Tom Clancy’s: The Division is considered a success for both Ubisoft as the players that are playing it. There’s something about the third person shooter that combined brutal action and RPG elements flawlessly. Since the release, a lot of free DLC released to give you even more gameplay. Now it’s time for the first big expansion called Underground. Underground is a paid DLC but the moment you start playing it, you’ll understand why. This isn’t just DLC, this a true expansion pack that opens up a new world and tons of new gameplay.
Mind the gap please
Subtitled ‘Underground’, it’s no surprise that this expansion is set underneath the island of Manhattan. In this DLC, you’ll discover the huge metro network of the city and spend a lot of hours searching the Underground for enemies and new loot. The new world is enormous. If you’ve ever been in Manhattan, you have an idea what to expect. The game features a lot of dark hallways, stations, open rooms and small tunnels leading to the main network. It reminded us of the Metro games with a less scary atmosphere. The new world looks very realistic and is a lot of fun to discover without a doubt. Also, note that the expansion runs on a separate server to allow a more fluent experience. There are some loading times before you can truly enter the subway stations but thanks to some great animations and smart programming, you won’t notice the game loading that frequently.
The Operations Center is where you’ll want to be since this serves as your main HUD. In here you’ll be able to talk to several sellers, craft new guns and of course trigger new missions. The Operations Center looks impressive and offers a fun way to navigate through your options and missions you would like to tackle.
New missions, new gear
Since this is an expansion, it makes sense you’ll play a lot of new missions. The first mission is the only one that follows a set path, the other are created randomly and will demand different approaches based on what the game wants you to do. That being said, the first mission does offer a nice introduction to the new level design. You’ll start in the dark hallways but end up in an underground club filled with lasers and pumping beats. Who said the end of humanity has to be boring? After that mission, it’s time to discover the world.
It all starts off rather easy with Phase One missions that will take you up to fifteen minutes to complete. The more you play and the better you become, the more phases will be added to the missions. The best part about this all is that you never know what you can expect. As said before, the goals and paths and how to reach them are created randomly so you’ll always need to adapt to the situation.
Don’t fear the dark
It’s possible to play the game on your own but soon you’ll learn this isn’t the way it’s meant to be played. Just like the base game, Underground is a MMO, meaning you’ll need to work together with others in order to survive. Matchmaking happens very fluently but the quality of your team really depends on the players you play with. There are still far too many elite players who hate dragging down a less skilled player along the way. If you want a team you can trust, it’s best to play with others you actually know. A welcome change, however, is that players can’t be kicked after a boss fight; so everybody will get the rewards they deserve!
These rewards are impressive, to be honest. The gear and weapons that drop are all high-level gear and will make your character a lot stronger after just a couple of missions. To balance these stronger Underground players with ‘regular’ players, the level gap of the Dark Zone has been increased to 231+ so everybody stands a fair chance.
The Directives offer a new challenge
To keep the endless stream of missions interesting, Ubisoft introduces an interesting mechanism called Directives. These Directives offer a certain handicap during the level. You can only unlock them the moment you reach a certain level and activate one of your Directive Intel, which can be found in the levels. Certain Directives will take away the mini-map while other limit the amount of ammo you can use. Playing a level with an extra handicap is very challenging, certainly when you go for less ammo. It offers new ways of working together since there are no checkpoints, if you die; you need to restart the entire thing. The Directives aren’t for everybody but players who seek an extra challenge will certainly be pleased with this extra change.
Conclusion:
Underground is more than just a DLC pack, it’s a true expansion and even demonstrates the true potential of the game. The world is well crafted and filled with details. The metro stations and tunnels all look insanely realistic and feature a certain atmosphere so you simply can’t resist moving forward. The gameplay hasn’t been innovated that much but thanks to the Directives and better weapons/gear, we know fans will have a blast playing it. The Division wasn’t perfect from the start but this first big expansion breathes new life into the game and is worth checking out.
