With the holidays and winters setting in, it’s time to finally get a bit cosy in the living room with a controller in the hand and some snacks. Well, I am actually talking about a game here, a game which was released earlier this year but it’s actually a treat to play this winter. 
So, why did I recommend it this time of the year? Well, it’s a holiday season, Christmas celebrations are there, and winter’s finally setting in. What’s a better way to start the day, opening the windows, let some fresh air in and get the controller, set in the beautiful New York City, save some lives or free roam completing objectives and missions? Although you don’t have to open the windows if the winter’s really hard, a heater might be handy here, ha-ha. By now you had probably got some idea about the game. Let’s talk about it more.
“WHEN THE SOCIETY FALLS, WE RISE” is the slogan of this game. Umm… now how the society collapsed at the first place. Actually New York City was hit by an unprecedented pandemic when a merciless doctor mutated a small pox virus and spread the world through a note in the famous Black Friday Sale, ya, you are right, the sale that ended a few days ago in the real world. Millions dead, thousands left untreated and dying. You are the last hope, yes, you need to save the people, those who remained and are fighting. This is the Division, you are activated when everything else fails. Now, let’s talk about the gameplay and the world.
SNOW DROP, the engine that drives the game is indeed a beauty. Kind enough when you keep it under its normal graphics limits i.e. turning off the cinematic effects and brutal yet beautiful when you turn all the bells and whistles on. Which in my case the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 managed to pull around 55 FPS on an average while the mins were around 40 on a full HD resolution, don’t know whether my i5 was bottlenecking it but it shouldn’t happen though.
So, the graphics on this thing are just phenomenal, Ya, I just keep on saying in every single game that graphics are phenomenal, hmm what to do, beauty must be appreciated right? Anyways, apart from the graphics, the gameplay is good too. I would not say so immersive that you drop the bowl of cereals off your hand because one of the major aspects of this game is stealth until you reach a level of armour and gear that you can supress any player with just few bullets, that’s a long time to be. But this way the world feels real, you won’t dare to face any higher level players and get some fear chills. And this is multiplayer as well up to 4 players max for a mission. And man! The dark zone is no joke. No doubt it is the best place to get loot and overall it is decorated better than the rest city, but even one bullet from a rioter will kill you if you prepare to set voyage with low levels. And about the entry and the exits to the dark zone, the entry points will get you in but to get out, u have to be either killed or find some checkpoints to get out. You basically don’t have to worry about other players killing you as they won’t do. Because killing in PvP will mark you as rogue, then the consequences are a bit bitter. Anyways, the world is fresh even it is hit by a pandemic, the graphics make it look so. The lights alone are so captivating that you will probably notice the filthy streets. These graphics are one reason that I bought the game.
So, finally this is the game, you can find the system requirements in google, I won’t mention it now. For PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One players, you can just grab a physical copy of the game. For PC, its 1799 for the consoles it is 3499, but, wait any online store will keep their values under 2500 for consoles and 1500 for the PC. But, if you want more discounts, just look for offers in steam or uplay, G2A etc. I have not tried G2A though, but I heard prices are a bit low there where you will only get the digital codes and the download game later.
My system specifications (in case you are curious)-
Intel Core i5 4440 3.3 Ghz turbo, 16 GB DDR3 ram, Intel 535 SSD, WD 2TB HDD, ASUS Z97A Mobo, and finally the GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5
Disclaimer- This game requite a good internet connection to play at all times. No connection, no game. So, this was my suggestion for this year’s winter. And get ready to download some data around 15GB to play it as updates after installing all the 5 DVD’s in the box for PC. You might need to download updates in consoles too. So, go for it if you want to.
