HotW – Tom Clancy’s The Division

Developer: Ubisoft
Release date: 03/08/16
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

The Division Gameplay
Taking place in an open world mid-crisis New York with destructive environments. Player’s must restore order to NYC by investigating the source that cause the virus outbreak. Players  team up with other Agents  of the Division as they progress. The core mechanics of the game are similar to other shooter games. The player carrires three weapons, and explosives like smart mines and sticky bombs to fight against enemies. Players can take cover behind objects to avoid taking damage, and give them tactical advantage. The character model is visible to do the game being in a third-person perspective.

Players earn experience points as they progress through the game. These points are used customize their characters, level up gear and weapons, and learn skills and new talents.  To learn active talents players have to complete missions. One active talent is the ability to deploy automated gun turrets, throw healing grenades, or use a radar pulse, which can tag enemies. The game has a dynamic weather system which can have its advantages or disadvantages for the players. A weather disadvantage would be that storms can hinder visibility, make aiming difficult. Another feature of the game is its day-night cycle which changes the enemies behavior.

The game’s world has “Dark Zones”, where when the military retreats they leave behind high-end weapons. The progression system in the Dark Zone is separated from the main campaign. Items discover inside a Dark Zone are known as “infected loot”, if killed while in the dark zone hold a infected loot item, other players can loot that item. Infected items will become permanently attached to the player once they are extracted from the zone (done by a helicopter). Players can be accompanied by player-controlled agents, and several co-operative partners. However, these people can turn against you, going rogue, at any moment. Dark Zone is the pvp mode featured in The Division. Players’ ranking and level may drop if you die too often in the zone.