I am currently splitting time between The Division 2 and Destiny 2 Annual Pass content, but with my Thorn quest nearly complete, I’ll be diving full into the former soon enough here, heading to the endgame. I’m level 24, almost to the max of 30, and I am still forming impressions of the game as I go.
I have been very, very positive about The Division 2 so far, a game that is launching in an impressively competent state, both in terms of technical issues and breadth of content. There’s a lot to like about it, but there are other things that are…less enjoyable. So I’m going to jump between both:
Right: The Pacing Of Loot And Leveling
Possibly the best thing The Division has going for it is its pacing, both in terms of how leveling progresses as your character gets stronger, but also how you amass loot. You level up after each major story mission, more or less, which is always motivating once you finish one. You unlock skills reasonably fast and can start customizing immediately. Loot gives you the right rarity drops at the right time in this 1-30 leveling phase. I have been very happy to see that you’re not stuck with blue loot all game until you reach the last few levels before 30, and I think I got my first high-end piece at level 18, which was thrilling. Even if those items will be useless soon enough, it’s great that they’re dropping at all.
Wrong: Early Skill Cooldowns
I know that in the endgame skill cooldowns will end up being dramatically reduced by perks and gear sets, but during this initial period woof they are long. Yes, I know the trick where if you have a deployable you can manually disable it to bring your cooldown from 2-3 minutes a skill to 1-2 minutes, but it’s still just so damn long. For some skills this makes sense, like given how long the drone sticks around for instance. For others, it’s absurd, like the Firefly skill that can blind 3-4 enemies for roughly five seconds before going on a two-minute cooldown.
Right: Memorable Story Missions
I have been deeply impressed with The Division’s story missions so far. Both the major ones, which take place in awesome locations like the Lincoln Memorial or the Air and Space Museum, but even the minor ones. Some of the side missions are fantastic in their own right, and my favorite mission is a short, terrifying mission that reintroduces an old foe in the scariest way possible. Massive has done well with these.
Wrong: The Lack Of An Actual Story
I am something like 20 hours into The Division 2 and I cannot tell you much about its actual story. The virus killed people, there are three factions that I can really only learn about through audiologs. I just hit a part that introduces me to the President, but the story itself here is very light here, not just because of our mute protagonist (though that doesn’t help) but because the entire game just feels like we’re slowly putting DC back together with a mountain of side missions. There are few true “characters” in this game to even base a story around in the first place, ourselves included. This was a problem in the first game but it’s even more pronounced here so far.
Right: Enemy AI
The Division 2 does some pretty wild stuff with enemy AI. Enemies will push you when you’re healing, flank you when their teammates have you pinned down. I watch a True Son literally signal to his buddy with a hand motion to go around to my right, and he did. And not everything works in their favor, like how bad weather will reduce enemy visibility to almost nothing. Also, allied fighting abilities have been dramatically improved over the JTF as a friendly squad can genuinely turn the tide of a Control Point takeover, and I never go in without one.
Wrong: Punishing Open World Solo Play
The Division 2 boasts that it has matchmaking for everything, which is technically true, but when you’re doing open world stuff like activities, checkpoint takeovers or bounties, there is nothing more frustrating than one wrong enemy spawn instantly dropping you and you having to walk all the way back where you were before. Story and side missions have a solid checkpoint system for this, but it can make open world activities a pain where you have to play ridiculously cautiously in order to make sure one slip-up doesn’t get you melted, which is less than fun.
Right: The New Attachment System
I actually really like what Massive did with the new attachment system. I thought they cluttered up the loot pool, so I like how you craft them and make them permanent additions to your collections that can be used across any gun. It makes projects worth doing and is a welcome alternative to the mountain of junk from before.
Wrong: The Attachment Perks Themselves
As of yet, the attachments I’m unlocking are all pro/cons. As in, you can have 20% increase stability but you’ll sacrifice 10% optimal range. Or you can increase your reload speed by 30% but you’ll lose seven rounds from your magazines. While I think you can still make good builds with these focused on specific stats (I love stacking like 80% stability on assault rifles), it does feel weird to have to make devil’s choices between so many negative attributes when previously, all attachment did was help you.
There’s probably more I could go into, but for now, this is what I’ve got. Oh also, the range Pulse is hilariously terrible. Just one more bonus for you.
Anyway, enough writing, back to playing.
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