The Division Beta: an honest review

GeneticPredator · Feb 1, 2016

Thanks for the reveiw!

Think i will be getting this game when it comes out.

Sadly i did not get a chance to try out the Beta...

Doggen · Feb 1, 2016

Ive only played 3 hours or so, the setting is amazing, graphics decent but I can see this getting boring very quickly.
Is there more variation between enemies in the darkzones? And do you get transportation or is it just fast travel?

Like I said, i only scratched the surface but the longevity worries me.

Vimes · Feb 1, 2016

+ Graphics and Athmosphere
+ Character customization and progression
+ Getting loot for your character, both cosmetic/clothes and weapons/armor is fun
+ Bullet sponge issue was not as bad as expected (atleast not in single player mode)

- Small Small map, the first DLC you will have to buy will probably be out pretty damn fast, and then you could argue that it should have been included in the base game to start off with.

- No MMO feel at all, the PvE world should have been designed so you could meet other players at random in it, like the dark zone.

- Way to big penalties for going rogue in the Dark Zone, and some other design flaws regarding the Dark Zone

- There are allready Hacks/Hacking on the PC version, Speed hacks, Ammo hacks, Shoot thru walls hacks, Go invisible hacks.

- You dont have full controll of your character.

Is the game worth putting money down on it? yes, i think so, i think i would play it plenty of hours so i would get my money worth for it, but i expected more of an MMO feel to it, the social hubs dont contain anything social in them, they should have added an Auction House for trading gear and items, the ability to create clans/guilds and have clan/guild mess halls or something to that extent. Or just being able to have a "guild chat" system would have made the game more social.

And being a PC gamer it feels like im playing an console game on my PC due to the restricted controlls, give me the ability to crouch at will, without being behind cover, give me the ability to jump at will. I dont feel that im in total controll of my character.

The game is "Good", not "Awesome", it could have been Awesome i guess. But i think the developers got their hands tied behind their backs at some point by the executives. To big of an cost to run the backend if you have too many MMO features in the game.

Vimes · Feb 1, 2016

I feel I am qualified to make this review because I have put 39 hours into the beta. (it has only been up 68 hours, you do the math.) so for everyone wondering if it is worth it, yes it is.

I cant belive that you got 39 hours of gameplay out of the beta, what did you do? As i saw it the Beta was pretty much over after 1.5 hours when you finnish the main mission. You get another 1.5 hours of gameplay doing the random encounters but after those are finnished you have a total of 3 hours of gameplay then its off to the Darkzone.

You must have put 36 hours into the Darkzone over the weekend? thats hardcore man.

PSIcoh · Feb 1, 2016

Wow... I actually ended up putting 35 hours into the beta over the weekend. I would echo the majority of Vimes' and sum1's points.

INCOMING WALL OF TEXT.

+ Graphics. The graphics are gorgeous, even though I turned a few settings down for frame rate (I'm running a 760GTX). The lighting and weather effects in particular blew me away. The most enjoyable aspect of this was that every so often our scans would be down in a blizzard and we'd run headfirst into another group of players or a group of tough AI. If it was players, both groups brought guns to bear and immediately voice chat was just a clamor of "Easy!! We're just passing!" and "Keep going man! Don't turn around!" until both groups had passed. If it was AI, it became shoot first ask questions later, obviously. :)

+ Story/setting. While the graphics and amount of garbage/destroyed cars/general chaos have definitely been turned down since the E3 demo, there was still plenty of atmospheric destruction/chaos in the streets depending on where you were. If you don't know what I mean by this, go watch the E3 demo and just look at the ground. It's insanely detailed. At the same time, I found some things still existed in the Beta: phenomenal glass physics when you shoot out windows, your character still closes doors as he/she runs past them or uses them as cover, etc. I'm sure there are more, but my cat threw up while I was typing this so I don't remember my other points... :mad:

+/- Bullet Sponge. I can understand why a lot of people were nervous about this issue and it seems like it's been tweaked for the beta. Some enemies are indeed bullet sponges if you're just shooting them in the legs or chest when they have armor (like the boss Hutch). But just as Sum1 stated, the damage is dynamic. Headshots do massive dmg so if you can string those along with a semi-auto marksman rifle or just a few sniper rifles, they drop very fast. In addition, as Sum1 said, various enemies had different areas you could shoot to make things explode on them. Hutch had a backpack of ammo that you could set off doing dmg to him and surrounding enemies, any enemy with a grenade logo had a strap of grenades on their chest you could shoot to blow them up, and anyone with a flame thrower had a tank on the back you could blow up. At the same time, when you're getting rushed by an enemy with a baseball bat, you're not taking the time to aim for the head. Which is where I think this aspect continues to grind on people. Some of those enemies take a full magazine from the most powerful gun in the game, even after being heavily modified, to take down.

+/- Loot. I had mixed feelings about the loot system. The concept of finding gear in the Dark Zone (whether it be aesthetic or practical) was a ton of fun (although significantly different and less awesome than what was shown at E3). Killing a boss and his 8 underlings and finding a rare backpack or set of gloves was extremely rewarding. But that was only half the of the process. After that you had to run to a pre-determined extraction point and wait for 1.5 minutes while every single player in the instance could see someone was trying to extract something. You instantly became conscious and suspicious of every single player in the area. Most times it went smoothly and you extracted the equipment out, but every so often you were killed for doing nothing and you could hear the offending player go nuts in local voice chat over the item that was rightfully yours. And that's not even the part that I disliked about the loot system. I actually enjoyed (after some serious venting) having that item stolen. Weird, right? It just added to the tension in the DZ. Now the problem I had with the loot system was the vendors. I'd go get a new weapon from one of the vendors and tell my party to come check it out cuz it had a DPS rating of 4552. My party would come over and they would have that same weapon listed as 4673 or 4235 or 4460. To this day, I can't figure out how the vendors work. Yes they have a set of weapons and armor that they sell for a period of 12-14 hours at which point they receive new gear to sell, but as far as I could tell, every player saw slightly different gear even within that 12-14 hour period.

- MMO? I'm in complete agreement with Vimes here. At least in the beta, there were only two places where you could meet up with other players and say hi or do jumping jacks together. The beginning camp on the Hudson river just south of Hudson Yards train station (aptly named Camp Hudson) or the Dark Zone. And most of the time, you weren't saying "hi" in the DZ. So that leaves one place to find and meet up with other players. Obviously this is a beta and I don't expect Ubi to show us everything that they have planned, but it would be nice to be reassured that there will be an MMO aspect to the game.

I'm sure there's more I could write, but overall I enjoyed the hell out of the beta. While there have clearly been concessions made by Ubisoft regarding graphics since E3, the game has the beginnings to become great. Now we just have to hope that Ubi doesn't screw this up. :p

Soven Taliesyn · Feb 1, 2016

Too much text. From what I've seen from watching streamers, it looks totally worth it. That's why I'm totally pre-ordering this week when I get more monies.

Tancerlo · Feb 1, 2016

@PSIcoh Different players would see different DPS ratings on the same weapon depending on their own stats. Equipped gear could buff your damage, health, or tech skills, so some players would have higher DPS based on equipment. When you look at a weapon it shows what your DPS would be, not its base DPS. I think, anyway.

My only real issue with the game so far is some irritatingly poor level design in the Dark Zone, which meant there were areas only accessible from one direction, or even only accessible by one easily defended ladders. It meant rogue players could just hide there and no number of agents could get at them. Tactics didn't acheive much, just had to try and overwhelm them, which was kinda lame.

Aside from that loving it. Definitely 300001% better with friends though.

ACrzyRussian · Feb 1, 2016

Thanks for the reviews guys. I was super hesitant about this game but I think Ill preorder it now!

