I did one for the FIFA 16 Beta (and boy was that a long and descriptive review) so I thought I'd do one for this.

First off, it's a Beta and only shows up to a level cap of 8, and a pretty small portion of the map.

Only one story mission is available in the beta, and as unfortunate as that is it is understandable. The game starts directly after you create a character, which is the beta you are limited to 4 pre made faces with different variations of facial hair. Once your done, it slaps you into what appears to be a few moments after the true start to the full game, which I'm sure they left out for narrative reasons. Your in a helicopter with a women who appeared to have lost her eye and saved you from a skirmish that occured before. You land, nothing memorable is said, and off you go to set up a base of operations. The next part is the only mission, which is to rescue a doctor from Madison Square Garden. You fight maybe 6 groups of enemies, head to a rooftop, kill a boss (whom at the START is a bullet sponge, but quickly becomes very easy even on hard.) and boom your done.

Gameplay

The gameplay is pretty solid for a cover shooter. But one reminder, the game is a RPG first, shooter second. It does both sides of the coin surprisingly well. Your given a choice of 4 abilities in the beta, of which you can only bind 2 at a time (LB and RB, for Xbox One). These abilities consist of a scanner that scans for enemies and later on loot, a sticky grenade that sticks to anything and is detonated after clicking the bumper again, a riot shield that allows you to take extended punishment as well as shoot your side arm, and a healing pulse with a fairly small radius. Your only able to mod the scanner in the Beta. Using these together can be very satisfying, and I stuck with the scanner and healing pulse. Pulse to see enemies before you turn the corner, find a good vantage, and pick them off. The AI is set up with different mindsets, you have grenadiers who bombard your position with grenades, you have normal people who run around shooting you, you have rushers who have melee weapons who bolt towards you and flank you when they can, and then there are snipers. Another type very few ever see are engineers, who place turrets all over the place. As well as flame thrower wielding enemies. Something I liked about the enemies is the fact if you shoot an enemy while they are throwing the grenade, they can miss throw it or even drop it on themselves. Also if you shoot a grenadiers backpack, it will blow up killing them (and if it's an elite, it won't allow them to throw grenades anymore).

It's easy to solo things when you get a hang of the abilities. But there are other items you can use. From Water, Soda and Canned food, to explosive bullets and incendiary rounds. Soda allows you to do 30% more damage to elite enemies for example, and is commonly found in backpacks. You also have medkits and a beavy of grenades, which are binded to the left and right on the D-Pad. Grenades consist of Frag, Incendiary, Stun, and Tear gas. There's also EMP and another one I can't remember, both of which aren't available.

I also played both solo and with my two brothers. The game works even better with partners, as you can synergize your abilities together, plus it's always fun to explore with company.

PvP is a love/hate for me. I went in at level cap to check it out. In the Dark Zones there are high level NPC's as well as other players who can go rogue on you or their own friend at any moment and steal your gear. You will see single or even bands of rogue players running around and killing players for their loot, which can become both fun and terrifying. For example I was playing alone and I was in a parking garage killing three npc's, I see on my HUD that 4 rogue players are coming down the other ramp across from me, so I quickly hide, and sneak my way past them because I had 6 rare items on me that I needed to extract. But it's not always so black and white, at extractions people will wait for the helicopter to arrive and then turn on you. Which can be frustrating.

But there is also the good side of it. Joining a group of players in a firefight they couldn't handle and helping them succeed, and then doin jumping jacks to show your gratitude back never gets old. In fact it's where the beauty of the game shines. There is a sports store in the dark zone that is home to 12 elite npc's and two bosses. And you can get easily overwhelmed if you run in there. I can clear it solo, bht when I was walking by and heard someone on the mic being frustrated. I walked in and he was pinned down, so I went up a scaffolding outside, got to a window, busted it, and began sniping and covering him from my position. We both met up in the middle of it all and over the mic he was saying how awesome it was to see enemies dropping silently for no reason (I use a silenced sniper). We saluted eachother and actually stuck together for an hour before we both got off. To be successful in the dark zone you need to be aware of the fact it's a lawless place, once you get used to it you can thrive in it. I never go rogue and I have gotten probably over 200 items out successfully and maybe like 12.

The Loot

Good ole RNG. The loot drops are actually pretty decent most of the time, even from the start. Definitely a lot better then Destiny. More often then not I was getting gear that was much better then what I was using. Gear is tiered in the normal way, white is the lowest, yellow/gold is the highest.

As of right now, from spending time in the dark zone, I have one exotic gun and all legendary items including my secondary weapon and side arm. You can only find rare gear in the dark zone (in terms of highest rating, you can get greens but don't bother picking them up.) however you gather a currency for enemy kills that you can spend in checkpoints in located around the edges of the zone. In those checkpoints you can buy legendary gear; and each checkpoint has its own inventory, so check them all out. You can buy two exotic guns for a steep price in the one safe house located in the top right of the dark zone. The Assault Rifle is pretty great. Haven't gotten the shotgun.

The Map, the scale, and the atmosphere

The map given to you in the beta, as small as it is, dear lord it takes a few minutes to get to somewhere. Which wouldn't be so bad if there we so little things to kill on the way there. It's my one gripe with this game. There's very few enemies to actually fight. I can walk from one end to the other and kill one group.

But walking in this, genuinely gorgeous representation of a ruined New York is something incredible. The atmosphere is well presented at all sections. The dynamic weather mechanic can make for some gorgeous scenery and interesting back drops for fire fights. Running throw a blizzard while fighting in the dark zone is even more rewarding, assuming you win. And the fact weather effects visibility (even making the reticle not turn red as a result, meaning; you don't know if your hitting something or not) is pretty cool. The Darkzone is even more grim, as soon as you step in the color palette becomes more grey, there are burnt bodies and bag everywhere, exploded buildings, everything on fire, it genuinely looks creepy. Especially the damn subways. If you want to be creeped out, head into the subways in the dark zone. There are also quarantine zones and buildings that are equally as ominous.

Customization

Although not available in the Beta, it has been shown that the customization for your characters face is pretty decent. You can also customize your character in various ways. The gear you get changes your gloves, backpack. Knee pads. And body armor. But then there are cosmetic slots like hats and jackets, scarves and boots, under shirts and pants. All of which can be found from killing enemies or helping civilians around the city.

I wish I could show my gameplay footage on here, and I might do some streaming on my Xbox to show off how the game plays at the top end of the beta. Nothing is a bullet sponge at that point (except for bosses, which is understandable.) People keep saying enemies are bullet sponges. Destiny bosses are 1000x worse then the bosses in this game, and enemies go down a lot quicker too in The Division. At first it's not that way, but it quickly becomes easy

8/10, having a lot of fun