As I carefully made my way down West 31st street, my rifle close to my chest, I couldn’t help but look around in awe at the emptiness. The snow falling all around me, mixed with the silence of the streets, made me uneasy. The slightest sound was likely to set me on edge, make the hairs of my neck straighten. I continued down the street, slightly picking up my pace as I was getting nervous about my next encounter. Cars lay strewn about the roads, empty; picked clean of anything useful by the scavengers long before my arrival. I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks. I quickly found an old police car, entirely frozen inside and out, and took cover behind it. On the other side of that car, a few feet from my position looking over a body in the street were some rioters. Seeing the rifle and bat in their hands, without hesitation I raised my M4 rifle, took careful aim and pulled the trigger. The fight was on.

           This was my first experience in Tom Clancy’s The Division Beta.

STORY

After getting through the initial cutscene and making my way through the game’s first HUB, Camp Hudson, I was set loose into the snow covered streets of New York City after disaster has struck. Having kept myself away from any details about The Division’s story, assuming details were ever released, this was my first time hearing about most of what’s going on. It looks as though some kind of viral contagion has been unleashed on New York City on Black Friday. The city has been quarantined and many have been left to fend for themselves. That’s where the player comes in. As a member of “The Division” you’ve been tasked with keeping the peace and reclaiming NYC from rioters, looters, and gangs that have risen to claim a little slice of NYC for themselves.  Your job is to not let that happen. I won’t be discussing any story missions so as to avoid spoilers.

GAMEPLAY

           At first glance, the game looks a lot like your average cover shooter, but play a little longer and it reveals itself to be a surprisingly deep RPG, with more than just a bunch of new weapons to test out but scopes, muzzles, grips or underbarrel attachments, magazines (the kind that hold bullets, not the ones you hide under your bed), and yes, skins, all interchangeable and each with their own perks and features. Moving farther along into the Beta, a new Hub opened up; a Hub personal to each player called the Base of Operations. Inside your base are three subsections, weapons, mods and gear vendors, and a crafting table. Of the three subsections, Medical Wing, Technical Wing, and Security Wing, only the Med Wing was available during the Beta, as well as the crafting table also locked down, which was a bit of a disappointment to me personally, but it has me more than a little interested in the crafting system for when the full game hits in March.

Aside from the story missions, there were a number of side missions and “encounters” scattered across the map to keep players interested. The side missions varied from taking down a small time gang leader, to tracking down “important persons”, and … fixing an antenna? Encounters included helping the JTF (Joint Task Force), the police force you’ll be working with through the story, assaulting enemy strongholds, and rescuing hostages. Massive Entertainment try their best to keep the player stocked with things to do, at least until it’s time to head into the Dark Zone.

           The Dark Zone is what everyone’s been hearing about: The Division’s PvP mode. The Dark Zone is a place where the contamination is the strongest, and it is where things get a little trickier. The only people you can expect to find in the Dark Zone are tougher enemies, and other players. Killing these enemies may net you better rewards, but killing other players will get you the chance to take whatever loot they’ve got and the nice title of Rogue Agent. A Rogue Agent becomes a target for pretty much everyone in the area. It is not recommended you go Rogue alone. In the Dark Zone, loot drops are not shared among everyone around. If only one item drops from any enemy, first come first served. Of course loot can also be found in the environment but it likely won’t stack up to enemy drops.

           In my experience, be wary of the Dark Zone if you’re planning to go it alone. It can be unkind to solo players. That’s not to say you’ll be smashed as soon as you enter, just to go with caution. Its incredibly east to be discovered by a group of players pretending to be friendly only to turn on me once the extraction chopper was inbound. Because of this, I frequently found myself avoiding other players, especially groups of players who seemed to be roaming together, and sticking to alleys and subways until I could get my newfound gear to an empty extract zone. Extract Zones are areas where helicopters secure your contaminated loot found in the Dark Zone, clean it up, and send it to your Stash, back at your Base.

           I’ve been enjoying my time in The Division Beta but am glad this is not the full release. There have been some issues that impact gameplay and my enjoyment of it as a whole. First up, the PvP. I’m not against the idea that in this certain space at any time another player can come around the corner and open fire on me. That’s what the space is about: higher risk, higher reward. I take issue with the Rogue Agent system. Anyone can be designated Rogue for damaging another player in any way. This makes for a lot of accidents leading to going Rogue and being thrown to the firing squad. For example, if I were to throw a grenade at an AI enemy and a random player happens to run through the area and takes damage, I’m now suddenly designated Rogue. There seems to be little forgiveness for accidental friendly fire. On the flipside, for players who want to be Rogues and just kill indiscriminately, the game makes it way too easy to get slaughtered and lose all your gear. Every death in the Dark Zone forfeits anything you found while inside and returns you to the nearest DZ entrance/checkpoint or safe house. If you happen to die in a group, perhaps they can safeguard your things until you get back. If you’re like I was and play solo, tough luck, kid. Chances are, by the time you return to your death location (which is highlighted on the map), your belongings won’t be there waiting for you. In fact, you’re more likely to be ambushed again if you take that route. That’s assuming you had anything to get back in the first place. Many times I was Player Killed (PK’d), I didn’t have anything to take in the first place. Some people seem to PK just for the fun of it, which can be frustrating. There were even instances where players killed other players, hid until the Rogue Agent timer ran out, and suddenly they had a clean slate, only to fool other players and kill again. It’s the perfect murder and it’s too easy ambush other players legitimately trying to extract loot. There’s no way to tell if anyone is in a group, there’s no way of knowing if someone has PK’d before, everyone is a complete stranger. Which may be the point, but it seems unbalanced towards those not trying to go on a killing spree.

           But it’s not all so terrible. There were times where I was able to procure some valuables from a group of particularly difficult enemies in a subway, use one of my abilities to scan the area, and make a sneaky getaway out through a different subway entrance. I made it back to a safe Extract Zone and got my loot home safe. There were even times when other players and I worked together to take down a group of Rogues before the helicopter arrived, which is important as you have limited time to get your stuff to the chopper before it pulls out.

All in all, the Dark Zone can be unforgiving for the uninitiated, especially when going alone, but learn your way around and you should be able to take down some tough enemies, clean house, and (hopefully) make out like a bandit.

 Conclusion

Of course this is a beta. As of this writing, there’s over a month before the game releases and who know what changes will be made. This could be a product of the beta having too few players to fully test the environment, and not enough AI enemies above ground to compensate for the scarcity of easy to find loot. The story and overall game world itself is looking immaculate. It looks, sounds, and feels like New York City in a snowstorm, but with the streets almost entirely empty, the only remaining citizens sick or starving on the streets, wandering and trying to avoid anyone’s crossfire.

The Division is shaping up to be a great 3rd person cover shooter with some deep RPG customization, interesting story, and a lot to keep the players interested. My issue(s) with the Dark Zone can hopefully be changed up before the game launches or (more likely in this day and age) cleaned up post launch with a patch or two. Here’s hoping Tom Clancy’s The Division can be another great addition to the Tom Clancy franchise.