The Division Beta Claims Record

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
According to the official website, Tom Clancy's The Division had a record 6.4 million people take part in the open beta. What did you guys think about your time the game?


The Division development team announced on the official site today that over 6.4 million players participated in The Division Beta, setting the record for an all-new brand on current generation consoles. Those 6.4 million players spent an average of five hours taking on missions and exploring the Dark Zone – the latter proved to be an especially popular activity with players spending an average of two hours searching for and extracting some of the beta’s best loot.
 
I actually liked the game alot. Though to be honest I plan to mainly play with guys on here and my buddies. My UPlay name is CSHawkeye81 btw if you want to add me.
 
I loved it! Definitely buying, even the wife liked it, we will be playing together. Woot woot!
 
I liked it. My backlog calls to me and a MMO wouldn't help that right now so going to pass.
 
Really enjoyed the game. I feel darkzone needs a lot of work but gameplay was great. Also only was playing with friends/family.
 
Its a Destiny-like "mmo" with 3rd person cover-based shooter gameplay. Looks good, runs pretty well; but def. not going to buy.
 
It's a mixture of GoW, Destiny, and DayZ. Not that bad of a game. I liked it. I hope there is more depth and activity in both pve and PvP though with regards to enemy npc's. More randomized spawns would be a nice welcome I think. Also have some more buildings to go in and out of.
 
I felt like it was a big empty space for the most part. You cannot enter most buildings, the AI all did the same thing. Especially the civilians. I felt like sometimes it was more of a running simulator than anything. I did enjoy the dark zone however, when it came to player interaction. The AI was terrible in the DZ also.
 
I wasn't impressed. They have a decent engine and a great landscape to do something amazing, but 80% of the city is empty and boring. I know they were trying to avoid the zombie thing, but the city feels lifeless beyond being playable. They should have left in desperate civilians that try to rob you by hand, and therefore risk your health in weaponless melee attacks, so you have to avoid more than just bandits, possibly mow down innocents to keep yourself alive. It has no hook to get me to even want it at half price.
 
I thought it got boring fast. Everyone is a bullet sponge and feels like im shooting airsoft pellets at them. The whole cover based system screws with the controls and makes it very awkward at a times. Plus the no jumping is really annoying, and im always hitting space bar thinking im going to jump over something but instead my guy just takes cover. I know it was a beta only but the darkzone seemed useless, all you do in there it seems is run around killing others in hopes to get good gear.
 
My problems with the game:

1. The story: The intro doesn't tell you what sort of attack it was, why there are suddenly well armed bandits everywhere, it just feels phoned in.

2. Bullet sponge enemies: As Totalbiscuit highlighted, nothing in the game explains why I have to shoot this "special" bandit 30 times in the face with an AK, even though he is wearing at most a scarf.

3. AI Interactions: The "stopping to give a citizen something" is an interesting idea (helps your characters morality standing when you are constantly brutally murdering rioters), but why in hell is some civilian going to trade me their boots for a bottle of water in snowy freezing New York City??

The gameplay itself is decent, but this definitely isn't going to be a day 1 purchase (these days not much is).
 
Didn't enjoy this game to much in closed beta, but gave it a second go for open beta and had so much more fun. I discovered there is match making for the missions and got dropped into a group of two brothers. both had a mic and made it way more enjoyable, then a forth joined and he had a Mic as well. We stayed grouped up and did the second mission then hit the darkzone, killed 4 hours and enjoyed every second. The match making completely changed the game, it's way better playing with others. Don't have the spare cash to buy it day one, but it will be hopefully a month 1 purchase for me lol.
 
I felt like it was a big empty space for the most part. You cannot enter most buildings, the AI all did the same thing. Especially the civilians. I felt like sometimes it was more of a running simulator than anything. I did enjoy the dark zone however, when it came to player interaction. The AI was terrible in the DZ also.

A running simulator would have stamina components. You can run forever in The D.

My problems with the game:

1. The story: The intro doesn't tell you what sort of attack it was, why there are suddenly well armed bandits everywhere, it just feels phoned in.

