Why is The Division so hard?

Is this designed for professional gamers or something? Am I missing something?

I thought video games were supposed to be a fun escape, not a freaking death storm.

This game could have been so fun, but the design team just HAD to make X crouch and O vault (wtf?), and made enemies impervious to grenades and able to survive 15 shots to head.

So what’s with this game? Is it where the big boys go to play co-op?

Change controller settings and GET GUD!

The Division has a high emphasis on playing in groups, which is why many enemies are bullet sponges since they are designed to be shot by multiple players rather then just one.

@Treflis:

If that’s the case, it would be nice prior to purchasing if the game description made it clear: “we designed this game to be played in groups.”

I don’t play multiplayer in anything because I don’t want to let anyone down with bad skills.

It's usually a given when it's advertised as a Open World Multiplayer game, that it's easier to play if you group up.

I hear you, OP. I liked the concept of the game, but the bullet sponges killed it. It gets worse as you team up and raise the difficulty. You're gonna have to soak literally hundreds if not thousands of rounds into a single enemy to kill him. It's ridiculous.

Every review from both critics and users most, if not all, bring up the bullet sponge element of enemies, I don't understand how anyone could have missed this. Not reading reviews? Well, that's your own fault.

People claim "bullet sponging" in every RPG shooter from Destiny to Borderlands, mostly because they see first person and think "why isn't everything dying in two shots like when I play CoD?" It's excessive in The Division, but I can't blame someone for ignoring the warnings coming from an unreliable medium - how do you know when the internet is not exaggerating? I also really can't blame people for seeing "Tom Clancy" in the title and expecting some modicum of realism in the weaponry.

As someone already said, enemies are bullet sponges because its primarily designed for multiplayer groups. So you kinda need bullet sponges to absorb multiple damage sources to present some longevity to the combat encounters. Besides, its just a MMO thing, the Division is never a true skill-shooter game.

Most critics played as single player and then got annoyed by this intentional design without understanding why.

Research is your friend.

The Division isn’t even hard to play solo, just less enjoyable.

Yeah got to have some friends to play with hate playing solo me just feels lonely i like someone to talk to while gaming

I recently did the auto-match (I had to suck it up and do it so I could pass the Benchley battle).

None of us had mics; there were more enemies. We eventually passed it.

Anyhow, after playing games the likes of AC Origins, Watch Dogs 2, FO4, Ghost Recon, it’s hard to be in an environment where most of the “streets” on the “map” are permanently blocked off and not part of the playing area.

I’ll admit I mostly bought this game bc it was billed as “Open world” and set in Manhattan...

...Watch Dogs 2 was a mind-**** because of the realistic Bay Area play area. I didn’t give two flips about the story.

Anyhow, after reading this thread and letting it sink in, I was able to complete many missions by auto-crouching behind a concrete wall or fence.

But one boss battle lasted literally 20-30 real-life minutes... it was back-and-forth of letting the boss finish his magazine, me ducking around and firing a shot, repeat about 25 Million times.

In video games there is fun, there is immersion, there is psychology in game design around leveling, resources, and perks (else why would anyone play beyond 20 minutes). However, this game is removed from all of that... no point to playing.

Yes, yes... as one poster pointed out, the name “Tom Clancy” carries big weight. It’s a shame, though; Sean Bean was difficult to kill in “Patriot Games” until a battle in he night on the stormy waters of the Chesapeake Bay leas to his succumbing to boat propellers. The thing is, Sean Bean didn’t take 239 billets to the head, walk away, then come back to the boat fight.

I learned the hard way, you can start off fine, but once u start to progress its almost needed to find a good group of individuals.

Too many bullet sponge enemies.