— The beacons are lit! The Capital calls for aid! —
The Division 2 has been out for almost 2 weeks now, give or take depending on which edition you might have sprung for. I know this review is coming out a bit late compared to most other review outlets. However, that is because of two reasons. For one, I have a day job that pays my bills and buys my whiskey. Secondly, I had a hard time putting down the damn controller long enough to actually write it. That alone should set the tone for what to expect when you log into the game to start exploring a post pandemic simulation of our nation’s capital. I think it’s safe to say that many gamers did not expect too much from The Division 2. After all, the first Division was viewed to be a successful, yet mediocre game at launch. It wasn’t too shy about seemingly trying to copy Destiny’s gameplay and economy model but within a different genre. And like Destiny, despite feeling a little subpar out of the gate once players got to the endgame, Division got better with each update and DLC. The Division eventually went on to reach higher acclaim, reaching a 80 metascore and 6.9 user score on Metacritic. That, however, is where the similarities between The Division series and Destiny stop thankfully.
Where as Bungie decided to ignore all player feedback as well as the strides they had made in the first Destiny when making the horribly, subpar Destiny 2, Massive Games and Ubisoft thankfully went in the complete opposite direction. Instead it is very obvious that they gathered and analyzed all the lessons they learned from the first Division, as well as those from their other recent big hits like Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Then, they threw everything together, cranked everything up to 11 and let the craziness ride. And what a wonderful, crazy ride it has been thus far. The Division 2 improves upon its predecessor in every way. I have no issues saying that Ubisoft has all-but-perfected their open-world formula without feeling like just another Ubisoft game. And for anyone who has followed Ubisoft in recent years, that’s saying a lot. From jaw-dropping scenery to fast paced action, The Division 2 grabs you from the beginning and refuses to let go, even if it is 4 o’clock in the morning and I’ve got to go to work in 3 hours.
— Graphics and Immersion —
The game starts off running, dropping you into a firefight to complete a very quick tutorial showing the basics of combat and survival. After a few minutes, you then find yourself stepping into a beautiful, war-torn city. One that appears dreary and desolate, yet full of life at the same time. The first big difference I noticed was how colorful and varied Washington D.C. felt compared the frozen tundra that was New York City in the first Division. Overgrowth vegetation can found reclaiming the city walls. Animals are roaming around, scavenging for food and shelter. National monuments are either found in pieces or have been turned into control points or strongholds by one of the various enemy factions. Allied and enemy patrols can be found all throughout the city. I personally could barely walk a city block without running into either one. I even witnessed many a firefight breaking out as I explored the capital. This eventually gave me a sense of caution while running the city streets, especially at night. You never know if there’s just friendlies or a planned ambush waiting for you around the corner. The various upgradeable settlements found throughout the city offer a nice change of pace as well.
The open-world does a good job of feeling like massive, populated city. of course, there is the typical Ubisoft flair of advancing to each question mark on the map and completing the activities there. These activities can range from hostage situations to public executions to supply drop raids. Some might even be previously undiscovered side missions to boot. However, unlike previous activities in Ubisoft games, these activities are dynamic and randomly placed. They also seem to continually appear across the map, no matter how many you clear. This helps make the city feel organic, like it’s in constant motion. The only thing seemingly set in stone location-wise were the standard capturable enemy control points and the SHD tech caches, The Division 2’s version of perk points. Furthermore, the storyline and side missions also offer a variety of locals throughout the game as well. Unfortunately, the variety of gameplay mechanics on each of the missions can seem a bit lacking sometimes. Most missions find you advancing through buildings and complexes, eliminating enemies and pushing forward. There are occasional stops to guard areas against waves of enemies or plant some explosives as well as the occasional boss fight. Luckily though, they do not seem to feel repetitive enough to make the game boring.
This is because The Division 2’s combat and gunplay are top notch. The chaotic firefights are one of the areas that the game shines the most. They bring just the right combination of run and gun with tactical gameplay. That is not to say that you can just run through enemies and gun them down. If you try that even on the normal story difficulty you’ll get your ass perforated in seconds flat. Each of the factions, the Hyenas, the True Sons and the Outcasts, felt varied in flavor and each had different methods of trying to kill you dead. As such, each encounter requires careful thought and a tactful approach, especially if you are running solo. Enemy AI can be frustratingly effective at times, especially when they operate as a group, flanking and overwhelming the unprepared agent. They can be lacking individually however, sometimes continuously running from cover to cover or just simply hiding until you come dare to come close enough within shotgun range. I honestly couldn’t decide if it was just buggy or annoying realistic. The heavily armored enemies themselves are beings made of pure devastation and salty tears. Whether they’re wielding a grenade launcher, a sledgehammer or a chainsaw, those bastards will make you want to throw your controller across the room, then quietly go retrieve it so you can plan your revenge as you run back from the respawn point.
— Gameplay and Progression Systems —
So how will you plan on exacting that revenge? Well thankfully the Division Agency outfits you with all sorts of fun toys with which you can use to wreak devastation upon your enemies or to support your fellow agents with. I found the drone, the turret and the seeker mines to be especially fun to play with, each offering fun ways to set up a tactful surprise on enemies. Of course, each equipment skill can have its own moments to shine, plus each skill has multiple loadouts which can completely change how the equipment functions. The turret in particular can be outfitted with assault rounds, sniper rounds or a flamethrower. The hive drones can be outfitted to repair or resuscitate allies, not to mention they have a loadout that can attack and distract enemies as well. This does a good job of giving players options and being able to change loadouts on the fly from what you have unlocked gives players flexibility to adapt to the current situation, provided a skill is not on cooldown.
