Tom Clancy is a technofantast from the USA, who wrote literary thrillers and scripts for computer games. One of those is Tom Clancy's The Division. Reviews characterize the project from different angles. The article will discuss whether it is worth playing it or not.
about the project
The plot of the game Tom Clancy's The Division is based on the idea of a virus attack by terrorists, putting the world's population on the brink of extinction. Gamers have to get used to the role of the operative of the "Division" squad, the last hope of mankind.
The plot is based on a real scenario developed in the USA in 2001 based on a simulation in which terrorists infect 3,000 people in a shopping center.
The purpose of the existence of the unit is to preserve the remnants of civilization and to recreate the lost order. In peacetime, the members of the "Division" function as sleeping agents: they lead a calm measured life, work for the sake of keeping families, but at the right time they are ready to mobilize.
The release date for Tom Clancy's The Division is March 8, 2016 for the Xbox, PlayStation 4, and PC platforms. In the first week, the project broke sales records, bringing developers $ 330 million, then the players lost interest in the product, but the creators worked on the bugs and the number of users returned to the original mark.
The game came in three formats:
- Gold Edition. Contains a subscription and addon National Guard.
- Sleeper Agent Edition - a copy of a member’s wrist bag and watch, a brochure with game art, a poster, collectible packaging and a subscription with the DLC Hazmat Gear Set.
- Exclusive Edition. In addition to the game, inside there is a box for a mini-game, a poster, 4 sets of equipment.
The method of delivering the project to the public resembles Diablo 3: downloading cracked versions from torrents is useless, because an online connection is required for a comfortable game. Some missions alone cannot be completed, and PvP mode will not work.
Purchase Tom Clancy's The Division provides a subscription for a year, add-ons are purchased separately. Those who want to save are guarding discounts. Gamers who forked out for pre-order get a solid edition with a bunch of goodies and beautiful design.
Perks
The game Tom Clancy's The Division gives a chance to wander through the streets of the elaborate post-apocalyptic Manhattan. Once in place, it is best to immediately proceed to the news stand in the Hudson camp. The received tasks differ from those issued on the basis of the “Division”. Three branches of perks are available for improvement.
Safety wing:
- Experienced Agent - A free perk increases experience by 10%. It helps in pumping the character. Disclosure of information - displays intelligence not taken into account when completing the quest, will help to get the maximum experience from passing.
- Shooting range - reveals talents: Desperate Time (increases blind accuracy by 20% with low health) and Stopping Power (damage to enemies increases by 25%).
- Grenades / Advanced weapons - both perks are unreasonable to activate at the beginning of the game due to lack of funds. Add slots for grenades and a trader with advanced guns.
Wing of medicine:
- Credit - the player receives 10% more money.
- First aid kits - additional slots for medicines open.
Wing Technology:
- Inventory - adds 10 cells to the backpack.
- Dark Zone Tools - Found in the Dark Zone increases by 10%.
- Engineer / Division Materials - opens two talents, allows you to create the necessary items from improvised means. It’s better to open up after learning crafting.
- Hazardous Materials - Adds a cell to the inventory. Similar skills exist in other wings.
Advice
Passing Tom Clancy's The Division becomes more convenient when using teleportation: a map is opened, a site is selected and movement is performed. The method eliminates the tiresome walks from one location to another.
The map draws a standard route from the starting point to the final without taking into account hiding places, underground passages and loopholes with secrets.
Eliminating wild dogs from the streets enhances experience, and feasible help to local residents opens up new equipment. The parameters of the uniform differ even if the level is the same: typical for any MMO.
Passing Tom Clancy's The Division will be more pleasant when moving unnecessary things to the “rubbish” section - the template saves space in the backpack and time when selling: the “sell all rubbish” button transfers the accumulated seller.
The assignment of hot keys will help to respond faster in battle: it is useful to prescribe a first-aid kit for quick healing of wounds. If you remove the pop-up marks of damage in the settings, the game screen will not look loaded. This is useful in dynamic battles in confined spaces (for example, in the Dark Zone).
