#30

I have played this game for almost a year now

#31

Now that it’s been out a while, and some DLC is out, how does it compare?

Is the DLC worth it?

If I have Destiny up to Taken King, and Borderlands Handsome Collection and BL1, and Battleborn, would I supposedly be interested?

I don’t care much for PVP modes. I do like random casual co-op with drop in/out support. I like being able to make progress within 10 minutes to 2 hours. I rarely did raids in Destiny because I rarely have 6+ hours of solid gametime available.

I might get the Division in a month or two once I see a good price and once I feel that I’ve done more in Fallout 4, FF XV, and Battleborn.

#32

Due to time restrictions I am not able to give a very long and proper answer so I will summarize some of my feelings about the game.

  • It is a not a game I would easily recommend, at the same time I won’t tell people to just ignore it completely. If its on a big sale and the price is around your daily lunch money, then go for it. You might enjoy the leveling and exploring midtown nyc if nothing else.

  • In terms of unique gear and legendary items, the game does the piss poor job at it. If you are coming from Borderlands and Destiny then you will be disappointed.

  • The Incursions"Raids" sort of suck in this game (rewards not worth the time investment), general open world mobbing and farming missions is the go to end game right now.

  • There is more grinding required compared to BL2 (post patch) in a sense if you are seeking for near perfect god rolls. There are a lot of little RNG lotto you have to win to get that perfect chest armor, one of 5 pieces of armor you can equip. Luckily loot is PLENTIFUL, but actually getting something competitive might take you 2-3 weeks of dedicated play sessions (with some luck).

  • Drop rates for some of the good items are too “focused” and tied to an activity, so it can very super repetitive if you are after something specific.

  • There is little build diversity as there are certain kind of attribute you always want that is going to be best in slot. Hence the longer grinding.

  • The game’s atmosphere and graphic is amazing and will continue to be so through out 2017. That will not age for a while.

In short Massive Entertainment is not a seasoned team to handle a RPG in my honest opinion, they go back and forth with buff and nerfs over and over to the point you’ll ask your “why bother working towards a build if its gonna be nerfed down the line anyway?” I can pick 5 theory crafters from the gearbox forum who can probably come up with a more interesting build and gear system. I don’t think I am out of line for stating that either, some of Massive’s decisions have been utterly stupid.

Ubisoft as a publisher is trying to enter the loot shooter market without building a proper team, it seems they just threw a team and told them “MAKE ME A OPEN WORLD LOOT SHOOTER EVERYONE WILL LIKE”

With that said they are trying, and listening to community feedback to constantly improve the game, but it has a long way to do.

The DLCs are okay, 2 of the 3 expansion came out. First one is underground that is basically a mini -randomized-digipeak, you can set-up directives to make it more challenging and thus more reward. It is a dungeon generator at its core.

The second DLC is Survival which is very different than the whole game. It’s almost a fresh new take on the game. It’s pretty much Dayz, H1Z1 in midtown, but much more polished. You get this new character to play, all gear removed, you have to scavenge for parts to craft gear. There is perma death, in the end you have to make it to the DZ and call for an extraction chopper to rescue you. All the while in the middle of a snow storm.

The DLCs doesn’t address the issues I have with the game, just adds new “stuff” for people to do.

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#33

I’m kinda fine with that. Mostly because RAIDS in Destiny can be too much pressure. And I usually don’t have 6 hours at a time to game (so raiding is often out of the question. but strikes in Destiny are enjoyable). Underground DLC sounds kinda awesome. Survival DLC, I’m 50/50 on. Seems like a weird thing to include in a loot shooter, but I would try it.

Also, my recent interest the in the Division came about because of this article. They like the Gear Sets. What do you think of the article?:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/12/27/the-one-reason-im-playing-the-division-over-destiny-right-now/#78739124c497

#34

The article is a pretty accurate.

To be honest I would love to make a more apples to apples statement between the two games but I never played Destiny. All my funds go into my PC / Shield TV for the time being.

I can try to make some comparison to Borderlands but it wouldn’t quite explain what Division does either. So let me try to do this point by point and you let me know if that’s useful.

