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The Division Resurgence review (in progress)

Condensing the console

Every decade or so Ubisoft strikes gold and this time they’ve managed to do so by sandwiching a console game into a smartphone. Don’t dismiss it without playing it though and yes, it’s free. The Division Resurgence is a banger for every mobile gamer. Possibly, nothing has changed from the console versions of The Division games besides the story. It’s as if, Ubisoft repurposed the entire game for the mobile audience and it shows. You’re not playing a battle royale goof-up or a filtered version of the console games, nope! It’s everything you see and play in The Division 1 & 2 compressed into a smartphone game with new story missions, reworked controls and a new map. It truly baffles me that this game is free to play.

Story

For the uninitiated, The Division games are MMO open-world third-person shooter games with RPG elements for weapons and gear. The story exists if you pay attention. New York is in a rickety shape after a pandemic and there are bad people doing bad things. Simple stuff. You don’t need to sweat the details here but if you want to, there is a single-player campaign that I haven’t finished yet so we will add those bits to this review later.

Here’s what I can tell you with confidence, the gameplay and looting are the core of any Division game. You move from one area to another shooting and looting. There are four character classes to choose from and it matters here because it will change the way you approach combat in this game. Each character class gives you specific items and skills to use during a fight. I played as a Demolitionist which has a grenade launcher as a signature/ultimate ability. The signature ability fills over time and you can really dent the baddies with it. There’s also an artillery turret and seeker mine which are part of combat skills and refresh quickly to aid combat.

Bulwark is basically a tank and Vanguard has recon abilities. Surprisingly the Field Medic isn’t a Swiggy health pack delivery person. Nope. Field Medic basically uses drones to harm enemies with AoE (Area of Effect) damage and also heals nearby folks. Needless to say, it’s going to be more fun with friends and mixing these character abilities should be a lot of fun.

Gameplay

I spent nearly 40 hours in The Division 2 game when it launched on console and PC, and I can safely say that The Division Resurgence is more than just a spin-off or a cash grab. It’s actually a proper Division game. Weapon customisation and gear upgrades come fast and hard. Play it for an hour or so and you’ll be diving into its criticised menu system with complex weapon and gear modding and crafting system. If you’re a spec sheet nerd, The Division Resurgence brings itsy-bitsy details about its weapon handling, firing, damage, accuracy and whatnot. You can even add mods to weapons and gear, and then enhance them further with Tactical Augmentations. All to keep a Power Score which is calculated based on Firepower, Toughness and Engineering. These attributes play into the core shooting gameplay when you face off against hordes of enemies and bullet sponge bosses that cleverly try to flank you and also punish you for leaving cover.

Movement in The Division Resurgence is basically like most third-person shooter games. You move from cover to cover and try to not die in the process while feeding bullets to anyone with a red health bar. During intense boss fights, movement can get very challenging on a smartphone screen. We played this game on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and that is a massive smartphone so our fingers weren’t as cramped to begin with. However, the game supports controllers so you better come equipped once you think that The Division Resurgence deserve your time.

It also looks gorgeous for a smartphone game. We played it on a flagship and maxed out the settings without adaptive resolution. Our early access was locked to 30FPS but there wasn’t a single drop in frame rate even though the game was basically cooking the insides of our smartphone. This is a graphically heavy game if you have the smartphone to push it and I think you should because it looks pretty!

Initial Verdict

We’re itching to play more and dive back into the game and its many modes. PVP and PVE are here but Dark Zone is what I am looking forward to the most. Yes, Ubisoft has also put Dark Zone here and for those who are new to the series, Dark Zone is basically an area where you shoot baddies and collect rare loot, and then extract it to permanently keep it outside the Dark Zone. If you die, you lose everything and there will be other players who you can shoot and loot as well. Extraction points become a hot zone for all players who want to loot the good stuff and also play the villain and hijack other people’s stuff. Fun, eh?

The Division Resurgence is a massive game and we’ll need more than a week’s time to fully issue a verdict on this. So tune back here for the full review when the game launches. Early Access for the public will start soon so why don’t you hop on as well?