I seem to be in the minority group with this one that feels like it's an awesome concept and has a ton of polish on surrounding the aesthetics (the music and UI sounds are such ear-candy to me), but something is off around the edges. In my 8 hours of play so far, the single biggest let down for me is not so much the "bullet sponge" factor, but the bizarre lack of kick and feedback with pretty much every weapon I've used. This leads to an immersive disconnect with the moment to moment combat that tastes a little like flat soda. You know it can be awesome, but something is slightly stale.
SMGs feel and sound like water pistols. Assault rifle bullets stream out of the gun like a laser rifle in Star Wars and also lack any sort of explosive sound design. The only guns that sound cool are the carbines and rifles. For a game that surrounds itself with gunplay and gun loot, I can't help but feel a bit let down by the flimsy feel that the weapons have. This is exaggerated by the lack of feedback on hitting enemies. Yes, I know they sometimes flinch and fall, but I cannot shake this feeling of what comes across as a lag in my bullets hitting an enemy to them reacting. They even collapse a few fractions of a second after my final bullet kills them. There's no (or very little) difference in feedback on the weapon you're using. A shotgun blast that kills an emery in one shot as they charge at my face results in an unsatisfying slow slump to the ground as if they just deflated (which would happen exactly the same if you ended their charge with a shower of SMG rounds). The enemy models don't appear to have any weight to them and the way they collapse also lacks the same polish that the weapon sound design does.
To people defending all of these concerns by pointing to Destiny as if it suffers the same faults, have you guys played it? There is a sense of connection of every bullet to an emery. A headshot, even if it doesn't kill, will result in a snappy animation that takes into effect the impact stat of the weapon you're using. It just isn't the same. If it felt like Destiny did, I would not be posting all of this in this amount of detail. It's difficult to articulate, but The Divisions gunplay just has a feeling of softness and lightness to it rather than the explosive fast paced danger that it would lead you to believe. It feels like Mass Effect 1's combat felt...which is totally OK...but I am much more into the tactile feel of Mass Effect 2's combat.
This seems to be the most decisive aspect of this game that many people are falling on one side or another. It's not something that breaks the game but it does sour the overall immersion enough to make it worth mentioning. I have not played enough of the story to comment on that, but if it is also giving off an "it's OK" feeling, I can see why reviewers are falling one way vs the other on this.