{"id":86978,"date":"2016-03-14T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=86978"},"modified":"2016-03-14T16:12:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T14:12:11","slug":"attack-of-the-clones-the-division-vs-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/86978-attack-of-the-clones-the-division-vs-destiny","title":{"rendered":"Attack of the clones: The Division vs. Destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is the question everyone is asking, \u201cDid Ubisoft copy Bungie with their latest title?\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It is hard to say, although there are elements of <em>Destiny<\/em> in the game, <em>The Division<\/em> has set its own course and will make its own &#8220;destiny&#8221;, excuse the pun.<\/p>\n<p>I am a veteran <em>Destiny<\/em> player with three\u00a0level 320 characters and months of gameplay clocked, and while playing <em>The Division<\/em> for just a week now, I can actually chat about the possibility of it being a clone.<\/p>\n<p>Saying that, it is not an attack on the game, rather a compliment on my side. Let me explain to you why <em>The Division<\/em> has managed to bring the best of both worlds and created a shooter which will go down in history.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Division<\/em> takes place in a post-viral New York City. Smallpox spread on the eve of Black Friday and a few days later society collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>Factions have now been formed to take over what remains of the city. Some are trying to use the infection as a weapon, while others are just determined to loot and kill as much as possible while society is in disarray.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yPq_NVi-TC4\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The setting of <em>The Division<\/em> has barely been done before. Previously all these \u201cend of the world\u201d games are all about zombies, or some sort of version them.<\/p>\n<p>You will not find anything supernatural about <em>The Division<\/em> at all, rather it is as realistic as other Tom Clancy titles in the past, and lacks any sort of unworldly story behind it.<\/p>\n<p>This is what sets <em>The Division<\/em> apart from other RPGs in its genre as Ubisoft have managed to merge a shooter with am RPG and MMO, similar to what Bungie did with <em>Destiny<\/em> \u2013 hence the heavy comparisons of the two games.<\/p>\n<p>This is expected though as there has not been such an ambitious game with so many different elements coinciding since <em>Destiny<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But in order to understand the two different games, you need to understand why everyone is comparing the two, and what grounds they have to do so.<\/p>\n<p>As I played through <em>The Division<\/em>, more and more <em>Destiny<\/em> showed its face embedded deep within the game\u2019s mechanics<\/p>\n<p>However, as\u00a0much as I tried to pinpoint the exact copy-and-paste elements, <em>The Division<\/em> then blinded me with something fresh and new.<\/p>\n<p>The gear system in <em>The Division<\/em> has a typical RPG feel to it. Weapons and gear range in various ranks from Specialist to High End, and as you level up you will then find better gear that fits into these specific rarities and power ranges.<\/p>\n<p>Blueprints you find in the game are used to make weapons, something that <em>Destiny<\/em> has never done before, although you will need weapon parts which you obtain in the game by dismantling or \u201cdeconstructing\u201d weapons and gear.<\/p>\n<p>The gear system in <em>The Division<\/em>\u00a0is unique. Although\u00a0at times, I did feel that the tiers and level system that the gear relies on mimics <em>Destiny<\/em>\u2019s, <em>The Division\u00a0<\/em>takes an\u00a0an MMO point of view that doesn&#8217;t\u00a0directly copy\u00a0<em>Destiny<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the game, you start off with a crappy green weapon and by the time you are level 30 you have an orange one. This is comparable to <em>Destiny<\/em>&#8216;s\u00a0colour system to identify item\u00a0rarities and strengths.<\/p>\n<p>Rather look at it as an RPG element, <em>Diablo 3\u00a0<\/em>has orange gear, so does <em>The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited<\/em>, and <em>WoW<\/em>. Just because its guns compared to swords and shields, does not mean it\u2019s a clone.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uElsBflqgYw\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If there is one thing that\u00a0<em>The Division<\/em> has done right compared to <em>Destiny<\/em>, it is the drop rate of items.<\/p>\n<p>For the first year of <em>Destiny<\/em>, legendary items were the rarest drop rate and we spent our time grinding mindlessly to try and get rare equipment.<\/p>\n<p>One example of this is the notorious loot cave that\u00a0saw us shooting into a cave to try and get engram drops. I did not feel that I ever needed to\u00a0loot a cave in <em>The Division<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The merchants sell guns that you actually want to buy and the guns and gear you find from defeating mission bosses actually have a purpose, and are not just another weapon part.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Division<\/em> has a deep skilled-based system which grows as you level up and complete the main missions in the game. You unlock new skills based on three skill trees and earn perks and talents along the same lines as you go about your character improvements.<\/p>\n<p>You can switch to a different class at any time so if you feel like you&#8217;re doing a mission and there is no support, then you open your menu and change things up.<\/p>\n<p>One thing that <em>Destiny<\/em> lacked was a unified skill system. Instead of skills being equal among each character class, if you wanted Weapons of Light then you would have to switch out to another character.<\/p>\n<p><em>Destiny<\/em> also lacked balance for each playable class. There was also no real balanced\u00a0support sub-class for each character.<\/p>\n<p>For example, you\u00a0would have to tackle raids knowing what your clan was\u00a0using so that you could\u00a0keep your squad balanced each time around.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Division<\/em> lets you go about structuring your class the way you want when you want to.