Needless to say the release of No Man’s Sky’s has been met with quite divisive opinions, both critically and publicly. But what does Analog Addiction’s finest think of the final product?

In the latest edition of The AA Analysis both Devon McCarty (PlayStation extraordinaire and reviewer of No Man’s Sky) and Jamie Briggs (Weary space traveler and Trophy fanatic) will explore No Man’s Sky vast array of systems, galaxies and more to find out where exactly developer Hello Games succeeded and failed.

Jamie Briggs – I believe I had a similar initial experience to No Man’s Sky as you did in your first impressions piece. After my initial 6 – 8 hours with No Man’s Sky I felt quite letdown with the finished product. I was expecting vast planets filled to the brim with exotic creatures, aliens that would offer quests that would take me across the galaxy, and the rush of exploring a never ending universe. But that wasn’t exactly what I experienced, instead it felt more like this giant empty space. Almost like someone was preparing to build this amazing playground, but forgot to order any playground equipment. Which honestly left me very disappointed.

However, I had an extended break from No Man’s Sky and when I returned I had a different mindset to the experience. In the best possible way, my hopes were not set extremely high as they once were. Instead of jumping in my ship and powering forward into uncharted worlds, I decided to explore one planet. I decided to take in what No Man’s Sky offered and explore this one planet to its full potential; and I won’t lie, my experience was a lot better for it.

Instead of considering what No Man’s Sky could have been, I enjoyed No Man’s Sky for what it was. It isn’t the revolution many expected, but it is a unique adventure that does not exist anywhere else.

Devon McCarty – I think a lot of gamers are sharing your initial reaction, and then internal correction to that line of thought. I had several expectations of what I wanted No Man’s Sky to be, and it wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be when I started playing it. Even reading your thoughts on meeting aliens that would offer quests across the galaxy, I can’t help but think of how much of a missed opportunity that was. How many life forms have I met on my journey? Not one of them asked me to do little more than trade a specific element just so I could continue trading. Isn’t that weird?

But once I broke from the thought that this game “could have” or ” should have” been whatever else, I started to enjoy it as much as you.

If you just became nothing more than a planet hopper, spending time only to refuel your hyper drive and warp to a new planet system, I would absolutely hate this repetitive game. However, by exploring the planets ecosystem and really digging into the Knowledge Stones and Obelisks on each planet, opened up a whole new level of lore I haven’t really experienced before.

Generally speaking, a game will let you understand the creatures and characters you need to understand. In No Man’s Sky you’ve got to learn every single word of a language to really be effective in trading. Sure you can guess and see what happens with little punishment and small reward, but I don’t think the purpose was to punish or reward, but to give you something to learn.

It still currently stands as some of my favorite moments of the game. Especially when you reach an obelisk and have a hallucination that tests your character. Do you feed the ancient evil that is trapped within so you can set it free? Do you put the damaged creature out of its misery? Those little stories are excellent!

Jamie Briggs – Those moments when you are given a small story as to the events that are occurring on screen brought me back to the original Mass Effect. There were side quests that would give small text based stories like that and they were always wonderful to read and let your imagine run wild on what could be happening on screen. Learning the lore and language of each alien race was certainly one of my favourite things to discover and finally being able to understand what certain aliens are asking felt like a great accomplishment.

The issue I did have with the main alien races is the lack of diversity. The best comparison is once again to the original Mass Effect, which suffered from the same lack of diversity issue when it came to alien locations and outposts. In No Man’s Sky almost every single trading post in space, and most locations on each planet had the exact same architectural design. Perhaps I am being a little picky, but I’m surprised these were not procedurally generated or slightly altered for each alien race. It did certainly take away from the unique lore of each alien, as they all seem to have the same decorator.

While the visual style of No Man’s Sky is off the charts, with gorgeous neon colours and a unique colourful design; I unfortunately experienced many of the same rocky baron planets throughout my adventure. Perhaps it was due to bad luck, but only a small percentage of planets were brimming with alien wildlife and different types of terrain. As Hello Games stated the planets would continue to get crazier the closer you get to the center of the galaxy, but it didn’t seem to be the case for me; which is most likely bound to happen with the insane amount of planets available.

Devon McCarty – There have already been several updates to No Man’s Sky that are focused on helping people stop struggling with game crashes. While I hadn’t experienced any during my play sessions, I did watch my friend’s girlfriend have a space ship land on her, and the game glitched so she couldn’t move. Sure, she shouldn’t have been standing there, but you figure a code should be in place to prevent landings when the only key user is on that platform.

I do hope they start adding updates that focus on more diversity of planet geology and life forms. Like you, I’ve encountered several of the same species already. For instance. Right before the aforementioned glitch, I saw a bunch of different crab life forms I had never seen in my own game. I’m wondering how much of the same content is specified to an individual user, and more integration could be beneficial to solve that.

I would also like to see updates focused on base building and customization. First off, WHAT DO I LOOK LIKE?!?! This ongoing issue I’ve been having is that I have no idea what race I am or what I look like. Have we just evolved beyond that? Probably not. It would be nice to to know what I look like and switch it around a little if I wanted too. Same thing with my ship. I don’t want to constantly switch ships. I would like to be able to customize the one I have if I like it a lot, and then move on from it when I’m ready.

Last thing would be to have a place of my own to put my gear. You’ve only got so many slots, and there is some stuff that I would like to keep around in my home base. I get how in a game like this, travel is the center focus as we are all going to the center of the galaxy. However, I can’t help but wish there was a place more than my ship to call my own. With these outposts and space stations on and between every planet, I think it would be cool to have a base of your own to build up and upgrade. Add weapons to protect from pirates, and a beacon for your friends to find it and see what you’ve seen and accomplished. Also to add a specific warp interface (black hole, whatever) that will let you warp back to your base whenever you want, and then go back to where you were exploring

With hardcore and heavy games like Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 on the horizon, Hello games has a lot of work to do if they want to keep their players engaged. And I am rooting for them because I like the game a lot as is, but would love to see some additions.

Jamie Briggs – Surprisingly, I never really experienced any crashes and/or technical issues; which regardless of the content within No Man’s Sky is quite a feat. While it is obvious the long times that appear when jumping between planets are essentially load times, the fact I can transition from on-foot travel, to the skies above, to the vastness of space and back down to a new planet within a matter of seconds is astounding. No Man’s Sky is a technical marvel and the fact it is essentially an “indie game”, sets an entirely new standard for similar studios going forward.

Base building personally doesn’t excite me, simply due to the fact I’ll constantly be traveling between planets and systems. I’d much rather either a constant store built into my ship which allowed me to sell items I have found; as the fact remains at the moment that vendors are few and far between. There is nothing more annoying than having your inventory loaded with essential survival items and not being able to collect other items due to being overloaded with minerals. While the upgrades to inventory space in your suit and ship are appreciated, the upgrades are not introduced fast enough to make the annoyance of such a small inventory become a thing of the past.

While the inventory issues are one thing, I’d most like Hello Games to introduce an alternative menu navigation system. I personally found the cursor system to be quite annoying and wish there was a most console-friendly system in place. Due to the small initial space and annoying menu navigation, managing your inventory is a lot more frustrating than it needed to be.

Devon McCarty – At the core of it, No Man’s Sky delivered on the promises Hello Games made. We have the ability to travel across the universe, discovering limitless amounts of creatures and lifeforms, in the endless pursuit of exploration. While there may be a few tweaks that may be beneficial, and a bunch of additions I would appreciate, No Man’s Sky is an impressive game, and I’m glad to have added it to my collection.

Now that you have heard what AA thinks of No Man’s Sky, we want to know what you think. Let us know in the comments below if you agree, disagree or believe we didn’t cover something you experienced in No Man’s Sky.

Thankfully, the demo has a tutorial to show you the basics of movement and combat. There is even a gauntlet style route you can run over and over again to try to beat your best time. Titanfall 2 is momentum based as far as movement is concerned, so I spent more time than I normally would have to really get a handle on the controls since this was my first time out. Strange though, no tutorial on how to use the Titan itself. You’ll slug that out in real time. Since this is just the first weekend, I’ll break down two different chunks via The Pilot and The Titan.

The Pilot

Standard shooter controls are all at work here. If you’ve played either Battlefield or Call of Duty, you’ll no doubt pick the controls up instantly. The thing I had to get used to was the Grapple Hook and Wall-Running. The hook seems to work better as a slingshot style system for me. I could hook onto anything, and as it pulled me in, double jump to launch over obstacles. Simply hooking and pulling myself toward something usually left me stuck and having to wall-run up or around the obstacle. I put a lot of time into the game over the weekend and never really got comfortable using it. Saying that, the Hook is essential when trying to board a Titan to destroy it “rodeo” style. I have only blown up two Titans using this method, and have punched many more trying to do the same to me. Which, is hilarious to watch.

The sliding and wall-running are all pretty straight forward if you’ve ever played the aforementioned shooters. Higher levels unlock weapon upgrades and special abilities, which you can switch out at your loadout screen before a match and/or at respawn. There are a handful of standard pilot varieties to pick from, so if you’re a camper, or an assault guy like myself, Titanfall 2 has a class you’ll like and customize.

On the ground, it feels like a quick and light shooter. Controls are super responsive and aside from the Grapple Hook sometimes not doing its job, the shooter elements all worked great considering its Pre-Alpha form. The game looks and feels very polished so far. While I’ve looked at a lot of our Facebook comments that mentioned server issues and bugs, I’ve only experienced one. A day where the server was wonky and I kept rubber banding. But that was the only time I had any issues.

The Titan

You’ll have to learn the controls to this big guy/gal on the fly. While I didn’t play the first Titanfall game, it would appear they’re trying heavily to make sure the relationship between Titan and Pilot is at the foreground. I’ve heard several lines while jumping into my Titan like, “Welcome back,” “We’re stronger together.” And things of that nature. While those things are what make me so interested in playing the game at launch, it serves as a nice reminder to what the Respawn team is trying to accomplish.

Once inside, you’re mobility switches a little to dashes and thrusts in place of actually jumping. The two Titans available, Ion and Scorch both handle about the same in terms of movement, but their power loadouts are quite different.

Scorch is a slower tank style Mech. His Thermite launcher is the main weapon that not only does damage but leaves a residual compound on the ground that keeps damaging enemies. Which I find is great for A-holes that like to hide in little caves. His shield can melt projectiles while shot at him, and his Flame Core super attack essentially kills everything around him with fire. Like Pilots and big scary spiders.

Ion handles more like an assault class. He’s a little quicker and his Splitter Weapon acts more like a quick assault weapon, but in laser form. He was my personal favorite to use because of his mobility, and his Laser Core special attack, is straight out of Care Bears. Or, more practically, Iron Man. But it’s still one of the most brutal attacks in the game and is awesome to use as it is to see used.

Final Impressions

If the Tech Test for Titanfall 2 is this far along, the game is off to a really great start. The Pilots all handle as well as the Titan’s, but it’s unfortunate there wasn’t a tutorial on how exactly to use the Titan. I could’ve easily figured out the Pilot mechanics, but I had never driven a Titan before. I very much would have liked a shooting range to play around with. The Titans themselves are interesting, and I look forward to seeing the interplay between the Pilot and Mech suit.

Going up against Battlefield 1 is a tough sell because of how much I love that franchise. But if I have as much fun during the 2nd weekend of playtime as I did the first, I’m going to have some serious choices to make when October gets here.

The Analog Addiction staff is not impervious to the desire to be the very best while trying to catch em’ all. As such, our Round table session pools the staff to discuss their concerns, highlights, and the possibilities of Pokémon Go.

Devon McCarty – Team Valor

Concerns:

I worry right now about the ability to train and fight my Pokémon against others. Will I just be wandering the world and fighting characters that are there, or like the advertisements suggested, will I be able to meet another trainer in the park, and have our characters go PokeToe-to-Toe? I’ve been evolving and powering up a few of my characters, and Charmander (Now named Fireballs) and Pidgeotto (Cap’n Flap’n) could easily destroy any of the regular Pokémon in my region, but so far I can only catch them. I can’t fight any of them. There is just a huge component of the game I am missing. And if it’s not polished, this game is sure to fail.

Highlights:

So far my favorite moments have been the Item Pickup locations. They’re not just random places throughout your world, it seems Niantic has used the Google Earth mapping system to pick key landmarks to turn into Item pickups and Gyms. I’ve found a few Church’s, a post office, and most excitingly, a place called Wargear that holds trading card tournaments on a regular basis, all locations for item-pickups. The gym was the founders monument downtown. Which was an awesome moment because I wonder how much longer before the square is slowly filling with trainers ready for battle.

Possibilities:

I know we are in the early phases of the App, and we can fully expect several updated versions in the weeks to come, but the thing I am the most hopeful for are the community events. I live pretty close to the Football Hall of Fame. This is obviously years away, but I think it would be incredible if they held a giant event at that stadium. Where trainers from all over could show up to battle their Pokémon, and work on team boss battles like we saw in the Times Square segment of the promotional trailer. Again, we are years away from that point, but how could would that be?!

Jamie Briggs – Team Valor

Concerns

My main concern with Pokémon GO would be the same issue I had with Miitomo – there just simply isn’t too much to do once you get over the initial introduction. Despite the fact I’m still having a lot of fun with Pokémon GO there is basically nothing to do if I am not traveling, which means the app becomes almost pointless when simply in the comfort of your own home.

In order to combat this, perhaps new features to interact and train your Pokémon to improve their skills could be introduced. But as it stands, that lack of content could be an issue going forward.

Fortunately the Pokémon name will certainly keep players interested longer than Miitomo, which lost player interest in a short space of time.

Highlights

Pokémon GO allows Pokémon to appear in the real world, despite only appearing in augmented reality the awesomeness of seeing the characters I grew up with strolling down my street is amazing. Pokémon GO also has several strong elements that have impressed me throughout the last few days. Despite Australia currently going through the middle of winter, I have found myself wanting to leave the warmth of my house in order to explore my local areas in search of Pokémon. This is an excellent accomplishment because it will encourage people of all ages to partake in physical activities with the incentive of finding more Pokémon.

Another interesting aspect of Pokémon GO is the Pokestops, which are assigned to notable and iconic locations throughout the world. These Pokestops not only reward players with hatchable Pokémon eggs, Pokeballs and items, but they also do an excellent job of showcasing the interesting location around your local area that you may have never known existed.

