a bad thing, so don’t take this comparison as a negative. Honestly, I wanted to get hooked on Destiny, but the lack of story content kept me away. The Division seems to have an ample amount of story content, with more planned in the DLC packs already announced.
Lastly, we went into The Dark Zone, which is the name for the PvP area in The Division. This area is where players can find the best loot, but are also at risk of losing that loot to another player. The best part about The Dark Zone is the fact that getting some gear doesn’t automatically mean you get to keep it.
To keep your gear, you will have to do an extraction, meaning you alert everyone currently in The Dead Zone that you are trying to get good gear out. It’s like ringing a dinner bell for griefers. A timer will count down to a helicopter’s arrival and players will have to defend themselves and the extraction area until the helicopter shows up. Once it’s there, players will have to attach their loot to the helicopter to secure it. This makes gathering loot all the more intense. Instead of just filling up your inventory with guaranteed goods The Division makes you feel like you really earned whatever you just extracted out because you probably had to kill a few players to make it happen.
Thoughts of me and my gaming buddies jamming through missions and tearing up the PvP area The Dark Zone have already raced through my head. I’m sure there are many nights ahead of me where I’m up way later than I should be.
So what do you think? Are you excited to get your hands on The Division when it comes out March 8? What else would you like to know about The Division before it releases? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
