Game Review Tom Clancy's The Division - Preserving order in a world full of chaos

Enforcing the rules in the midst of chaos becomes a difficult thing to do, but that is the task carried out by members of the Strategic Homeland Division, or commonly abbreviated as Division. And you are one of them. That’s a little description of the story in The Division, a game that – since it was announced in 2012. It’s been a long time indeed, but seeing from how ambitious Ubisoft is to make The Division a capable game and show its potential as a solid online shooter game!!

Living on the Edge
For those who are confused by the word online mentioned above, The Division is indeed designed as an MMO where we can play with other players from all over the world. And as a Division agent, your main task is to restore social order by enforcing the law in various places that are the main setting of the game such as Manhattan, Brooklyn, Washington DC, and so on.

It’s not an easy thing, of course, because in every place there are various groups trying to become rulers, and they certainly won’t like your existence!! Examples are Rikers, the prisoners who escaped from New York’s largest prison, Rikers Island; Cleaners who try to destroy the Black Friday virus by all means and equip themselves with complete equipment; the NPCs who take advantage of this chaos to carry out various criminal acts, namely Thugsm, and many more. In addition to fighting them, another challenge you have to face is finding your own resources needed to survive such as food, drink, and ammunition for your weapons.

Seeing the weight of the task that must be carried out, of course it is natural that gamers choose to cooperate with other players in order to increase their chances of survival. But if you feel confident, you can also act alone.

Gear Up, Soldiers!!
Before plunging into the battlefield, you can first prepare your hero by providing equipment and choosing the skills you want to use. There are 6 categories of weapons that you can use during the game such as pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, SMGs and others, and later you can customize your weapons by adding various attachments (scope, grips, launcher, sight) to change the color so that disguised from enemy detection. One thing that gamers should pay attention to: each weapon has its own level so that only high-level players can use high-powered weapons, while newbies have to be content with the “flawless” weapons (although still steady). Through this system, every player will certainly be motivated to increase their level so that they can become agents of the Division that are even tougher!!

The Division features a number of character classes to choose from, but they are more flexible because gamers will not find things that “restrict” each class so that we can use the equipment and skills we want to use freely. Talking about skills, later gamers can find 28 types of skills that can be used and each one provides its own benefits. An example is the Automated Turret, where you can use the turret to shoot at enemies that fall within its attack range. Then there is also Pulse which allows you to send sonar to detect various things (both targets or enemies) within a 60 meter radius even if it is blocked by a wall. While Optical Cloak is able to make your character disappear from view when crouching or moving slowly. What’s interesting, each skill has 3 upgrade levels that you can achieve so that it makes its abilities even more powerful. Automated Turret for example, where later your turret can fire Incendiary Bullet or Flamethrower, while Seeker Mine can fire Mortar, Flashbang or other ammunition. That way, depending on the upgrade chosen, each player will have varying abilities so that they can face various war situations.

Step Into the Dark Zone
In addition to cooperative games, The Division also includes a competitive mode in the form of a Dark Zone, where players will fight in an arena covered by a thick virus. The uniqueness of this mode is that there is a balance between danger and reward, where although the risk of loss of life becomes greater in that location, as a compensation, gamers can get loot that is more stable than in ordinary areas. And to reduce the risk of losing the items obtained (if your character dies in the Dark Zone), we can call a helicopter to pick you up. An interesting challenge that is hard to pass up!!

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft, Red Storm Entertainment
Genre: Action
Release: 8 March 2016
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

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