Physical activity and interesting knowledge of your surrounding locations are two aspects I never expected would ever be included in a Pokémon experience, but Pokémon GO have been able to do it with a subtle excellence that has truly impressed me. Oh, and catching a Kangaskhan sitting on my bed was also quite impressive.

Possibilities

As Pokémon GO has only just been released, the possibilities of what the application could eventually produce is endless. Despite this fact developer Niantic must first ensure the base content is smooth, this improving the current server support – which is struggling to say the least. I am fine without player vs player battles (for now) as long as the initial structure can be perfected to ensure a steady experience.

One of my main issues with Pokémon GO currently is the fact the application will not notify you when Pokémon are nearby or count your steps towards hatching Pokémon if the application is not open; which is a backwards idea for a mobile application. I hope that this is an issue that can be quickly fixed in the near future, as the idea that players must have the application open at all times in order to be notified of the application is absurd. If Niantic can introduce superior servers, quick fixes on simple problems and hopefully produce more options for players who are not traveling, Pokémon GO’s initial experience could be greatly improved.

Nathan Manning – Team Mystic

Concerns:

Like Jamie, my biggest concern is the lack of content at the moment. You catch Pokémon, visit Pokestops to replenish your pokeballs, and then visit gyms to capture them or fight against the Pokémon that are stationed there. There’s no PvP element to it, which is a strange exclusion considering how social the game is becoming. What’s going to happen a few weeks from now when people have had enough walking around finding the same pokemon? If the game really wants to survive in the long-run, then it needs more content. My other concern is people not looking up from their phones while walking, be aware of your surroundings people!

Highlights:

For me it’s more been about the crazy that has swept the internet than the game itself. People who I know are not hardcore gamer’s have memories of Pokémon from their childhood, whether that was playing the earlier games or watching the TV show. It’s great to see so many people talking about it and connecting over the idea of Pokémon roaming the streets. Catching my first Pokémon (Balbasaur in case you were wondering) was also a great realization that the game actually existed and wasn’t a gimmick as I originally thought it could be.

Possibilities:

There are plenty of possibilities for Pokémon GO. Big community events initiated by the developers would be a first. We saw a gathering in Sydney over the weekend with quite a big turnout, but it was organized by the community. I’d love to see the developers create some kind of timed events that encourage active users to flock to one spot for some reason. Perhaps something as simple as fighting a legendary Pokémon like the MewTwo in Times Square in the trailer. I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen with Pokemon GO, and the developers themselves have been very quiet on that end, but at least it’s out in the wild now and whetting our appetites for augmented reality Pokémon (even though the AR does not work properly with my phone).

Kosta Canatselis – No Allegiance

Concerns:

My biggest concern with Pokémon Go is the lack of a social presence in-game. Even though the game currently allows for the ability to catch Pokémon, go to poke-stops and even battle gyms we don’t have any grasp on the interaction between people in-game. The lack of knowing what friends are doing, who they are (in-game), where they’ve been and what Pokémon they have caught really detracts from the massive multiplayer online feeling. Pokémon Go should try to focus on social interaction, first and foremost, if it is to succeed in the long run.

Highlights:

What I love in the game is the real-locations we are led to by the map. These locations really allow people to experience and discover small urban locations and monuments in a neat way that would otherwise be hidden away. While catching Pokémon we’re able to almost uncover a wide array of unknown locations. The idea of gyms in real-life is also very interesting, and I love having to visit a particular place to overthrow the current champion, it really ties into the immersive nature of Pokémon Go.

Possibilities:

There is definitely a lot of improvement needed for this game to survive among the other mobile giant games. Some possibilities would be to create large community events for people to gather and all fight for a common goal. I think there should definitely be improvements to making the app simpler to use, perhaps a 2D mode to cut down on battery usage and linking accounts to Facebook to help propagate friends. More needs to be done in the friends area to help develop a more polished game and better social experience.

Robert Key – Team Instinct

Concerns:

My main concern is the lack of explanation on things in general. I understand the app wants you to explore, but it could certainly come with tutorials to explain a thing or two. I’ve been playing Pokémon since it debuted in the U.S. and video games for 20 years, and even I, along with fellow Pokémon masters, had a hard time understanding what certain things mean or do in the game. It might be difficult for anyone playing Pokémon or getting involved in the series for the first time.
And for God’s sake people: pay attention to where you’re going. It’s sad that anyone has to say this, but don’t be reckless to catch a virtual creature.

Highlights:

I talk about this more on my blog , but while it’s really rewarding walking around to PokeStops and catch Pokémon, it’s been indescribably wonderful running into other players in the real world. I live in a small town, and people have actually been getting out and seeing what the place has to offer because of it. I’ve also had some great conversations with people about which Pokémon they caught and where, random interactions with people they met and how the game has helped them to socialize more. I really hope Pokémon GO doesn’t die down any time soon because of these things.

Possibilities:

Hopefully more tutorials will be added in later updates to bring even more people to this sensation. I am also anticipating them adding, at the very least, the second generation of Pokémon too since Gold/Silver are my favorite games in the series. I can also see the battle system being more refined than simply having a boring tap-tap-dodge formula. Lastly, I would also like a way for Niantic to integrate ways for you to add friends so you can add them and see them on your map.

LEGO® STAR WARS™: The Force Awakens, PlayStation 4

If you got the chance to play the Demo for TFA, you would have experienced a small sampling of melee combat, the multi-build system, cover-based shooting and flight mechanics all set in Episode VII. It was a pleasant surprise for me to find that in the Prologue, which places you at the very end of Episode VI Return of the Jedi, to finish the fight against the Emperor, take out the generator on Endor, and blow up the Death Star.

It is these moments specifically that shine brightest in this universe. Fighting alongside Darth Vader as Luke Skywalker, against the Emperor, brought back so many nostalgic nerd feels that I think I spent more time smiling at the cut scenes, and taking a few moments to reminisce, than actually playing. But where the Lego series does a great job of taking real audio, blended with new audio, to craft a new and fun story to fill in the gaps of the movie property in question, it also fails to nail down a lot of the necessary mechanics for it to be the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

The Power of Flight

Arguably, the best feature in the game is the flight mechanic. So far I’ve piloted both the Millennium Falcon and the black Tie Fighter, and those are some of my favorite moments. They’re fast, responsive, intuitive, chaotic, and everything I want from a dog fight both in a planets atmosphere or in deep space. If anything, I haven’t had enough time to spend in the air and patiently await my next opportunity to take flight.

If you build it…

The multi-build mechanic also serves well for some fun puzzle solving. Rarely have I built the correct Lego set on the first go. But fortunately all I need to do is break it a part,and try one of the other versions to figure out which one works best or needs to be built first. I’ve encountered several of these on various plants and have yet to feel irritated by it.

Fist to Face Style

Melee combat is back and pretty straight forward. Lego has introduced this special “finisher” style move for the characters that have the option to use it. The combat overall is pretty repetitive, but the switching to different characters and using different finishers feels pretty satisfying throughout.

Gun Control

My main concern after playing the Demo, was how wonky I felt the controls were. Since the game was just a vertical slice, I knew there wouldn’t be any time to retool the mechanics, so the same issues in the demo are present in the full game. The aim seems sluggish and off, and I was hoping after spending a lot of time behind the barrel of a blaster, it would get better. It hasn’t. Figuring out how to use the controls doesn’t mean the controls are good, it just means you’re making the most of them so you don’t die .