The option to bypass corners is set for the correct passage of locations with a large number of enemies: so as not to jump sharply out of cover under machine gun trunks. You can give a group a command to attack by highlighting enemy units with a gamepad cross or the Z key.
Weapon
The damage indicator does not play a decisive role: attention is paid to critical hits that affect the factors of one bullet and the capacity of the horn. Weapons in Tom Clancy's The Division differ in scope:
- Assault rifle - convenient for mid-range collisions due to recoil. Having gotten used, it can be used in close combat.
- Lightweight machine gun - a team battle weapon for fencing and suppressing fire. The recoil is less than that of an assault rifle.
- A submachine gun is convenient for repelling the threat of small clusters of unarmed enemies and is used when changing locations and moving between shelters by small dashes.
- Pistol - popular in PvP mode. When the cartridges are over, and the enemy has not yet been defeated, it is reasonable to get a gun than reload the main weapon. If the player uses the shield, the gun is selected carefully.
- A sniper rifle does not stand out except shooting from a long distance and extra points for getting into the head.
- A shotgun is indispensable in head-on collisions, but one unsuccessful shot can shift the chances of victory towards the enemy.
Weapon upgrade is a sure-fire way to gain superiority in PvP and PvE. High-impact weapons are used when approaching the enemy for blind shooting.
Inventory
It is impossible to play Tom Clancy's The Division, as in any MMO project, without using the menu. Stocks are opened by holding the button of the medical pack, among the ammunition there is food:
- bars eliminate negative buffs;
- canned food accelerates health recovery by 40%;
- the use of water increases damage to special forces by 20%;
- soda reduces perk cooldown by 30%.
Chests
Secret boxes are found in different places: it is not easy to find even with knowledge of the location. At the autopsy, a random item drops out depending on the level of the player: items of equipment, parts for upgrading weapons or credits.
Secret Box Locations:
- Central station. In the southern part of the map is a staircase at the Murray Hill sign that leads to the upper floors. The chest lies behind the door with the sign "High Voltage".
- Consulate of Russia. Go through the library and find a room with surveillance monitors (door next to a laptop). The cache lies under the flag.
- General Assembly. Inside the building (to the right of the entrance) there are many boxes. In the center is hidden secret.
- Substation in Times Square. The staircase leading to the box is located at the statue on Broadway.
- Field Hospital at MSH. At the stadium to the left of the elevator there is a door to the contaminated area with a chest.
- Checkpoint in the Lincoln Tunnel. After disassembling the bandits, the player climbs the rope to the upper floor, on the left - a cache.
- Broadway Shopping Center. After the destruction of enemies, the player goes to the basement to activate fire extinguishing systems. To the left of the exit is a closed door to be opened.
- Amherst's apartment. The quest starts in south Clinton. First, the gamer eliminates the enemies on the way to the building, then he climbs the stairs to the roof.
- Lexington Conference Hall. To the left of the entrance to the building there is a main staircase, along which you need to go up, then turn towards the fire entrance and go down to the room with mannequins.
- Police Academy. To get to the location you will need to respond to a signal for help and eliminate the threat in the parking lot, then take the elevator and open the white door using the master key.
- Repeater on the roof. Upon receipt of the task “to go to the antenna”, get on the roof and look around the place: the box lies next to the dead soldier.
- Morgue on the subway. A side quest requiring the re-inclusion of fuses will lead to a room with poor lighting. A freight elevator will lead to a niche in the wall where a secret is hidden.
- Power Station Warrengate. In the dispatcher’s room, among the lockers and drawers, a loot chest is hidden.
Some boxes require keys - you can find them at the guard of elite objects.
Dark Zone
This is the dangerous area of New York in Tom Clancy's The Division in Russian. In the original English version - Dark Zone. The plot on the map is marked in black and red, contains the best equipment, dangerous opponents (NPCs) and the danger of colliding with other players in the fight for loot.
