Back in 2016 Ubisoft dropped The Division on us and what we got was a game that, while very pretty, had as much depth as a puddle. Fast forward and we’re just a month away from a sequel that’s hoping to right the wrongs of its predecessor and from the beta weekend it seems like the franchise is eager to take a step forward, but keep the other firmly planted in the past.
The Division 2 private beta opened up in what is probably the most deflated bombast I’ve ever seen. You’re dropped into the area and immediately told “Hey, go storm the fucking WHITE HOUSE man” and you’re suddenly living the action hero dream. Then you have a slow walk to the White House where you shoot three or four idle enemies and when you finally get to the location, what should be this grand spectacle, you’re just treated to a respawning swarm of enemies and absolutely zero self-awareness of the gravity of the situation. Clearing that allowed me to go into the White House and meet some incredibly unmemorable NPCs who gave me a rundown on what looks to be a plot that I’ll forget exists as I partake in it. Hell, there’s a mission where you go steal the Declaration of Independence and there’s absolutely no fanfare for it. They pulled a National Treasure and did nothing with it! This sort of attitude is what made me drop off The Division hard when it released; that and NYC just wasn’t very interesting to explore. And unfortunately it looks like The Division 2 is following in the same path. I’m a huge sucker for loot shooters, but you’ve got to give something to make players want to actually engage with your game’s world.
This time around, The Division 2 at least seems to have a more interesting city to explore. Washington DC isn’t the snowy hellscape that was NYC and actually has a sort of sunny, almost humid vibe to it. The openness of the city itself also makes it feel more welcomed to explore, as opposed to the cold concrete of the previous game. The city itself feels more lived in as well with the addition of wandering NPCs that you can call on to help you assault an enemy base, and even small events like a an enemy preaching propaganda that you can interrupt. Even the wildlife that roam the world help give a real “lived in” vibe. As you explore the maps you can happen upon side-missions that, for the most part, were fairly entertaining fights even if the plot itself wasn’t engaging.
New to the game is the settlement system where you can discover pockets of society trying to keep things together. Here you can perform a host of tasks that do everything from upgrade the settlement (in visual ways which I enjoyed) to giving you access to new characters for your White House base. Help the local population you’ll see them wander the streets more often which is definitely useful for when you need their help to assault a stronghold or to just get you out of a pinch when you’re ambushed on the streets. I will say however, the NPCs in the settlements make it slightly difficult to care. Everyone is just your generic post-apocalyptic survivor and the settlements being a pain to traverse due to their maze-like structure just helps build animosity to helping them.
In terms of the combat, The Division 2 definitely feels like a step above its predecessor with some smart changes. First of all, the enemies feel way less like bullet sponges; you’ll still dump copious amounts of bullets into enemies, but that’ll mostly be relegated to the more difficult ones like bosses. A very interesting change is that some of the spongier enemies sport armor that, if focused on, can be destroyed allowing you to directly damage their health and make them quicker to take down than normal. This isn’t only a smart mechanical change, but a visual one too since you’re seeing the efforts of your bullet dump come to fruition. Skills have gotten a massive improvement as well with each of the half dozen or so skills having three variations to choose from. The turret for example can be used in its basic form, a sniper one, or used as a flamethrower. This change definitely allows you to better customize your character to suit your playstyle.
The game seems to be content on continuing Ubisoft’s recent trend of just shoving as much into the game as possible. Each weapon or armor piece has a multitude of stats to be aware of, there’s a crafting system, upon entering a settlement there are countless notifications that pop up, you need to be aware of resupplying locations, and multiple currencies. The UI is a clear culprit of this as well, with elements splashed across every inch of the screen, causing you to always be shifting your gaze from one corner to the other. This grew particularly frustrating when looting boxes and having to quickly dart your eyes to the corner of the screen to read the tiny text of what you picked up before it quickly disappears. Menus in general are just a bit of a mess, with you having to double click to enter every page and no quick way of immediately seeing what’s equipped or swapping equipment tabs. Just going through your inventory to mark items as junk to sell can be a pain in the ass, which is a problem in a game where you’ll be in your inventory a lot.
The Division 2 improves in some ways, but in others it stubbornly holds onto the things that made the first game a forgettable release. With the game’s launch only a month away it’s doubtful to expect much of a change, but it’ll be interesting how all the elements play out in the complete product.
