The Division Resurgence: Good or Mobile Port Slop?
The Division Resurgence is a mobile game that recently got ported to PC via Steam in early August, and as a fan of the franchise, I had to give it a go. My goal in playing was to discover if, underneath all the mobile aspects, there is truly a fun game hiding.
Overview
My first experience with this franchise started with The Division back in 2016. I had always loved looter shooters like Destiny, Warframe, and Borderlands. So naturally, I would pick up The Division when it came out. I vividly remember being ready to grind and taking an Adderall around 10 P.M and playing until around 5 A.M. That was my first experience with the game, and it was safe to say I was hooked. I personally like games that are grindy and reward you for your time, so I was here to see if I could relive that with The Division Resurgence. Within my first couple of hours of playing, I felt that same feeling when I played the original. There were a lot of quality-of-life improvements, but the structure was there for a good game; it wasn't until delving deeper into all the systems that I started to notice the mobile aspects...
Story
As someone who loves lore and immersing myself in a story and world, this game did a good job of that. One thing that has always drawn me to The Division is its realistic world and story. In this adaptation, we actually get a protagonist with voice lines, which helps enhance the immersion of the story and the surrounding world. Something we did not have in the first two games. From the side quests to the main story, the voice lines and writing felt really thought out and worked with the overall sentiment of the mission or what was going on in the world at that time. The cutscenes also feel well thought out and, at least for someone who cares about the story like me, made me not want to skip them. I felt as if I was actually navigating a story in this big world that needed help; I was making an impact, and it felt nice and noticeable. My only gripe would be that the open world itself maybe needed a bit more love, since it is the world that helps aid in the story and lore of it all. Just having random citizens doing the same things in different parts of the map and not talking didn't really aid in creating an immersive world. Same with the enemies that would patrol certain areas; it all kind of felt the same across different areas of the map. It would have been nice to have some of these NPCs be more distinguishable across different areas of the map. All in all, for a free game, I enjoyed the story and lore of it all and the fact that it felt like a true Division game.
Combat and Gameplay
This, in my opinion, is where the game truly feels like a classic Division game. In no way did I feel like I was playing a mobile game when engaging in combat and maneuvering. I usually play with a mouse and keyboard but decided to use a controller this time. The gameplay and combat felt smooth, and once you got used to the mechanics of it all, you would sort of enter this flow state. From moving from cover to cover, then shooting and using grenades, it all felt really nice. I also encountered very minimal bugs, if any, throughout the duration of my time playing and especially in combat. Everything felt nice and smooth and made for a good experience. The PvP, on the other hand, is a bit of a different story. I am a competitive person, so I was excited to jump into PvP when I was finally able to unlock it. I found myself getting smoked in every game, and I could not do damage. That is when I figured out that this game does not really want you to participate in PvP until you are really max level. The gear matters a lot for PvP, so being under-leveled and under-geared will be a horrible time for you. I think they could improve by having at least one of the PvP instances be fair, where everyone's gear and level are centralized, and then have another instance where they are not. Kind of like a "Normal" match and a "Ranked" match, that way people can practice PvP and not be discouraged by just getting stomped all the time.
The Mobile Aspect
At first, I couldn't believe how this was a mobile game; I didn't understand why some reviews had hatred for this game. I finally started to get annoyed with all the notifications and systems that are presented to you pretty much every time you acquire something. It could just be me; I am one of those people who, when I get a notification, have to click it so I can be rid of it and it doesn't mess up my screen. I don't know; I am weird like that. This game has so many notifications and is constantly urging you to upgrade your bad equipment with certain resources that can be obtained in-game but can also be bought with real money. It is so annoying because eventually your screen gets cluttered with notifications for stuff for you to click on, and I hate that. Even when completing challenges, there is always something for you to claim and click on, and then from there you are usually presented with the option to buy something from the store. I get it; it's a free game, and they have to make money, but the constant clicking and navigating through certain menus is super tough for me. The worst of it all is probably the way leveling is handled. Every day you are allotted bonus experience that you can cap out at once a day. Once you are capped out, if you don't have any normal missions or side missions, it is extremely hard to level. Usually, with the story missions, you can only do them at certain levels, so you can be level 20 capped out on bonus XP and be screwed because the main mission requires you to be level 21 or 22. I encountered this several times, and even after completing all side quests, they don't offer much XP. I think the game kind of forces you to log in every day to accept the daily rewards and challenges, and then once completed, you are kind of screwed. I am not one for time-gated content; I don't mind a slow leveling pace. I played a bunch of classic World of Warcraft, but in this game, there will be times when you hit a "wall" and will have to wait until your bonus XP refreshes the next day.
Verdict
Overall, for a free game, I cannot complain too much. The game truly feels like a Division game and has a lot of hours of fun packed into it. The main core systems feel great with combat and the story, but the constant clicking on notifications and opening chests or claiming rewards will slowly kill your spirit. If you are looking for a casual game to pump a couple of hours into every day and see some progression, this is it. However, if you want to go hardcore mode and try to reach endgame as fast as possible, then this game might annoy you with the time-gated bonus XP model. Which is what happened to me; I wanted to grind it as fast as possible but found out that it wasn't going to be the case for me. All in all, though, I had a lot of fun trying this game out and might come back to it now and then if I ever get the itch for some good ole looting and shooting.