<\/p>\n<p>Although in the game, the progression of each tier depends on how far you are in each story mission and by the time you hit level 30 you should have each skill available to swap around.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ais1yAtVS2A\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Matchmaking in <em>The Division<\/em> is very similar to <em>Destiny <\/em>and\u00a0any other MMO at that.<\/p>\n<p>When exploring the city you can join up with any players, or invite anyone to your squad. Upon starting main missions, you can change the difficulty to hard or challenging and match with players from around the world.<\/p>\n<p>There is really nothing we can compare here besides the missions themselves, which are packed with content and superb gunfights. The missions are very reminiscent of\u00a0the challenging Strikes in <em>Destiny<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Each mission in <em>The Division<\/em> sees you infiltrate an area controlled by one of the gangs in the game, you then fight your way to the boss and kill him.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a typical MMO mission layout and it&#8217;s pretty good. What <em>Destiny<\/em> lacked was the amount of Strikes. When\u00a0<em>The Taken King<\/em> came around, they eliminated quite a number of them by moving onto the new gear system.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Division<\/em> has many\u00a0missions to play through. We&#8217;ll have to wait and see\u00a0how these missions will play out post-game and whether they will be relevant after 50 hours of playing.<\/p>\n<p><em>Destiny<\/em>\u2019s biggest strength is its fantastic PvP and I have to say that <em>The Division<\/em>&#8216;s\u00a0PvP does not come close to replicating it at all, rather it is a different take on PvP completely.<\/p>\n<p>Saying that does not mean it is a game changer in the world of PvP, rather it makes you wish for a solid team versus team based game mode. Give me Team Deathmatch or Domination then\u00a0we&#8217;re talking.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>The Division<\/em>, the Dark Zone is fun but it really does not show your character\u2019s strength and loadout as much as <em>Destiny<\/em>\u2019s PvP does.<\/p>\n<p>The Crucible in <em>Destiny<\/em>\u00a0requires skill whereas the Dark Zone requires a team of players who are hell bent on taking you down and stealing your gear.<\/p>\n<p>Often this requires very little skill, you just wait for the right moment before extraction and take them down. In terms of PvP, the two games are very different and you can&#8217;t really compare them.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Destiny<\/em>, you play to get your K\/D (Kill\/death) ratio \u00a0up and show just how salty the world is. <em>The Division<\/em>,\u00a0on the other hand, is all about loot and surviving long enough to bring it home with you.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c_qUtFkdPEk\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>The Division<\/em> has quite a large amount of content\u00a0in store for gamers\u00a0with expansions releasing later this year. This is a similar move to Bungie\u2019s release schedule for <em>Destiny<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As for post-game content, we can expect a few raids to be released\u00a0as well as something <em>Destiny<\/em> still lacks today, player trading.<\/p>\n<p>How these raids will work is still unknown at this point in time, but after playing the game I am pretty keen for sitting for a couple of hours getting a long rewarding mission done.<\/p>\n<p>All I hope is that Ubisoft gets the reward system for the raids perfected so that we do not sit with another <em>Destiny<\/em> disaster on our hands. We all know how terrible the reward system for <em>Destiny<\/em>\u2019s raids has been.<\/p>\n<p>If I had to give a verdict on the comparison between the two, I would have to say that Ubisoft in theory probably wanted to copy <em>Destiny<\/em>, but not in its mechanics or story.<\/p>\n<p>Ubisoft\u00a0set out to create a game that was everything <em>Destiny<\/em> was not and wanted to best Bungie. This is why Ubisoft heavily advertised\u00a0player trading and post-game content for <em>The Division.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This is something <em>Destiny<\/em> has lacked for its entire life cycle. Ubisoft took a closer look at the\u00a0<em>Destiny<\/em> community than Bungie themselves and took note of everything players wanted in the game.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow, Ubisoft implemented a better version of it into <em>The Division<\/em>. The game\u00a0is not a <em>Destiny<\/em> clone at all, but rather it\u2019s a game that finished what <em>Destiny<\/em> started.<\/p>\n<p>What are your views on this debate? Let us know in the comments and forum.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>More On The Division<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"Permalink to The Division is the fastest selling game in Ubisoft\u2019s history\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/86854-the-division-is-the-fast-selling-game-in-ubisofts-history.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Division is the fastest selling game in Ubisoft\u2019s history<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Permalink to Tips on how to get the most out of The Division\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/86818-tips-on-how-to-get-the-most-out-of-the-division.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Tips on how to get the most out of The Division<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Permalink to What Tom Clancy\u2019s The Division does well, and what it doesn\u2019t\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/86474-what-tom-clancys-the-division-does-well-and-what-it-doesnt.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">What Tom Clancy\u2019s The Division does well, and what it doesn\u2019t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did Ubisoft copy Bungie with their latest title?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":86980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[2533,5524,3180,10523,10299,17490,733,3068],"class_list":["post-86978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-bungie","tag-destiny","tag-feature","tag-features-2","tag-the-division","tag-tom-clancys-division","tag-ubisoft","tag-ubisoft-massive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}