advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Can The Division be saved?

If Ubisoft Massive really is taking action against cheaters and hackers in Tom Clancy’s The Division, they appear to be doing it at a snail’s pace because, Mother of God, this game is broken.

This is what happened when I logged in for a session in the Player vs Player (PVP) Dark Zone.

As is my routine as a solo player, I teamed up with a group of random players in the Dark Zone and we went about the infected neighbourhood of New York wiping out named Elite enemies, collecting Dark Zone keys, Dark Zone credits and of course crafting materials loot.

We were able to successfully extract our items twice without running into anything more threatening than a Riker gang’s shotgunner.

Upon calling our third and final extraction however, we were bum-rushed by another player who dispatched us quicker than a level 30 player attempting to solo a mission on Challenging difficulty.

Despite this being my first time in the Dark Zone with a gear score of 161+ I found it very strange that a rogue was able to massacre three players without having to reload his SMG once.

My comrades seemed to agree and after discussing it for a moment, we concluded that the player had to have been cheating.

Reports filed, we respawned and loaded into the Dark Zone again.

Upon diving once more into the fray, we were unceremoniously interrupted by another cheater, this time, camping in the wall firing off a string of seemingly infinite ammo with no need to reload.

At this point I died and decided that I would rather do my daily missions and run around picking up collectibles.

“Unfortunately, the gameplay experience was recently impaired by in-game bugs and players violating the rules of the game. In order to bring back a better and healthier environment, we have taken new steps to address the situation,” Ubisoft said in a blog post last week.

“Impaired” is the biggest under-statement Ubisoft has made in reference to The Division. Right now the Dark Zone is downright unplayable, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Check out streamer LiKe BuTTeR and his mates fall to cheater multiple times in the video below. Be warned this video does contain, shall we say, colourful language and is probably not safe for work.

So back to the question we posed in the title, can The Division be saved? My answer is ‘yes’ but that’s a conditional ‘yes’.

Firstly, the two week ban on cheaters is probably going to be as effective as a sponge sword in the rain. Why? Well even if Massive decides to roll back accounts by two weeks today that puts players back to the week of the April 12th update and the launch of the Falcon Lost Incursion.

So at worst you would need to go back and do a few more legitimate runs of the Incursion and well, that’s it.

Players that get caught twice receive a permanent ban but if we’re honest, who would cheat again after being banned for two weeks? No one, because you farmed that gear to get good at the game and nobody wants to waste their time in the game, that’s why you cheated in the first place.

As far as glitches go while I feel that this is Ubi’s own problem. I can understand that it gives players an unfair edge and needs to be dealt with but if we’re brutally honest, Ubisoft should have fixed those before rolling out the game.

When people are able to make "How To" YouTube videos faster than you can fix a glitch in your game, that's a problem.
When people are able to make “How To” YouTube videos faster than you can fix a glitch in your game, that’s a problem.

What we will say is that Ubisoft has to start addressing these glitches and bugs sooner than they currently are.

All of this said the reason why players are cheating and exploiting bugs may be because the grind for gear and weapons is excruciating.

There have been instances where I’ve completed 10 Hard missions in an evening and walked away with a gear mod that buffs you by two points.

Once cheaters start getting banned in earnest I have suspicions that the game will slowly quieten down to a point where the Dark Zone is just that, a dark, silent zone where the odd player tries to tackle a Dark Zone Supply Drop.

Elite enemies drop spew. I got a nice mask from one once and performance mods from the countless others I’ve killed, no weapons or other useful gear, and its at these points that I decide my time is being wasted.

Does this look like the face of a Division agent having fun? No, he's sad, probably because he was pwned by a cheater.
Does this look like the face of a Division agent having fun? No, he’s sad, probably because he was pwned by a cheater.

Ubisoft has a Herculean task on its hands because while we, and you sitting at home playing the game, can think of solutions to The Division’s problems, those solutions often cause more problems, and we’re not even the developer with the whole roadmap of the game in front of us.

In short for, The Division to be saved the online aspect of the game needs to be overhauled completely so effective anti-cheating methods can be put in place.

Apparently Ubisoft is working in earnest to ban cheaters this week but it’s an issue that really needs to be dealt with at a faster pace and requires a much better support system than is currently in place.

Seriously Ubisoft, if you want me to record video, submit a ticket and then constantly follow up with you regarding my cheater report you best be paying me a working wage.

The final thing we want to see changed is the end game. After reaching level 30 there needs to be more than an endless search for crafting materials, currency farming, or both.

Give us the chance to do Encounters again, let Elite enemies roam the player versus enemy area, just give us something more substantial than the same missions over and over and over again with the same rubbish rewards.

AftI am still going to carry on playing The Division even in its broken state, if not for the urge to get better loot, just to find out if Paul Rhodes and I ever get to have that talk later.

 

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement