Welcome to Tom Clancy's The Division - The Ultimate Game Review!
Good Day and Welcome to my new experimental series - The Ultimate Game Review!
In this Series, I share the very best reviews from our friends in the comment section of Steam. These Reviews left by myself and thousands of other users on the Steam Platform. Every Review is Credited to the Original Poster by their steam name. None or these reviews are taken from professional writers on blog sites. These are all just people like you and me and their thoughts.
The reason I decided to do this was because most Gaming Reviews always seem so one sided, perhaps the Author has an agenda, perhaps they are predjeduce or a bigot. Who knows. With this series, I feel like Gamers, like you and I will get the absolute best experience possible when trying to determine whether the game is for you or not.
So please, sit back and Enjoy this Ultimate Game Review that I've compiled together for you!
Misunderstood and Overlooked, but Still Enjoyable
By WaywardPooch
If this game was even half as broken as most claim it is, I would not have poured nearly 200 hours of my time into it. I've got my money's worth many times over.
If you want a tactical shooter, at least in the traditional Tom Clancy sense, look elsewhere. Despite being dressed up like a shooter, it's really a mixed bag of tricks, sporting MMO-esque mechanics while incorporating RPG style progression and cover-based shooting. It's easier to show/watch a video on what it's like or play it yourself than it is for someone else to explain it.
It IS a Ubisoft game. If you hate uPlay, this game uses it. Don't buy it if you don't like uPlay.
The game is fun, despite what the babies on the forums will say. Balance isn't perfect, but when you look back at other multiplayer games you've played, can you honestly say those you've loved were 100% balanced, either? Humans will exploit whatever loophole they find to gain an edge on their opponent. It's hard for any developer to account for misuse or alternative usage of game mechanics when you've got a pool of thousands of players tossing stones at each other.
Despite a rough launch and the onslaught of sh!t press that's been tossed their way for the past year, the developers didn't abandon the game or their fans like I've seen many other developers do when they just can't handle the negativity, anymore. Instead, they reworked what people didn't like, created more content for players to enjoy, and ignored the haters who could never be catered to in a million years. That's dedication. That's straight up honest work. That's something commonly overlooked when people come across information about this title, and it's something that deserves both recognition, and respect.
Granted, the developers aren't perfect, but they understand this, and they put their content through a rigorous playtesting period on the test server before releasing it to the main branch. You can't please everybody. There's always that one guy who's the diehard hater, or even the diehard shill, in some cases.
Me? I'm just a guy who found this game fun, and worth every penny. There's been bumps and bruises throughout the ride that was the Division's first year, but all in all, it's not a bad game. Trash like "Shower with your dad sim" or all the other garbage, rushed joke games out there get positive reviews, yet people feel inclined to treat AAA devs like sh!t because they expect more. I get it: they advertised the game and targeted marketing to lure in the CoD and BF kiddies, and this was misleading, considering the two genres are not the same. But just because someone expects the world, gets let down because their expectations were too high, then ♥♥♥♥♥es and moans about it to everyone and their dog, doesn't mean you should listen to them.
The gunplay is greatly satisfying. Sound effects feel authentic, and recoil not too rediculous. PvP is fun, though it greatly favors group-fighting rather than solo-play. The same can be said for most of the end-game PvE content as well. If you don't feel like working with other people, you won't have very much fun with this game. Sure, most of the content is accessible by yourself, but the game is online-locked. Almost everything you do is based in the embedded multiplayer. If you don't like multiplayer games, steer-clear.
The game's not for everybody. All of the best games, at least in my honest opinion, entice love/hate relationships (i.e. Dark Souls), and this game does just that. It's hard, punishing, and requires high-level teamwork in order to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ done in the highest level of play. You will either love this game, or hate it.
My advice? Do your research, and try it out first-hand by playing the 6-hour trial period on uPlay. If you don't like it, don't buy it. I cannot stress this enough. The game was developed with a very niche market in mind, but it was made to look like something it is not at its core.
Whatever you do, look sh!t up before you spend your money. This applies to ALL games. I'm getting tired of seeing review scores drop on so many games these days because lazy 
Score: 8/10
TL;DR? The Division is fun, but it's not for everybody. Rather, it's very much an MMO-shooter like Destiny in many aspects. There's hours of content available to you, and many ways to play. The game is multiplayer-only, so if that's not your thing, do not purchase this title. It's not nearly as bad as most say it is, so if you're looking for a Destiny alternative on PC, don't hesistate in checking this out. Just be sure to use up your 6 hours of FREE trial time on uPlay before coming to a decision.
This Guys Favorite Game
By Jmack77
One of the best games i had ever played, amazing graphics and environment, more then 500 hours on this. Played mostly solo because my friends simply didnt had the patience to understand this game mechanics and gear system, playing solo it was painfull ... its not fun being chased around by groups of players just killing you just because they could. 1.3 almost destroyed this game, and the devs saw that ... and what they did on this game is nothing short of amaizing, they actually listened to the people playing it and fixed most of the isues, respecting what the community was saying. 1.4 its a revolution on the game mechanics, and made the game balanced even for solo players like me. And now ... 1.5 and survival. Survival its amazing ... everything that it didnt matter in game before it matters now ... water, food, meds ... the gear that was cosmetic only now has a purpose ... starting outside the DZ and making your way there it actually feels challenging . Even in this time the devs are making questionaires on what the community would like to see in The Division, the devs could have simply let the game die ... but they didnt. I give them respect for that, and for listening to the ones playing it accepting all the critics and improving the game vastly. I was waiting for this for my review. If you get this ... make shure you get the gold edition with the season pack, its half the price now and survival alone is worth it. But hey ... i know nothing about games, im just a noob having fun. And this game just got fun !