2. Bullet sponge enemies: As Totalbiscuit highlighted, nothing in the game explains why I have to shoot this "special" bandit 30 times in the face with an AK, even though he is wearing at most a scarf.

3. AI Interactions: The "stopping to give a citizen something" is an interesting idea (helps your characters morality standing when you are constantly brutally murdering rioters), but why in hell is some civilian going to trade me their boots for a bottle of water in snowy freezing New York City??

The gameplay itself is decent, but this definitely isn't going to be a day 1 purchase (these days not much is).


1. I'm assuming the intro story isn't part of the beta. We all start at level 4 ranking. I think 1-3 will likely be the tutorial and story.

2. Yeah, that's a carry-over from the RPG element. They discuss it in one of the videos on how it's not like a fantasy game where we can make a disconnect logically and say "this dwarf takes 100 hits" because we're preconditioned to think "that's a man, a headshot should kill him". I didn't like it at first, but the game doesn't work without it. I did notice they seem to have made the SP guys a lot easier to kill versus the MP guys. The alternative if they went a more realistic ballistic model is more guys and less ammo/weapons.

3. Yeah, they aren't setup correctly. Not sure if it was a bug or not, but besides what you mentioned, they also tend to say things that should only be triggered if you point a gun at them. The game sorta hit on my morality meter a tad when I first started and approach two thugs over a corpse. Morally, I felt that I should say something to these people and get their story - the game wanted me to just murder them. There should have been some form of " talk " / " interrogate " action. Not every thug is going to just start shooting and not everyone needs to die.

It'd bring another layer into it. As from 30m these "thugs" are only thugs because of the way they're dressed and the game is A.OK with me sniping them. For all I know, they could have been good samaritan's checking the guys vitals. A game metric like RedDead had (and even WatchDogs) would have been nice here. Kill them without mercy? Minus points. Kill them in self defense? Plus morality points. You decide your Rules of Engagement. That could all tie into an interrogation metric to get more information (crates, sideops, etc.) - if you're known as being a ruthless killer, you get treated like one and people don't surrender to you.
 
Last edited:
I played it for about an hour. The game looks horrible even on max settings and the framerates were horrible. I have no idea what people see in this game.
 
the enemy AI was pretty
3. Yeah, they aren't setup correctly. Not sure if it was a bug or not, but besides what you mentioned, they also tend to say things that should only be triggered if you point a gun at them

I noticed that if your character is running then that is considered drawing your weapon and will trigger the civilians to become hostile...you need to walk in order for them to ask you for help
 
Repetitive and as others have pointed out "bullet sponge characters. Bosses are just more of the same with just higher HP. There is also the odd choice of controls: Space Bar = "take cover", V = Tap for medkit, Control = Climb, Tab = Melee/Zoom. Not my kind of fun.
 
There is also the odd choice of controls: Space Bar = "take cover", V = Tap for medkit, Control = Climb, Tab = Melee/Zoom. Not my kind of fun.

it amazes me that on a gaming forum so many members here stick to defaults and don't know or don't care to customize their keyboard controls...that's something I do in every single game right after tweaking the graphics
 
I didn't bother downloading it but I watched some streams.

It looks like Gears of War with hoodies and a leveling/reward system. Not interested at all.
 
I didn't bother downloading it but I watched some streams.

It looks like Gears of War with hoodies and a leveling/reward system. Not interested at all.
Totally using this description when talking about the game from now on, thank you!
 
It is a basic cover shooter, a basic MMO, a basic RPG, basic loot grinder, with basic weapons. I do like the graphics, not sure why Trudude hates em, though the fps is terrible.

Honestly, for a loot grind game, sticking to realistic weapons is a mistake, I can only be so interested in the blue M4 that has slightly better stats than the last blue M4 I had. I feel like loot grinders are better served when its either medieval (variety of weapons) or has crazy guns (like Borderlands). At least then my shotgun might shoot small meteors rather than the same bullets but somehow with better dps.

