The Division's make or break update?

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Ubisoft delayed the rest of The Division's DLC to get this update out the door. But was it worth the wait, or is it already too late to get lapsed players back into post-outbreak Manhattan? Here are some of the biggest changes that might re-capture your interest.

Enemies die faster

Update 1.4 has reduced "time-to-kill" for non-player enemies across the board, addressing one of the biggest complaints directed toward the game since launch day. Ubisoft says it made some AI improvements too, so hopefully the Cleaners, LMB, and all the rest will present more interesting challenges than "keep the reticle over my head as you unload several clips into it".

Easier to find the right challenge

Did you ever matchmake into a "challenging" mission only for all of your teammates to take a look at your gear and immediately kick you out of the group? The Division did a piss-poor job of telling you how tough a lot of its end-game content was before, but the new World Tiers system should go a long way toward clearing that up. Once you hit level 30, you'll be able to choose from four different World Tiers, each of which has enemies scaled toward a certain gear score. Farm up a full set of gear from that Tier and you should be powerful enough to advance to the next one. Simple.

Grinding for gear is more rewarding

No more farming the same set of bosses in The Dark Zone over and over again (unless you're really into that). Ubisoft has given all enemy NPCs the chance to drop High-End and Gear Set items, though veterans and elites still have a better chance. And if you want, you can just wander around Manhattan and pick off bad guys in perpetuity: roaming NPC groups and bosses will now respawn every four hours. Finally a reason to re-visit four-fifths of the game's surface area!

Re-rolling your gun is less of a gamble

Ubisoft's reworked The Division's weapons and associated talents in hopes of making them all more useful and balanced. But you'll probably still get a few stinkers here and there. Thankfully, taking your weapon in for recalibration is now much more helpful: you can choose from six different talents instead of just three, and you still have the option to keep the original talent.

Named weapons are special again

It's kind of weird that you can build a uniquely named gun that presumably has a story behind it as many times as you want, right? Well, now you can't - mostly. The Division has gotten rid of blueprints for all named weapons, and the only way you can get new ones from this point on is to find them out in the world. You can still craft using the old named weapon blueprints you already have, but they'll only work for their set gear score.

Stats make more sense

What's the difference between Stability, Horizontal Stability, and Initial Bullet Stability? Who cares, they're all one stat now! Update 1.4 does some sorely needed housekeeping for The Division's numbers game, merging several stats into each other and clearing up the logic for others: damage bonuses now add to each other instead of multiplying, for example, and toughness will take all of your damage resiliency into account. Calculated weapon DPS might be a little more useful too, now that it takes headshot damage into account, but no guarantees.

Weapon skins don't take up inventory space

THANK GOD.

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I personally can't see this update bringing back the initial hype that it once had. It's took far too long to sort all the obvious niggles and gripes. I still want to go back just to collect all the items as it was still a good game to play in a relaxed state of mind, however with Battlefield taking the main scene I don't hold hope of reinstalling anytime soon.

[phil bottle 9,754]

I'll give it a blast at the weekend. Like Lee, I did find this quite a relaxing game. Just not the great game I had hoped for.

[BO7H B4RRELS 2,453]

This sounds great for those still playing it, but it's not bringing me back to it.  I'm done w/ this game.  

[Diddums 4,346]

Hmmmmmmmmm. this fence is hurting my arse hole. I'll give it the benefit f the doubt and plop the disc in again for lols but I can't see it lasting tbh.

[J4MES OX4D 10,033]

I don't think I'll ever revisit the game but it seems they are working fairly hard on things they should have put more thought into in the first place. Probably testing the waters in preparation for a sequel and trying to find a concept and platform that appeals where the population can remain engaged and maintained. I was pretty fed up of the game after 4 weeks and 40-odd hours which is not the return Ubisoft or I would have wanted especially after 4 years development and I think I played the game longer than many others as I really strung it out doing every possible mission. The whole dark zone and endgame was a complete cock-up and I don't think they'll ever truly find a sweet spot unless they rethink the whole thing. 

Certainly one of the most immersive and detailed games of all time and even with the downgrade it still looked astonishing but it's just a shame that there was such a massive gap between the quality of the aesthetics and the gameplay. Thank god I didn't buy the season pass though else I would've been majorly pissed!

[cyberninja2601 1,106]

 

 

It was meh. I played it, finished it, traded it in. Won't be going back

 

[crispymorgan 1,054]

Worthy of a revisit?

[Sennex 1,903]

The bosses are still bullet sponges, but if you get a decent team together, then the free roam is amazing

 

PVP still sucks so don't go to the dark zones

 

For me, its just fun to run around the open world and farm missions and the bosses that spawn there. 

[Baabcat 1,646]

I got the update, played for two hours, same issues, everything is a bullet sponge . Not sure what they changed but I ain't been back

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

Might sound odd but i'd go back to play it to get the Platinum trophy. Most of that is just running around being a magpie so it sounded quite therapeutic to me.

[Sennex 1,903]

Get a solid group, I think only Chad, Burge, and I still play it

 

We can carry you through pretty much anything in there thats worth doing

[GazzaGarratt 11,049]

8 hours ago, Sennex said:

Get a solid group, I think only Chad, Burge, and I still play it

 

We can carry you through pretty much anything in there thats worth doing

 

I'm up for giving it a go again to run around and get stuff.