Division 2 Quick Review

A very quick review of The Division 2-

The Good
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• gameplay is fast-paced, and once you get a handle on the movement mechanics can be pretty fun.
• as dystopian settings go, it hits hard enough to make you want to take a chunk out of the bad guys while not being gratuitous or overdone. While some of the factions seem a little thin in realism and origin/motivation (or at least with the silly outfits- looking at you, Outcasts), overall the story and setting are good and believable-ish
• lootboxes exist, but are generally cosmetics only, which is the way to do it IMHO. As for the loot, in-game drops and crafted gear are pretty good overall, though- as Angry Joe jokes about in the intro to his review- it may vary wildly by player.
• death penalties are almost nonexistent, so you don’t have the frustration of broken gear, loss of XP, and so on, which is a good thing for reasons I’ll get into in the Bad.
• it is, in general, a fun game to play... in doses. To explain that....

The Bad
———
• this game crashes. A lot. And by a lot I mean a minimum of once every 3-4 hours of gameplay. My experience has been more like once every 4-5 hours, but most people report freezes every 3-4 so I am above the bell curve. It doesn’t CTD, just freezes, and it could happen anywhere from fast travel to combat. I have a very good gaming rig, so it’s not my computer doing it, and it tanks more often than a Bethesda game with maximum mods (and I know that from experience 🤣 )
• do NOT play this game if you are a combat veteran unless you can manage a suspension of disbelief that would make a Scientologist spontaneously combust. After about the fourth time of emptying 200+ rounds of 7.62 NATO into the face of a guy wearing a riot helmet and hockey pads who then one-shots me in full armour and Kevlar helmet with a freaking Asp baton, I gave up expecting anything resembling sanity. This ties into my next point-
• if this is a massive improvement over Div 1 when it comes to bullet sponge enemies, ye Gods and little fishies must that game have sucked moose wang. I just dropped five grenades and SEVEN HUNDRED FECKING ROUNDS into an Outcast armed with a sledgehammer (who then one-shotted me) and barely made a dent in his armour. The grunts aren’t so bad, so I will give them that, but once you get level 25 and up prepare to put the same amount of firepower into a poorly armed civilian gangbanger with no training as you would into a light tank or APC
• cover mechanics... oh GODS how many times have I died to wonky cover mechanics as my ass stuck to a wall or the wrong side of an object due to node alignment and couldn’t get off the damned thing no matter how hard I mash SPACE. Also, speaking of- no jump mechanics. You have obstacle leap mechanics, but no regular jump, so prepare to find skateboards or bikes laying on the ground to be as insurmountable barriers as the Andes Mountains

So, overall not a bad game- certainly not the shit-shows we’ve seen from AAA game developers lately *coughAnthemcoughFallout76*, but I’d get it on sale if you can, and don’t waste money on their Year One pass