From what I hear, The Division 2′s endgame is excellent. Ubisoft saw what happened to Destiny 2 at launch–and the original Division–and made sure to stack the post-level cap game with so much content that it seems like a different experience entirely: the map changes, there’s a new enemy faction, new specialization option, reams of loot, etc. All loot shooters want you to stick around forever, but this is the only one that makes it seem like a possibility at launch.
There’s only one problem, however, and that’s not I’m not there yet. And I wish I was, because things are sort of stretching out in the meantime.
I’ve played plenty of this game, to be sure, even if I took a break this week for the Game Developer’s Conference. But more than 15 hours in I’m not even really in striking distance: most people tell me it takes somewhere in the realm of 30. Which brings an odd dichotomy to mind: when a single-player game is too long we can call it filler and say it’s bad, but when an online game is too long we call it content and say it’s good. So far, The Division 2 is too long.
My time leveling in The Division 2 has consisted of two wildly divergent experiences. About half of the time I do it through main missions, entertaining romps through a series of interesting environments with a few matchmade squadmates at my side. The matchmaking means that these are never all that hard, but they’re definitely fun, particularly when you start to use some of the game’s less traditional combat skills. I hesitate to call these “story missions’ because there isn’t really a story, but they’re clearly positioned as a kind of core experience.
That’s the good stuff. There are only enough main missions to get you through so many levels, and the rest of the time I found myself messing around in the much-less-satisfying open world. Here the matchmaking never seems to get you the companions you need, and the game’s copious side missions are a tedious grind solo. Even when they were going smoothly they were often kind of boring, and more often than not I found myself against a brick wall towards the end of the mission that forced me to quit: you can’t flank a bullet-sponge enemy as a solo player, and so taking them out often just comes down to seeing if you’ve got enough extra armor packs to outlast a slugging match.
Some of this is mitigated by honestly cool skills, but long cooldowns ensure that work more as occasional boosts rather than combat mainstays. Without side missions to rely on I find myself slogging it out in the open world, which is perfectly fun to explore but slow and difficult to level in. Mostly I just try to eke my experience points up enough to get to another story mission, where things pick up again.
The irony here is that the open world is actually fairly interesting, and I’d love to spend my time poking through weird little corners and listening to audio logs. But when you overlay this with a drawn-out and frustrating leveling experience that tends to override the joy of exploration with the grind of unlocking. Add into that all-to-frequent encounters with reasonably lethal packs of enemies and you’ve got an experience that is very close to being great but can’t get out of its own way.
There’s a common refrain in the world of loot shooters that the game doesn’t really start until you reach the endgame: that the beginning of the game is mostly designed to introduce you to the systems and world of a given experience, and all the worthwhile loot and customization takes place in the endgame. It makes a certain kind of sense unless you think about it at all: the game starts when the game starts, and if I’ve played a game for 30 hours the game has most definitely already started.
I want to get into the weeds on what the endgame looks like here, and I want to run some of the game’s more baroque later-stage missions. I want to start crafting and engage with the loot system on a level beyond “equip the thing with the higher number”, which inevitably characterizes pre-cap customization. I’m just not entirely sure why this game insists that I grind for 30 hours before I do that.
It’s odd to think of a game that’s meant to go on forever as “too long”, but it’s really just a matter of pacing. Things slow down frequently long before you hit the endgame, and I don’t see why that’s necessary.
A game like this does need an introductory portion where you can get up to speed on skills and story. But there’s basically no story to speak of here, and I already feel like I’ve got a handle on the skills. Before I can get to the meat of the experience, the game insists I do chores for a while. And I’m getting a little tired of games asking me to do that.
