The New Year is well underway and…no longer is it that new. In fact, it’s old year now. I swear it’s been 2016 for as long as I can remember. We are almost at the end of February, so we might as well call it on 2016 and go straight to 2017. Before you know it, we’ll all be getting ready for Christmas again anyway (one holiday everyone at 3 Crows can’t get enough of, obviously). So, whilst I sit alone, humming Christmas carols to myself and making my list for the obese old man who leaves me presents, it hits me that there is not enough love for me from anyone, to buy me all the games that I want this year.
There are some I am not desperate for; Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 could be struck off the list, for now. I don’t really want to part with over half of £100 for Farcry Primal, even though I know deep down in my irregularly beating heart, I will hand over the moola for it at some point in the near future. I’m not even that hyped about Final Fantasy 15 at the moment either. I would get it if I had some spare cash lying around, but I don’t. To be honest, if I did have a pile of cash just lying around, I would have already spent it on other games. One of those games would have been The Division. In fact, I will be buying The Division.
Since hearing about – and seeing footage from – The Division, I have been slightly intrigued, but mostly skeptical. I remember thinking that I had been burned before by Ubisoft and its tendency to exaggerate their games. I have also learned from taking in their constant iterations of sequels that the apple never falls too far from the tree. As mentioned already, Farcry Primal is out on 23rd February, and I can’t imagine there is too much to differentiate it from previous Farcry games. Apart from the setting and the characters, the running themes of taking over enemy camps, collecting textual tidbits and upgrading your ammo pouches by killing 75 and ½ wild boars will more than likely be there.
The first thing this game has going for it is that it isn’t a sequel. Thank whichever entity you so desire for that. On the surface, that does seem to be all it has going for it, but underneath the shiny good looks is actually a pretty cool game. For starters, the game play itself feels beefy and hard hitting. The gunplay feels nicely balanced between different weapons and is slightly reminiscent to Destiny. Except there seems to be more to it than just being a nice shooter. Unlike Destiny, this game has more than just a minute modicum of storyline holding together some fancy fighting. Sorry, I’ll stop picking on Destiny. For now.
Moving back to The Division, what I took from the beta story wise is that your character is a cog in a very big mechanism working towards bringing society back. I am unsure as to whether or not what caused society to crumble has been disclosed yet, but I can say it seems to have been some sort of epidemic. The streets are littered with contaminated waste. Certain areas warrant the use of masks to filter out whatever crap is still lingering in the air. Another question I don’t know the answer to is whether or not the situation is on a global scale. One thing I am sure of, however, is I am very interested to find out what the hell is going on.
Another issue which was put to rest was regarding the multiplayer aspect of the game. Which seemed to be the whole game in general. The early footage and all information released very much seemed to be co-op driven, playing out each and every mission with a couple of buddies. You might be thinking why would that be a bad thing? You’re not wrong to think that, it’s my own fault that I am the only one out of the Crows who has an Xbone. Why didn’t I invest heavily in a proper PC so I could play with my fellow brethren. Why indeed? Well, I’m not answering that. I don’t need to because I managed to play through the beta solo, and I feel my experience was just as enjoyable as a group of people playing it would have felt. The story missions I was able to participate in never felt impossible to complete on my own. There was a nice level of challenge I met on my lonesome, and it certainly felt like as the game progresses deeper into the story – and my personal character will develop – the more of an exciting challenge will await. Not one that forces you to buddy up with strangers to complete.
The one aspect of The Division where I did encounter other real players was the Dead Zone. Not the Stephen King novel, but an area of the map which acted as a No Man’s land of sorts. Once you enter, if you don’t have a chum to cover your back, you are very much prey to anyone, and anything moving. There is better loot to collect, but with that there are stronger NPC’s to take down first. As well as your character levelling up to unlock new skills, you have a separate levelling up system connected to the Dead Zone, which allows you to unlock better loot from shady dealers and lock boxes scattered around this specific area. Just make sure that you are ready to play amongst all kinds of villainy and scum within this hive. Ever play Grand Theft Auto 5 Online? Those types of assholes will flock to this place like flies around shit, I’m sure. You could argue that the Dead Zone is there for this very reason. You take away the risk from the core game, and fence it in to create a nice challenge to acquire some special loot. I mean, it’s not like the game is forcing you to go in there and mingle with the trigger-happy tossers.
Besides the main missions - and the Dead Zone – there seems to be an awful lot of side stuff to keep yourself occupied with. Once a base of operations had been established at the beginning of the beta, several branching missions were unlocked, leading to the expansion of the building, in terms of aid and fortification within the city. The sheer volume of content unavailable at the time of the beta is quite overwhelming, and promising. I know quantity doesn’t always mean quality, but I am very excited at what this game is teasing us with at the moment.