The other issue is you can only use the cover-base shooter system when the game wants you too. Granted, the game is light and quick and doesn’t necessarily warrant you taking cover fire, as jumping in and mixing things up works easily enough. It just seemed strange to me to only allow certain styles of game play whenever the game wanted you to use it, as opposed to just building the cover system throughout the entire game.

The Journey Ahead

As I said in the beginning, I am only 10 hours into the game. Game mechanics are pretty consistent, so what you experience in the beginning, generally echos throughout the remainder of the game. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement to make this game become one of the best games in the galaxy, but I’m looking forward to the fun journey centered around some of my favorite intellectual property to prove me wrong. Yes, this is a Lego game. But it’s also built around one of the biggest franchises in pop culture, and warrants a certain amount of polish.

Analog Addiction’s full review of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be up as soon as possible.

God of War (Baby Daddy edition)

The Father/Son, Teacher/Student dynamic is as old as the mythology God of War is rooted in. But that doesn’t for one second mean I’m not over the moon excited to see this next instalment of the God of War franchise.

Kratos has always had two speeds: Angry and Horny.

He would plough through legions of monsters with no remorse for the brutal damage he would inflict upon them. And tended to show the ladies in his bedchamber the same affection.

So to find out that this story is set to peel back some of the layers of the Ghost of Sparta, makes me more than excited. Whether it turns out we are playing as Kratos or the boy during the majority of the game remains to be seen. But the demo showed at E3 2016 made me want to jump back into that brutal world more so than any other game at the conference. – Devon McCarty

Forza Horizon 3 (Crusin’ round ‘straya)

As a huge fan of the Forza franchise, particularly the Horizon games, I was really hoping for another festival-based racer to be shown during E3. I love the soundtracks they’ve used, and the open world environments have always been breathtaking. The games have a slight arcade feel to them when compared to the core Forza titles, and the result is more emphasis on enjoyment and fun rather than trying to approach turns at the proper angle or having clean laps to find yourself atop the leaderboard.

Taking the game to Australia will yield all kinds of new scenery. While there have already been criticisms about the geographical accuracy, the team at Playground Studios clearly just wants to offer players a gorgeous world to drive through. From the reveal trailer, it’s easy to see they’ve already succeeded and with only a few months between today and the release date, my desire to drive through fields with kangaroos is growing by the minute. – Eric Pepper

Horizon: Zero Dawn (when the machines take over)

I’ve been interested in Horizon: Zero Dawn since the original announcement at E3 last year, and that interest has now turned into fever-pitched excitement.

Guerrilla Games elected to showcase an extended gameplay demo of Horizon: Zero Dawn and it exceeded all my initial expectations. Horizon: Zero Dawn is easily one of the best looking games from E3 2016, producing some breathtaking visuals with an excellent selection of colours that help create a unique world. But Horizon‘s gameplay also showcased some of unique robotic enemy types, while also giving us a small glimpse at the abilities the player will posses that will allow them interact and control these creatures.

Horizon: Zero Dawn also has a heroine that is clouded in mystery, and if the recent story trailer focusing on Aloy is anything to go by, that narrative arc could provide some first class storytelling.

Plus Horizon also allows players to ride a robotic bull, while firing flaming/explosive arrows at a robotic dinosaur…and that is something I need in my life. – Jamie Briggs

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Inhale the open world)

It may be an unsurprising choice in general, but there’s an excellent reason for that. Breath of the Wild looks like a fantastic leap the series has needed for years now. The trailers still have a Zelda vibe to them, but with a heavy hint of Western RPG influence from titles such as Skyrim or The Witcher III. And it seems to boast as much, if not more, land than the aforementioned titans of RPGs. How crazy is it that the demos we saw at E3 encompassed only one percent of the land? And with so much mystery still surrounding the NX, you have to wonder just how much is being packed into this Zelda entry that appears to be taking the series toward a turn for the better.

With a fantastic art style, weapon and armour upgrades — plus maintenance — and freedom on how to approach the story that hasn’t been seen since the original NES game, not being excited is much more difficult. – Robbie Key

Dishonored 2 (Badass assassin game 2.0)

As a big fan of sneaking around in Skyrim, stealth and rogue attacks in Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and sitting on gargoyles forever in the Arkham games, I was a huge fan of Dishonored.

The announcement of Dishonored 2 last year has had me excited for months, so when Bethesda showed us some of the new gameplay I was pretty stoked. I love the story and the setting, so I’m really excited to dive back into the lore of the franchise, as well as to revisit characters from the first game. I have plenty of questions I am ready to have answered, including how Emily gets marked by the Outsider.

Speaking of Emily, I’m incredibly excited about the option to play as her and the chance to explore her new abilities. Some of her powers, like Domino and the ability to move back and forth through time have already caught my attention, leaving me to wonder which ones will be absolutely essential. – Hope Hornsby

Sea of Thieves (playing pirate)

My first instinct was to nominate Battlefield 1 or Titanfall 2 as my most anticipated game from E3 2016, but I already know there’s a fair possibility that they will be and another game continually crossed my mind this E3. That game is Sea of Thieves. Honestly, there’s a fair chance Sea of Thieves could not live up to my expectations, but it also has the capacity to exceed them. Previews from people lucky enough to play the game at E3 were promising, with many enjoying operating a pirate ship with a bunch of comrades. I’ve always had a soft spot for pirates, so that’s why I’m excited for Sea of Thieves, and I love the chaotic nature that it looks to be presenting.

To me it feels like one of the more unique experiences coming out of E3 this year, and I look forward to tracking its development and learning about other features of the game such as the on-land activities. After all, haven’t we all fantasised about being pirates? – Nathan Manning

Would you be willing to leave your stable job at a well-known company, sell your house, move to another country and use your life savings to fund your dream with the risk that it might not pay off? In 2006, Nic Watt did just that. He left his position as Lead Designer at Electronic Arts in the UK, sold his house and used his savings to set up a game development studio in Sydney, Australia with business partner Bruce Thomson. They called the studio Nnooo, developing games for digital distribution, an emerging form of video game distribution at the time.

One of the largest entertainment industries in the world, global video game software revenues are predicted to total $90 billion in 2016. In Australia alone, sales of “interactive entertainment” reached $2.83 billion in 2015. Digital sales are increasingly playing a bigger role in those figures, accounting for $1.59 billion of the 2015 total. Game developers no longer need to release their games in a physical format to sell massive numbers. Minecraft, from independent Swedish developer Mojang, sold millions of copies globally before being available physically; it was only available to purchase online.

You have to invest millions to make millions, and that’s what the big AAA publishers like Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft do through investors and shareholders. However, it’s a lot harder to gain a slice of that revenue if you’re making games in Australia, with limited government support to help local talent gain a foothold in a growing industry.

“Unlike the big AAA development, you self-fund the development,” explains Watt, “So we were having to put our own money and time and everything behind the product.”

Nnooo’s first game, Pop, was released on the Nintendo Wii in 2008. From 2006, until the game’s release, Watt says he was basically working for free, employing extra staff with his savings. It’s worked that way for all of Nnooo’s titles, funding the development of its next game from savings and sales of previous games.

