The Division - Angry Joe Gameplay Impressions

[JudgeDredd]

Yeah..>I thought the DZ would be full of that but heard PvP was punished hard, so I was thinking it wouldn't be too bad. When I heard about them reducing the penalties, I just thought I'd steer clear and hope they create a Co-op only DZ.

[Dread Rlyeh]

The Dark Zone just got ridiculous.

I didn't find it to be that bad and I was playing mostly solo.  The biggest problem I had was a 4th group member (troll) that kept turning our group rogue.  The second time he picked on some insanely powerful guy that wasted us, lol.

I did see more rogues last night, but I made a number of successful extractions solo.  I moved to the noober extraction sites and switched my signature skill to survivor link.  Kind of nail biting when extracting gear I actually wanted :) 

The caveat here was this was DZ2, DZ3 farming and 2 or 1 extracting.  I imagine it might be worse in the upper regions or maybe I just got lucky with the guys populating my instances. 

[Dread Rlyeh]

This is kind of lol, but I just figured out cover to cover moving.  While in cover, you look at where you want to go (make sure you see the cover indicator), then hold down your cover key/button the entire time and you will do a fast scuttle over there.   It's a very easy way to get a nice damage buff for 10 seconds using the tactical advance talent.  You can easily set up some long moves before engaging the AI.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Haven't seen Yahtzee hate a game with this much relish in quite a while.  It does my blackened heart good.

[sandman2575]

This is kind of lol, but I just figured out cover to cover moving.  While in cover, you look at where you want to go (make sure you see the cover indicator), then hold down your cover key/button the entire time and you will do a fast scuttle over there.   It's a very easy way to get a nice damage buff for 10 seconds using the tactical advance talent.  You can easily set up some long moves before engaging the AI.

Wait, what level did you get to before you figured this out? 

This is like my favorite part of the game!

(You know you can jump over obstacles while doing this too, yes?)   :)

[Dread Rlyeh]

30... 

The game played rather smoothly for me just breaking cover and moving to the next.  Obviously I gave up some DPS, but you can shoot on the move with my method, hehe.

[JudgeDredd]

lol - that was level 1 I learned that!  :P

Your fire fights must've been buggers!

As for Zero Punctuation - and much like Angry Joe - I am not at that position yet. I've got 15 hours in and I'm really still enjoying it. Now - I do see how they have got to their conclusions - but I haven't got to that point yet.

We'll see. Maybe it's like a marathon (which also seem boring as hell) - maybe you hit a wall.

[sandman2575]

30... 

The game played rather smoothly for me just breaking cover and moving to the next.  Obviously I gave up some DPS, but you can shoot on the move with my method, hehe.

I'm actually the more impressed that you managed to make it to the highest level without even using one of the game's core mechanics. It's like you deliberately handicapped yourself to make the game more challenging!   

[JudgeDredd]

^ lol - exactly! Hardcore gamer...all hail!

[Dread Rlyeh]

30... 

The game played rather smoothly for me just breaking cover and moving to the next.  Obviously I gave up some DPS, but you can shoot on the move with my method, hehe.

I'm actually the more impressed that you managed to make it to the highest level without even using one of the game's core mechanics. It's like you deliberately handicapped yourself to make the game more challenging!   

heh.  It would be one thing if I didn't use cover, but the cover to cover move, while a nice option, isn't all that great.  Often I would run and gun (which you can't do using the c2c move) or use the diving roll to dive into the next piece of cover.  Sometimes I was just parked in one piece of cover because I had a nice dps sniper rifle. 

You do lose some stealth, and as I mentioned, dps from that talent.  That is actually somewhat significant if that buff covers nades and sticky bombs (I'm assuming it does) because you could easily make a very long c2c move towards unsuspecting enemies then do a sticky/nade combo.  Also nice to use the talent right before you pop the +damage sig skill.

[Dread Rlyeh]

Forgot to mention:  the on the move talent (30% damage reduction) is pretty huge too, and you have to be moving to have it trigger  ;)

[Dread Rlyeh]

Rage, I can hear his rage!  He calls you a crumbum...

So the daily missions haven't been resetting, 2nd day now.  I normally wouldn't care that much, but there is a pretty great rogue hunting sniper rifle at the base vendor.  46.8k damage, Proficient (1st shot out of combat has a 46% chance to crit), and reloading.   

I've read some rumors that it won't be fixed before the upcoming patch which means I pretty much can't get it.  I've been using my phoenix credits to buy blueprints and respec gear so I have a dearth of credits and the rifle is 221.  First item in the shop I've considered buying...

[Yskonyn]

I am done with the game. Finished all the missions, but I find it a very repetitive experience now with mostly the DZ.
Its fun with a group of friends, but not so much alone.
Perhaps I'll peek in once DLC hits.

Fun while it lasted, great graphics and sound direction, cool story, but ultimately the gameplay didn't hold me for long.

[Dread Rlyeh]

I am done with the game. Finished all the missions, but I find it a very repetitive experience now with mostly the DZ.
Its fun with a group of friends, but not so much alone.
Perhaps I'll peek in once DLC hits.

Fun while it lasted, great graphics and sound direction, cool story, but ultimately the gameplay didn't hold me for long.

No question it's repetitive, but for whatever reason I'm still enjoying it.  The synergy of the engine and how they implemented the loot grinding has hooked me a bit. 

I'm at about an 80% success rate when it comes to extracting high end items solo.  Rather nail biting.  Obviously the way to run the DZ is in a group, but I enjoy the occasional quick solo runs.  I'm working on building up a non-scavenging set of gear to rogue hunt.  The most dangerous game and all that  :)

[Arctic Blast]

47 hours in and I finally got around to defeating Bliss and Last Man Battalion. So I think I'm essentially finished the campaign for now, although a new mysterious echo showed up on the map...