  • The only proper comparison to Borderlands would be the progression. TD has a OP system similar to Borderlands where you fight enemies leveled above you (max level is 30), and you can also wield weapons and gear leveled above you as well. TD have up to OP4, and they might add more. This is the power people are chasing right after dinging 30. You want to get to OP4 quick. Once at OP4 you now proceed to farm the best in slot items and be decked out with OP4 weapons and gear.

Before we get into Division’s Gearset lets look at what the actual mechanics are.

  • Your agent can equip 6 gear, Chest, Backpack, Mask, Knee Pads, Gloves, and Holster.
  • You can equip a primary, secondary and a sidearm.

Now each of these Gear has a main stat of either Firearms, Stamina or Electronics.

  • Firearms gives more weapon damage
  • Stamina gives more hit points
  • Electronics make your skills more powerful with shorter cool down

There are no restrictions as to how each of the 6 Gear will define your agent. So for example you can have a glass cannon build with all 6 gear boosting firearms, you’ll be able to one shot a lot of mobs but a stray bullet can probably kill you.

On the other hand you can have all 6 gear going stamina and you become a tank with low damage, you can tank 1-2 grenades even.

Then you have electronics, where you can have a very strong skill, but you as a agent is very weak on your own.

Now with Gear Set the same is still true, but when you match Gear Set, you will get an additional bonus. So for example if you have a AlphaBridge Mask and Kneepads, you will get the 2 set bonus for that gear Set. They are adding new gear set with every update so in a way the builds are getting more diverse as the game is being patched.

It’s fun with a group, I wouldn’t recommend it solo even though soloing is perfectly viable.

If you do get it, is it going to be for PC? Shoot me a message and we can gear you up fast.

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#35

I just finally bought this game after a sale. I played the Beta and was generally unimpressed by the DZ, though I enjoyed the PvE and the environment design. I’ll likely play it solo or with @crimsonregret55, if he ever wants to, and just focus on story.

Are the horror stories of the DZ simply being Gank City, with tons of high leveled rogue agents going around and killing everyone true? What protections, if any, are there for lower leveled players who would like to enter the DZ for looting?

#36

The Horror stories are true I am afraid, people have been demanding for a PVE DZ since day one, still nothing from the developer. Luckily, you will be able to gear up faster doing PVE activities. Unless you are chasing 2-3 named weapons that only drops in DZ…you never really need to go there.

This is one of the issues I have with their design philosophy. In Borderlands you can farm Bunker for the Bitch, but you can get the Bitch through other means, world drop and Marcus train farm. THIS is what these dev still do not understand, they give people a single path to an item. Right now if you want the most sought after Chest Armor in the game, you have to farm one particular mission over and over till it drops. Just plain bad design and kills their own game.

PVE DZ would be amazing, It is a tougher open world that would provide more of a challenge than the soft PVE openworld, you can steam roll though anything there.

2 Likes
#37

xb one

#38

Still though, the most likely way to get certain items in Borderlands 2 is to farm the crap out of the specific guys who have the item you want.

Regarding borderlands drops or any game really, I’d rather that legendaries be in the loot pool of specific map areas rather than specific bosses. That way when I go to kill a boss for his loot, one of his minions nearby might drop it. And I’d get way more chances per run than before.

Destiny has a nice system too whereby you can buy legendaries one day of each week using a rare currency. The stock is different every week. And other mechanics for getting legendaries that I enjoy.

I like the idea that as I play a game more and more, my chances of getting a unique rare get higher and higher or even inevitable. Not because I’ve rolled the same 20 sided dice every time, but because the game gives you a rare side currency, or it literally starts to stack the dice in your favor.

Animation Throwdown (ios app) does a nice thing for example. When you buy an item from a box, you get a random card from that box but it pulls it out of the box for you so you’re less likely to get that same card again from that box and more likely to get the other cards in the box. It’s still a pricey freemium game asking way too much money for stuff, but at least that part is nice.

#39

I played the game a little, and I could dispute every point you made

#40

I would probably agree with you, very disappointed with the game.

