Some missions, like the Federal Bunker or Lincoln Memorial, even introduce welcome new mission-specific mechanics like shooting a valve to douse flames, or tracing a power cord to a destructible circuit in order to open a door. The Jefferson Trade Center mission, for example, effectively establishes the stakes: a Division agent has been taken hostage, and then it executes on that premise. The missions themselves are well crafted, and many succeed in delivering a bitesize storyline. However, new activities, like battling roaming patrols of elite enemies, are introduced as you progress and the freedom to tackle your laundry list of tasks in any order you wish keeps it from feeling like an obligatory grind. “There is a clearly similar progression structure to each of the 11 PvE zones as you’re leveling up: you’ll find a safe house or settlement, scour the landscape for Strategic Homeland Defense (S.H.D.) caches, run missions, and capture the handful of control points. It all comes together to provide a space that makes it okay to stop and smell the roses, I never regretted indulging my inner explorer. The series’ familiar and predictable urban grid gives way to lush, open vistas and iconic monuments overtaken by vines. The capital is painstakingly populated with a fanatical amount of detail and boasts much more in the way of environmental variance than the first game’s depiction of New York City. There are chests and collectibles around every corner, and this generous distribution of loot goes a long way in the context of The Division 2’s phenomenally well-realized recreation of Washington D.C. Gunplay is impactful – enemies react to being shot sooner and die faster, and the world is teeming with enticing reasons to explore it. It’ll be interesting to see the depths of the endgame content to truly figure out how successful this change has been.Things in The Division 2 seem to pick up right where the original post-pandemic story left off in terms of both plotline and cover-based shooting, but it quickly becomes clear that many aspects of the gameplay have improved in meaningful ways. Both enemy and player health is lower, so daring forays out of cover may make you feel like you’re Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys 2, but will more likely see you crawling across the floor like Gollum, looking for an angry partner to revive you.Įnemies flank, rush and try to outmaneuver, while the different factions utilise tactics specific to them, so there’s quite a lot of thinking going on amidst all the tracer fire and bad one liners.Ī new armour system for high-tier enemies has been implemented to try and mitigate some of the ‘bullet sponge’ criticisms levelled at the first game, although you’d be hard pressed to notice in the heat of battle. Now, when the gunfire is as sharp, punchy and tactical as this, and when you’re laughing, shouting and swearing along with pals, then in the immortal words of Shannon Sharpe, ‘that ain’t no problem’.Īnd despite the lack of variety, The Division 2 does a better job than its predecessor of making the moment-to-moment fights interesting.
Literally every activity boils down to low-cover, waves of enemies, and a lot of gunfire. It’s important to understand just how repetitive this game is, though.
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