Let's Talk About This: Returning to Tom Clancy's The Division
- Ben Stembridge
- Mar 14, 2017
- 6 min read
Let's be perfectly honest with ourselves; the release and reception of Ubisoft's military RPG, Tom Clancy's The Division was shaky. It was beset by early criticism in regards to its lack of a well-developed narrative and repetitive nature. To put its struggle into something quantifiable, The Division's Steam player tracking report shows that the game lost 59.43% of its players a month following its release in March 2016. The game takes place in a wintry New York City that has descended into chaos and violence after the release of a deadly strain of smallpox. Players take control of their very own Division Agents, embedded peacekeepers with access to advanced technology and abilities. This is essentially Ubisoft's answer to Bungie and Activision contentious game Destiny. Like Destiny, The Division has a score of problems to match its benefits and high points.
When I bought it and began playing a few days after its release, I found myself enjoying it. There were some notable issues that I put at the back of my mind, but I focused on leveling up, finding and purchasing great and customizable weapons, and completing as many primary and secondary objectives I could find. Sadly, my fun didn't last, as with many large-scale games of this nature are prone to become a bit tedious as you spend more and more time with it. So I left the game to focus on the coming year's various other titles. I hunted pirate treasure in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, explored the heart of the ocean in Abzu, and blasted my away across the world in Battlefield 1. But now, I've returned to the besieged New York to continue my tenure as a Division Agent. Let's talk about this.
At its heart, The Division is fun
My recent return involved me starting from the beginning and activating a new agent to begin my experience with the game anew. It'd been a year, and I wanted to see what had changed. Not much has been altered in regards to your introduction to the complicated world of The Division. Already knowing what the introduction would set up for me, I burned right through it and got to meat of the game as I established my base of operations to combat the virus and the many ultra-violent factions that now dominate New York.
Many disgruntled former players explained that they didn’t enjoy some aspects of The Division because it often goes out of its way to throw enemies that outrank you. A year ago I would’ve agreed. Knowing this trend, I’ve kept the edge by ranking up quickly to leverage my battles against bad guys. Honestly, I’m having a little more fun. While the game might not teach you to rank up first, complete main missions second, you should absolutely do so. I now make a rule to only complete a main mission as two ranks higher than the enemies. It may sound timid, but I have changed the way I play for the better. When playing alone, I’m able to take on the armies of combatants without worrying constantly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a challenging game, which is something I originally really liked about The Division.
If you return to The Division, as I have, try and leverage your ranking as best you can. Be patient, as it still takes quite a bit of effort to rank up. Hammer out the points necessary to level up, then let the enemy have it. Once you find this comfortable balance, you’ll be able to experiment more with replaying old missions at higher difficulty, and rediscover that at its heart, The Division is fun.
Say what you will, but The Division is impeccably stylish and detailed
I feel like I never really appreciated what The Division had to offer visually. The story is lame and fairly trite, and the focus on player-to-player interaction and gameplay sort of draws a lot of the attention. But if you stop and look, Ubisoft and its various development partners have crafted a consistently detailed reimagined New York City. The logical placements of checkpoints maintained by NYPD officers and National Guardsmen, the traffic jams and spaced out points of destruction, and the use of people in the streets to give players a sense of collective human identity and attachment to the Big Apple.
But it’s not just the detail that has drawn me in further back into the complicated game. Customization continues to satisfy me again and again. How many games can say that they offer this many options for making your weapons feel like your own? I take my higher ranked MP5, slap a classy-looking scope on it, secure that son of a gun (haha) with an angled foregrip, and top it off with an ever-cool silencer. From there I put on my green triclimate jacket and tactical khakis (tactkis) and went to work. Having been back for only a few days, I’m insanely into finding more guns and styling them with my own touch, making them more effective and hella badass.
There’s much more to come, with a very attractive price tag (free)
Game Chop recently reported on Ubisoft’s fascinating decision to release all Year Two content for The Division will be free. Wow. That’s what I’m talking about. There’s no guarantee that either two DLCs will be any good, but it’s a welcome sight to any new players, or returning players like yours truly. Referring back to that Steam report, the past 30 days show a 14% increase in players. Ubisoft’s developers have explained that the upcoming content will introduce a litany of new game modes, weapons and customizable gear, and some narrative expansions.
I for one and pretty thrilled at the announcement, and even more so at the timing. The Division is a good game to simply come back to whenever you feel like it, so the fact that I and so many other players have returned now must be fate. New goodies and gameplay experiences on the way? Hell yeah, sign me up. It costs me nothing, and arrives just as my interest has peaked again.
Having come back to The Division, I notice that I'm not just interested again because of a bunch a free stuff coming my way. I'm looking at the game with new eyes, and playing it with a new, more informed style. I think that I'll finally burn through this interesting but complex game this time around, and I bet that I'll continue to enjoy it.
Update - 4/5/2017: Welp . . .
The world is a wealth of vicious and predictable cycles. Unsurprisingly, I have again lost immediate interest with Tom Clancy's The Division. In the first half of this edition of "Let's Talk About This," I went into great detail on the underlying positives of this game. The existing and persisting issue is one of experience not of design or style.
Sure, it's great that Ubisoft wants to invest in the game, and is going out of their way to improve. They're giving this jam away during Year Two, for crying out loud! But that is simply not the issue. The issue is the endgame experience. As my good friend and fellow Game Chop staffer Austin noted, there is a complete and total lack of compelling goals other than the incredibly lackluster story, and the quest for cool guns.
Destiny, an equally contentious and similarly designed title, doesn't run into this issue because it's experience is designed explicitly to retain players. The game's story is poorly slapped together, and yet it is so fun alone and in groups that players look past its flaws. If The Division is designed to be the same type of game, then why the hell can't I get back into it? I didn't even make it to the "Dark Zone," a popular competitive multiplayer game mode.
To update you, dear readers, I am still having trouble enjoying and experiencing The Division, as so many of us have. While it can be fun, as I explained before, it simply isn't conducive to an enjoyable play-through. The game has style in mind, gameplay in mind (even though it tries too
hard to be complex), but loses players so quickly after it reveals that, even with friends, the game is a good-looking grind for gear. Where Ubisoft falters, Bungie soars with Destiny, as it keeps player experience at the center while pitting players against alien monsters with simple goals, and appropriately spaced complicated nuances.
What do you nerds think? Is The Division worth another dive-in? Can the folks at Ubisoft turn this thing around, as Bungie has shown promise of doing with Destiny? Leave your comments and various musings in the comments.
Ben Stembridge, Editor-in-chief
Ben leads the reviews and news coverage for Game Chop. He also offers opinions on games and the industry, covering a wide range of genres and platforms. Ben especially enjoys discussions on game narratives, design styles, and independent titles.
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