By Sam Coles:
Tom Clancy games are far and few these days but they have
somewhat lost their spark due to the fact that he is no longer with us. Some
people would argue about his involvement in the games but I would argue against
that because he was involved especially in the early days of games, I mean come
on he created and founded Red Storm Studios who made the Tom Clancy games. You
could really tell that Tom Clancy games really wanted to emulate military situations
even the more movie like games like Splinter Cell were still somewhat realistic
but then Ubisoft took them over and wanted to compete with games like Call of
Duty and that’s not what fans want. Does The Division fulfil the niche market
for Tom Clancy fans? No but it’s not a bad game but it’s not a Tom Clancy game
and I don’t understand why it has his name stamped on it as it could of easily
stood on its own as a new title.
Tom Clancy’s Division takes place in New York City after a
devastating virus has struck the city called the Black Friday bug as it was
spread on the day of consumerism through dollar bills. You are an agent of The
Division called in to curb the situation where bandits and mercenary groups who
have taken over the island of Manhattan as they’re stealing food, clothes and
other luxuries due to the island being abandoned due to people fleeing or
dying. It’s an interesting premise as it is a mixture of I am Legend and
Resident Evil but it’s a shame that it is poorly executed with poor storytelling
and lacklustre acting. However this is an MMO shooter hybrid so it has a basic
set up and lets you get on with it.
The gameplay is a third person shooter mixed with MMO and
dungeon crawling so basically it’s Diablo with guns without the interesting
looking loot which is understandable as it is set in a grounded universe rather
than a fantasy one. You take on missions which can range from rescuing hostages
to stopping bandits from stealing medical supplies, at first these can be fun
but after a while it starts to get repetitive and boring. During main missions towards
the end you’ll go up against gang leaders which become very tedious as you get
further into the game as they become bullet sponges as this creates an illusion
of difficulty. This is what I like to call the Gears of War effect where they
dial up the enemy’s health and turn your health down.
Visually the game looks pretty good not as good as the E3
trailer we got a few years back but it still looks good with great lighting
when the sun rises over Manhattan to the glass shattering when you hit car
windows. The sound design is excellent but I wouldn’t expect anything less from
a Tom Clancy game with loud reverberating sounds when you fire a shot inside
buildings to the loud explosions when a frag grenade goes off.
Is Tom Clancy’s The Division worth picking up? I would say
yes as I managed to pick up my copy for £9.99 and yes it can get repetitive but
that is the nature of these types of games and it is largely enjoyable
especially with friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment