Tom Clancy's The Division review – fascinating and fun but lacking compassion

Ubisoft's online shooter will be familiar to Destiny veterans, but its gritty take on New York amps up the misery and leaves us powerless to care

There is a strange dichotomy at the heart of The Division, which says a lot about where games are right now.

In one sense, it is an utterly artificial experience. The Manhattan we see in this post-pandemic nightmare is an ethereal filmset of a city. A majority of buildings are inaccessible, the vehicles are useless, and the enemies take dozens of shots to bring them down.