Tom Clancy's The Division

The Division is a fantastic single-player game, a wonderful co-op game and fascinating competitive multiplayer game. This game gives you so many ways to play an incredible experience, which it all leads to one conclusion: Tom Clancy’s The Division is a phenomenal game.

Cooperative play is a joy, an abundance of gear means your agent is ever-evolving, and an air-tight narrative set within a game world that is unmistakably Tom-Clancian provides a sense of purpose and urgency that makes it nigh impossible to put the controller down.

With all of the content packed in at launch, the solid gameplay mechanics, tactical co-op experience, and gorgeous open world, it was more than a great idea for Ubisoft to delay Tom Clancy’s Division as long as they did. Everything about this game was far more than I could have expected, and it’s definitely worth the wait.

Beyond the downgrade you have a game with a lot of potential, possibilities, hundreds of hours to be spent, and a city that is a joy to discover. Alone or with good company, The Division is without a doubt a safe bet.

Surprising, compelling and built to last, Ubisoft clearly has a new tentpole on its hands. You could wait for the sequel, but don't do that - The Division is great. [Issue#268, p.65]

The mix of online shooter and RPG works almost perfectly and it's all wrapped up in a really nice package.

Intelligent mechanics, intense gameplay, well thought-out mission structure and plotlines are all winners in our book. Bring on the endgame antics! [May 2016, p70]

Tom Clancy’s The Division is almost everything that was advertised in 2013. While the visuals have certainly been pulled back a bit, probably because of hardware limitations, the gameplay has been delivered as promised.

The Division is a fun and challenging game, whether you're playing it alone or with some friends, but it requires a certain degree of commitment to be truly appreciated. The gameplay is complex, deep and incredibly rewarding, although some things need to be fixed (i.e., the flawed respawn system). And the infected New York created by Ubisoft is simply wonderful to behold and explore.

There is so much more that this game gets right than wrong. To call Tom Clancy's The Division 'just a shooter' is doing it quite a disservice. It has some elements of the genre, but it comes away more akin to an RPG when things are said and done, similar to how Mass Effect successfully blended genres and came out stronger than the individual sum of its parts. It lacks the amount of narrative control over the story that Mass Effect provides, but in most other respects The Division accomplishes the things it sets out to do. It might not be the textbook definition of fun, but the bleak world is interesting, the combat is engaging and I found progression rewarding.

New franchises are always risky business, but Tom Clancy’s The Division delivered on everything it promised and more, with only the occasional hiccup.

They say that New York City never sleeps, and those who play Tom Clancy's The Division may understand the feeling.

The Division is an awesome and addictive RPG-shooter, with a great gunplay and an outstanding presentation.

Post-pandemic New York City is a terrifying vision, but it's not one that you’ll likely want to leave for some time.

Ubisoft Massive provides a very polished experience that fits for single, co-op and multiplayer gamers. RPG's mechanics work like a charm and the shooter is very solid. Level design could be a little better, but Tom Clancy's The Division is an outstanding new entry for the market.

Taken out of the context of a tumultuous build-up and away from the weight of expectation, this game is a sheer triumph. It takes a simple third-person shooter and packs impressive RPG and multiplayer elements into the mix, with the end result being simply fantastic. Miss this game at your own peril.

Ubisoft Massive has in Tom Clancy's The Division the best game the French company has made so far for this generation, and demonstrates that consoles are also a great place for MMOs. The downgrade is soon forgotten once you stop and delight yourself with such an imposing, beautiful and at the same time, chaotic New York. When all of the gameplay mechanics roll out, you are already trapped and you won't stop until you've completed every single challenge.

The Division is a wonderful mix of genres and styles, resulting in a beautiful, fascinating and addictive game.

Tense and thrilling sums up much of my time playing The Division. From its brilliant missions through exploring its amazing environment to tackling its many side missions and encounters, working my way through this game has been a truly enjoyable experience. Sure, the action can be accused of being repetitive, but for me – a hardcore shooter fan – I couldn't get enough of it.

The Division is a very self-aware product, one that works around the player needs and requests from previous experiences. It builds on its peculiar gameplay style and delivers some great co-op fun. A shame that the PVP still needs care and attention. As for the end game, we'll have to wait for the next future.

The Division has the future of MMO video Games in its hands.

An extremely entertaining and well-developed game, featuring surprisingly fantastic story-based missions, a rock solid technical presentation, a fantastic blend of accessibility and depth, and a sky-high fun factor. That fun factor doesn't fall as far as you think when you strike out on your own, and for all you loot-hounds - man, this kinda reminded me of my manic drive for loot in Diablo III! - who love a challenge, you gotta give it a try. Just don't spend too much time in the Dark Zone because I think it might have an adverse effect on your gaming psyche. I wish there was a bit more control freedom (at least let us crouch, damnit), the cover mechanic isn't perfect, and the AI isn't quite as advanced as one would hope. But overall, The Division is a surefire winner for a number of fundamental reasons, all of which should entice you into a purchase.