I will stop there, as when I do buy the game and play it for an insane number of hours, I will probably write a bit more. Hopefully I will sing its praises some more and entice you all to part with your money to experience its achievements. Either that, or I will strike Ubisoft games from my Christmas lists for many years to come. March 8th can’t come soon enough. I guess I’ll play some more Resident Evil 0 HD. You never know, I might tell you all about it(Spoiler: I will).
There are some I am not desperate for; Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 could be struck off the list, for now. I don’t really want to part with over half of £100 for Farcry Primal, even though I know deep down in my irregularly beating heart, I will hand over the moola for it at some point in the near future. I’m not even that hyped about Final Fantasy 15 at the moment either. I would get it if I had some spare cash lying around, but I don’t. To be honest, if I did have a pile of cash just lying around, I would have already spent it on other games. One of those games would have been The Division. In fact, I will be buying The Division.
Since hearing about – and seeing footage from – The Division, I have been slightly intrigued, but mostly skeptical. I remember thinking that I had been burned before by Ubisoft and its tendency to exaggerate their games. I have also learned from taking in their constant iterations of sequels that the apple never falls too far from the tree. As mentioned already, Farcry Primal is out on 23rd February, and I can’t imagine there is too much to differentiate it from previous Farcry games. Apart from the setting and the characters, the running themes of taking over enemy camps, collecting textual tidbits and upgrading your ammo pouches by killing 75 and ½ wild boars will more than likely be there.
The first thing this game has going for it is that it isn’t a sequel. Thank whichever entity you so desire for that. On the surface, that does seem to be all it has going for it, but underneath the shiny good looks is actually a pretty cool game. For starters, the game play itself feels beefy and hard hitting. The gunplay feels nicely balanced between different weapons and is slightly reminiscent to Destiny. Except there seems to be more to it than just being a nice shooter. Unlike Destiny, this game has more than just a minute modicum of storyline holding together some fancy fighting. Sorry, I’ll stop picking on Destiny. For now.
Moving back to The Division, what I took from the beta story wise is that your character is a cog in a very big mechanism working towards bringing society back. I am unsure as to whether or not what caused society to crumble has been disclosed yet, but I can say it seems to have been some sort of epidemic. The streets are littered with contaminated waste. Certain areas warrant the use of masks to filter out whatever crap is still lingering in the air. Another question I don’t know the answer to is whether or not the situation is on a global scale. One thing I am sure of, however, is I am very interested to find out what the hell is going on.
Another issue which was put to rest was regarding the multiplayer aspect of the game. Which seemed to be the whole game in general. The early footage and all information released very much seemed to be co-op driven, playing out each and every mission with a couple of buddies. You might be thinking why would that be a bad thing? You’re not wrong to think that, it’s my own fault that I am the only one out of the Crows who has an Xbone. Why didn’t I invest heavily in a proper PC so I could play with my fellow brethren. Why indeed? Well, I’m not answering that. I don’t need to because I managed to play through the beta solo, and I feel my experience was just as enjoyable as a group of people playing it would have felt. The story missions I was able to participate in never felt impossible to complete on my own. There was a nice level of challenge I met on my lonesome, and it certainly felt like as the game progresses deeper into the story – and my personal character will develop – the more of an exciting challenge will await. Not one that forces you to buddy up with strangers to complete.
The one aspect of The Division where I did encounter other real players was the Dead Zone. Not the Stephen King novel, but an area of the map which acted as a No Man’s land of sorts. Once you enter, if you don’t have a chum to cover your back, you are very much prey to anyone, and anything moving. There is better loot to collect, but with that there are stronger NPC’s to take down first. As well as your character levelling up to unlock new skills, you have a separate levelling up system connected to the Dead Zone, which allows you to unlock better loot from shady dealers and lock boxes scattered around this specific area. Just make sure that you are ready to play amongst all kinds of villainy and scum within this hive. Ever play Grand Theft Auto 5 Online? Those types of assholes will flock to this place like flies around shit, I’m sure. You could argue that the Dead Zone is there for this very reason. You take away the risk from the core game, and fence it in to create a nice challenge to acquire some special loot. I mean, it’s not like the game is forcing you to go in there and mingle with the trigger-happy tossers.
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| The Assault on Snoop Dogg's House was a particular highlight for me - Si Tye |
I will stop there, as when I do buy the game and play it for an insane number of hours, I will probably write a bit more. Hopefully I will sing its praises some more and entice you all to part with your money to experience its achievements. Either that, or I will strike Ubisoft games from my Christmas lists for many years to come. March 8th can’t come soon enough. I guess I’ll play some more Resident Evil 0 HD. You never know, I might tell you all about it(Spoiler: I will).