PSIcoh · Feb 1, 2016

Tancerlo said:
@PSIcoh Different players would see different DPS ratings on the same weapon depending on their own stats. Equipped gear could buff your damage, health, or tech skills, so some players would have higher DPS based on equipment. When you look at a weapon it shows what your DPS would be, not its base DPS. I think, anyway.

My only real issue with the game so far is some irritatingly poor level design in the Dark Zone, which meant there were areas only accessible from one direction, or even only accessible by one easily defended ladders. It meant rogue players could just hide there and no number of agents could get at them. Tactics didn't acheive much, just had to try and overwhelm them, which was kinda lame.

Aside from that loving it. Definitely 300001% better with friends though.

@Tancerlo Ah. Okay, I think that would make sense since I'm not sure what my party's DPS ratings for their characters were. I thought I was the highest in that aspect, but I might be wrong. So that would make sense - was that ever explained or hinted at in the beta? Did I miss that?

ACrzyRussian · Feb 1, 2016

sum1 said:
buy from steam so if you do not like it you can return it. this game is not for everyone.

I have a bunch of friends getting it on xbox, so I will end up getting it there to play with them. I already know its a type of game I like, more just wondering about the quality of the game.

DontTouchMyHoHos · Feb 1, 2016

Vimes said:
+ Graphics and Athmosphere
+ Character customization and progression
+ Getting loot for your character, both cosmetic/clothes and weapons/armor is fun
+ Bullet sponge issue was not as bad as expected (atleast not in single player mode)

- Small Small map, the first DLC you will have to buy will probably be out pretty damn fast, and then you could argue that it should have been included in the base game to start off with.

- No MMO feel at all, the PvE world should have been designed so you could meet other players at random in it, like the dark zone.

- Way to big penalties for going rogue in the Dark Zone, and some other design flaws regarding the Dark Zone

- There are allready Hacks/Hacking on the PC version, Speed hacks, Ammo hacks, Shoot thru walls hacks, Go invisible hacks.

- You dont have full controll of your character.

Is the game worth putting money down on it? yes, i think so, i think i would play it plenty of hours so i would get my money worth for it, but i expected more of an MMO feel to it, the social hubs dont contain anything social in them, they should have added an Auction House for trading gear and items, the ability to create clans/guilds and have clan/guild mess halls or something to that extent. Or just being able to have a "guild chat" system would have made the game more social.

And being a PC gamer it feels like im playing an console game on my PC due to the restricted controlls, give me the ability to crouch at will, without being behind cover, give me the ability to jump at will. I dont feel that im in total controll of my character.

The game is "Good", not "Awesome", it could have been Awesome i guess. But i think the developers got their hands tied behind their backs at some point by the executives. To big of an cost to run the backend if you have too many MMO features in the game.

So to refute some cons you have

1) The map you see in the beta isnt anywhere close to the size of the map on release. They blocked off and fogged of a lot of the map.

2) The game isnt a mmo never has been advertised as one and never will be, blame retarded ass media for naming this game a mmo when no one else has like every other game that isnt a mmo. I do agree though, was expecting a mmo vibe from it. Not necessarily a mmo esque game, but since this beta i'm hoping the launch game will help aid that.

3) I'm honestly fine with the penalties for going rogue, I really hate the fact you can be seen on the minimap and be seen through walls if you are close enough to someone leaving run and hide really fucking hard. They change that and it will be fine. You also have to take into consideration the DZ will be a lot bigger leaving more room to run and hide.

4) Glad I got console :D

5) I wish they had crouching as well, I can deal with no prone, but the crouching thing bugs me. The only way to crouch run is to hold the key button for whatever it is pc to go between cover and cover.

If they added an auction house btw, it will just be a breeding ground for the hack and abuse people will find flooding the economy like what happened to ESO, a lot of real mmos are removing trading and fiddling with the auction house by not allowing people to set the price and the price fluctuating base on supply and demand. Which is a good idea since it keeps rare shit rare.

Please take into consideration that the beta was seperate from what the launch version will be, beta's usually have bugs already fixed compared to what is seen in the beta itself and it might just be used for server stress testing and nothing else.

