By Wesley Regenbogen
Introduction
Back in
2001 an operation known as “Dark Winter” was launched as a real
world exercise that tested emergency response to a bioterror attack
on the United States of America. In this
exercise they tested how long it would take emergency workers to
respond to a possible bioterror attack.
Game
plot
The game
“Tom Clancy’s : The Division” ( from now on we will refer to it
as “The Division” ) is a third person shooter set in the present
New York. Terrorists
have released a pandemic-causing virus on the dollar bills on Black Friday
and soon afterwards smallpox virus is infecting the people. Many people
died from the virus and Central Park in New York has become
a mass burial place. The
government can’t handle the situation when groups of scavengers
take over the streets.
When
everything else fails, there’s a group of highly trained civilians
called “The
Strategic Homeland Division" (SHD)”, also referred to as “The
Division.” These
agents are only called upon when everything else has failed. Which is
the case in the game.
After a
short intro cinematic ( embedded below ), the player is directly
thrown into the game itself. When the
player closes a door of a car nearby, the player is able to customize
his character in the game and after that is done, the game starts.
First,
the player needs to do a tutorial and a few missions. When the player
arrives in Manhattan, this is
where the game really starts.
Opening Cinematic video :
In
Search of Green Poison to fight the Green flu
Green
Poison was the substance responsible for the virus outbreak in New
York. People got
what they call the “Green Flu.” The player
needs to find the source of the outbreak and then a vaccine can be
created to cure the smallpox virus. Division
agents are now on the streets and they are trying to get the
situation under control. Question
remains … Will they succeed in their goal and find the source of
the virus ?
The
Division Agents
Agents of
The Division are a classified unity of highly trained, self-supported
tactical agents. Their main
objective is to restore the order in New York city and ensure that
the government can continue their work and stabilize the situation at
hand. Division
agents are called upon when everything else has failed. They
are “activated,” once the President of the U.S. signs Directive
51, which itself is activated when disaster strikes and the situation
is serious.
Dark
Zone : Quarantine zone where the virus hit the hardest, PvP arena
The “Dark
Zone” is the zone on the map where the virus has hit the hardest
and a virus shield is needed to enter this area. Players
can either choose to group together and work together or they can
choose to be a solo gamer and kill other players. When a
player kills another player in the Dark Zone, he/she is considered as
a “Rogue Agent”.
Enemies
in the game ( more info, watch the Enemies Factions video listed
below )
Rioters
Rioters
are a group of common thug and criminals that just want to rob and
kill others for the sake of survival or just for enjoyment.
Rikers
The Rikers are escaped convicts from Rikers Island. They
come from different gangs. Their motto is “power by numbers.”
Cleaners
The Cleaners are former sanitation workers (garbage
men, janitors, custodians, ect … ). They believe that the virus can
be destroyed by fire, so they burn everything down. Unfortunately, this includes civilians, and you.
Last
Man Battalion
Also known as LMB, these group of enemies are member of
a private military company. They want to create a new world order by force.
Gameplay
aspects of the game
When
you select a mission, you need to follow the GPS orange line towards
your destination. Beware
that during your walk or run towards your mission, you can encounter
scavengers and crooks that want to shoot at you. You
will need to kill them first, before you move on towards your
mission. Hint
: Keep an eye on your mini-map! This will make you aware of enemy
presence with your area where you are in.
On
your backpack you will see how many items you have currently in your
inventory and also will see which abilities that you have enabled. When
you get hit, you will not see a health bar or something else, but you
will see that your screen gets red, this indicates that you are hit
and need to seek cover to avoid getting killed in action. Your
health will regenerate when you have found coverage behind something.
When
your enemies throw a smoke bomb or a fire bomb towards you, you will
see a red area where it will hit, if you are in this area, get out of
it asap. With
some weaponry that you have, you can get a over-shoulder view when
aiming at the enemies. This
is not with every weapon, but with only a few. A
so-called “sticky bomb” is a bomb that you throw on enemies and
can explode, this certainly attracts their attention and you can
shoot down your enemies after it.
Another
cool thing is the map. When you open the map, your character is
standing “in” the map as it is a holographical map.
Looting
When
you kill an enemy, you are able to loot their weapons, clothing and
anything else that they might be carrying with them. In
the “Dark Zone” this loot will be something with more value. In
the normal game it just is a “reward” that you get for killing
the enemy.
Abilities
: Skills, Talents and Perks
Skills
Video
about Skills :
Talents
Video
about Talents :
Perks
Sound
tracks of the game :
Personal
opinion about Tom Clancy’s : The Division
If
you are looking for a shooter game that involves realism and very
high detailed graphics, then THIS is the game you are looking for. The very
high graphics and realism makes this game as realistic as it gets. There
might be a few glitches and crashes, but overall this game has
elevated my expectations and clearly the developers of the game,
Ubisoft, have succeeded in making this a top game.
You
can play this game on your own, but when you look for other players,
you can play it in co-op and you can complete missions together. The gameplay
of the game is fluent and you can get to cover everywhere in the
game, so that enemies have lesser chance of hitting you.
The
“Dark Zone” I haven’t reached yet, but eventually I will get
to that as I progress in the game.
This
is definitely a game that you need to buy, if you haven’t bought it
yet, get to your local game store and get it !
Wesley Regenbogen
"No Man's Sky" by Hello Games was one of the most anticipated computer games of the summer, promising an unbelievable huge universe to explore, "epic space battles," challenging planetary survival conditions, and more. 