The Division finally came to the market as a solid experience that you can enjoy alone or in a well-designed cooperative game. There are many things to adjust and it’s too soon to know if the end game will be successful but at least we already enjoyed challenging missions in a rich open world with a deep personalization system.

While there's no question that The Division has plenty of room to grow, it also gets a surprising amount right. It's a great fit for consoles, solo players are welcome, and it delivers a fantastic multiplayer experience that's easily accessible in co-op and PVP.

A gorgeous setting, interesting story and very strong multiplayer: The Division is one of the big surprises of 2016. The controls are not what we would like them to be and the boss fights could be more original, but the rest of it is simply excellent, especially when playing with others.

The Division is something special that’s never really been done before in games, and while I don’t expect perfection from such a bold experiment, I’m impressed with what they have been able to pull off so far.

The Division is quite a pleasant surprise as long as you play it with some good friends. New York is well-duplicated and the content overshadows Destiny's, yet with some DLCs it will be perfect. The only drawback is the need for a permanent Internet connection.

One of the most promising new IPs of this generation so far. Massive, clever and addictive, The Division is Ubisoft at their best.

With a slate of content planned for the future and constant revisions to ensure that the playing field is as balanced as possible, The Division looks like it’s going to have the legs to retain its player base for the foreseeable future, assuming that Massive sort out the balancing issues in the Dark Zone, of course.

Though Tom Clancy’s The Division is a bit repetitive, Dark Zone saves the day. I want to know where you can buy hoodies that can soak 3 clips of automatic weapons fire. [Apr 2016]

I wouldn’t go so far as to say The Division is the online shooter experience that will usher the genre into a new golden age, but it is a worthy alternative for those who are looking for a more methodical and immersive experience than what games like Destiny can offer. There are still no guarantees about The Division’s long-term sustainability, but the strong out-of-the-gate showing it has already made is certainly a good start.

It won't win converts to the genre and the plot is problematic, but The Division is a handsome open-world offering, spiked with treachery. [May 2016, p.81]

If The Division was without its Dark Zone, it would be an ignorable, banal experience - a soulless grind in a game created by committee. It's to the credit of the game that this one additional section elevates the experience from this, to something actively great. Contrary to advice The Division might give you, stay out of the Dark Zone at your peril.

Frustrations with its servers aside, The Division is what I wished Bungie’s Destiny would have been. It has an engrossing and fascinating story, a wide variety of loot to collect, and collectibles and side missions that help give a much clearer picture of the terrifying reality of what would happen if New York City was hit with a deadly, flu-like virus. And while my Agent is recovering from a fever, I feel the only prescription that could possibly cure her is more Division.

Ubisoft has created a wonderful world for gamers to play in, but The Division is held back by a lack of mission diversity and some gameplay quirks.

Any enjoyment to be found in The Division could easily have been smothered by its tremendously dull side content. Fortunately, it's saved from some all too familiar open world bloat by not only the high stake thrills of the Dark Zone but its top notch story missions.

Underwhelming AI and questionable future prospects aside, The Division remains above all a classy RPG-shooter, set in a rich environment and taking co-op gameplay to a whole new level. It's a decent enough start for a new IP, even if we're left wondering about its lifespan.

The Division is an immersive online action game that delivers an interesting story, impressive environments and great gunplay. The main question is how fun it will be in a month or two, but we have faith in Massive's long-term plans.

For a game built around the shallow need for incremental improvements, there is a surprising amount of depth when you dig into character and gear statistic tweaking, too, which only makes the tight squad action of the minute-to-minute gameplay even stronger.

Ubisoft Massive delivers an exciting experience that everyone should play - alone or together with a group of other players. The story is ok. Graphics and sound are world class. The controls have some flaws but nothing that bothers you for more than short periods.

Ubisoft now has a solid foundation for operating its first persistent open world. If Massive and co. make smart additions to the end-game content and keep a steady stream of new activities for players to enjoy, I could see this game going strong years into the future. But if the Dark Zone and PvE environment don't evolve, I'm not sure many people will be left in New York City come the winter.

The side content is too repetitive, but The Division's main content and exciting multiplayer component stand out and make this thing worth seeing, provided you've got some like-minded friends around.

