I didn't like it enough to wanna buy it. I want them to cut out some of the RPG bullshit from the sequel and improve the controls.
I wrote a blog about my experience with the free weekend, using some of what I said in my Division thread here.
The Division was free on Uplay this weekend. I played it for eleven hours and finished 38 percent of the story. The quarantined, lawless Manhattan looks amazing. It has a strong atmosphere.
I wish the player character talked. My first one also had a permanent expression of disgust. Why was she in such a bad mood all the time? She looked constipated.
You can’t edit your face! I was only an hour in, so I decided to start over with a new character, who was more relaxed in the game.
The gunplay feels rather good. Recoil isn’t too bad. The mechanics are mostly solid, but leave some things to be desired.
You can only swap shoulders when aiming. This forces you to use the over the shoulder view every time you make a cautious right turn. I don’t like having a massive blind spot. Since swapping shoulders is mapped to the sprint button, you can’t accelerate while aiming from the OTS view. The OTS view always resets to the right shoulder.
There is no crouch button. This forces you to use the cover system against high level enemies. They probably could have done both cover and crouch. When you’re crouched, the character could automatically attach to cover, and when you look at another piece of cover from cover and hold sprint without moving the stick, the character could transition over there. It wouldn’t be like in MGSV, where it activates even when you’re standing, and it wouldn’t be like in Tomb Raider, where you’re crouched almost all the time. It would only attach you to cover when you’re crouched. Obviously, it also wouldn’t have an inefficient animation of the character attaching, like in MGSV. They would just lower their self slightly more when you go right up against the cover and stay attached until you pull away or transition to the next piece of cover.
I was having fun going from mission to mission with two to three other players, who were also trying out the weekend trial. Someone in my squad complimented my skills, because I was the only one playing aggressively and seldom using the cover mechanic.
But, The Division is ultimately disappointing. Role-playing game mechanics have a habit of ruining everything. My last main mission was one where you have to restore power to Times Square. I was slightly underpowered. The enemies all took bullets like terminators and dealt pretty high damage. I got through it with another player after several attempts, but I was still bothered afterwards. We had to play it like a whack-a-mole cover shooter and rely excessively on the health regeneration and each other’s healing.
Also, I love how the game has stealth, but never lets you use it. I sneaked through a long train yard, only to then read the objective and realize that I have to kill them all before proceeding. It’s always like this.
The reason I found out this is free is because a few people on a forum I frequent were saying Watch Dogs has good controls. So I started up Uplay to reinstall it and give it another try. (That’s when I saw the Division trial.) But after playing it again, I quickly remembered that Watch Dogs isn’t a good shooter.
Like The Division, it has no crouch, forcing you to use the cover system. Unlike The Division, it has no shoulder swapping at all. This is a pretty basic feature.
Even after I disabled the mouse acceleration by following a modding guide, the aiming still feels horrible. The game slows down your aim if you move the mouse too fast.
The enemies always hide behind cover, but keep their heads usually just high enough that you can pop them off. I’ve shot them through several layers of wood and even thick steel.
That’s good lumber!
The cars are so useless in a chase that it’s easier to just get out and shoot all your pursuers.
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