Up to its release, everyone in the gaming world has been trying to figure out just how to describe Tom Clancy’s The Division. Destiny, Borderlands, Ghost Recon, H1Z1, Diablo and WoW have all been thrown around in various combinations to attempt an explanation.
While the comparisons can help describe some mechanics, there’s really no way to pin it down; especially without experiencing your own solo run in the Dark Zone.
Short intro: a currency-transmitted virus broke out in New York on Black Friday. The entire city was quarantined and pretty much immediately fell to shit.
Government collapsed, police and military were scattered and a few different gang factions rose to power. You play a Division agent, pretty much a sleeper cell tasked with rebuilding society by shooting everyone and rescuing some people, I think.
Release night was complete ass. Servers were down until about an hour after launch. Even after that, players were (and still are) periodically kicked from the game with error codes Mike, Romeo and Delta (which, as far as I can tell, mean nothing). There were (and still are) bugs, glitches and general fuck ups galore, including the famous blockable doorway leading to the one-at-a-time, no-walking-through-each-other, have-to-access-to-continue laptop horse-cockery.
When it does work, the game is really fun; made more so with a friend or three to play with. Even losers like me still have hope, as matchmaking for missions, PvE free roam and PvP Dark Zone raids drops you in with a fireteam in less than a minute. Your character has a ridiculous amount of customization, including weapon types, armor and gear (with bonus-giving mod slots for each), equipping three of twelve skills (like heals, bombs or turrets) each with four unlockable mods (like distance revives, increased blast radius or flame attachments). Separate pages for perks and talents add to the initially overwhelming complexity of a true MMOTPS (massively multiplayer online third person shooter).
Annoying characters, lag spikes and bullet sponge enemies aside, there are a ton of little touches that still make me smile. Popping tires, shooting birds, and blowing up a flamethrowers gas tank never get old. One mission has you protecting technician John Reese (Terminator), and mentions the missing person Dufresne (search party of three). The Dark Zone keeps gameplay fresh, with real consequences on death such as XP, money and gear loss (only what hasn’t been helicopter extracted from the DZ yet, don’t worry too much).
Tom Clancy’s The Divisions mixes shooting and RPG leveling/looting like Destiny and Borderlands. It requires the 3rd person cover and team tactics of Ghost Recon. The threat of losing hard-earned items like in H1Z1. You get the exploration and gear/weapon grind (with the occasional dopamine shot of success) found in Diablo. And finally, it has the deep customization and mix of PvE (Player vs Environment) and PvP (Player vs Player) combat in WoW. It’s most often compared to Destiny, which I understand. But if you’re gonna simplify it that much, just know that while Destiny is a shooter with RPG elements, The Division is an RPG with shooter elements. It may not use the weird and confusing post-level cap ‘light level’ system, but the end-game grind for better armor and higher damage weapons is just as real.
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