So this game is a looter shooter right? What about the loot? Well, unlike the other looter shooter that launched recently that shall remain nameless, The Division 2 is not stingy with its loot offerings. While the loot shower may not be at Diablo 3 levels, players will find ample loot drops throughout their time spent on missions and open-world activities. At earlier levels, you will find yourself just increasing attribute and damage numbers with gear replacing itself seemingly all the time. However, once you reach the higher levels and endgame, gear will start to come with talents, adding a whole new layer of complexity. Certain talents like gear with armor regeneration or weapons with additional bleed damage can drastically change your playstyle. Players will also eventually unlock gear recalibration which allow certain talents to be switched between similar gear pieces. Finally, once gear modification items start to drop, players can also use those to enhance their gear as well. This ultimately leads to the game offering a deep, engaging build system. You could go for a build based on damage, armor, skill or a combination of such. Regardless of how you play, the build system should be enough to keep theory crafters busy for awhile.
So what can I say about the story? Well honestly, The Division 2’s story is about what you would expect from a Ubisoft game. The story framework is set from the moment you step into D.C. with slivers of storyline being told through the various missions and a few cutscenes here and there. Overall, the story is average and on par for a game of this genre. That’s best critique I can give it at this point, nothing horrible but nothing to write home about either. You usually know up front what you are getting when you start playing a Ubisoft game. And true to form, The Division 2 offers no hang ups or false advertising about its story content going in so I can’t really fault the game in that regard. I don’t think anyone really plays Ubisoft games for the storyline anyways. Rather, the open-world environments and solid gameplay is what gamers come to expect and enjoy from Ubisoft and that’s just fine with me.
— The (Not So) Endgame —
So now we come to what quite frankly I believe is the biggest surprise of The Division 2: the endgame. It personally took me over 60 hours to finish the main storyline and I still have some side missions to complete, control points to clear and some SHD tech caches to find. You would think that now all there would be to do is grind open-world activities, brave the Dark Zones or replay missions on a harder difficulty, right? Hell no! You’ve only just scratched the surface, hoss! As soon as you finish the the main storyline, the game goes into overdrive, dropping a brand new fourth enemy faction on you. This new faction, a mercenary group known as Black Tusk, invades the capital and starts wrecking their own havoc on the populace. They start to populate the map with their own activities, including putting up blockades that prevent you from fast traveling or even visiting previously liberated settlements until the blockades are cleared. The most engaging thing they do however, is that they invade all previous main story missions, completely changing the mission objectives and enemy types, though the mission layouts seem to remain the same. They also take over the three faction strongholds while setting up a final fourth stronghold as well. So to recap, a new faction invades at the “end” of the game and players must effectively play through the main missions once again with different objectives, a harder difficulty and new enemy types? Hell yeah, that’s a new game+ on steroids!
But wait! There’s more! Not only is there a new faction, complete with new enemy types and new mission objectives, but you as an agent get upgraded too! Upon reaching end game, players are stripped of their combat level and given a gear score in its place. Furthermore, players are offered three new specialization skill trees to choose from: demolitions, sharpshooter and survivalist. These specializations are independent of the other agent progression systems and each specialization must be activated and leveled up independently, with only one specialization being active at any given time. Each specialization comes packed with new abilities and passive perks to unlock, giving you even more of an edge against the new enemy faction. Gear is upgraded as well, with the gear now increasing your gear score which in turn allows you to access harder versions of existing missions and strongholds. So what happens while you’re clearing the map of the harder missions and enemy faction strongholds revisited? Well, the game continues to upgrade the difficulty as you fight against Black Tusk, increasing your World Tier rank as you progress. Each World Tier brings harder challenges and more powerful loot to earn. Oh be still, my beating heart!
And as if all this wasn’t enough, Ubisoft also has put out a roadmap of future content that will be coming to the game as well. It’s also important to mention that all first year expansion content will be free to all players as well with paid DLC expected the following years after. So let me get this straight. We get a fully complete, extremely well-made game with tons of replayability AND free additional content for the first year? With paid support only coming in the years after? Hot damn! That right there is exactly how you earn the support and respect of gamers as a Live Service. Seriously, I’ve never been so excited to see where a Live Service game goes before.
–Overall Score: 9 —
I never thought I would enjoy a game that sets itself up to be a Live Service, let alone constantly be thinking about playing one. However, I stand here now humbled and apologetic. The game has had an amazing launch with very few issues or bugs. The gameplay is solid and enjoyable. But the biggest thing for me is that the game feels absolutely COMPLETE out of the gate rather than feeling unfinished and subpar like that other Live Service game we’re not naming. The Division 2 has effectively and absolutely set the standard for what we as gamers should expect from AAA games, even those seeking to establish themselves as a “Live Service”. Every publisher and developer needs to stop what they are doing right now and start taking notes. The Division 2 is quite frankly the best multiplayer-focused game I have played in years as well as undoubtedly the best Live Service game I have ever played in general. This game is definitely worth purchasing and playing, if anything to encourage publishers and developers to take note of what all it gets right so that others may hopefully one day follow suit. I never thought I would say this but Ubisoft definitely hit a homerun with this game and just became my favorite game publisher currently. If Ubisoft is able to live up to their ambitions for The Division 2, they could totally change the AAA and Live Service landscape for the better. I, for one, am excited to see where this game or the series as a whole could go.