#41

If anyone is still curious, the Division has improve dramatically since launch. It is at a state I can recommend to people. I should do a more detail write up as this thread is very old and outdated. But I want to give a PSA to people since the steam sale is going to end soon and I might not be able to do a proper write up before then.

Its on steam sales for $20. Its a steal for what you are getting and the number of hours you will spend on it.

Some quick notes:

  • You need a constant internet connection, the save game and character is hosted on the server
  • It is solo friendly, you can gear up solo, BUT with a group is a lot faster.
  • Yes it has End game, a butt load of it
  • Yes there are bullet sponge, but with a proper build you will burst a end game mob within a clip or less, sniper build can one / two shot.
#42

Here is a Review of the game, very up to date video reflection of the current state of the game.

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#43

Only snag with build guides and recommendations on gear is that The Division has a fair amount of discrepancy based on the player being a PC or console user. But I’m liking the state of the game. Just don’t touch PvP unless you like the chicken dance meta. :smiley:

#44

Personally I got shot and killed walking 10 feet into PVP. And then they spawncamped us until I decided PVP wasn’t worth my time, at that moment.

#45

edit: followup. I reinstalled it since this post and I am giving it another shot. I do now believe that my gear was underleveled. As even named level 7 and level 9 guys give me a hard time.

Played some Division this morning. I was trying to retrieve some phone recording from an alleyway. The zone is for levels 2 to 5. I’m level 12. I died 4 times and then re-uninstalled the game.

The normal guys were fine. They took normal amounts of damage and then died. The problem was the level 12 named guy in the alleyway. He did absurd amounts of damage to me, very quickly. And he was tanking all my damage at about 8 times the health/armor of a normal guy. It felt like I was playing Borderlands 2, OP 8 with no shield and OP 1 guns.

If there’s a next time I play, I’ll have to remember to avoid that alley. Not sure what I should have gone after though. I remember now some missions feeling way too hard or taking way too much time. The game sort of has a lot of freedom but not really. You can go attempt to do things in whatever order you want, but in actuality you’ll just get p0wn3d. So I feel like it’s a linear game set in an open world and you have to figure out the order you’re supposed to do things in or you’ll hate the game. Or maybe it’s all too hard and enemies too bullet spongy, and you too much of a glass cannon.

Or maybe the game is not meant for solo players… I like/love co-op, but recently I’ve been playing a lot of stuff solo and not wanting to rely on matchmaking to get me through things. Even though I should have for the Division because it has a decent matchmaking system. And sometimes I don’t feel like dealing with whether or not I am using a mic. or whether or not I am and they aren’t. Or if we both are and the other guys are annoying to listen to. Just my mood recently.

Ok. So next time I try it, I’m going co-op. Or maybe I forget about it and go back to Destiny 2 or Shadow of War or Just Cause 3.

#46

That’s weird because even on the highest world tier you can one shot that named boss with a sniper, let alone a low-level version.

What sort of gear do you have? because upgrading to blues/purple early on is a huge deal, especially the extra talents you can unlock on your guns. Let me know if you want to play again, I can help you. The problem is the moment I join your game, everything is level 25. I wished it scaled me down or the game had unlimited character slots, all my characters are max level.

The game really starts after level 30. Before that you don’t get certain drops / gearset item. They are what makes all the builds happens (support, sniper, dps, healer, tank, etc).

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#47

I was using a blue shotgun and a blue smg. I can’t remember what level they were. I think it’s also possible my armor was inappropriately low. Which would explain him hitting me so hard. So, I’ll give it another shot soon enough. The game at least. Maybe not that alleyway until I feel like I’m well geared for my level. What’s a good way to level up? or should I just do all the story missions in a row?

#48

Story missions, but also go to every safehouse in each district and talk to the JTF Officer there for some side missions, doing those will give a bunch of XP and blueprints for decent gear you can craft as you are leveling. Also make sure to check the whiteboard in each safehouse to reveal all the activities in the area.

Make sure to get the XP boost upgrade on your Medical wing, it helps a bunch.

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#49

You’re probably better off with a marksman and an assault rifle. If you’re still stuck and you’re playing on Xbox then just send me a message and I’ll see what I can do.