The Division 2 follows on 7 months from the initial outbreak of the deadly virus brought on during the Black Friday bio-terrorist attack from the original game.

During the prologue, you answer a distress call to assist the Washington D.C. Division operations. Upon arriving at the White House everything is in chaos, and you’re immediately forced into repelling an attack. It falls upon you and the remaining survivors (but mainly you) to pick up the pieces and rebuild.

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Missions, Activities & Bounties

Whilst the story itself is short and extremely barebones, the main missions are fairly well spaced out between other side activities, each usually lasting between 20 – 40 minutes. Missions are generally enjoyable, often fighting through famous landmarks in Washington D.C. alongside memorable set pieces. The checkpoint system is fairly generous, mostly occurring between shooting sections. If you choose to do so; missions can be replayed at higher difficulties for additional rewards, and to complete challenges.

Division 2’s side missions are superb and a real step up from the original. Typically shorter than main missions, they offer additional narrative experiences outside of the main story. There’s even numerous hidden side quests to be found around the map and contaminated zones.

Side activities appear periodically around the map that range from trying to save civilians from executions, defending an area for a short time, and securing supply drops before the enemy factions. Bounties and region bosses can be unlocked later on, which consist of tougher named enemies protected by several groups of enemies. Unlike missions, if you die whilst free roaming during activities, you’ll fail them. However, if you do risk failing an activity, you can call for backup from other player’s to join before reviving and you may just get some assistance.

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Strongholds are similar to normal missions, except more challenging, and with multiple bosses. There are currently 3 altogether with another scheduled to arrive within the first few weeks; one for each of the factions you have faced thus far. The rewards can be lucrative, both in terms of drops and experience.

There are currently 3 main factions that you’ll face throughout the game; Hyenas, Outcasts, and the True Sons; each with their own back-stories and combat approaches. There’s also another faction that unlocks at the endgame – the Black Tusk.

Settlement Development

The White House serves as your main base of operations. Alongside this there are numerous settlements to discover. Settlements are key assets to the cause, acting as a hub to the player offering services and development opportunities that open up as you progress the story. There are 2 that can be developed, each with a maximum of 4 milestones to reach, unlocking various features; side missions, projects and new staff.

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Projects offered by settlements require you to complete a checklist of resources and objectives, in exchange for rewards. As you progress through the main story you’ll gain new staff for your base of operations allowing access to new features such as skills, perks, crafting and bounties. The settlements themselves and the Base of Operations visually evolve over time as you progress – a nice touch.

Washington, D.C.

Whilst the first Division enjoyed the snowy Christmas themed setting of New York City, the Division 2 instead features lush green urban environments that are extremely well detailed. There’s loot, audio logs, echos and a whole bunch of hidden discoveries scattered around every corner. Makeshift settlements and quarantine zones that were built in the aftermath have also been abandoned due to street wars. All of these are localised however, and the game never seems to show any information about the wider world; which could be an interesting future prospect.

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When fighting across D.C. you’ll encounter control points, areas which you much attack and defend that offer loot and can then be used as fast travel locations. Allies and enemies venture out to patrol and collect supplies, creating skirmishes around the map; sometimes between multiple enemy factions; that you can choose to join in or ignore, bypassing it altogether.

Either way, the game does a great job at making D.C. feel like a living world. You’ll often encounter various animals roaming the cityscape that react to players when going near them; such as animals rummaging through a dumpster. There’s birds tweeting, and music within settlements – all which make the world feel lived in. There’s even a full day night cycle, with dynamic weather effects which can completely alter the game’s tone; the thunderstorm in particular is pretty damn great.

PVP

The Division 2 offers more refined PvP elements out of the gate. Conflict offers straight forward 4v4 matches of domination and skirmish modes – a fun change of pace from the PVE content. Conflict offers a separate XP meter which in turn grants loot caches.

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The Dark Zones offer the infamous mix of PVE and PVP content; hunt down contaminated items by clearing ‘landmarks’ of enemies, opening airdrops and more. These must be secured and extracted in order to use them – call in the chopper and you’re forced to wait for a tense few minutes whilst everyone in the area knows you’re extracting loot.

