What is the gameplay like in The Division?
Gameplay was a mixed bag in the beta. The character is fundamentally easy to control, reacting well to the desired inputs; nothing to complain about here. But why can you only jump when directly in front of an obstacle? I felt somewhat restricted in the controls. If you want to jump around wildly, you only have the workaround of selecting the Jumping Jack emote.
A very important factor is the weapon handling. How does the weapon feel in your hand? In The Division, it must be considered that it is a third-person shooter. Therefore, comparisons with first-person shooters are not appropriate from the outset. However, for a third-person shooter, the weapon handling is quite acceptable.
I was lucky enough to only use assault rifles that recoil incredibly when you empty the magazine under sustained fire, but one or another weapon definitely made it fun to shoot around. What weapon do you prefer to pull around the skyscrapers of New York?
What do we take away from the story?
There is hardly anything known about the story so far. Even the Closed Beta didn’t shed much light on things. I played the available story mission on Friday afternoon, and when I think back to it today, I realize that not much exciting remains in memory. New York has been crippled by a virus; chaos and ruin reign everywhere.
Faye Lau throws some words at us at the beginning, all quite stressful, about explosions and war zones and whatever else. We ourselves also seem to be quite battered. When we exit the helicopter and are allowed to rush into battle, we are in perfect health again.
And now we need to clean the streets of New York from hordes of enemies. They attack with grenades, submachine guns, or flamethrowers; some even charge at us armed with baseball bats.
We first need to establish a base, bringing a little order and structure to the chaos. An important point here is the medicine, which makes it our first – and only – story mission to rescue a medic, bring her back to our base, and thus expand the medical wing. As a reward, we will have the ability to heal ourselves and others.
And that’s all we know about the story for now. Quite sparse. Let’s hope that the main game delivers a story that fits the post-apocalyptic setting and takes us on an emotional journey. Games like The Last Of Us have shown that excellent stories can be built on this foundation. One would expect a lot from The Division in this regard as well.
Find out on the next page our highlight of the beta and the overall impression.
