Honestly, what did they do with Tom Clancy’s The Division?
I’d heard about the later changes they made in the game, but with what’s been handed over to The Division 2, I’m absolutely shocked by what they did.
Because they’ve taken the game they showed people in THAT E3 announcement and you know what?
It feels like I’m playing that game now.
Washington D.C. is on the brink of collapse.
Lawlessness and instability threaten our society, and rumours of a coup in the Capitol are only amplifying the chaos.
All active Division agents are desperately needed to save the city before it’s too late.
Even as the game started, it felt like this whole new experience for me.
Sure, that could be attributed to my having stepped out of it so early, but as soon as the character creation screen loaded it felt different; Refreshed.
A nice tutorial quickly throws you into the game, as your Agent is sent to Washington to dispose of a new threat to the world after the Green Poison epidemic.
Now this is normally where I would’ve had general impressions of the game, but I ended up going DEEP.
Like…I’m level 30 in the game deep.
That’s pretty much the spot where the game would activate the endgame content if you’d finished the Main Missions.
I also checked my playtime so far…40 hours!
Yet, I’m gonna leave this as impressions on the game because I haven’t even finished the story!
When it comes to side missions, collectibles and completion, I’ll follow this path until I’m done. And The Division 2 is unrelenting in the amount of work it wants you to do.
Main Missions, Side Missions, Collectibles, Activities, Control Points, Safe Houses and more and more AND MORE.
I LIVE FOR IT.
Massive’s understanding of their third-person world and gameplay style, make for a grind-fest of a game where succinct gunplay works parallel to gear and skill management. And with all the loot you drop, the game implores that you get to the endgame as soon as you can because that’s where the party starts.
Constant blips of lore fill in the effects and ramifications of this present-day apocalypse, and much like the Smashmouth anthem ‘All Star‘ says, they start coming and they don’t stop coming.
What The Division 2 ultimately feels like to me is what should’ve happened with Destiny 1 and 2. Destiny 1 had setup a perfect grind that was ready to be handed over to D2 where it could’ve taken this further. Instead they went back to the drawing board, where it eventually ended up resolving to the former anyway. The Division had to work up to become the game people suspected it would be and The Division 2 reflects that.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is a loot ’em, shoot ’em-styled action platformer than can only continue to improve from here, because it’s already doing that.
And I’m so excited to see what that’s going to look like, cause it could very well end up looking like one of my games of 2019.
XENOJAY.COM was supplied with a media copy of the game for review by the distributor, and it was played on the Playstation 4 Pro console.
