Bored in the Dark Zone? Today's The Division patch should fix that

By Gabe Gurwin March 22, 2016

the division patch dark zone thedivisionthugs — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Tom Clancy’s The Division is certainly a polarizing game, as you can see from our recent less-than-glowing review. Personally, I’ve enjoyed my time in the barren, decaying New York City that Ubisoft Massive has created, but there are definitely some rough edges that need to be smoothed out. A patch releasing today is the first step in doing that.

Though not nearly as unstable as some of Ubisoft’s other open-world games (looking at you, Assassin’s Creed III), The Division does have its share of bugs, and today’s patch notes indicate multiple gameplay fixes. Grenades not showing their blast radius, skills not working correctly, and a bug that caused emote animations to be permanently toggled on “if activated via chat while auto running” should now be rectified.

In addition, one other major tweak has been made to the open world. “Named NPCs” — enemies with armor and yellow health bars that account for about 99% of my deaths — will be permanently eliminated after killing them outside of missions. This should cut down on some major frustration, as players can occasionally find themselves facing off against an extremely powerful enemy when they just want to complete a side mission or grab a collectible.

But perhaps the biggest change coming today is in the PvP-focused “Dark Zone.” In my limited experience with the area, I found that players rarely actually fought each other, as the penalties for dying at the hands of another player were far greater than the rewards for killing them.

The patch should get players to finally shoot at each other, as experience penalties for dying in the Dark Zone have been reduced, and the reward for killing a rogue agent has been increased. You also now have the ability to heal “neutral” players — those not in your party — which should contribute to more cooperation.

What are your thoughts on The Division thus far? Do the RPG elements feel out of place in a Clancy game, or do you welcome the change? Let us know in the comments!

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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