Thankfully, all of Nnooo’s games have been financially successful. However, it’s a risky business. “For the most part, I don’t go home at the end of the day getting paid,” remarks Watt. “I don’t get paid until the game ships, and you guys all buy it. And if no one buys it, I’ve obviously made a bum game and I’ve worked for three years for nothing.” The tone in his voice changes as Nic speaks these words. It doesn’t appear to make him nervous, but there’s clearly a sense of uncertainty; it troubles him. I spoke to Nic a week after the launch of his latest game, Blast ‘Em Bunnies, so he was anxiously waiting to see whether his years of hard work would pay off.

Government Funding

Government funding for video game development in Australia currently is near non-existent. In 2013, the Federal Government implemented a $20 million Interactive Games Fund, providing grants to Australian game developers across three years. From March 2013 to May 2014, $10 million was injected into the Australian video game industry. Depending on a game’s ambitions, grants from as little as $30 000 to as large as $270 000 were handed out. Then it was cancelled.

Australian developers can gain some additional funds for projects through State Government funding. Blast ‘Em Bunnies benefited greatly from the small amount of government funding that Nnooo was able to acquire through Screen NSW. It allowed the studio to take more risks on the game. “Originally the game was designed for 3DS and Vita and we wanted to add on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which we hadn’t any direct experience on,” Watt noted, “So the additional funding allowed us to bring on some additional staff for temporary parts. We got an additional programmer to help us do some graphics and we got some animation work, and so it really allowed us to add some extra features and polish onto the game that we otherwise wouldn’t have had.” Watt didn’t disclose how much additional funding Nnooo received, but it is unlikely to have been much compared to what was being offered under the federally funded Interactive Games Fund.

Chris Wright is Managing Director at Surprise Attack Games, a publishing company that is helping Australian independent developers reach larger audiences. He believes, “the abolition of the fund has been more of a qualitative impact on the industry. The funding awarded in the years it was active and, prior to that, the previous funding programs for games from Screen Australia, helped companies like The League of Geeks (Armello), Defiant (Hand of Fate), the Voxel Agents, SMG (OTTTD), Tin Man Games and others to successfully launch more substantial titles and grow their businesses, employing developers and becoming real pillars in the industry. Those projects and those companies benefitted greatly from the funding programs and that helped accelerate their success.”

“There will always be a wealth of people trying their hand at indie development but we need these larger independent studios and more established developers to employ developers, create opportunities for new developers to learn and gain skills and to provide more stability in the industry.”

Earlier this year, a Senate Inquiry on video game funding heard the views of local developers and industry spokespeople, and passed on recommendations to the Federal Government. Nnooo was represented at the Senate Inquiry on March 11, submitting a proposal. Among other things, the committee suggested that “advanced economies such as Australia need to embrace innovation and transition to a knowledge economy that relies on technology and highly skilled jobs” (Kotaku), something the video game industry provides. It also suggested some form of a tax-break or tax offset system be implemented.

Watt advocates for a tax-break funding model similar to the UK and Canada, wherein game development companies are given tax deductions. He believes the current grant system is problematic because, “it’s susceptible… to whether people like or don’t like the particular product or companies that are coming through.”

“If you want to make a game and you believe in it and you’re willing to spend the time and get the people together, then the Canadian government is like ‘well that’s fine, we’ll give you a tax break on that and if you don’t make any money out of it well that’s on you, but we’re willing to support people taking creative risks’. We really like that sort of strategy,” says Watt.

Looking at the bigger picture, Chris Wright believes that funding should be focused on helping companies grow. Rather than being small teams of two to three people, Wright believes funding should exist to help those companies establish themselves as places that employ people and create more stable studios with more opportunities for graduates and developers.

It’s not all bad news for video game funding, with Film Victoria offering up to $150,000 in funding to game developers. However, the funding has to reach a national scale for the industry to be as successful as possible. During our conversation, Watt pointed out that many Victorian developers were in the United States showing their games at the Game Developers Conference – which attracts the big gaming press sites – because they were able to access funding that Nnooo couldn’t. Australian television program Good Game has an excellent episode on GDC 2016 that focuses on some Australian developers at the show and how it benefited them.

When only a portion of developers can afford to visit trade shows overseas to show their projects to a global market, it’s difficult for an industry to thrive. Chasing a slice of a $90 billion pie isn’t easy, especially without help.

Alternatives to Government Assistance

However, Government funding is not the only method of assistance available to Australian game developers. Both Nnooo and Surprise Attack provide support for game development studios by handling business aspects of game development such as marketing and distribution. Wright says that Surprise Attack handles everything from “figuring out the positioning and messaging for the marketing of the game, all the PR work with media and Youtubers, streamers etc, producing assets like trailers and marketing art, screenshots etc, exhibiting at events, organising dev kits for console platforms, access to stores like Steam, all the financial reporting and collecting the money, setting up sales promotions and bundles, some of the customer support and general business development.” Nnooo’s publishing branch acts very similar to this too. Both Wright and Watt stress that these services are things that developers can do themselves, but most new developers do not have the resources or experience to properly handle the business side and development side. It also helps that both Nnooo and Surprise Attack have established themselves in the industry and already have contacts with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft to get games onto their consoles.

Another option is early access programs such as Steam Early Access or Game Preview on Xbox One. Early access programs act as a way for developers to gain additional funds for their games while they are in development, and also as a way of obtaining community feedback during the design process. Games like Ark: Survival Evolved, Rust, The Culling and Hurt World from Australian developer Bankroll Studios are examples of games that have become quite popular despite still being in development. Surprise Attack is currently publishing a few games through Steam Early Access, such as Rogue Continuum, Super Mutant Alien Assault and Dungeon League. Wright does admit, however, that Early Access does not work for every game, and most Early Access games “are not really generating a lot of income”. Even the indie hit Minecraft existed in a buy-able alpha and beta form before launching as a complete game.

Crowdfunding is another option for independent developers, asking the gaming community to donate funds for the game to be developed. Notable crowdfunded games include Mighty No. 9 ($3.84 million), Broken Age ($3.33 million) and Yooka-Laylee (£2.09 million). If you have an idea for a project that enough people want to see made, then you can get a lot of funding this way. I asked Nic Watt about crowdfunding, and he said they hadn’t yet done it for two reasons: at the time when Kickstarter became popular, Watt was working on a project already, and he also sees it as a big commitment to run a successful Kickstarter campaign.

“The thing with Kickstarter is that it has to be the right project and you have to be able to spend the time behind the scenes building up support for it and getting people’s attention for the product before you go down Kickstarter. But if you do it successfully and you’ve got the right IP or idea or concept, you can generate an awful amount of buzz,” says Watt. He points to Shovel Knight as an example of a Kickstarter campaign that he believes was executed really well.

All in all, development success in Australia is not impossible. With AAA development in Australia currently too expensive for publishers, smaller independent development teams are relied on to penetrate a global market. However, it’s very difficult without any extra assistance. Any government assistance would go a long way to making Australia a major player in the video game industry, but it’s largely limited to one State at the moment. Thankfully, globalisation and the digital economy now provide a multitude of alternative methods for funding, and the industry is slowing working out how to best fund projects and become financially viable.

