The Division, a popular 3rd-person, loot-n-shoot game, is back for its second installment in The Division 2, offering improvements on the first game but providing the same gameplay loop fans of the first game will continue to love.
Set seven months after the initial events of the first game (i.e the Green Poison smallpox outbreak) civilization as we know it has crumbled. You play as a Division agent, a sleeper cell that is activated when catastrophe befalls society, that has just received a distress call from Washington D.C. Upon reaching the White House, you are informed that the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) is looking to take back the city after it has been taken over by three hostile factions. If you’ve played the previous game, this will all seem very familiar. Each of the different factions has a defining trait that will make it clear who you are fighting against in each combat scenario.
This sense of familiarity is something I felt throughout my playthrough of The Division 2 and that familiarity soon turned into a repetitive grind that really turned me off this game. I’ll make it very clear, I personally despise Destiny (and Destiny 2) and its extremely boring gameplay loop. For the uninformed, a ‘gameplay loop’ is the thing you do over and over again to level or progress the game. In most shooter RPGs, it’s a case of going to a certain area, shooting a bunch of bad guys (maybe even clearing waves of them) and then going to another area to do the same thing again.
The Division 2 feels exactly like a 3rd person Destiny. Now don’t get me wrong, some people very much enjoy Destiny and think it’s a brilliant game; and to those people I tell them that they are allowed to be wrong. Games like The Witcher 3 or other RPGs are able to pull this gameplay loop off without issue as each quest seems to add some value to the story. Whereas in The Division 2, I’m just killing nameless, faceless bad guys.
The other main loop which veteran RPGers are well versed in, is the loot loop. You’ll be constantly picking up new guns and gear which makes the guns you picked up about 15 minutes ago obsolete and useless. Different enemies will have resistance to certain types of weapons and attacks, meaning you’ll need to manage your inventory and ensure you keep all types of weapons; just in case. Thankfully, unlike another recently released loot-n-shoot title, you don’t have to exit your current mission and go through a bunch of loading screens just to re-gear yourself.
I will admit, most of my displeasure towards these games come from a purely single player perspective. When you throw a friend into the mix, it does change things up for the better. I’m not just trying to survive while dumping bullets into a health sponge. Now, I’m strategically dumping bullets into a health sponge, running around and healing my teammate and arguing about who gets what gear. Having a friend to chat with and attempt silly things with does brighten up the game but at the end of the day, is it a good thing that a game only becomes enjoyable when someone is there to distract you from the so-called “story” and gameplay?
Speaking of human interaction, another aspect of the original game makes a welcome return; The Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is the PvP (Player Vs Player) mode/area of the game where players can take on high level enemies for loot, team up with other players or gun them down and steal their loot. Again, this interaction with other real life people shakes up the monotonous cycle of the games. A.I.s are predictable, other players are not. Is this person who just helped me take down this big boss going stay my friend? Or will he and I have a final showdown at the exit gate?
I think I’ve made my feelings pretty obvious about The Division 2. If you enjoyed the previous game (and similar games to it) this game is for you. This game was certainly not for me, but I too am also allowed to be wrong.