Normally I play first person shooter or third person adventure games, although I have never been a fan of third person shooters like Gears of War, so when I was invited to play The Division BETA, I thought OK I’ll give it a go but I was not overly excited about the game, and boy was I wrong!

‘The Division’ is the name given to the ‘Strategic Homeland Division’ (SHD) which is a US classified unit of self-supported tactical agents, which form a stay behind force trained to operate independently of direct command. ‘The Division’ have a presidential directive to “Do whatever it takes” to prevent the fall of society after the smallpox pandemic which causes the collapse of the United States Government 5 days after a virus is planted onto bank notes and released on Black Friday.

As you play the role of one of the members of The Division your mission is to restore order and investigate the source of the virus. As you investigate the area you also have missions to upgrade your Base of Operations which gives you access to a variety of perks and abilities.

“As you progress you get better weapons and kit, and you do need better weapons and kit to survive!”

Keeping in mind that this is a BETA version of the game I expected to find lots of bugs and glitches, surprisingly I did not find any, although some people do experience lag when they first enter the Dark Zone. The game play of The Division is smooth and easy to get to grips with. Controls are quite standard for an open world game sticks to move, buttons to perform actions and triggers to shoot and aim. Like Gears of War the take cover controls and climb or vault is similar although I have been told in The Division it is a little more advanced.

I found the Graphics of the game to be far better than I expected, there is an excellent use of lighting effects and reflection which makes the images look very real. Couple this with really good sound. Each weapon sounds different as do the footsteps when you are walking on different surfaces. The weather affects visibility along with the look and feel of the game, as does the day and night rotation, add all of this together and you have a totally immersive game that will hold your interest for hours, and make you return to the game time and time again.

The menus are a little tricky to understand at first and it took me a little time to figure out what I was supposed to do with them. There are 6 options in the menu, Intel, Group Management, Map, Abilities, Inventory and News. As this is a BETA you are very restricted in what is available.