Jamie Briggs

1. The PlayStation Vita will not be mentioned once during the Sony press conference.

2. Crackdown 3 will be given a release date and it will launch in November 2016.

3. Nintendo will announce a 2D Mario game for mobile devices.

4. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2 will be announced, launching on PS4 this holiday season.

5. Crash Bandicoot will return, either in a tease for an upcoming game or an announcement that a new game is in development. Crash is back.

Hope Hornsby

1. Bethesda will reveal 3 more DLC packs for Fallout 4, including the possible upcoming Nuka World DLC that was hinted at in the game files.

2. We’ll finally get some Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay from BioWare.

3. We’ll also get some gameplay for Dishonored 2.

4. BioWare will confirm that there will be a fourth Dragon Age game (A girl can dream, right?).

5. CD Projeckt Red will finally give us some more information about Cyberpunk 2077.

Devon McCarty

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 3 announced with gameplay footage.

2. Either Battlefield or Call of Duty launches a cross platform server beta test. Will go live at E3.

3. Jak & Daxter HD Collection for PS4.

4. Witcher 3: Wild Hunt GOTY announced for holiday 2016

5. Telltale shows off new Batman gameplay.

Kosta Canatselis

1. Nintendo will announce some Gamecube/Wii HD Remake for Wii U to fill the game gap until NX’s release in March.

2. Battlefield 1 will come with Battlefield 1942 or an older Battlefield game on pre-order.

3. Microsoft will announce Halo Collection including Halo 1-5 for PC in an effort to appeal to more PC gamers and promote its Universal Platform.

4. Crash Bandicoot game will be announced for PlayStation’s VR Platform.

5. The Xbox One’s hardware revision will be a beefed up modified PC, Xbox One games can now be played on PC.

6. Activision will announce a Call of Duty collection to please those unhappy with Infinite Warfare.

Nathan Manning

1. Like it did with Hardline, EA will announce a Battlefield 1 beta beginning sometime during the week of E3.

2. Rare’s Sea of Thieves will be pushed back to 2017 to keep the 2016 Holiday window focused on Gears of War 4, Crackdown 3 and ReCore.

3. The PC Gaming Show will break a Twitch record for fastest drop in viewers when people realize nothing changed much from last year.

4. A new Rayman platformer is announced, coming 2016

5. Every game reveal at the PlayStation Press Conference will mention PlayStation VR at least once.

Eric Pepper

1. During Nintendo’s Treehouse event, the ability to enter dungeons in any order will be mentioned no less than 10 times while discussing the new Legend of Zelda game. Ganon will also be noticeably absent from the title and a new character will be the main antagonist.

2. Microsoft will announce the Xbox One Elite, a slimmer version of the console. It will come standard with a 2TB hard drive and have a price tag of $450.

3. During their press conference, Sony will announce that the Playstation VR will be compatible with Modern Warfare Remastered on the Playstation 4.

4. The PC Gaming Show will have guests from Microsoft, Bethesda, and EA, but none of them will announce anything which hasn’t already been stated in any of their press conferences. Someone from Ubisoft will also be brought onto the show but will only give vague hints that something big will be unveiled at their press conference.

5. Ubisoft will close out their conference by unveiling another Rayman platformer title coming out in Q1 2017.

Robbie Key

1. For the first time during my four years at Analog Addiction, I’m going to say a new platformer-genre Banjo Kazooie will not be shown. Following Microsoft’s press conference, I will cry.

2. Nintendo will give a surprise reveal regarding the NX, though a small one, despite saying they will not talk about it.

3. Bethesda will reveal a brand-new IP during their conference and Skyrim HD in honor of the game’s upcoming fifth anniversary.

4. EA will not listen to its fan base and talk about sports games for at least half of their show instead.

5. Fans will finally get a glimpse of Beyond Good and Evil 2 during Ubisoft’s press conference.

So there you have our predictions for what to expect from this year’s E3. What do you think of our guesses? Are there any you think are far too outlandish? Do you think any of them will actually come to fruition? Are there some you’d love to see come true but doubt will happen? Let us knows your thoughts down in the comments!

“For us making the expansion is really something where we want to look at all areas of the game and then try to just improve everything that we can really,” says Jamie Bury, lead animator for The Witcher 3, “It’s one of the reasons we went through and did things like upgrading the user interface for the game – we had a lot of feedback about this stuff, where things may be a little bit clunky or confusing, and we just wanted to improve this stuff.”

Most of the changes are subtle, like separating weapons and armour in your inventory, or moving the position of your items in the quick menu, but going back and playing the base game highlights the benefit of the changes.

It’s not just minor changes coming to The Witcher 3’s final expansion, players will also be able to explore a new area called Toussaint, which rivals No Man’s Land or Novigrad in size. Geralt describes it best when he first arrives in Toussaint: it’s like something out of a fairytale. While there’s a certain beauty in The Witcher 3’s depiction of misery and war-torn landscapes, Toussaint is picturesque with its lush green grass, mountainous terrain, grand castles and established townships. That contrast was of great importance to the developer.

“We wanted to have this contrast with the new area so you can kind of see the difference. This is going to a place that isn’t under the threat of war constantly, the people there can lead pretty good lives. They just have a different living experience to the characters of The Witcher 3 base game,” says Bury.

Geralt is brought to the land of Toussaint after being summoned by Duchess Anna Henrietta to deal with a monster problem. The first two hours of the story see Geralt trying to track down the monster in what becomes a medieval murder-mystery. Thanks to the strong writing and performances that The Witcher 3 is known for, I was captivated the whole time. Time flies when playing The Witcher 3, and Blood and Wine appears to be no different. This is more of the same, and that’s fantastic.

I very much enjoyed the structure of the first couple of hours too. The story missions have a nice balance between dialogue and combat. In this case, combat largely involves four ‘boss’ battles. I was playing on the easiest difficulty because we were told the other difficulties had not been balanced properly yet, but the bosses were still very challenging. There was a giant with a swinging attack and a smash attack, a vampire-type monster which couldn’t be hit while invisible, a giant rock-crab monster called a shaehmaar which was only vulnerable when it was flipped on its back, and finally a different vampire who attacked very quickly and could dash around the room. Each boss required a different strategy to defeat, and Bury ensured me “you’ve not seen the best ones yet.”

It’s not just a new story that players will get to experience in Blood and Wine, new gameplay elements are also being implemented. Progressing through the story, Geralt will eventually be given a vineyard to stay in. While it looks run down when you first get it, you’ll be able to spend gold to upgrade the interior and exterior. While improving the vineyard cosmetically, the upgrades also give Geralt convenient access to plants for alchemy, a grindstone and anvil to get buffs, (finally) a bed for Geralt to sleep in, a stable for Roach, and – most importantly – access to the new mutation system (after you’ve completed the associated quest).

The mutation system is linked to character development, with players using skill points to unlock powerful mutations for Geralt. There are mutations for each of the three branches: combat, signs and alchemy. As an example of how powerful some of the mutations are, one of the mutations upgrades the Aard blast to freeze enemies, allowing Geralt to more easily fight large groups of enemies. You can only have one mutation active at any given time, but the more you unlock the more extra ability slots you unlock (up to a maximum of four). The twist is that each ability you place in these slots must match the colour of the active mutation – in this case blue. I chose to equip four Aard based abilities to improve my Aard skill. It makes Geralt feel like true threat, which is great fun.

