The Division’s Dark Zone Has Real Consequences For Real People… And It’s Glorious

New Gamer Nation:

Tom Clancy’s The Division has been taking up almost all of my time. I recently wrote a review on this site but didn’t talk much about the Dark Zone. I was too much of a newbie in it to really say anything worthwhile and I wanted to really dive into the mysterious PvPvE area before giving my thoughts. There is plenty more to explore and I’m far from an expert now. What I can say is I am not stopping anytime soon.

The Dark Zone is unpredictable organized chaos that’s funneled down to the concept of obtaining loot. The chaos shines brightly when it comes to how you obtain said loot. It could be taking out the enemy A.I., or stealing it from some poor sap who left their guard down. It’s a scary dog-eat-dog world that has serious repercussions because you are playing against real people. Real people that hold grudges, act irrationally and find enjoyment in ruining your fun. It cannot be tamed and it shouldn’t be tamed. It’s the Wild West and I love it.

[kneon]

I find the whole rogue aspect stupid, it just encourages people to be assholes.

[INMATEofARKHAM]

It's an intresting concept but sadly I have to agree.

I see too many people just gunning people down without looking at loot or even if they even hg ave loot to begin with. Apparently, it's just about the killstreak.

[kneon]

Yup, that's why I generally leave if I see too many red skulls. But I've been lucky, I've only been taken down by a rogue once, and that was as soon as I stepped in to the DZ, I think he was camping waiting for people to enter.

I have gone rogue twice, by accident, that's the part they could fix. It's too easy to accidentally go rogue.

[thekhurg]

It's a great way to get dark zone rank. We do it all the time. Get to manhunt status and survive get thousands of experience just for that plus more for everything else you've killed in the process.

[Ripsta7th]

but i though people were saying(or idk if it was an angry jor vid) that going had no benefits, in fact going rogue lost you apot of phoenix points i beleive?

[thekhurg]

@rip

The only downside to going rogue is the loss of some DZ experience, DZ keys and some credits.

Basically - nothing important. The experience loss is very minor now compared to what it was, and you get experience from the entire rogue adventure.

Surviving a manhunt is the most fun to be had in the game right now IMO.

[sarlucic]

I have played 140ish hours, been killed by other players maybe 5 times. Killed 30 rogues. Many of those kills were the same people. Dying as rogue is very punishing, it is in general not worth doing it, that is why the majority never go rogue, and if someone do the entire server starts to hunt them. It is very rewarding to kill a rogue, and when you played as long as I have, you become incredible thanksful to people that go rogue, cuz hunting them is the last fun thing to do in the game until the free content upgrades.

[ravens52]

I don't get how people don't like the going rogue aspect lol. Maybe we all should jus run around the dz giving hugs to eachother. This coming from someone who has been jumped, ambushed, chased lol I've died by rogues more than not and to me it's fun lol. The dz is fine. Jus need something else to make it worth going rogue or even looking for other players. We need some stat boreds too! K/d for PvP maybe. Tdm too lol

[Slanty]

@ravens52 totally agree the rogue part of the DZ is what makes it fun. The constant tension of trying to get your loot knowing that a player could go rogue on you and steal your loot everyone's a suspects. Or on the other hand going rogue yourself or with friends is also lots of fun trying to survive and stealing someones loot is very funny too. Love the proximity Chat too haha.

[WellyUK]

It's the only interesting aspect the game has...

[admiralvic]

The idea deals with the problem with innovation. Its easy to come up with new ideas, even easier to come up with fixes when you don't need to apply them, but its generally extremely difficult to make them work.

One of the issues I've always had with the rogue system is that it will always sort of boil down to jerks being jerks, instead of genuine rewards or incentive to do so. Heck, even when I've died with a HE that got looted, it was rarely something worth caring about (I recall one being a armor and station duration mod...), which sort of clues into the problem. The other thing is that, it really encourages one style of play and generally frustrating unless you like this sort of thing.

When push comes to shove, the best way to be a rogue is be in a group and just hang out at an extraction. Come in, kill the other team when they're not paying attention, snag their loot and immediately extract. There is no real incentive to gun someone down before an extraction and even less to do a number of things with it.

@ Sarlucic

1) Most people who go rogue do it because they don't care about the punishment (I imagine people who want to avoid it will just make an alt) or already got what they needed. Plus the punishment is much lower and things like DZ keys/cash are worthless.
2I often times feel bad for rogues. I've seen a lot of people accidentally go rogue and were killed because someone walked in front of them or was too close to something that triggered it. There are also people in parties that never intended to go rogue, but were made rogue because of the actions of others. I once lost 30,000+ experience because a teammate was baited into going rogue and then he and his buddy spent four minutes chasing me around the map making sure they kept my rogue timer. This isn't fun and its essentially punishing me for playing with other people who haven't been properly vetted, which I simply don't have the time for.
3) I take it you haven't dealt with the more annoying rogues. A lot of times I run into people who have a person go rogue outside of the group and then the group acts as a shield, which turns you rogue and then they kill you. Its a good bit of trolling, since if the rogue kills the friend he isn't going to finish him off/stop the revive, where as they will gladly kill you or you'll go rogue yourself and become a target.

