'The Division' offers a mixed bag on the streets of New York City

The battle for New York real estate just got a lot less competitive.

The Division, an insanely-hyped multiplayer shooter from Ubisoft, takes place in a New York City that's been ravaged by a deadly virus. Mercifully there are no zombies to worry about, but there are plenty of folks trying to take advantage of the remaining survivors. That's where you come in.

You take on the role of an agent, an everyday schmoe who, in times of peril, is tasked with bringing order back to the chaos. In the crassest sense, this involves shooting a healthy number of people in the face. Violent people, sure, but people nonetheless. A grim job, but thankfully your friends are along for the ride.

The Division's core gameplay is pretty typical, third-person shooter, cover-based combat fare. Missions frequently involve defending points from waves of attackers, moving from point to point killing everyone in between or slowing lugging important packages from one section of a building to another. The core gameplay, while fine, is really nothing to crow about.

Where The Division really shines is in its integrated multiplayer systems, which are huge accomplishment. At any point you can pull up the open world map of lower Manhattan and see other friends moving around your same space. Within two clicks you can join their party and start working together on a mission.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The game's closest analog, Destiny, doesn't come close to the ease of playing with friends. Even strangers are easily paired up with, thanks to matchmaking for every story mission in the game. Solo players will have no trouble finding temporary companionship.

While battles against AI miscreants make up the bulk of the content in The Division, taking on other players in The Dark Zone is really the pinnacle of what the game has to offer. It's a bit complicated, so try to stick with me:

The Dark Zone is a large area in the center of New York City that covers around 60 square blocks. It's home to higher level AI criminals and, of course, other players. Here's where things get interesting. In The Dark Zone, you are free to shoot and kill other players and take whatever loot they're carrying. The second you start shooting innocents you become marked as a target to everyone within spitting distance, but hey, it's all about risk and reward, right?

Success in The Dark Zone really comes down to trust. Let's say you just picked up a rare, high-level rifle. The only way to get out of the zone with that rifle is by calling in an extraction helicopter (which alerts all players nearby). As you wait for the chopper to come in, you see another player sidle up. They don't seem unfriendly. In fact, they're actually helping you shoot other criminals that happen to be in the area.

But can you really trust them? Or, at the end of one of your firefights, when you've got a sliver of health left, are you going to get a backful of shotgun pellets? That's the sort of tension you're working with in The Dark Zone. It's fabulous.

As players continue their march to the level cap of The Division, they'll likely be spending more and more time in The Dark Zone. This is especially true since the game's campaign and side missions don't really feel all that compelling. Instead of making later missions more challenging through creative enemy placement or variety, it seems developer just opted to increase the health and damage of the enemies.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

This becomes particularly outrageous when you're forced to shoot a single enemy in the head 20+ times before they go down. Meanwhile they can shoot you once and you're toast. The game they've made just doesn't seem to scale very well for this sort of mission-based content.It's also hard to forget how familiar all of the environments look. Most open world games, like Ubisoft's own Far Cry series or Grand Theft Auto V, offer a ton of environmental variety. The Division's New York City, while gorgeous, doesn't change much from block to block. The game's last chunk of missions take place on the east side of Manhattan and, well, it looks a lot like the west side.

New Yorkers are sure to notice and appreciate many landmarks, some uncannily recreated, but a dreary, snowy, plague-ridden New York is a tough place to spend dozens of hours in, let alone hundreds.

The multiplayer technology behind the game is peerless, a perfect game to play with friends online.  

Ubisoft has billed The Division as a living, breathing game. Content updates are planned throughout the year (the first coming in April, adding high level "Incursion" missions) which may very well offer some more variety. Hard to say if they'll be able to come through on that promise, but until then there's about thirty hours worth of non-Dark Zone missions to work your way through, for better or worse.

There's no question that The Division is an enormous accomplishment. The multiplayer technology behind the game is peerless, a perfect game to play with friends online. And even though the core gameplay may not stand out in a major way, The Dark Zone certainly does, offering a tense, thoughtful experience with plenty of expansion potential.

Now might I suggest knocking down that wall to turn your studio into a two-bedroom? I'm fairly sure your dead neighbors won't mind.

The Good

Incredible multiplayer technology • Dark Zone gameplay will keep you coming back

The Bad

Dreary,repetitive environments • Campaign missions often feel unfair and dull

The Bottom Line

The Division is an incredible multiplayer game, but it doesn't always reach its full potential.