Disclaimer: I already played and finished this game on Uplay back in 2016-2017. Screesnhot of my Uplay stats[i.imgur.com] if you want proof.


1. One of the worst control systems ever engineered for a third-person shooter.
The utter clusterf**k of controls in Division 1 is a pain to endure for the entirety of the experience. Despite key rebinding options, it won't get any better. Especially in combat, every action feels clunky and slow, particularly those related to movement and skills usage. Overly-long animations and bizarre hard-binds, such as double-tapping the cover button to dodge-roll instead of having a dedicated key for dodging, add even more misery to your journey. In the heat of battle, don't be surprised if you'll mistakenly vault a cover instead of using it, or perform one of the bizarre, useless, time-wasting "tacticool" cover-to-cover moves that will only get you killed, due to their ridiculously long execution times. You won't 'get used' to it, you will only suffer. Devs, this is not a tactical shooter, this isn't Ready Or Not and it's not paced appropriately to be one - yet, the actions pacing - yours at least, while enemies act as fast as a greased-up Irishman at times - seems to be set for that standard.

2. There never is a true sense of build progression or specialization. That's because of how terribly designed progression is as a whole.
The Division wanted to do something new, by forsaking the standard class archetypes of regular "Looter Shooters" (terrible term, by the way) / Action RPGs and instead, allowing players to mix and match active and passive skills, alongside armor and weapon traits, to create their custom builds. On paper it sounds great, but at the end of the day this system has one big issue: it takes away the identity of single, specialized classes in favor of blander, shallower builds that, as specialized on some aspects they may become thanks to sets and specific Exotic weapons, will never feel like standalone classes with their own identity on the field. Don't even get me started on the amount of grinding for those exotics, either.

Basically the designers thought that giving more freedom, by diluting and bloating the total available skill / trait pool would, in the end, result in more diversity for the end user, without the need to commit to a specific build and sticking to it (like in most other RPGs, where you choose a class / a hero and that's it). Well, that ended up backfiring, making everything shallower with very little upsides. During your journey from level 1 to 30, you won't feel like you have passed milestones that further define your playstyle, you won't feel like you have been doing some real progress; it will be the same weapons and skills you'll unlock relatively soon, only upscaled due to higher level stats.

3. PvP (Dark Zone) is a terrible, flawed, issue-ridden experience you will not enjoy.
Implementing PvP as a main game mechanic / mode in this type of game is pointless enough, given how success is far more gear-dependent / build-dependent than actually skill-dependent, but let's say you're suicidal or naive enough to want and try PvP - don't. Seriously, don't do that. Let me describe you the worst crock of s**t imaginable: the Dark Zone, a large part of the map which is dedicated to a PvPvE (so that means hostile NPCs and players all in the same area) experience.

Do you like to endlessly roam to find that specific Dark Zone-exclusive named enemy that drops that particular piece of gear / weapon (MAYBE, drop rates are dogs**t in general for Named / Exotic stuff), only get gang-banged by a group of 3 people while being solo? Do you like people having permanent wallhack because it's one of the actual skills in the game? Do you like horrible netcode that wasn't structured nor programmed with PvP in mind, screwing you over with miserable hit detection and trash polling rate every other fight? If the answer is yes, then you only live to suffer, and I salute you, but you still shouldn't play PvP in this game.

Icing on the cake? Some of the legitimately best gear to have is ONLY dropped in Dark Zone, but it's not worth the pain of this mess. You CAN do without. And you better.

4. Far too much repetition in enemies and mission archetypes, even for this genre.
The definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again. In addition to all of the above, you'll be facing enemies that much too soon become very repetitive, with even the majority of Named and Boss tier ones being only upscaled archetypes of normal ones, just with a whole lot more health, damage and abilities on steroids. In comparison, Borderlands, to name another "looter shooter" most normies will know, is highly varied in this aspect. That says all, I think. The same goes for missions; there will hardly ever be unique ones, and anything outside of main missions, which do have some more uniqueness from time to time, will be a slog to grind, again, I know this RPG subgenre is meant to be like that to some extent, but Division 1 takes that extent far past what is acceptable.

5. Uninteresting story with anonymous, forgettable characters.
Granted, story shouldn't be taken as a main expectation from this genre of game, but at least some effort should be made to make it at least tolerable or somewhat pleasant. While the atmosphere regarding level design, and the detail, effort put into building the environments are all highly remarkable, credit where it's due, the story surrounding these evocative locations will never be more than mediocre, or at worst, listless. I didn't remember a single character from my 2016 playthrough - no surprise there.

So that's all folks. I wanted to focus more on why you shouldn't play this game rather than why you should. Simply because I felt like that for this review. Until next time.