I had fun in the dark zone with a group of randoms I teamed up with, the social system was nice (being able to hear people talk if your close enough). I just feel like after 4 hours of playing the Beta, I'd done most of what I'd be doing the entire game. Would get boring fast, I do hope there is more to it on launch. At this point, Siege is by far the better game.

PS. Could you imagine if siege was in this game. That would be something.
 
I was in the previous closed beta. Think my playtime in the closed beta was about 20hrs.
Then started in on the open beta. I couldn't last 2 hrs of it.

I admit, game was fun for a bit (dark zone pvp was the main focus for me) but my problem with it is it got boring fast.

And pve isn't any better. Game advancement was built around the dark zone and to me there just isn't enough there to compel me to keep playing.
A game like this might be fine for $20-$30 and even then I'd struggle with it but at AAA lvl prices I just don't see how.
 
Boring as fuck, this game will rely solely on initial sales. Player population will drop like a rock after the first week.

It will be unsupported in less than a year.
 
I was in the previous closed beta. Think my playtime in the closed beta was about 20hrs.
Then started in on the open beta. I couldn't last 2 hrs of it.

I admit, game was fun for a bit (dark zone pvp was the main focus for me) but my problem with it is it got boring fast.

And pve isn't any better. Game advancement was built around the dark zone and to me there just isn't enough there to compel me to keep playing.
A game like this might be fine for $20-$30 and even then I'd struggle with it but at AAA lvl prices I just don't see how.

That's exactly how I felt. It was fun in the closed beta, but even the open beta already felt boring.
 
As a player who spent a few hours playing both the closed and open BETA's of The Division and also have tracked the game's development like a wolf hunting caribou since before Christmas I'd like to answer a few concerns already posted by other users: Concern #1: After 2 BETA's the PvE mode had very few enemies to chase and shoot and seemed barren and lifeless. That is by design. First thing to remember (that so many forget in today's gaming world) is these words: it's a BETA. It's not a DEMO, it is not a TRIAL version in both where they give you completed content for about 1/10th to 1/3rd of the game. It's gonna have features not yet ready for prime time which will not be in the game in its BETA periods. One of them was addressed in the Open BETA's Dark Zone where they "added roaming packs of enemies all over the Dark Zone" to engage in combat with players. The PvE will see the same change. You will see a more alive world at launch. Plus you'll see all the features still not shown in any BETA game-ready at launch. That's what a BETA is all about compared to a DEMO or TRIAL version, it allows us to play a game not yet finished with a set of features ready for us that won't cause a negatively game-breaking, show-stopping bug fest.

Concern #2: Graphically the game looks sub par compared to the (seems to be) sacred E3 2013 game play movie of the game being played. On PC at 1080p with everything maxed on my old (X58/Nehalem) and new (Z170/Skylake) rigs (both running an eVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 video card) it looks to me about 85% of that video and I am okay with that. I was impressed by what I saw really and I hope they polish it a little more before launch but again, liked what I saw. I personally cannot complain. As for PS4/XBOne players, if you think for even 15 seconds that a PS4 or XBOne can play The Division at the full graphical fidelity of the E3 2013 game play movie exactly then let me address you all with 1 sentence: You seriously overestimate the graphical firepower of your console!

Concern #3: The game is boring and I don't understand the story behind the game and because of that the whole game seems derivative. To that I will say this: Even the Open BETA was very limited in content compared to what we'll wind up getting March 8th. The basics behind the story are simply this: A virus outbreak hit NYC (and the nation) Black Friday. Your mission as a Division agent is to traverse NYC attempting to find the source of the outbreak and bring NYC back from it's great situation of crisis. Even I will admit the BETA didn't tell me much more but I imagine when the full game comes out and we get more to do a lot more of what isn't understood at this point will be understood so I am saving judgment until after launch and getting at least halfway through the game.

Concern #4: The AI. Yes I admit the AI is a lot of time rather dumb. But then so was Guild Wars 2's AI in its BETA (as an example) but when the final game released it picked up steam at launch. I imagine Ubisoft/Massive/Red Storm had to give the enemies some form of code so again I'm holding off judgment until launch there until I see how the game plays March 8th.

