Ubisoft has clearly ramped up its marketing efforts for Tom Clancy’s The Division in recent weeks, and these efforts combined with a recent press event have led to the availability of several new previews and interviews for the shooter/RPG from various outlets. Let’s round them up below.
GameSpot starts us off with a preview and a post-play Q&A:
I was really impressed with the RPG aspects. In fact I’d go as far to say you’re redefining what a typical RPG looks like. It’s a genre that seems synonymous with high fantasy, swords and sorcery, dragons and villages. The Division draws fans in because it’s an attractive co-op cover shooter set in a famous western city, but actually the meat of the dish is perks, upgrades, mods, damage numbers, party perks, abilities, complex skill trees. Do you think you’re stealthily selling people an RPG?
Well, not stealthily. We’re not hiding the cat’s medicine in its food. Because from the very moment we announced the game, we were super up-front that it was a deep RPG.
Merging a shooter with an RPG has worked really well for us. That rags-to-riches journey that the player goes on, where they gradually accumulate power and items, is something we’re very happy with.
IGN is up next:
In addition to all this traditional military hardware is some very cool semi-futuristic tech that gives each agent of The Division a specialized set of abilities. You might choose to send out a pulse that temporarily marks enemies and buffs damage, or maybe carry a riot shield to deflect bullets, or equip a seeker grenade to home in on your enemies. All of this augmented-reality tech is unlocked via RPG-style skill trees, but not in the way you might expect. While traditional RPGs will reward players with skill points to be spent on new powers and abilities, The Division’s upgrades are unlocked based on where you go and what you do.
GameCrate talks a bit about RPG mechanics, in addition to offering an interview:
It was also during this part that I started to notice some odd ways in which The Division felt more like a fantasy RPG than a military third-person shooter. Thanks to our higher levels, we were able to unlock even more of the “Skills,” “Perks,” and “Talents,” as well as their modifiers. But some of them made our abilities seem less realistic, like how one of my teammates could now heal me from a distance, or how I could temporarily boost the effectiveness of my teammate’s bullets. Both of which worked more like magic spells than anything the U.S. Military normally employs.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun shares their two cents:
Structurally, around three hours with the game suggests it’ll find a decent flow, at least in its early stages. I played a few missions, selected from a steadily growing pile, with a low level character and then jumped into the high level stuff for a high stakes story mission. Aside from the addition of some nifty new skills that allowed me to deploy trundling BB-8-esque drones and chuck defensive structures right onto the battlefield, the experience of being a level 20 character didn’t seem drastically different from the level 5 experience.
GamePressure talks about navigating the city:
Speaking of the map, it is important to talk about one more thing its size. The first impression isn’t overly positive the world seems to be quite small, and when we see the distance of 1 kilometer displayed on the counter, you can’t help but frown. However, when you start to walk in that direction. you begin to realize that getting there takes a lot of time. Winding streets, multiple levels of buildings and other structures (underground as well) and the fact that the world is packed with more and less important (bonuses), makes walking from point A to point B much longer journey than expected. We walk a hundred virtual meters in a similar amount of time it would take to do this in real life. so when you see 3 kilometers on the distance counter, you know that it will involve a lot of running. Luckily, Ubisoft decided to introduce a fast traveling system to make it easier. You can (teleport) to some more important locations if you visited them before. The same goes for our companions if someone is on the other end of the map, you can immediately transport yourself to him instead of wasting a few or a few dozens of minutes of running.
The Examiner chats with the team:
“At maximum level players unlock ‘Challenge Mode’ difficulty for a few select missions, the hardest difficulty in the game at launch and offering some of the best rewards for the most hardcore players. Crafting is another end-game activity, players will have to gather the Blueprints and materials to make some of the best items in the game. Often these Crafting materials drop in the DarkZone and at Maximum Level there is a dedicated DarkZone bracket meaning that players will only encounter other Level 30 Players.
“Between the DarkZone and Challenge Mode you have the perfect places to try out your latest top tier item acquisitions offering a mix of both PvE and PvP content. And finally there is still the rest of the open world to explore, players can return to anywhere in the world to finish off any side-missions or collectibles they missed while leveling,” Ubisoft said.
HardcoreGamer does the preview thing, too:
There hasn’t been a shoot ‘˜n loot game in recent memory that gives you more freedom than The Division. Nowhere is this more evident than in its completely classless (no, not like that) character upgrade system. In short, any piece of loot you find can contribute to your character’s statistics, can be used by any character and can be switched out at any point in time. Whenever players hop into the in-game menu, they can respecialize their character at any time. This means that The Division’˜s seamless matchmaking system is never undermined by the fact that a player could be ineffective on a given team because of a choice he or she made within the first five minutes. This is equivalent of Destiny allowing players to mix and match skills and gear currently reserved for Titans, Hunters and Warlocks with no restrictions.
GameZone talks about our base of operations:
There are hub zones scattered around New York City where you will see other operatives (up to 24 in a particular instance). Once you’re out of those and out and about the shell of city, you’re on your own unless you are grouped up. And even when you’re with a group, each of you have your own Base of Operations. The Base of Operations is probably the most important game aspect of The Division, as it’s where everything will run out of. You’ll craft and mod weapons there, get missions to run, and you’ll upgrade different areas of your base too. For instance, take the medical. Do medical missions and you’ll acquire the things you need to upgrade the medical wing. Upgrading a specific area will give your operative upgrades as well.
USGamer likens it to an MMORPG:
Being an MMO, the game can either be played single-player, or you can team up with friends and other players and tackle the game as a group. For the purposes of the demo, I grouped with two other people one of whom was a member of the development team and under his expert guidance we headed to the first main mission, which required us to take out a group of individuals who were holding civilians hostage. What transpired was a quite straightforward firefight where I was able to use a basic assault rifle to take out the hostiles. The cover system is quite intuitive, and it didn’t take long to get a good feel of how the shooting mechanics work in the game.
VentureBeat calls the game world “engrossing”:
The Division’s version of New York City is an eerie collection of abandoned streets and buildings. Peaceful survivors wander around as you run across the snow-covered pavement to your next mission. Early on, your goal is to establish a central base of operations at the James A. Farley Post Office, one of the many real-world landmarks in the game. But the biggest obstacle you have to overcome are the enemy factions, the gangs that formed after the collapse.
VideoGamer points out a potential problem:
This may turn out to be doubly problematic in light of the fact that the worst part of The Division so far is the shooting. See, in a fantastical RPG you get over an enemy soaking up attacks because they’re a massive dragon and therefore reasonably react less to your hits. But this is a ‘based on real life’ RPG, built in a realistic city, and while The Division has put on most of the trappings of an RPG the combat isn’t based on dice rolls in line with that.
TrustedReviews shares some more about the RPG mechanics:
As you level up, you’ll unlock two Skill slots and a third Signature Skill. These fall into those three core attributes, with Medical skills being related to things like healing teammates, while Tech will give you some awesome gadgets and weapons like a Sticky Bomb that can be detonated remotely. Security, on the other hand, has defensive skills such as body armour.
TechnoBuffalo talks about team importance in the DarkZone:
A good, trustworthy team is going to be most successful here, but even then it can be tough going if another team decides you look juicy. If you pick up with a random group, though, beware. If you’re not partied up, they can betray you at any time, and if you are in a party, they can drop out and betray you all the same. You’re never truly safe in the Dark Zone. But the heavy AI enemies drop the best gear, making the difficulty and danger appealing and profitable.
And we’ll finish things off at TechRadar:
As for weapons, you can carry a primary, a secondary and a sidearm. Each of these can be modded with upgrades found or bought along the way better scopes, larger magazines etc. You’ll often find these items on the bodies of fallen enemies, and the game avoids a Four Swords hoarding problem by ensuring every player gets to grab some loot after the gunfight.
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