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The Division: How a server crash finally made the game click for me

Tom Clancy’s The Division should be the very antithesis of fun. It’s a grindy loot-and-shoot with no obvious story, average gun play and an overall rinse-and-repeat sensibility. Yet after 16 hours buried deep in a virus swept, bad guy riddled Manhattan, I’m hooked. I want more.

I’ll admit it was a rough start. Brooklyn is a bland but necessary intro to the world of The Division and its mechanics. It’s where you first play the four or five different side mission types you’ll encounter in Manhattan proper. Brooklyn is also where you get your first taste of brick wall/bullet sponge bad guys.

Tutorial aside, Brooklyn is also where The Division‘s story tries to set itself up… and falls agonisingly short.

I was almost interested. Almost.

To make matters worse, a server crash wiped two hours of my hard work. Gear, weaponry and XP levels were there one minute, gone the next. That was tough. I could almost turned off right there, angry and frustrated with yet another shoddy Ubisoft launch.

But I didn’t. Instead I soldiered on — after all, Manhattan needed saving and Steve and Ben needed another gun.

And that was it, that was where it happened. That server wipe did what the game had so far failed to do: it hooked me on the hunt for loot. Losing precious gear made me realise just how badly I wanted it. Soon I was hitting every mission, looking to upgrade my home base to unlock new and helpful perks. I ventured into the Dark Zone and endured the awful, bland, grindy gameplay found there and I loved it.

Loved it.

Now, I’m hooked. I’m writing this sitting on a tram and all I can think of is getting home, helping random civilians and maybe getting that elusive weapon skin. A few more hours in the Dark Zone and I’ll have some truly powerful weaponry. Somehow this game, this amalgamation of average mechanics has done something Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V and even XCOM 2 all failed to do. It has me hooked.

I’ll see you in the Dark Zone.


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About the author

Hamish Lindsay

Avid reader and general geek, justifying the time I spend playing games by writing about them. I try not to discriminate by genre, but I remember story more than gameplay. I’ve been playing League for longer than Akali and I’m still Silver. Fallout 3 and MGS3 may be the pinnacle of gaming.