The Division is sure to go down in the record books as a game that failed to meet expectations. Ignoring the obvious lack of content, the game has been riddled with glitches and bugs since day one, and while Ubisoft and developer Massive has followed through on addressing them whenever they pop up, more always seem to reemerge in their place.
Back when 1.1, also known as Incursions, arrived in April, there was a plethora of problems that made the game nearly impossible to enjoy. A large number of issues — from unplayable missions to a large number of players flat-out losing their characters temporarily — made what was supposed to be a day of excitement a day of disappointment.
Learning from that travesty, Ubisoft Massive Community Developer Hamish Bode announced earlier this month that the 1.2 update would be held back so it would be "rock-solid" for launch.
"It's currently in the testing phase," he said at the time, "and obviously we know that testing for this patch especially is really, really important. We don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, we want 1.2 to be rock-solid, so that's the focus right now."
Well, update 1.2, also known as Conflict, dropped Tuesday, May 24, and contrary to what was promised, the release was hardly "rock-solid." In fact, there are plenty reports of all sorts of issues plaguing the game at the moment — many of which mirror the ones that plagued update 1.1 when it was first released.
To recap, update 1.2 introduced new PvP and PvE content, as well as a second raid called Clear Sky. Out of all these additions, it seems the only thing that isn't messed up is the PvP.
One of the biggest additions was the introduction of High Value Targets, which relies on a brand new currency called Intel. You earn Intel from participating in Search and Destroy missions, which are explained in detail here.
At any rate, once you obtain your Intel, you can exchange it for a contract to defeat a specific target or targets and gain loot based on the difficulty of the mission.
Or rather, that was supposed to be how it works. Instead, many are reporting the HVT missions not unlocking, and when they do, the bosses sometimes don't materialize, forcing players to restart the mission until the target appears.
Another reported problem is the matchmaking issue experienced with the Clear Sky raid. Apparently, many players have been unable to properly start the raid, and any attempts to do so causes it to reset itself. Some players report being sent back to the start of the mission, while others report being sent back all the way to the nearest safehouse. Even worse is that the user interface will actually brighten or double after these resets, causing the game itself to slow down considerably.
Interestingly, the worst problem of all is a recurring one. In 1.1, players on the Xbox One reported seeing their agents vanishing from character select screens. Now, come 1.2, players on the PC are reporting much of the same. Last time, the problem was the product of a malfunction server, and no player data was lost after a quick fix. With that in mind, it's likely that Ubisoft can quickly identify the problem and provide a simple fix like before.
As previously mentioned, The Division is sure to go down in the record books as a game that failed to meet expectations. It saw huge success early on, breaking all of Ubisoft's previous sales records in its first 24 hours. However, things have been tough for the MMO since then, and a severe lack of end-game content and the onslaught of bugs and glitches have caused the player base to drop significantly. While it's unclear how many have left on consoles, Valve Software's Steam Web API indicates that nearly 60 percent of the game's PC player base has left in the last 30 days.
