User Review : Tom Clancy’s The Division

A battleground like no others.

For nearly 100 years military forces have tried any number of ways to use biochemical warfare to defeat their opponents. Yellow Cross during WW1, Mustard Gas by the Japanese in 1937. Most of the stories we hear about with chemical warfare revolve around one thing; War. Whether it be on the Land, in the Sea, or in the Air, War has always been the catalyst for creations, with the intent on destruction. But what if the war we were facing was hidden in plain sight from us? instead of seeing thousands of men and women head off to war each and every day, the war is finding the best price on that new tv, or that new phone, and of course making sure no one else gets one.

That is where the Division begins. Not on Black Friday like most will think, but deep within ourselves. we all have a need for survival, and unfortunately a lot of people have been confusing the need to survive with selfishness, and that is the first of many broken links in our society. when i speak about selfishness, I'm speaking about the ideals, yes i said ideals, of living beyond our means, making sure everyone knows that you are amazing because you own this car, or that car, or both cars.

you take you kids to band practice on Monday, karate class on Tuesday, violin class on Wednesday, then pull them out of school on Thursday so you can spend time with them. we all see the people driving those expensive cars and believe they own the road, how else could they get away with the horrible driving and parking?

Tom Clancy's The Division take this idea, and runs with it perfectly. It's Black Friday in NYC. Everyone and their grandmother is out trying to save 78% on the new 95inch tv. and as we all know, cash is king, specially in NYC, but what if that cash was also the devil? what if that cash, let's say a 1$ bill knew something none of us knew.

that in a matter of days... that 1$ bill was going to kill millions of people. Enter Small Pox, one of the Antagonists of The Division, now it was chemically revamped to create a bigger and faster spread and death rate than the original strain. while some of you may not know of don't think about it, small pox isn't 100% gone from the earth. the US CDC has the small pox strain because we still don't trust Russia, and Russia has a strain because... you guessed it, they don't trust the States. What even more alarming than that, if the majority of the people playing this game, and reading this review have absolutely no defense against Small Pox because it was taken out of immunizations in the 70s.

If in any way, the Division ever comes true, we are all defenseless, for now. The US Government has known about the possible threat of some sort of Bio-Chemical warfare for a long time, and already has had simulations of "The Division" like assets in the field. i wont go as far as putting on my tin foil hat and saying there are sleeper agents serving you coffee in the morning, but i believe they have some sort of protocol set up in cases of these.

And that is where you come into the Division. you play as a Division agent, working their way out of Brooklyn and into Manhattan to try and find an uncontaminated version of the new strain "Green Poison" along the way, you are restoring your Base of Operations which lets you help the citizens of NYC and also increases the abilities available to you.

Just like many other games with similar RPG elements, the Division asks you to do missions ranging from securing medical and food supplies to taking down gang leaders in the UN Embassy. all of these give you either Experience, credits, supplies, or a combination of rewards. the experience lets you wear higher level gear, the credits let you buy said gear, and supplies help you boost your character without gear. That's a lot of gear talk, and i haven't even touched the surface yet. Within the gear and weapons available to you, there are 5 distinct types of gear, ranging from White (lowest rarity), Green, Blue, Purple, Gold (Highest Rarity). and just as many other games in these genres the goal is to get the best gear you can get which will consist eventually of all High End Gear (Gold).

That not the only bit of customization, for every weapon you own, there are a set number of mod slots you can use to add effects and traits to your weapon. mods include Extended Magazines which can almost double your clip size, Silencers to reduce threat, Acog Scopes to have increased accuracy, Under barrels for better stability. Once more is that Ubisoft Massive took the same approach with the Gear you wear as well. Once Purples and the always evading Gold items start dropping you will notice more and more gear items have slots for Performance mods that increase your characters attributes, from better scavenging to increased defense against elites.

Accounts would have a field day with this game.

The amount of numbers crunching truly needed to become the most powerful player in the game is overwhelming. i spent 45 minutes last night staring at my Re-calibration desk hoping to beef up my Scavenging so i may actually find a Gold item. 45 minutes later, due to RNG i had an additional 8%. it was not enough.

So you've maxed out your Base, you've reached level 30, what left is there to do?

Side Missions - Side Missions in the Division are just as rewarding as the Main missions for the simple fact of blueprint drops that are rewarded for your time. and with side missions lasting anywhere from a few minutes to 10 minutes depending on your damage per second and livability.

Daily Missions - these are the current end game activities to do, and while it may seem like next to nothing, a lot of people are still finding the challenge mode well... challenging, especially the first area of the Russian Consulate with the chargers.

Explore NYC - With an almost 1:1 recreation of Manhattan in the Division many people will recognize streets, apartment building and much more just from walking around the deserted streets. i actually found the Macy's store i bought my first automatic wrist watch.

Dark Zone - this is where the fun is currently. The Dark Zone in essence is a PVPVE (player vs player vs enemy) where any player you see can be an ally to help you kill the enemy, or waiting till the end to take you out. and steal your loot. during your time in the dark zone, players have opportunities to go against Division and JTF orders and go "Rogue" causing other players in the area to see where you are and track you down to kill you. essentially an player operated wanted/bounty system. as the rogue agents kill more friendly players, their bounty increases until there is a man hunt for them, where everyone (all 30 players) know exactly where the rogue agent is no matter their distance for a full 5 minutes. during this time, the rogue agent must survive 5+ minutes to receive the bounty that was on their head as payment. i say 5+ minutes because whenever they are in combat the time pauses. it can be very intense, especially if you are alone.

Teaming up - when i first played The Division in the closed and open Beta i noticed something after i thought my game had crashed. i like many others wanted to get into the darkzone as soon as i could, but my friends were level 8, i was 7. i swear ubisoft made me feel like a scene from Romeo and Juliet by not allowing me to join my friends in the dark zone. upon further looking i noticed i could transfer to the higher bracket to play with them. oh how i wish to be on that balcony. i choose to switch brackets, and my character just stands there. "WTF" i think to myself. "uhh guys, i cant play with you."

i start running to make sure my game wasn't frozen. over my headphone i hear them screaming as they are being surrounded by enemies. i can see their location on my map by no body. and thats when it happened. i transferred to their bracket and was completely shocked at what i saw, or should i say, didn't see. all the while i was running around in circles, and my teammates were fighting off other players, the game was preparing and completing the transfer in the background. one second, streets empty, the next, a god dam battlefield. i was hooked! we dropped the bodies with two perfectly timed EMP and flash grenades and when about our day.

Victory is for the taking, as we took every bit of gear they had.