Players can ‘go Rogue’ allowing them to shoot other players, and potentially steal their contaminated loot in the process. The game provides various Rogue actions which place you into the Rogue state, such as forcing open chests or stealing loot attached to an extraction helicopter. Go too far and you’ll enter a disavowed status, highlighting you on the map for everyone in the area to see and hunt down – for a reward of course. Dying in this state will lose DZ experience.

Completing activities in Dark Zones and killing enemies gives experience towards Dark Zone levels. At specific tiers you’re given a choice of perks unique to the Dark Zone. Of course the glorious loot extracted and found can be used throughout the game.

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Cooperative & Social

The Division 2 encourages cooperative play at every opportunity – progress and missions completed in someone else’s world carries over into your own. Whilst enemies may well be easier to kill when playing solo, you will face challenges that are bypassed in groups; such as respawning and flanking; especially heavily armoured enemies. Matchmaking is available for all missions and strongholds, making grouping super easy. Whilst the level scaling currently airs a little on the tough side for under-levelled group members, it’s still viable.

Furthermore, there’s a clan system; with its own clan tiers, weekly bounties and challenges with rewards for completing them. Challenges can be fairly extensive in their requirements, so having a sizeable clan is almost essential – it’d have been nice to see these scale.

Skills & Perks

The game has a far more varied set of skills than the original. With 8 main skills in total, each broken down into variations for defensive or aggressive play. Unfortunately many skills which were great in the original, currently feel incredibly underpowered, such as Pulse. Choosing skill builds that complement your team strategically adds further depth.

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Earned skill unlock points let you pick from 1 of the 8 overall skills. Subsequent skill variations cost SHD tech. SHD tech can be found in SHD caches scattered throughout the map, or mission rewards. You can also spend this SHD tech on Perks – passive bonuses that, for example, allow you to hold more items, carry additional med kits, or gain bonus experience from specific combat manoeuvres.

Gameplay; Weapons & Loot

As a looter shooter, the gameplay loop is as important as the loot. Fortunately, along with an intelligently designed gear system, there are many weapons and skills to choose from that impact on the way the game plays. The minute to minute combat feels satisfying, weapons largely feel good to use, and the focus on cover and skills creates a genuinely tactical style of gameplay. Things never feel cluttered, with impact zones on grenades and abilities displaying clearly which enemies they’ll hit.

Loot drops extremely frequently in different rarities and increasingly improves as you level up. Gear has ‘brands’ associated with each, and equipping items from the same brand offers set bonuses. The shooting range offers the chance to work out weapon efficiencies and to help decide what styles you prefer. Another thing to consider is the range of talents and attributes; which become more important on gear in the late game. There are many talents available, providing bonuses that can be passive or require conditions to be met to receive benefits.

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Attributes separate into three categories; red, blue and yellow; aka damage, armour and skill respectively. Additionally, there are slots in your weapons, gear and skills that allow for modifications, including customisation skins. As you out level equipment, unwanted items can be used as donations for projects, sold or dismantled for crafting resources.

Basically, The Division 2 is has loot, stats and attributes bursting at the seams. It’s superb for fans of the genre in this regard.

Enemies & A.I.

Varied enemy types ensure the gameplay remains fresh. There’s a mixture of ranged, melee, grenadiers, snipers, shield wielders and more. Though you will encounter wider variations throughout, which make the game far more challenging, especially when playing solo, as the AI often acts strategically; moving to flank, charge or use abilities against you; forcing you to change your tactics quickly. The factions play differently with some unique enemy types.

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Headshots and weak points are the name of the game here, allowing you to deal more damage. Whilst stronger enemies can still feel somewhat ‘bullet spongey’, the developers clearly took on board the feedback, and instead force players to focus on breaking weak spots.

Whilst the AI typically acts in surprisingly intelligent ways, they do sometimes do stupid things – such as running straight passed you, or in a straight line, or just making generally odd decisions.