BOX3R · Feb 1, 2016

I spent about 10 hours in the beta, all solo.

The atmosphere, graphics, and settings, though a far decline from what was promised at E3 all those years ago, were still immersive and captivating.

The PvE / Co-op aspects of the game were just ok ... think Borderlands + Gears of War in a Tom Clancy setting. The PC controls weren't awful, but I still felt myself getting stuck to cover too often. Felt like a well done but not quite perfect console port.

The Dark Zone brings in a survival, DayZ-ish aspect, which as a solo player was intense but ultimately very frustrating. I tried forming ad-hoc groups or joining other player groups, but would get betrayed or abandoned most of the time. You have to play with a group of well-coordinated friends, because some idiot always ends up jumping in front of your crosshairs or running into your explosives, triggering rogue status.

Phil · Feb 1, 2016

From what I have read PC will be better than console any one played both and have opinions on that?

Boastful Toast · Feb 1, 2016

Nice review, and I am enjoy the game immensely right now but tbh I feel there were a couple negatives left out.

Warning... personal opinion below (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง

The current latency in the beta seems to make pvp completely hit or miss. Hopefully this is because of the stress on the servers right now, but its either the hit boxes or latency(or a combination of both) that makes for some early BF4-like "netcode". Really want this to be addressed, as bad pvp would kill the overall longevity of the game.

The animations are quite minimal. Not sure if this is because its in "beta" or whatnot, but anything from switching weapons to using abilities seems extremely basic. Was hoping for a little more in depth animations.
Also combined with this is the lack of fluidity of movement when watching others change directions. Weaving left and right animations are almost instant, without any sort of slowdown or speedup. This makes someone dodging look ridiculous and inhuman, as well as combined with the current latency, almost impossible to hit.

Because of the glitches to lose rogue state and the seeming lack of a penalty (because the beta doesn't transfer to the full game), its pretty common to find baddies. In the full release however, I think it will be insanely difficult to lose manhunt status. Also rogues could be even less common until most have the top weapons/gear they want. Imo this is both a good and bad thing for separate reasons, but as it's just beta I could be completely wrong.

Edit: Tooootally forgot about the wonky AI, lemme see if I can get some vids together and post a link.
very quickly thrown together little video

Overall, I am really exited for the full game, and hope endgame has enough content besides pvp. :D HYPE TRAIN CHOO CHOO

Tancerlo · Feb 2, 2016

PSIcoh said:
@Tancerlo Ah. Okay, I think that would make sense since I'm not sure what my party's DPS ratings for their characters were. I thought I was the highest in that aspect, but I might be wrong. So that would make sense - was that ever explained or hinted at in the beta? Did I miss that?

It wasn't ever explained anywhere no. Just something me and a friend noticed.

There's another complaint I should add, something we were talking about for a bit on Discord. To repeat what @Vimes said, being a Ubisoft game, it has basically no security and is ridiculously easy to hack. :S There are already youtube videos advertising hacks that various losers are selling...

Phil · Feb 2, 2016

sum1 said:
I have seen xbox and have played pc, the PC seems better, not only looks better, but the recoil is so easy to control on PC and the xbox players shots were all over the place. as well as we are a PC gaming group, so buy on PC and play with us!

Ya I was leaning towards pc already, cant wait to play it I am bored off my arse here. Just tried to log into SC and I timed out before I even got into game, not sure why I am having so many issues with SC but I did read somewhere i-5s are having issues.

PSIcoh · Feb 2, 2016

Tancerlo said:
It wasn't ever explained anywhere no. Just something me and a friend noticed.

There's another complaint I should add, something we were talking about for a bit on Discord. To repeat what @Vimes said, being a Ubisoft game, it has basically no security and is ridiculously easy to hack. :S There are already youtube videos advertising hacks that various losers are selling...

Yeah... I noticed that too... I couldn't count the number of times I was shot by a "ghost." Really hoping they fix that.

The Division Beta: an honest review

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