Recent reviews by Mostafaa

Holy cow, this game was rad.

There'll be a handy list of all the pros and cons below if you're into that sort of thing, although it is a bit concise. If you're a patient reader who can handle a crap-ton of text (or an in-depth review, you could say) I wholeheartedly recommend you to tag along.

At first the game is fun and interesting.

You spawn in with a buddy, explore the swamps and headshot a bunch of zombies while avoiding noise traps and big zombies while finding clues and watching your back for other hunters.

However after several games you realise that the map is pretty boring, no matter how many times they change the boss locations or number, and that the way people play this game either you're all camping in a bush for 30 mins waiting for someone to kill the boss, or you kill them and instantly get headshotted by a bush camper, at least most of the time.

This could be solved if they actually made a map that wasn't incredibly small like it's made for a COD game, if it was much larger like a PUBG map the game would hold my interest, but after several days of going through the same little locations the whole map is just boring, and zombies feel harmless and pointless aside from the need to kill them to gain a little xp.

Then you've got the fact the game runs worse with most updates, and the server restarts so much you might be lucky if you can fit a game in, not what I expected from a AAA dev... or maybe it is.

POSTED: 6 JANUARY
I love how Alexander can die of sickness and randomly end your campaign.

Just a simple puzzle game. What you see is what you get. I missed instructions at start, but you get it fast enough clicking around. The style and colours are pleasing. There are a lot of puzzles to do and they are increasingly difficult. Don't expect to get all achievements in a rush.

Just completed the game, and i'm gonna say that this game was absolutely fantastic! I loved the gameplay so much!

The story is interesting and entertaining and works perfectly as a sequel to the X-Com games.The art design and graphics are nice and the combat system is decent. The only aspect that you may complain about is the gameplay, that has a few bugs that can easily be fixed with a patch.You should at least check it out.

Best 8 player co-op sci-fi sandbox zombie/monster shooter that emphasizes on team work, tactics, and knowing your class and how to play it well with your team.

We play with new people all the time, hit is up anytime.

After several hours of playing this game I couldn't find the motivation to finish it. This game has some severe bugs that killed all the fun I was having:

- If you “alt-tab”, the NPCs move around the map, sometimes even getting stuck behind objects. Thus, you can no longer interact with them.
- Many monsters in the dungeons spawn on unreachable areas beyond the walls.
- On many quests, I got stuck on the cutscenes, effectively preventing me from finishing those quests.
- The quests on the battlefield are always the same, they just change the name of the monster you have to kill. Even the name of those quests is the same.

In addition, the soundtrack of the battlefield is really bad. Who seriously listened to it and thought “ok let’s put this in the game”? it is like a bad joke, you laugh, but you know it sucks.

Good game, kinda expensive tho, i would recommend you to buy it at a sale or something. Really represents the actions from WWII through the vision of a soldier doing nothing but following orders from superiors. The story mode is a good one with fights between Sergeants and treachery. Again, i would recommend it if you can get it at a sale.

Introduction:
I haven't played a lot of third person shooters but this game seemed to offer an unique post apocalyptic themed open world setting along with a focus on co op content which was something I was looking for.

Therefore compared to any of the not so recent Tom Clancy games I remember playing I had some more expectations from this modern title not like I didn't enjoy the stealth based mechanics of the previous games but this is more of a cover and shoot based game here. Lets proceed!

Gameplay:
First lets talk about the equipment you will be utilizing on the streets of New York!

Skills and Abilities: As a division agent you have access to some of the most lethal and technologically advanced equipment available within the US arsenal which translates to 'skill objects' like turrets, seeker mines to something more common like a ballistic shield but with additional capabilities which comes in the form of modifications for all the basic skills. You can equip upto two of these basic skills and one 'master skill' which simply is like an ultimate ability giving you a considerable health/damage/shield bonus for a short time.

Guns: But you probably don't want to fight with just these skills alone (you can if you want though!) so talking about the weapons or guns you have a pretty decent selection of sniper rifles, assault rifles, SMG's, LMG's for primary and pistols for secondary. You can further modify most of the weapons with attachments which boost its statistics like damage, range, magazine size, stability and accuracy.

All of the guns are useable but some guns are just more efficient than the others so yes some specific guns are more desired than the others. The weapon attachments on the other hand are decently balanced except a few. You can carry two primary guns and one secondary gun at any given time.

