What Part Will The Division’s Differences Play?
Though they are the same at the core, The Division’s strength comes across where it differs from Destiny. These features, unique to Ubisoft’s game, will ultimately decide whether players will shift their allegiance away from Bungie’s latest.
While the two titles share a lot of similarities – team structure, mission structure, MMO elements, loot system – The Division wants you to be a part of its evolving world, not just drop in and save it. There is much more investment into the events unfolding around you than just grinding strikes hoping for a particular drop. The world is more than a hub for constant enemy patrol spawns. There are people out there, and they need your help. You can provide that help or just go about your own business.
The Dark Zone helps to magnify this feeling of agency and control with its take on player interaction. Instead of the Crucible’s standard arena, you wander a specific area of New York City that has been hit the hardest. Here, you’ll stumble upon other players, and what comes next is up to everyone involved; you can acknowledge one another’s presence and move on, assist each other, or one of you can decide to go rogue and steal the other’s spoils. It’s a tense survival situation that relies entirely on player choice.
It’s all a bit different from how things work in Destiny, and a lot more grounded. It’s a fresh take on open world and PvP systems that have proven to work, and that may be enough to keep players locked in for the foreseeable future.
