There’s an unfortunate habit in gaming that I’m looking to break with The Division.
In recent years, there’s been far too many waves of gamers getting overly hyped over the newest game. Coincidentally, it’s happened quite often with Ubisoft’s titles, most recently Watch Dogs and The Division. I’m not pointing these two titles out from the crowd, however; there’s plenty of others out there that get announced far before their time only to collapse underneath the weight of their own pressure. Destiny, Halo 5, Twilight Princess, and others share this same “curse,” for lack of a better term.
What’s the main issue here? Consider when these games were initially announced before their release. Think of the months and months of build-up that was developing from the developer, the publisher, and most importantly, the fans. The excitement became too palpable in instances, and while games such as The Last of Us managed to meet the expectations that were placed upon it, many others don’t even come close to meeting them. They became forgotten afterthoughts, lost in a sea of good but not great titles as they sink deeper and deeper into our backlogs.
Somehow, The Division has already managed to not meet the expectations laid before it. Considering the fact that Ubisoft hasn’t released the game yet (it’s due to arrive March 8th), this is a pretty impressive feat. Still, it’s a case of “fooled me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” You have to wonder how much of this is the fault of both Watch Dogs and the current state of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Consider in the past how impressive these titles looked. Assassin’s Creed blew everybody away when it first launched. Watch Dogs took E3 by storm when it was announced. That is all in the past, however. In the present, people are begging Ubisoft to take it easy with Assassin’s Creed overload and you’d be forgiven if you can’t remember much about Watch Dogs that didn’t take place in its debut trailer.
These reasons, combined with comparisons to Bungie’s Destiny, have led to plenty of hesitation with The Division. To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with this. Considering the rising costs of video games, it’s perfectly okay to become more and more informed and careful with your dollar. The unfortunate side-effect to that, though, leads to more and more disappointment. Sometimes, people still buy these games at release due to a variety of circumstances: they’re still willing to give it a shot, they liked what they saw, they want play with friends; there’s a variety of reasons. More and more, however, with the combination of 1.) becoming more informed shoppers and 2.) with an overload of advertisements, marketing, and “betas,” people are quite familiar with a game before it ever releases. The result? You have an idea of what to expect.
When those expectations aren’t met, you’re severely disappointed that you spent your hard earned dollars on something you can see being 50% off in a few months.
Now let’s compare that to having no idea what The Division is about. All you know is snow, guns, tension, traitors, and post-apocalyptic New York.
Rather, I should say that’s all I know and I’m doing this on purpose. It’s been hard to not take any peeks at gameplay or check out the beta.
Here’s my line of thinking. Remember in Spider-Man 2 when Peter saves Mary Jane from the car in the coffee shop? Imagine how cool that scene would have been if we didn’t see it shoved down our throats through marketing and trailers. Remember how awesome the truck flipping over in The Dark Knight was when we first saw it and how quickly trivial it became by the time we finally saw the movie? I’m trying to avoid these moments and, instead of playing through the game and shrugging my shoulders because I’m expecting one thing, enjoying what Ubisoft is giving to me.
Is this a risk? Absolutely, but considering the last time Ubisoft released a game with zero expectations (Far Cry 3), it’s a risk that I’m willing to take. Sometimes, in order to be blown away by a game this size, you have to go in blind. We’ll see if it’s worth the risk with The Division next month.
