Tom Clancy's The Division Xbox One

While the story primarily sticks to tried-and-true survival tropes, the narrative is solidly executed. Key moments receive full cutscenes, and in between, you constantly hear radio banter that explains exactly how your next objective contributes to your broader mission to save New York from vicious opportunists. You always know exactly what you're doing and why; that alone goes a long way towards making your actions feel meaningful. You're also never painted as a superhero. The Division admirably commits to its bleak, grounded vision of a medically-induced apocalypse, and it works. Some ideas needed a bit more development--especially an important enemy later on--but overall, I felt invested and immersed in the world.

Unfortunately, the adrenaline rush occasionally slows to a drip, at least for a time. Most side missions are recycled throughout the game. While the larger campaign missions deliver an impressive variety of thrilling scenarios and carefully crafted environments, side missions come in just five or six repeated forms that pop up in various locations around the open world. The differing locations add some variation and nuance to these encounters, but they can still feel repetitive, especially since you're forced to grind through them as you attempt to level up your character before accessing the next story mission (all of which have strongly suggested minimum levels).

Thankfully, the stellar story missions compensate for the less inventive side content. Impressively, you can walk right into these missions from the hub world with zero loading, and when you do, you never quite know what you'll find. One mission sent me down a long, deadly transit tunnel, another into a ritzy embassy, and another dropped me in front of Grand Central Station for a prolonged shootout. The diversity is impressive, and across all these missions, I experienced a healthy number of memorable gameplay moments and intense boss battles.

As the Dark Zone proves, The Division's loot system is integral to the experience. But it's not just there for show. Rather, your stats--which are heavily dictated by the gear you equip--mean the difference between slaughter and triumph, so be prepared to spend plenty of time in menus comparing the numerical attributes of knee pads, pistol holsters, and tactical backpacks. There's a mind boggling number of variables that ultimately impact your chances of survival. While not everyone will have the patience necessary to fully embrace the intricacies of the loot system, The Division at least makes life easier by providing plenty of elegant, thoughtful tools. You can mark old items as junk and simply hit "Sell All" when you get to a vendor. You can easily compare two items side by side. The game will even show you how an item will affect your overall stats before you equip it. It may sound trivial, but this careful attention to detail makes the loot meta-game nearly painless.

If you're feeling a little less cooperative, you can also visit the Dark Zone--a massive, unstructured PvP area in the middle of the city. The Dark Zone is, if nothing else, a really cool experiment. You'll find both enemy AI and other human players inside. The AI guard loot, while the other players...well, who knows. They might help you conquer the AI or they might backstab you and steal all the gear and weapons you've already collected. The tension of not knowing how an interaction will play out is unlike anything else you'll find in a modern shooter, and the significance of loot back in the main game makes the stakes in the Dark Zone feel incredibly real. The Division is mostly a genre-abiding open world, cover-based shooter, but the Dark Zone--and the way it's seamlessly integrated into the world map with only a moment of extremely well-concealed loading when you enter--deserves special recognition for being truly new.