[b]Disclaimer:[/b] I already played and finished this game on Uplay back in 2016-2017. [url=https://i.imgur.com/Qu5Hde3.png]Screesnhot of my Uplay stats[/url] if you want proof. [h3]Only after rebuying and replaying it so many years later, I realize how utterly bad it really is.[/h3] [b]1. One of the worst control systems ever engineered for a third-person shooter.[/b] The utter clusterf**k of controls in Division 1 is a pain to endure for the entirety of the experience. Despite key rebinding options, it won't get any better. Especially in combat, every action feels clunky and slow, particularly those related to movement and skills usage. Overly-long animations and bizarre hard-binds, such as double-tapping the cover button to dodge-roll instead of having a dedicated key for dodging, add even more misery to your journey. In the heat of battle, don't be surprised if you'll mistakenly vault a cover instead of using it, or perform one of the bizarre, useless, time-wasting "tacticool" cover-to-cover moves that will only get you killed, due to their ridiculously long execution times. You won't 'get used' to it, you will only suffer. Devs, this is not a tactical shooter, this isn't Ready Or Not and it's not paced appropriately to be one - yet, the actions pacing - yours at least, while enemies act as fast as a greased-up Irishman at times - seems to be set for that standard. [b]2. There never is a true sense of build progression or specialization. That's because of how terribly designed progression is as a whole.[/b] The Division wanted to do something new, by forsaking the standard class archetypes of regular "Looter Shooters" (terrible term, by the way) / Action RPGs and instead, allowing players to mix and match active and passive skills, alongside armor and weapon traits, to create their custom builds. On paper it sounds great, but at the end of the day this system has one big issue: it takes away the identity of single, specialized classes in favor of blander, shallower builds that, as specialized on some aspects they may become thanks to sets and specific Exotic weapons, will never feel like standalone classes with their own identity on the field. Don't even get me started on the amount of grinding for those exotics, either. Basically the designers thought that giving more freedom, by diluting and bloating the total available skill / trait pool would, in the end, result in more diversity for the end user, without the need to commit to a specific build and sticking to it (like in most other RPGs, where you choose a class / a hero and that's it). Well, that ended up backfiring, making everything shallower with very little upsides. During your journey from level 1 to 30, you won't feel like you have passed milestones that further define your playstyle, you won't feel like you have been doing some real progress; it will be the same weapons and skills you'll unlock relatively soon, only upscaled due to higher level stats. [b]3. PvP (Dark Zone) is a terrible, flawed, issue-ridden experience you will not enjoy.[/b] Implementing PvP as a main game mechanic / mode in this type of game is pointless enough, given how success is far more gear-dependent / build-dependent than actually skill-dependent, but let's say you're suicidal or naive enough to want and try PvP - don't. Seriously, don't do that. Let me describe you the worst crock of s**t imaginable: the Dark Zone, a large part of the map which is dedicated to a PvPvE (so that means hostile NPCs and players all in the same area) experience. Do you like to endlessly roam to find that specific Dark Zone-exclusive named enemy that drops that particular piece of gear / weapon (MAYBE, drop rates are dogs**t in general for Named / Exotic stuff), only get gang-banged by a group of 3 people while being solo? Do you like people having permanent wallhack because it's one of the actual skills in the game? Do you like horrible netcode that wasn't structured nor programmed with PvP in mind, screwing you over with miserable hit detection and trash polling rate every other fight? If the answer is yes, then you only live to suffer, and I salute you, but you still shouldn't play PvP in this game. Icing on the cake? Some of the legitimately best gear to have is ONLY dropped in Dark Zone, but it's not worth the pain of this mess. You CAN do without. And you better. [b]4. Far too much repetition in enemies and mission archetypes, even for this genre.[/b] The definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again. In addition to all of the above, you'll be facing enemies that much too soon become very repetitive, with even the majority of Named and Boss tier ones being only upscaled archetypes of normal ones, just with a whole lot more health, damage and abilities on steroids. In comparison, Borderlands, to name another "looter shooter" most normies will know, is highly varied in this aspect. That says all, I think. The same goes for missions; there will hardly ever be unique ones, and anything outside of main missions, which do have some more uniqueness from time to time, will be a slog to grind, again, I know this RPG subgenre is meant to be like that to some extent, but Division 1 takes that extent far past what is acceptable. [b]5. Uninteresting story with anonymous, forgettable characters.[/b] Granted, story shouldn't be taken as a main expectation from this genre of game, but at least some effort should be made to make it at least tolerable or somewhat pleasant. While the atmosphere regarding level design, and the detail, effort put into building the environments are all highly remarkable, credit where it's due, the story surrounding these evocative locations will never be more than mediocre, or at worst, listless. I didn't remember a single character from my 2016 playthrough - no surprise there. So that's all folks. I wanted to focus more on why you shouldn't play this game rather than why you should. Simply because I felt like that for this review. Until next time.