Geralt’s vineyard

“We’ve raised the level cap from 60 to 100, and because of raising this level cap we just wanted to give you a few more tools to play with if you’re a high level player, but it also just adds so much more variety to the kind of build you can make for Geralt. We have the new mutation stuff and an extra four slots for that so it kind of vastly changes the combat based on how you’ll be able to make the builds now; it’s just a lot more toys to play with,” says Bury, who recommended I try out the Aard mutation because it was his favourite.

If you’re yet to finish The Witcher 3, but still want to experience Blood and Wine, the game can be played as a stand-alone experience, starting Geralt at the recommended level of 34, or you can use your save from the main game if you’re a high enough level.

For Bury, it’s emotional working on Blood and Wine because he knows it’s the last time he’s going to work with Geralt. “It’s tough. If this was any other project I worked on it would normally be like okay we’ve been on this for years I’m desperate to move on to something else, but it’s really not with The Witcher. It’s kind of a bitter sweet thing. I’m looking forward to moving on to the new challenges, but I love the games.”

Throughout my short time with Blood and Wine, CD Projekt Red continuously mentioned fan feedback and how much they appreciated the fans when talking about their reasons for making certain changes and adding gameplay elements. Blood and Wine is looking like more Witcher 3, and then some. It’s great to see CD Projekt Red’s desire to add new systems and refinements to an already amazing experience. Blood and Wine will be Geralt of Rivia’s final outing, and it’s shaping up to be a fantastic experience.

Update, 1:07 AM AEST: CD Projekt Red has confirmed to IGN that The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine will be available on May 30 in the United States, with pre-orders now available.

For me, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End marks the end of a journey I have been on for the better part of a decade, which is why the title may have more of an impact for me than anyone else. It also stands as the reason I didn’t second guess buying the Collector’s Edition of the game. If this be my last ride with Nathan Drake, may no stone go unturned, treasure left unfound, bad guy left unshot, and witty pun uncracked.

I definitely look forward to the journey that lay ahead, and I genuinely plan to Platinum this game to ensure I’ve experienced every part available to me. Good luck out there, and I hope to see you in the multiplayer!

In Analog Addiction’s recent review Nathan Manning said The Division is “an enjoyable concept for a new IP that kept me entertained for a solid amount of time, but then I grew tired and felt no need to return.”

In this latest installment of AA’s postmortem series, both The Division reviewer Nathan Manning and Jamie Briggs will discuss where The Division succeeded, where it failed, and ultimately what The Division needs to do to make players return to the gorgeous city of New York.

Jamie Briggs I spent the last week with The Division pushing my character to level 22…but unfortunately it was around this time I felt like I had finally had my fill of what The Division had to offer. Now I want to clearly state I do not believe The Division is a bad game, on the contrary I believe The Division has a lot of strong points; but ultimately keeping my attention for an extended period of time was one of its major problems.

Personally I attribute this to the repetitive gameplay wheel that The Division offers. I absolutely adore the main story missions, but for the most part these require your character to be certain levels in order to simply survive. This forced me to constantly play the same handful of side activities, the same structured events and collect the same boring collectables in a hope of raising my level before I could attempt the next mission. Honestly the side activities in The Division are some of the least interesting from recent memory, with many side activities even simply reusing the same dialogue that the last similar side mission contained.

It was beyond frustrating to have to trudge through such repetitive content to get to the good stuff, and at level 22 and over 20 hours in – I simply had enough. In your review Nathan, you seemed to experience a similar disinterest. Was this due to the same problems or something else entirely?

Nathan Manning I completely agree. All games are repetitive, but the great ones at least disguise the fact that you are performing a repetitive action. The RPG structure is that of completing main missions, and then doing side missions to level up enough to do the next main mission. However, other games at least have you doing different kinds of fetch quests in different areas. The Division just has you doing the same tasks in a different part of New York and with higher leveled enemies.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on the issue of repetition and I think it also relates to the setting itself: New York. While at first it was great to see New York represented as beautifully as it is in The Division, it all starts to look the same. New York is a city of sky scrapers, and that’s reflected in the game. The problem is that every street and location begins to look the same. Sure, you eventually encounter Time Square and other landmarks, but the streets are all designed parallel, making them look similar. If I didn’t have that way-point marker continually showing me which way to go, I would have gotten lost because of the similarity of the streets and general lack of landmarks. It just made everything feel the same.

Honestly, the same could be said of the enemy design in The Division. It just didn’t seem that varied to me. There were supposedly three different enemy factions in The Division, but I could only distinguish between the firefighter looking enemies, and everyone else. And everyone else looked the same throughout the grind to level 30, and then after that. The only thing that really changed was the amount of enemies, and how much health they had. Enemies hit hard in The Division, which makes it a challenging game later on, but it just wasn’t fun firing clip after clip into the elite enemies to bring them down. I would have preferred more enemies with less health to make me feel like I was fighting against overwhelming odds.

Since you spend most of the time in The Division shooting people, what did you think of the enemy design in the game Jamie? And how’d you find the world of New York compared to other gaming worlds?

Jamie Briggs After my time with The Division during the beta, I found myself also questioning the location. In premise the idea of a post-epidemic New York sounds interesting, but as you said this New York just did not provide enough unique locations, or any real iconic locales. When I think of other open world city locations Ubisoft have produced, Watch Dogs comes to mind, and even Watch Dogs delivered a unique atmosphere in every different section of the city. The same goes for the enemies themselves. You have the general grunts, the shot-gunner, the grenadier and then usually a large tank like enemy with a mini-gun as your all mighty boss encounter. I can understand why the enemy types were kept as is (being set in realism) but surely there could have been more iconic or unique enemy types to shoot throughout the city.

I think the repetition also came into question so regularly due to the fact your character NEVER feels powerful. No matter what level you are, and no matter what area you visit, most of the time enemies will rank up alongside you and always deliver a challenge. I’m fine with The Division wanting to provide a challenge (which is why the main missions were so fun) but it felt like no matter what slightly higher piece of gear I equipped, or level I increased, I was never really making any progress in becoming stronger. No matter what, every single enemy ended up being a generic bullet sponge on my way to my goal. Perhaps this is just a personal preference, but I have always appreciated the character evolution in the RPG genre. Seeing your character progress from a general grunt, into an overpowered badass is a rewarding experience; but The Division never gave me that feeling and I think that heavily attributed to the repetitive nature of The Division.

But The Division is certainly not all bad; as I have alluded to a few times I had a great time with the main missions available. Perhaps deep down each mission had a similar structure, but I found each mission challenging, rewarding and thoroughly entertaining. I also found playing these missions with other players greatly increased my enjoyment, regardless whether they were friends or not. Tackling a mission on hard with three other players is genuinely intense and many times I found myself losing hours on one mission without even realising.

What did you think of the main mission structure? And do you think The Division delivered a strong RPG experience?

Nathan Manning I agree with you that the main missions are the better missions in The Division. There’s nothing memorable about most of them, and they probably won’t be making any of our round-table pieces for best levels in a video game, but they offered refreshing, different environments to shoot enemies.