The Division is more RPG than shooter, but on both parts it is a lot better than expected. At the end of the game, after reaching the level cap (30), the amount of content gets a bit small, but that does not mean we want to stop playing this great game.

No matter how frustrated I grew with the game's semi-indestructible enemies or its repetitive leveling structure, I absolutely could not stop playing. The world was too engrossing, the loot was too enticing, and the campaign was too gripping for me to simply walk away. I stopped caring about the game's flaws after the first few hours and proceeded to lose myself in obsessive stat optimization and cooperative gun battles. The problems (and frustration) never disappeared, but I was more than happy to play through the pain.

The Division is not a perfect game. There are flaws. But the flaws are mostly because it's straddling genres, and this is also what gives it so many different things to enjoy. There are complicated inventory systems, daft explosives, a big open world to explore, and incredible multiplayer, but you don't need to get invested in any of them to play the game. The Division is not a perfect game, but it's really fun. Which is sort of the point, isn't it?

By and large, The Division lives up to the years of hype and high expectations. At its core, it marries solid cover-based shooting with a loot heavy RPG and an enticingly beautiful setting, but it really comes together when you can team up with friends and take on enemies, whether rebellious AI factions or other agents in the fraught and tense Dark Zone. There are a few foibles, but it’s a game that can easily draw you in and have you playing for hours on end.

A lot of The Division’s future success is contingent on effective post-launch support. There is a season pass that will stretch the game throughout 2016 accompanied with regular free updates and tweaks as well. Like Destiny and Bungie, how Ubisoft responds to player feedback on evolving the game from what it is on launch will be crucial. The Dark Zone is a nice start, but if that’s all The Division’s endgame is ever going to be, it will eventually get dull like the campaign experience did by the end.

There's little doubt that The Division understands how to be a persistent MMO-shooter, but it perhaps lacks that understanding of why players continue to log-in to its competitors months and years after they start playing. Even the end-game, which is technically sound, lacks the variety or substance to entertain long-term.

The combat is tense and engaging and the character development is relatively unrestricted. Where this coop shooter really shines, though, is the Dark Zone that borrows from games like DayZ. This is a good start for a franchise that could surpass Destiny if Massive continues to build on its strengths.

The Division is a great shooter that's primarily let down by glitches, drabness, repetition, and a thoroughly underwhelming first raid.

The most essential feature in this kind of games is the creation of a solid cornerstone on which the game will grow and prosper in the coming months (or years maybe). Somehow The Division manages to create this cornerstone though it leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, the developers need to decide what to do with Dark Zone because clearly they have not until now. In the positive’s area the fact that even gamers with no MMO experience at all can enjoy most of the game (essentially with some company).

At first, hours spent with The Division go by very quickly. Constant action in Manhattan can engage for a good while, but the game becomes repetitive and monotonous if approached without friends or other agents.

The Division is a game that demands to be played with other people. It's biggest gameplay flaws are forgivable once you add a friend into the mix, but as a solo experience it can be an exhausting grind with little in the way of rewards or satisfaction.

Repetitive by design, and at heart a fairly pedestrian third person shooter, but the online co-op and promise of never-ending rewards is hard to resist.

Ultimately, The Division’s overly busy, conflicted design philosophies drown its best ingredients in a bland slurry that never quite comes together into a cohesive dish.

Tom Clancy’s The Division is a “playable” game in the same way Anaconda is a “watchable” movie. As adequate as entertainment gets, it’s capable of providing solid amusement while it lasts, but it’s not something worth remembering beyond the scope of the time spent actively utilizing it. It’s something you can use to waste time, and it’s good at that, but it’s not particularly brilliant at anything else.

That's the essential nature, and essential problem, of The Division's underlying structure. It's asking you to hunt gear with no tangible reward in terms of what you can do, how you do it, or what you look like doing it. [May 2016, p.108]

It builds a strong foundation on the gameplay front, offering up rewarding combat and simple skills, but doesn’t follow that with anything substantial, being content to let the standard end game grind and excellent-yet-stressful PVP try to cover all the questions its writing leaves you with.

It all adds up to a quality game, in spite of several little flaws. Following deaths in missions, load times can be annoying, and there are numerous little bugs here and there. One bug, seemingly only in the Dark Zone, can cause your chat to drop out, completely ruining an excellent multiplayer session...Still, these don’t remove too much luster from The Division. It’s a game that’s easy to recommend, as long as you have a bunch of friends to team up with.

For all of its blunt narrative exposition, the game efficiently propels the action from beat to beat.

The Division is a game so eager to criminalize the poor, so eager to play into clichés of class war. Yet it staunchly refuses to take responsibility for its representations, for its politics. If we want that to change, we have to make it, and its creators, responsible.