The inputs are indicated in purple on the map. You can climb over the fence, but then there is a risk of finding yourself in a difficult situation, but there will be no turning back (you won’t get back out).
Chaos reigns in the Dark Zone, so you should thoroughly prepare for the trip there:
- pump at least to the seventh level;
- to get the best equipment;
- take melee and ranged weapons;
- Stock up with first-aid kits and pomegranates.
Points of location that you should pay attention to:
- Safety rooms are individual shelters inside the zone allocated to players and teams, where they replenish their health, take breath between street skirmishes and exchange with buyers.
- Sights - places with valuable loot, guarded by elite bots.
- Evacuation points are places in different areas of the Dark Zone where a helicopter is called to transport items found.
Attacking players is not easy: the first firing point is marked on the map with a red glyph, like a criminal, and bounty hunters immediately flock to it, flying like moths to the light. Elimination of the offender promises high rewards.
Gamers go to tricks: shoot a potential victim under their feet or gently over their heads. Beginners tend to panic and shoot back. In the event of a return hit, the victim is marked as a criminal, and a fighter who has started a mess is already considered to be a defender, and when the criminal is eliminated, he receives points and loot of the enemy.
Cutthroats get lost in criminal gangs: it’s hard to eliminate, and the “criminal scale” is growing. Upon reaching the maximum performance in the role of the offender, bonuses are awarded and the red glyph disappears.
It's easy to put together a gang by having friends online. Otherwise, you have to rely on luck.
Positive reviews
Tom Clancy's The Division draws on graphics, gameplay and atmosphere. A third-person shooter with a dynamic open world and the ability to go it alone, periodically encountering other gamers. According to reviews, the development of the game is based on the concept from Destiny.
You can play with friends, while they can run at different ends of the map. Joining together in a detachment will become a strong military unit, but this is not necessary.
Clings to a detailed study of the atmosphere of an abandoned city. Singleplay lovers complete all missions in a couple of weeks: tasks like tracing missing agents, dossiers and records of telephone conversations are easy.
Some side missions are more interesting than the main ones, but there are tasks that require team efforts. When friends are unavailable, a player search system is used.
Negative opinions
According to reviews, Tom Clancy's The Division is considered a failed project among fans of the genre. When the excitement of the graphics disappears, the monotony of the gameplay opens up to the eye: quests come down to murders and gatherings for the sake of new murders and gatherings.
In the Dark Zone, advanced PvP players follow the path of least resistance and ambush evacuation points, which upsets honest players: all the hard-earned loot disappears.
Tom Clancy's The Division system requirements scare away gamers: it draws on powerful i5 generation processors, and bugs and friezes force to lower graphics settings to a minimum.
The abundance of cheaters, who manifested themselves in the early stages after the release, scared away many players, and paid add-ons added fuel to the fire.
Cheating
The headache of the developers and the cause of the discontent of fans of third-person shooter games are cheats. Tom Clancy's The Division is no exception - in the public domain are programs that edit various parameters of the gameplay: recoil, aiming and accuracy.
From macros on the mouse to car drives in the head of the enemy - everything is used to achieve superiority dishonestly.
System requirements
Tom Clancy's The Division on PC has minimum and recommended requirements, which is not surprising for projects with detailed graphics.
Minimum configurations that can be played on low settings:
- Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 / 8 / 8.1 / 10.
- An Intel Core i5 2400 processor with a clock frequency of 3.1 GHz or an analog from AMD at 3.3 GHz. 6 GB of RAM.
- Video card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 or equivalent from AMD Radeon HD 7770.
- 40 GB of free hard disk space.
Recommended Tom Clancy's The Division system requirements:
- Generation i7-3770 processor with a frequency of 3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 at 3 GHz.
- 8 GB RAM or higher.
