Back in the day I bought a game called FarCry and it was great, a brilliant game, loved it, arguably the best FPS since the original Doom.
Then came the abortion that was FarCry 2. Bar none the worst game i've ever had the misfortune to play, and with it came the rise of Ubisofts Rinse and Repeat game play. FarCry 2 missions were practically identical. Get the mission, yes its across the far side of the map, go down the road, oh look a check point, kill that, drive down the road, oh look, we're being chased, kill them, reach objective, win, get new mission, oh look its across the far ...... blah blah blah.... just sucked.
I was hugely reluctant to buy FarCry 3 but I did and it was pretty decent, but again, rinse and repeat missions. Hunt this, climb that tower, snake snake.... it's a snake.... take the base, hunt this, climb that.... blah blah blah, but it was actually a reasonable game. So I bought Far Cry 4 - which should have come with the tag line 'Far Cry 4, Same Thing, Different Skin' I wont be buying FarCry Primal.
And thus we get to the division and aside from the main missions we have the same old rinse and repeat game play, just dressed up in a much nicer package.
So, do I blame Ubisoft? or Do I blame console players, because this rinse and repeat stuff is for the benefit of the button mashers not the PC players, and when is Ubisoft going to go back and produce a game that was as fecking cool as the original FarCry ? Are openworld games doomed to the same rinse and repeat style game play? Is it only linear games which can provide a little bit of variety ?
I enjoy the division, but side missions and encounters are getting a bit like fishing for Red Snappah.