Pathetic Story Mode
By DoctorJohn
It took me a long time, several days of play time, to come to this conclusion.
The Division is, in no way, a bad game. It is, however, aggressively mediocre. It is forgettable, deeply flawed, and a huge missed opportunity.
The first thing I want to get to is the Dark Zone -- it is, in both practice and concept, a horrible experience. The best gear in the game, ostensibly the goal for most people playing an RPG, is gated behind an experience that relishes having other players steal your hard-earned loot. I literally would have zero problem with this IF there were a way to get that kind of gear elsewhere in PvE, but there is not. The stance of the developers and some fans of "well nut up and play the game or go away" on this is simply insulting. Why they would put this DayZ/Rust-style anarchy as the center of endgame is beyond me.
The next big issue: enemy variety. There IS none. I have now played almost 18 hours of this game, and I have encountered FIVE kinds of enemy total: 1) hoodie wearing thug with a pistol, 2) hoodie wearing thug with a baseball bat, 3) cleaner (a faction focused on burning out the infection) with a flamethrower, 4) cleaner with a riot shield, 5) bullet sponge boss. This is absolutely absurd, and downright embarassing. EIGHTEEN HOURS in, and I've been killing hundreds of the exact same mob, apparently all named Alex because the line "THEY GOT/KILLED ALEX" is chirped ad nauseum by the braindead AI.
Next: the story. PATHETIC. Your character is mute, and thus far in the game (18 hours of play) I've met four main characters, only one of which has had more than ~1 minute of talking time. A doctor, a security chief, a "quirky" technician, and a fellow Division agent. Where's this story going? Who knows! What's my driving force to continue? Who knows! It's as if the writers threw their hands in the air and said "well nobody is playing this game for the story anyway, right?" -- wrong. For a game that clearly blew so much budget on making a cinematic story experience, it's simply sad how flat on their faces it fell. In all the story missions I've done, there's no exposition except through some radio chatter, you never meet any of the bosses (they all have generic names and tons of HP), etc etc etc
The final nail in the coffin for me is just how mind-numbingly boring it can be to play alone. Matchmaking is only available while in a "safe house" hub, where you are sharded with 5-6 other players (most of which are AFK), and even then matchmaking is only available for story missions. If you wanted to explore and do side quests, you would need to try and matchmake under "Free Roam", which nobody queues for. So you do most of the side content alone, and you NEED to do side content because the story missions are spaced so far apart in level that you couldn't seamlessly go from one to the next.
I think the true issue behind The Division is that you feel unimportant. You are simply a drone. The entire First Wave of agents died or went missing (SPOILER for the first 5 minutes of the game, I'm the worst), and you could go missing too and they would just send more. You get so little money for completing missions and for selling the loot you acquire that you feel like you can't buy anything. It's a 40-ish hour slog (if you play comfortably rather than powergame) to the top, and then you just pull your hair out in frustration over the gimmicks of The Dark Zone.
I hate number rating systems because of how they boil down complex opinions into highly subjective numbers, but if I had to rate this I would give it a 6/10. It's a solid concept, much like Destiny was, but the delivery falls flat in a pitiable way. It needs a lot of work, and it needs it yesterday.
Edit: I feel it's important to be honest and amend my initial review with one fact -- the best gear is available outside the Dark Zones. The caveat is that the acquisition rate is absurdly lower. It's no different than a cheap mobile game saying "oh you can get all the best characters without buying them", but it's through a 1% drop-rate daily chest.
Another key distinction: "it's being worked on [optional: insert "you ♥♥♥♥er"]" is not a valid defense. I am reviewing the game I paid 60 dollars for, not the one it vaguely promises to be.
Doing the Unthinkable
By ColdHunter
I did the unthinkable...I pre-ordered a ubisoft game...I KNOW I KNOW, no need to kill me...the thing is..until last week...this game was just awful, almost unplayble EVEN with friends which was very sad, I used to play it..every once in a while for 1 or 2 hours, BUT NOW after patch 1.4 I think this game is ALMOST ready to be played daily by the people that like it's style,the game still has it's bugs,which ubisoft will try to fix later on,there might still be a few exploits and all but not that many,after patch 1.4 I think this game is starting to go on the right path, for once I can say I'm proud of pre-ordering from Ubisoft,altough after "No Man's" Lie", I'll never pre-order ANYGAME ever again, for safety.
Just so you guys know how playable the game is now compared to launch and up to 1.3, I bought the season pass yesterday because I knew I'd have FUN playing this game so It was a nice deal and the Season pass is almost as expensive as the game,so yeah.
I rate this game (currently 1.4 patch) a 7/10, enjoyable with friends,fun and challenging when you are alone.
Cons:The game needs EVEN more backstory to it,I find this whole scenario fascinating, to the point where I want to learn more more and more.
Playing in the Dark Zone alone,is very risky, there needs to be a way so that if you are solo in the DZ,you get a small buff or something to help you run away from groups of rogues,maybe if you are alone you move (Insert percentage here) faster than everyone else.
Pros: With friends AND the Underground DLC, this game has a 8/10 level of replaybility and daily play so you know grab a few friends and play it.Incursions which have very nice loot and daily rewards encourage partnership between players,which in turn makes making friends easier.
That is all,my honest opinion,I've hated this game and I felt ripped off by Ubisoft, but now I can say that I will get my money back in playtime.
Thank you all for reading.
Final Verdict:
75/100
This game without a doubt has it's flaws but it is clearly misunderstood. It seems you'll either love it or hate it.
In my personal opinion. It's worth a try. I certainly had some fun hours playing this one.
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