- Video card from NVIDIA GeForce GTX with memory of 4 gigabytes or higher. An analogue may be AMD Radeon R9.
Otherwise, everything is the same as on the minimum. The game is adapted for two monitors for greater immersion. The user interface is configured to display. With the latest versions of video cards, comfortable operation is ensured using Surround technology from NVIDIA and AMD Eyefinity.
Bugs
Connoisseurs involuntarily encounter incorrect work almost after deciding to install Tom Clancy's The Division. Both small friezes and freezes, and crashes from the game at the wrong time, upset the players.
There are also “funny” bugs like failures in the texture, walking in the air, disappearing guns and characters gliding on the ground (like on a skating rink).
Everything is treated by updating the drivers to the latest version, reinstalling the game and lowering the settings in favor of performance.
If Tom Clancy's The Division does not start, reinstallation will help: during installation, errors occurred or a failure occurred that damaged the game files.
Verdict
Summarizing, it should be said that the game is designed for the amateur. According to reviews, Tom Clancy's The Division for a long time does not hold the gamer and turns into a shooter in the evening after work in order to relax and chat with friends.
The project should pay tribute to the schedule: everything was worked out until every brick, stains of graffiti on the walls and chips of plaster in the room. The project was to the taste of lovers of wandering around the buildings that were boiling over with life, covered with snow and abandoned people.
The mechanics ruin a great idea and cause disappointment among customers: under a bright wrap in the form of a graphic component there was a perishable product, annoying after two or three trips to the Dark Zone.
Armed clashes with bots are monotonous: they come down to hide and seek with skirmishes. Large NPCs periodically go to the rear and instill fear, but in a cooperative game, the danger factor is minimized, because someone is constantly covering up.
Outwardly malicious enemies do not differ from less dangerous ones: they are distinguished only by the amount of ammunition spent on killing.
The sequel, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, is scheduled for release March 15, 2019. The detachment has to put things in order in Washington, where a full-scale civil war has begun between the surviving civil and close-knit mafia groups.
According to Ubisoft, when developing the game, the errors of the first part were taken into account, the new product will be better. Gamers will be able to unite in raids of 8 people and complete complex quests.
New storylines and game modes are announced, as well as three publication formats:
- Standard Edition.
- Gold Edition.
- Ultimate Edition
An annual subscription is available only in the last two editions, and only Ultimate Edition holders will receive all bonus items.
It is not known how well designed the storyline of the project will be. Even BioWare with the Dragon Age and Mass Effect trilogy projects made it clear to gamers that a non-linear plot is to their liking, when each act affects subsequent events. In such conditions, every step and phrase in the dialogue is thought out.
The existence of such products pushes into the background monotonous shooters on the principle of "killing for the sake of killing." Sometimes using cheats. Tom Clancy's The Division does not present a new gaming experience: weapons are not fundamentally different from guns in other projects.
The essence is the same: a shotgun for close combat, a sniper rifle for long-range, an assault rifle - medium distances, a submachine gun - something in between, an ordinary gun - in case of emergency. Nothing new.
The question arises about the goal pursued by the developers, in addition to making enough money.
Creative people hunt for such releases in order to draw on the ideas of abandoned cities and imbue the atmosphere of the End of the World. However, after a couple of dozens of successful screenshots of high-quality locations, the toy is abandoned. They are returning with the aim of acquiring a pair of new ones.
"Gamers jumpers" who switch from one shooter to another will certainly stumble upon Tom Clancy's The Division because of the colorful graphics and amazing trailers. They are delayed for a short time: they return to another project, and then back to the "Division".
This is absolutely normal given the growing gaming industry around the world. The novelty of the product is doubtful, as is the usefulness, but due to the positive reviews, someone still likes it.
Gamers are advised to familiarize themselves with the colorful graphics and desolate atmosphere. It’s not worth getting stuck in the game for a long time: you’ll quickly get tired and tempted to poke more, which is not very good for a mediocre project.
Better to spend money on something useful.