Intro: So although The Division has only just come out about 9 hours or so ago for the east coast of the US, i felt that writing a review for this game is a must. Through the amount I have played so far I think the game is excellent in every sense but a few. From graphics for such low system requirements, to the story and game-play the games feels and runs great. Even though I have to run it on bare minimum setting until I get the new parts I ordered, I can tell you it already looks better than a lot of triple A games on the market today. It really shows awesome triple A games can look with effort.
Customization: The cosmetic clothing are very unique and detailed and allow you to tailor you're characters look to your liking without giving armor so it doesn't affect the game-play. The weapon mods allow you to specialize your weapons to fit your play-style. They give depth to the game and give more options so you can use the same gun for a pretty long time until you need to switch out for a better gun, and by then you probably already have a better version of the gun you are using. At the beginning when you get to make your own "agent", you have a lot of options to make them feel like you hand crafted them. Previously in the Betas you have choices of male or female and three different faces you could use and all you could do was randomize to get something a little different. Now you have options of hair, hair color, tattoos, piercings, warpaint, scars, and a few other things.
PvE: (*Spoilers*) So, at the start you start off next to a dead cop and a cop car with an open door on the Boston side of the Hudson river. After a brief semi-cut-scene your agent shuts the door and you can begin to customize. You then do a tutorial with your primary and sidearm. You meet up with agent Faye and begin the story form there. One of the major problems I had with the start of the game is that the AI really didn't focus on the player and seemed to move in set paths. Though after firing my weapon and/or getting further into the story they seemed more "intelligent" in the fights and missions. Though I suppose they could have done this for people who had not played the Betas or Alpha so they could get a feel for the controls and so they didn't get the crap beat out of them, but I still feel the Devs could have spent a little more time making them feel like a real threat.
PvP: So far when I played the Dark Zone was empty due to the lack of people playing the game or the amount still doing the story or just exploring outside of it. The PvP has seemed to improve slightly from the 2nd Beta but overall feels kind of the same. Though the DZ has gotten a lot larger and therefor will be easier to flee from people when going rogue, it still feels that going rogue may not be worth it. I personally have not gone rogue yet, I feel that if the DZ credits you get have not been increased or the costs of dying while rogue decreased since the Betas, there might not be much PvP at all.
Overall Score: Although I have yet to experience going rogue in the full game, and using some of the later game weapons and missions, I still feel based on the percentage I personally have played the game is fantastic, yet lacking in some areas. As a temporary score until I have payed through the entirety of the game, or most of it, I give the game itself as is now a 9.7 out of a total score of 10. The game itself could use work, but so can any game because there is always room for improvement. I originally was going to give the game a 9.5 but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt since I have yet to go rogue in the DZ or go late game in the story.
Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments on this review.
-TruePhantom