Sound

The music and atmospheric effects are great throughout the game. Enemies frequently taunt players and call out actions. The voice acting across the board is solid, despite the lacklustre (almost non-existent) story.

It’s a real shame that The Division 2 continues to opt for the ‘silent protagonist’ approach – something that feels completely out of place these days. The lack of response from your character in cutscenes and story events pulls you out the experience.

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Weapons and explosions sound great, and alter depending on whether you’re in an enclosed location such as a building or underground. Distant shots can be heard from afar, adding to the immersion of feeling in a constant warzone.

Collectables & Progression

You can spend a long time learning more about the world from collectables. All categories of collectables offer rewards upon completion, although many provide insight into the game’s lore; such as the visual and audio recordings; which can be replayed. Many collectables around Washington area easily reachable just by playing the game, others are hidden behind specifically designed puzzles. Trying to hunt down the hidden Mask cosmetics will require you to perform untold actions that trigger a tough boss to spawn. These bosses present challenging fights, especially if you’re not max level; but once beaten will earn you a unique mask. There’s 12 in total to find, offering a pretty great distraction.

The Apparel store and micro-transaction approach is surprisingly unintrusive here. Players can purchase cosmetic loot boxes with premium credits, or simply earn them gradually through levelling up.  Apparel options can also be discovered throughout the game world in containers – I never once felt influenced to spend real money. It’s a MTX approach that feels like it genuinely doesn’t impact the game – nice!

 

Free loot caches can be earned through a wide variety of ways; from levelling up (including beyond 30), Conflicts, Dark Zone, and Clans each containing levelled weapons and/or gear. Commendations also offer more challenges that you can work towards alongside a scoring system to compare with others.Tom Clancy's The Division® 2 Review Screenshot 3

Endgame

Completing the entire storyline and reaching level 30 is by no means the end of the game, oh no! Upon reaching 30 and clearing the 3 strongholds, you’ll be granted the choice of three specialisations (with more to come this year), each with their own special weapons and unique skill trees to progress, and can be freely interchanged without penalty by visiting the Base of Operations.

The game’s difficulty increases and things completely open up at the endgame – a new faction arrives to undo all your hard work by ‘invading’ your world, adding a whole new wave of content.

Dynamic control points see parties mobilising to attack them. New daily and weekly projects open up. Missions are invaded by the Black Tusk, changing up not only the enemy types, but spawns, objectives and even the voice overs. Gear switches from levels to Gear Score – taking an average rating of your overall equipped gear. World Tiers open up, from 1-4 at launch with a 5th to come shortly. Complete specific missions, upgrade your gear to hit a certain gear score and complete a Stronghold to progress to the next World Tier, making things even tougher.

It’s all super impressive stuff. The game feels like it was built from the very beginning, with the endgame in mind. There’s just so much to do here at launch, in a genre that’s notorious for being lacklustre here.

Conclusion

Whilst I enjoyed the overall flow of the main missions and side activities; it’s true, the story feels incredibly weak throughout with a lack of memorable characters and a flat ending. Strongholds offer a somewhat improved narrative, but still feel flat from a story perspective with weak villains, some which you never even meet. It is worth mentioning that story related DLC will be featured in three upcoming major content releases over the course of the Year One roadmap, free of charge.

Aside from elements of the story, any issues I found with The Division 2 were all fairly minor. The game feels extremely well polished and stable at launch; I experienced very few bugs that negatively impacted on the game’s experience, with some of the more condemning bugs already fixed within a few days of release.

All in all, the game has so much content to offer, there’s always something to do whether alone or with friends; with some of the most memorable experiences to be had in the Dark Zones, trying to secure contaminated items.

As I played through the game I was left impressed at the detail present throughout the world, and felt pleasantly surprised when the game opened up in the end game, extending progression, and breathing new life into strongholds as well as specific missions. With another stronghold, additional specialisations, and the first raid on the way, I look forward to seeing what The Division 2 has in store for the future, especially given the support that the first game received years after release.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Overall Score
VIAGame purchased & provided by publisher for review
Notorious teller of gaming tales. A completionist through and through. Steve is a staff writer for Gaming LYF.
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