Body Armour and Equipments: Besides these your knee pads, vest, gloves, backpack, holster and mask can also boost some major and minor statistics. Some of these equipment also support addition of further modifications which can further increase some major and minor statistics.

Until you hit level 30 the combination of your guns and skills along with strategy and coordination if you are playing with other people, is what will matter the most. Once you hit character level 30 you get access to the game changing named gear set equipments, high end equipments and weapons and exotic equipments and weapons.

Recently classified gear sets were added which can provide upto six different bonuses for equipping six pieces of equipment from the same named gear set. I know I'm probably not helping much but confusing more at this point but honestly I'm just trying the detail the depth of the gameplay customization you can have.

Graphics and UI:
This is definitely one of the best looking open world setting currently available. I have not been to New York personally but the level design is very good and consistent. While you can't enter each and every building or more specifically all the floors and rooftops which would be epic but still the areas you can access are very well detailed.

User Interface is also very well done in my opinion especially the fully customizable HUD though they could have used a little more colors in the main map window but that is not a major problem.

Campaign and Progression:
Whether you are playing alone or with other people you will need to complete about a dozen of main missions and several dozens of smaller side missions both of which add to the storytelling and setting the theme.

Regarding the story itself I personally enjoyed doing all the main missions and learning about the different factions especially from the audio logs you can collect on the map. As you complete more of these missions you will be upgrading your 'personal' base of operations which unlocks the previously mentioned skills as you progress and also passive statistical boosts along with more possible interactions with NPC's in your base which is a main part of the story as well.

PvE and AI:
PvE content is definitely one of the biggest drawing factor of this game however it is more similar to RPG's than realistic shooters or simulators due to all the statistics and calculations of equipped item combination involved so this is something to keep in mind.

Regarding the missions themselves there are a lot of options for PvE content even in the base game (without the DLCs). You can do them solo or with a group, the choice is yours but the harder the difficulty the more tougher the enemy and their AI is. Enemies on the highest difficulties have much more armour than players so the shoot and cover mechanics are important for PvE.

PvP:
In the base game as of update 1.8 there are two areas of New York where you can engage in PvP, one is the new 4 vs 4 dedicated PvP only Skirmish mode in West Piers and the other area is the Dark Zone which also has a significantly higher density of NPC's along with timed Dark Zone specific mini events so it is both an alternative for PvE and PvP. Also if you want to engage in PvP in the Dark Zone you can now voluntarily turn on 'Rogue' mode so no more accidental and friendly fire however cutting other players rope during item extraction still makes you 'Rogue'.

Since there are conflicting reports of whether there is any third or first party anti cheat implemented or not, from my experience all I will say is that determining whether someone is cheating or not is a little difficult many times as the time to kill is not very high especially for 1 vs 1 battles. Therefore if you primarily want a PvP experience you might want to look at other third person shooters of which I have played very few.

DLC's:
There are three DLC's available for the game, which add three different games modes and two of them also unlock an incursion (PvE mission) each on the base map. Underground is good for those looking for procedurally generated PvE challenges. Survival has separate PvE and PvP modes but its major appealing factor is the significantly different mechanics, it offers a good experience to those looking for more realistic challenges. Last Stand is for 8 vs 8 capture point based PvPvE game mode set on Dark Zone levels.

I have played a little bit of Last Stand and Survival and the experience has been quite good so far except for some encounters with some obvious cheaters in the Last Stand PvP.

Conclusion:
Overall 'The Division' is one of the better third person shooters available especially for a good co op PvE experience. Nothing technically wrong with the PvP aspect but the implementation has not been smooth due to the constant changes to the game for PvP balance but that also tends to affect the PvE mechanics which often results in a divided community based on opinions as many people (including myself) mostly prefer keeping themselves restricted to the PvE activities which is not a negative thing in anyway in my opinion as everyone should have a decent level of freedom in an open world game.

The playerbase is still 'healthy' in my opinion considering that it is more than 1.5 years old (at the time of writing this), you can find people up for matchmaking for most base game content within few minutes but just like any decently popular multiplayer game your experience with strangers will vary as communication and team work is quite vital if you are attempting some of the toughest missions in a group.

At the end all I will say is whether you are playing with close friends or the new people you meet in the game you will have a lot of fun on the streets of New York, goodluck agent!

NOTE:
This game always requires you to be connected to Ubisoft servers through the UPlay client. You can still play alone if you wish or as recommended with friend(s) or use matchmaking. I have updated the review following the 1.8 update.