Surprised to not see a dedicated thread about The Division 2!
I picked this up a while ago and didn’t get in to it, then started again this summer. This game is craaaaack for me. I love it. I’ve played through all of the content except for raids (99% solo) with one agent, and I’m about to finish up New York with my second.
I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is about this game that makes is so gosh-darn playable for me. It has similar things to so many other games; a decent story and goals that keep the game moving, a delicious loot system, good shooting mechanics (though I have seen complaints, I don’t buy them).
I’ve gone so far as to uninstall it and try to force myself to play something else…a couple times. It just never takes, all I want to do is fire up D2 and get back to my agent again.
Just throwing this thread out there to see if anyone else wants to talk about the game.
I was so burned by the first “The Division” that I couldn’t bring myself to bother with “The Division 2”.
“The Division” was a masterclass in bringing the bling. It was puddle a mile wide and a 1/4 inch deep. It looked good. And that is about where that ended. This was probably getting near the low point of game development where they felt all they needed to do was bring flashy graphics to the table and a loot system…any loot system…and you will make millions. Story? Pacing? Progression? Who needs those? Just let players shoot each other endlessly in a good looking way and that’s it.
The story sucked…entirely forgettable almost immediately. Loot sucked. Repetitive gameplay…really repetitive gameplay. Difficulty was ramped by making things bullet sponges…that’s about it.
For the first few hours it was fun. Then you start to realize you just experienced about all there is to offer and the rest is just spinning the hamster wheel.
And while I don’t do much multiplayer what little I did was a toxic shit-show. Noped right out of that fast.
Maybe “The Division 2” is better…I would certainly hope so. But after “The Division” I was done barring gushing reviews (which I am not sure I saw any because I didn’t care).
But maybe that is unfair of me and I should have a look. I think I got the basic game for free a while back so perhaps worth a download if others say it is a substantial improvement.
Been playing it since launch although I’m starting to run out of gas with no new content for a while aside from Summit which was disappointing when viewed against the Division 1 Underground expansion. But, with four maxed out characters, I can’t really complain that they didn’t keep me occupied for a good long while. I’ll stay with it through the upcoming Season 4 since I already have the credits for the pseudo-battlepass thing and I half expect that’ll be the last actively developed season.
I also enjoyed the original game although I came into it about halfway through its life (as in, before they ceased active development) when a lot of the early issues had been ironed out. I can’t speak for Whack-A-Mole’s issues there except to say that I didn’t share them. Or, at least, certainly not to that extent. I enjoyed the first game enough that Div2 was a pre-order for me so maybe we just like different things as I found the mechanics, story and game play loop a lot of fun.
I love this kind of game. I wanted to love it. I really did (I have read many Clancy books).
I think being an early adopter is what burned me. After a while they ironed out some of it and it was better. They still could not fix the undeniably weak story.
I know some could not give two-shits about story. They just want to run-and-gun. Personally, for single-player, I want a story. When you look at what are considered some of the best games in a genre like this they have great stories attached to them. System Shock. Deus Ex. BioShock. Wolfenstein. That sort of thing.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love a brainless shooter once in a while (think DOOM or Serious Sam). But Division 1 was far from that too.
I like Div2. I thought it had a better story than the first. I like building up the sanctuaries to help reclaim the city. The gameplay is very similar, enough that it feels like an advanced and massive expansion to the first game. Which isn’t bad, I liked the original.
I recommend it to anyone who likes loot shooter style games.
ETA: By story, I mean the small stories you run into here and there. It doesn’t have as good an overarching plot as the original, since the plague thing is pretty much figured out already. But I care more about the little plots you bounce between than the big one.
I thought the “main” story was okay at best; something serviceable to move you through the leveling process. I thought the environmental story and all the recordings and Echos and other moments you experienced were top notch. Without those, I don’t think I’d have been nearly as into the game.
The overarching story in Div 2 is (a) reactivating the national ISAC network, (b) rescuing the President and (c) securing a broad spectrum antiviral that was developed and could prevent further outbreaks of the disease. The expansion has you returning to New York (you the player since you’re not the same agent character) and hoking up with the old gang to finally locate and take out Keener.
As a continuation of the Div 1 story, I found it a little lacking since Div 1 ends on an optimistic note with people talking about getting back to a semi-normal life. Then, in Div 2, suddenly everyone is living in tiny settlements and it’s never really explained what happened to set everything so askew. As a story for purposes of the game, it was well enough. Once again the world makes for a better story than the actual script for the main NPCs does.
I got Div 1 as part of a bundle with my Xbox One and I played through it, treating it as a single-player game. I liked it well enough, except occasionally I would get bad lag. Life’s too short to play a single-player game with lag.
The forward path for this game is an odd one. They wrapped up the story in December, and then canceled a special gameplay event and made it into just an apparel event (get new cosmetics for playing). Sounds like the game was going into maintenance mode, right? Keep the lights on but nothing new added.
Then they announced recently that they’ll be doing another major update after all. Like a whole new content thing, maybe more levels like they did with the Warlords of New York expansion. Buuuttt… nothing significant will be coming out until late 2021 at best and, given their previous ability to get things out, likely spring 2022. Until then, they’re just rerunning previous seasons of challenges.
So, if you’ve been playing all this time, it’s like “Well, take a year off. See you in January, maybe”. Feels like a weird gamble to take with the game.
I quit playing not long after I started this post.
I love the game, no denying that. But I think I played LONG after I had played it to death.
You can only visit the same mission so many times, for so many reasons, before it becomes old.
Fantastic game, no doubt. Got my money’s worth because I got it and the DLC on sale, even. But after making 2 agents all growed up, don’t see any more replay value.
I doubt there will ever be a Division 3, but I’d be happy with other cities pumped out as DLC for Division 2.