Well as for me, bring on the launch. I'm ready to play. Until next time I am out!
 
As a player who spent a few hours playing both the closed and open BETA's of The Division and also have tracked the game's development like a wolf hunting caribou since before Christmas I'd like to answer a few concerns already posted by other users: Concern #1: After 2 BETA's the PvE mode had very few enemies to chase and shoot and seemed barren and lifeless. That is by design. First thing to remember (that so many forget in today's gaming world) is these words: it's a BETA. It's not a DEMO, it is not a TRIAL version in both where they give you completed content for about 1/10th to 1/3rd of the game. It's gonna have features not yet ready for prime time which will not be in the game in its BETA periods. One of them was addressed in the Open BETA's Dark Zone where they "added roaming packs of enemies all over the Dark Zone" to engage in combat with players. The PvE will see the same change. You will see a more alive world at launch. Plus you'll see all the features still not shown in any BETA game-ready at launch. That's what a BETA is all about compared to a DEMO or TRIAL version, it allows us to play a game not yet finished with a set of features ready for us that won't cause a negatively game-breaking, show-stopping bug fest.

Concern #2: Graphically the game looks sub par compared to the (seems to be) sacred E3 2013 game play movie of the game being played. On PC at 1080p with everything maxed on my old (X58/Nehalem) and new (Z170/Skylake) rigs (both running an eVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 video card) it looks to me about 85% of that video and I am okay with that. I was impressed by what I saw really and I hope they polish it a little more before launch but again, liked what I saw. I personally cannot complain. As for PS4/XBOne players, if you think for even 15 seconds that a PS4 or XBOne can play The Division at the full graphical fidelity of the E3 2013 game play movie exactly then let me address you all with 1 sentence: You seriously overestimate the graphical firepower of your console!

Concern #3: The game is boring and I don't understand the story behind the game and because of that the whole game seems derivative. To that I will say this: Even the Open BETA was very limited in content compared to what we'll wind up getting March 8th. The basics behind the story are simply this: A virus outbreak hit NYC (and the nation) Black Friday. Your mission as a Division agent is to traverse NYC attempting to find the source of the outbreak and bring NYC back from it's great situation of crisis. Even I will admit the BETA didn't tell me much more but I imagine when the full game comes out and we get more to do a lot more of what isn't understood at this point will be understood so I am saving judgment until after launch and getting at least halfway through the game.

Concern #4: The AI. Yes I admit the AI is a lot of time rather dumb. But then so was Guild Wars 2's AI in its BETA (as an example) but when the final game released it picked up steam at launch. I imagine Ubisoft/Massive/Red Storm had to give the enemies some form of code so again I'm holding off judgment until launch there until I see how the game plays March 8th.

Well as for me, bring on the launch. I'm ready to play. Until next time I am out!
The thing is, this was practically a demo. They just add the word beta in there so people can feel special. You really think they would do a legit beta test only 2 weeks before launch? If anything the closed beta was the real beta and what they gave everyone was a demo and test to see the interest in the game. Almost every "beta" nowadays isnt even really a beta test. That is something you do earlier on. Im sure the disc have already been made for the game, so any changes would come on a day 1 patch like most games do now. And the real QA test is after launch when everyone plays it and reports bugs.
 
The thing is, this was practically a demo. They just add the word beta in there so people can feel special. You really think they would do a legit beta test only 2 weeks before launch? If anything the closed beta was the real beta and what they gave everyone was a demo and test to see the interest in the game. Almost every "beta" nowadays isnt even really a beta test. That is something you do earlier on. Im sure the disc have already been made for the game, so any changes would come on a day 1 patch like most games do now. And the real QA test is after launch when everyone plays it and reports bugs.

They did a closed beta test earlier this year and there were definitely many changes made in the last beta. There's still tons of things to fix and they noticed a lot of new bugs in beta that will be fixed. Having 6 million players play does two things. Stress the hell out of the servers (which they did as there were a lot of disconnect reports) and help find exploits/glitches/bugs. The open beta did everything it was supposed to so it can be fixed in time for a release day patch.
 
Back
Top