Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsReview from an Avid Solo Player
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2016
Preface: This review contains spoilers and relates to the current state of the game.
The Basics: The Division is a 3rd person shooter with the character builds of an RPG. The game centers around the player finding items to increase their in-game skills based on statistics from the items they pick up. There are two different types of activities to achieve this, PvE (Player versus Environment) and PvP (Player versus Player). In other words, it's a game that requires grinding (repetition of the same tasks for the aim of finding better items, similar to Destiny and Borderlands in that aspect). The story is a typical apocalypse setting where a virus is transmitted through the touch of money on Black Friday and now a skilled set of agents called "The Division" are tasked to put things back together.
My Thoughts: After putting in a few days worth of play time, I personally feel bored with the game. Let me try to explain what I mean,
1st Goal - Max out your character rank which is 30 ranks. This will probably take an average casual player a day's worth of playtime or so to achieve. The 30 ranks is strictly PvE activities only and will be depicted as an orange bar at the top right hand side of your screen.
Side Goal - As you rank up in PvE, you can eventually access the PvP mode which is labeled "Dark Zone" on the map. Consider this area a lawless area where you can engage in any type of combat. If you choose to shoot other players, you will be considered "Rogue" and all other players in your lobby will be gunning for you. There are also environmental enemies that are not real people shooting at you as well. You will receive a rank in the Dark Zone as well which can go much higher than 30 and this will be depicted by a purple bar that will show up under the orange bar when you are inside the Dark Zone. The best way to approach this area is to head in as soon as you can as you will be pitted against other real players of similar PvE ranks (orange bar ranks). The way the lobbies are set is based on both your PvE rank and your DZ (Dark Zone) rank. So if you decide to head into the DZ at rank 30, you will be pitted against other rank 30 players making you more vulnerable to stronger players. Once you reach rank 30 in the DZ, you will have access to better items from loot-able chests and special vendors. It's worthwhile to mention that every time you die in the DZ, you will lose rank progression, so be careful and make wise decisions!
2nd Goal - Once your character hits 30, the game will introduce you to what is called "end-game" activities. This means you can replay missions for better rewards and special in-game credits that will allow you to purchase better items from in-game vendors. The problem here is there is a substantial exploit that can be used to make the process to quicker and if you don't exploit it, it will take you 12x longer to achieve (not joking). I'll explain. There is a mode called "Challenging" that takes about 2 hours (if not more) to finish for the average player. 4-man team, replaying a mission on a very difficult setting (it's no joke). Then, there's the exploit: loading the server with more than 4 players of which yielded me with a 16-man team and my team and I were able to finish the mission in 10 minutes or less. So it's either a grueling hours long task for very little or a monotonous repetition of the same task for easy end-game credits (Phoenix Credits) and more items than you can hold after 5 or so runs.
This game has a road map of additional content on the way so repeating the 2nd Goal is a priority to prepare your character for the challenging activities ahead, but the main problem is an unbalance of the activities at hand for the average-skilled solo player. Playing through the main story and ranking to 30 was very enjoyable to me due to the casualness of the activities, but the end-game activities are either boring (if you exploit) or take up too much time (finding a random group and hoping you'll finish the activity in a timely manner). As for the Dark Zone, it's an activity that is heavily in favor of well established groups. There are those brave souls who go in solo and can handle themselves, but I'm convinced that very few are able to do it. Not an enjoyable experience if you don't group up with other players that you work well with.
Conclusion: The game play is great, the RPG aspect is great, and graphics are great, but the grind is boring, takes up a lot of time, and hard to find a group that works well. Unless you have a set group of friends to play with or you're a boss at solo-ing, you're not missing out on too much.
