The Division: Open Beta

A couple of days ago a friend told me that there was an open beta of Tom Clancy’s The Division going on this weekend. That game had been on my radar for quite some time but wasn’t really sure if I’d actually like it. So yesterday and today I spent a couple of hours with it and have to say, I really liked what I was seeing here.

Sure, there are tons of things that are currently locked away and look a bit unfinished but the basics are solid. The weapons I’ve tried so far feel solid, but the enemies are a bit like the bullet sponges in the early Uncharted games. That being said, it is fitting that enemy combatants of the same level as yourself require a comparable amount of force to bring down.

The game is sometimes compared to Destiny, but it is much more of an open-world experience. Loots and collectibles are hidden all over the place and despite the beta-city being quite empty at the moment, the place feels far more alive and lived-in compared to the sometimes rather sterile atmosphere you get in Bungie’s Scifi-game.

What I didn’t like during the beta was the UI. Or actually the density of it. As with pretty much every second contemporary or futuristic game released after Dead Space most of the UI is handled through AR overlays. For the most part that works fine here, but when you launch the game for the first time you are virtually bombarded with information that, only after about 30 minutes, you start to get a feel for. I can only hope that the full game will offer a tutorial or some other form of introductory mission that gives you all these HUDs one at a time.

So after a couple of hours The Division made a huge jump up on my list. Esp. with Fire Emblem: Fates still not having a release date for Europe (and Amazon not even listing the special edition), I might even get this one during its first week.