I particularly enjoyed one of the first missions; the one that takes place inside the basketball stadium which we can assume is Madison Square Garden. It’s a great proof of concept of what would happen if society broke down. But to be honest the plot kind of breaks down after that. As I said in my review, the plot just becomes “clean up New York”. One minute I’m rescuing a doctor, the next helping the military to deal with the rival gangs that have popped up, and then dealing with some Division agents that have gone rogue and turned against the cause. It’s more a story about the world rather than the characters that inhabit it.

The sad thing is that the concept could have provided a strong sci-fi story about humanity, but I’d argue it suffers from a lack of cut-scenes to drive the narrative (and a voiceless protagonist for that matter). It’s very difficult to tell a story without cut-scenes – although plenty of games do it very well – and I feel that the missions would have benefited from the addition.

I did, however, very much enjoyed the length of each main mission. On ‘normal’ difficulty each one took 20-30 minutes to complete and they were action packed the whole way through.

With regards to The Division as an RPG experience, I’d say it’s a decent RPG experience, but not a strong one. Statistics play a large role in The Division, with players balancing attack power, health and skill power to try and develop the perfect character. I liked that every piece of gear only improves two out of the three of the categories, so you had to compromise to improve another. It brought back memories of games like Diablo, where I would constantly be switching the gear I had to try to optimise my character for my play style. In my case, it was to max out skill power so my sticky bomb grenade would deal massive amounts of damage.

In my review I expressed my opinion that loot collection wasn’t great because I wasn’t getting better gear at the right interval, which is an issue when the game is very loot based.

My biggest complaint about the way The Division handles RPG elements is related to the unlocking of skills and abilities. It doesn’t help that the currency you have to use is earned by some of the repetitive side missions (as well as story missions). However, it’s more a problem because I had unlocked all of the skills about halfway through the game. The only skills I had left to unlock were the signature skills, which are like ultimate skills that take longer to cooldown. It meant the second half of the game I wasn’t really unlocking anything.

How do you think the plot could have been improved Jaime, and what did you think of the RPG systems? Did you try out crafting and the re-calibration station?

Jamie Briggs I think you stated the story issues well, the two biggest games of recent memory that revolve around an MMO-esque experience are both Destiny and The Division. Both of these games lack cut scenes, focus on delivering most story content in audio log form, and in the end both games produced a poor overall narrative.

I would have loved a better story from The Division, especially since the premise itself caught my attention since the first reveal; which in my opinion just feels like a missed opportunity. It certainly didn’t take long for Division‘s story to take a back seat to the classic process of clearing a map that Ubisoft has become famous for (Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed) producing, but I still think the premise is as intriguing as it was the first time it was revealed. Which is why it’s a shame Division never tackles that premise well.

I dabbled in the re-calibration station situated in the Base of Operations, but (perhaps due to my level) most of the items I could craft were simply not strong enough. I think that is a feature that would truly enter its element when you reach the level cap, but being only in the low 20’s most of the loot I could create didn’t rival the loot I was amassing from missions.

As we have explained the story did not live up to either of our expectations, and the RPG systems certainly could have been improved, which leaves the third pillar in Division‘s arsenal – the shooting. It took me a long time to wrap my head around the shooting mechanics in Division, simply because it controls a lot differently to most third person shooters. I also found myself struggling to remember the difference between taking cover and vaulting cover, as Division chooses to go against the norm and assign both to the opposite. Overall I found the shooting gameplay to be serviceable, but it did not rival most of the best third person shooters already released.

That ultimately seems to be The Division‘s main issues. It does a little of everything, but it never does any of them extremely well. The Division is a lot more quantity than quality in regards to its features, and overall I feel that made my experience feel quite average when I reminisce.

What did you think of the shooting mechanics in The Division? And in regards to the post-level cap experience, did you find The Division delivered some interesting post-level cap content?

Nathan Manning The Division‘s shooting mechanics aren’t as smooth and tight as other third person shooters, but it didn’t take me too long to adjust. The main thing I wasn’t a fan of was the large amounts of recoil on guns. When you’ve got to put an unusually large amount of bullets into enemies, you want to be able to land most of your shots, but spraying a clip even at close range results in massive amounts of recoil.

I did gradually get used to the shooting, but would have preferred something tighter.

End-game content for The Division is somewhat lacking. Prior to the Incursion update, the only new activity you unlock once hitting level 30 is the challenge difficulty for all main missions. These missions are very tough, and require a team of four with a lot of teamwork to survive. It’s more Division for those who make it to level 30, but it’s just a harder difficulty.

The Incursion update included the addition of a new end-game activity that offers a new, very difficult, lengthy mission. I have yet to try out the Incursion, so I’ll refrain from commenting on it, but the end-game still appears lacking if you don’t revel in gear crafting and creating the perfect character.

The only other activity to do in the end-game is The Dark Zone, a player versus player versus environment area in The Division. I like the concept of The Dark Zone, but it just wasn’t fun, especially when playing solo. The enemy AI are too difficult, spawning with too much health and in too large numbers. A group of four might be able to survive against the enemies, but a solo player has no chance. This is especially true when the weather effects kick in and blanket the area in a thick fog that enemies can seemingly see fine in. And then, when you do manage to kill the enemies and pick up some loot, you either get killed by the next group of enemies you see, get killed by a group of players who can revive each other, or find a piece of gear that is worse than what you already have.

Across my review and this piece I’ve spoken plenty about my Dark Zone problems, so what do you think of The Division‘s PvP area Jamie?

Jamie Briggs Once again it seems our opinions align. I love the premise of The Dark Zone, but as you said it becomes almost unplayable if you decide to play solo. I spent a few hours in The Dark Zone with my mid-level 20 character and experienced all the same issues, which made playing within The Dark Zone on my own completely unenjoyable. Once I had teamed up with a player or two The Dark Zone definitely became a more enjoyable activity, one that still provided a challenging experience, but one that could be overcome with strong teamwork. When playing solo the overwhelming numbers of overpowered enemies simply destroy you from every angle and even my most powerful weapons barely made a dent. The Dark Zone is an experience designed for groups of players, and if you decide to enter on your own – be prepared for a tough time.

Seeing as we have covered most of The Division, I’m left wanting to know whether or not you would like to see more Division releases and where could the series go from here? If a sequel is made, one would assume it would branch out of the post-pandemic New York City location and extend to a new portion of America. Within the world Ubisoft has built, I cannot guess how they would do this, or whether or not they will simply slowly expand the base game with new areas and additional story content. I personally would like to see where the series could go in the future, especially if Ubisoft is able to iron out the issues and provided a larger palette of activities to enjoy.

Like Watch Dogs, The Division has an amazing premise, but the final product left something to be desired. In a possible sequel, The Division could perhaps deliver on the promises it originally intended to keep.

Nathan Manning I definitely want to see more of The Division in the future. When you get to the heart of The Division, it’s a very fun game. In my eyes it doesn’t do a lot of things greatly, but it doesn’t do them poorly. As a proof of concept, The Division is a good experience, but I’d love to see more variety next time round. More skills, less repetition, more activities to do in the end-game, and a better loot system.

Sales figures clearly show that a lot of people were interested in the game, and it’s still quite popular on Twitch, so people are enjoying the game. Like I said, I was enjoying The Division for the first 20 or so hours, but then it kind of sizzled out once I had unlocked most things and completed the same types of missions countless times.