[Grave]

I agree. Also people that go rogue have the upper hand because they shoot first and most likely they are a VERY high DPS build with no health aka the glass cannon. By the time you turn to look to see who is hitting you it's too late and you are dead. I've been killed so fast I didn't even get a revive timer it was like instant death.

[ravens52]

Lol that's funny! Use dem rolls lol. Very true tho. All fun and games to me tho

[wsoutlaw87]

I think the whole thing would have been better with out the arcady rouge mechanic they added. With the timer and score multipliers the whole system just seems stupid. It failed at creating the tense situations that the game was trying to create. There are big flaws and you can go rouge by killing someone you know is going to try to kill you. Also the shooting mechanics are pretty poor so that makes pvp kind of stupid and mostly gear based.

[AnubisG]

I think the way they set up the DZ is horrible. The biggest problem is when you call an evac chopper to get your stuff out and @ssholes come around and wait until the chopper is there and you are about to put your stuff on the rope and than they shoot you. That has got to be the meanest most f@cked up way you can play any game in the History of gaming. I'm telling everyone right now right here. If I see you do that, I report you for harassment/abuse over PSN. You have to be a special kind of @sshole to play this way and you don't deserve to play with others.

[rdgneoz3]

You know there's a special ability called survival link, that reduces damage you take for about 15 seconds (on around 10 min or less cooldown with the right skill power). Pop that and booster shot and then extract your gear. Also, forming a group might help your chances with surviving. I go solo all the time, but I know how to get away from a pack of 4 rogues and extract my stuff without crying. Hell, train them on another 4 player group that will just love to get some rogue kills / extra xp (1v4 becomes 5v5, you just improved your odds, magic).

Also, you might get in trouble for abusing the report function, because what they're doing is part of the gameplay and was shown in trailers before the game came out. You should probably do a little research on your game before buying it.

p.s. Don't get Dark Souls 3 in 2~ weeks, you might break the report button.

[thekhurg]

Or he can play offline in dark souls 3...

[rdgneoz3]

@ thekhurg If he doesn't realize the DZ is completely optional and instead of crying, you just don't have to go in solo (group up or shut up), then chances are he won't understand you can play offline and not cry when you get killed.

Also, Dark Souls is meant to be played online. It's much more fun with the co-op / pvp.

[thekhurg]

If you don't grind to rank 50 in the DZ, you are butchering your ability to craft high end gear and limiting yourself to lower tier high end drops from random enemies.

DZ is a mandatory experience for anyone even remotely trying to take this game seriously.

[AnubisG]

I'll get Dark Souls 3 because I like DS games. But you will not be seeing me playing with others.

It's funny how some of you guys think that stating a fact is crying. When you have nothing that can actually counter an argument you just go and say "oh stop crying". That is pretty much the extent of your arguments.

DZ is unfortunately mandatory if you want to get the highest level weapons and gear. I enjoy playing with my friends and I do enjoy playing with or against others too. But I HATE it when people are being @ssholes on purpose just because the game allows it. It just shows how weak of a person they are. You see, I could get my friends together and just go and murder and steal the loot of others all the time. But that is a totally @sshole thing to do and ruins the game for many people. It might sound great on paper, but in reality it's just a f@cking stupid thing to do.

[wsoutlaw87]

Dark souls 3 should be played online. Some people are so scared of me invading them i guess.

[Ripsta7th]

wow what a big effin vagey
just dont go to the dark zone , problem solved

[wsoutlaw87]

OMG dont report me!! Lol

[Perjoss]

Its a nice idea but too many people glitch the game to get an unfair advantage over those that just play the game as intended.

[nowitzki2004]

People ruin everything. Which is why I dont care for MP games too much.

[zerocarnage]

I just need to kill 9 more rogues for the final achievo..

I think the dz is certainly an interesting multiplayer mode where all sorts of chaos can happen. It certainly is by far the best multiplayer mode on consoles as of late. When I get killed by rogues, I just have to laugh it off, if you don't it'd do anyone's nut in.

There have been many games where the multiplayer mode has been horrible, annoying, irritating, feels like it plain and just the same old but the dz doesn't give me those vibes.

I hope they continue to make the dz even better and add new features and ways to play the dz..

[Duke19]

I enjoy the rogue system. Its more variety than just having a "PVP-zone". It now makes people think first before pulling the trigger and attacking someone else.

Certainly its not perfect, but so far I haven't had any issues with the concept

[brokenbracket]

The matchmaking is the problem with the DZ right now. Hopefully the coming update will fix it, by creating a bracket for players with a gamer score of 160+. But that range could still be extremely large, while still creating a large gap between the weakest and strongest of players.