To get the best out of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, bring some mates
The sequel to Tom Clancy’s The Division let’s you explore a dystopian world with America on the edge of extinction.
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If you hadn’t already gathered by now, I rather enjoy the post-apocalyptic genre of fiction. From games such as Fallout and Metro: 2033, movies such as Mad Max and books such as The Postman, if it’s set after the end of the world it’s likely to pique my interest.
Back in 2016, Ubisoft published Tom Clancy’s The Division, which was a game telling the story of the aftermath of a virulent plague, spread via infected banknotes during America’s Black Friday sales period in the lead-up to Christmas.
The virus wiped out most of New York and the place quickly descended into anarchy with gangs roaming the streets looting and shooting, with the obvious solution being to send in paramilitary operatives (of which you were a member) who would deal with the problem by looting and shooting, but for Freedom™.
It was still a great game — it was tied in first place for our 2016 Game Of The Year — and still has an active player base, bolstered by regular content and quality-of-life updates since it launched.
The sequel, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, is available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and is set several months after the first game — the season has moved to summer and your character has received and SOS from Division HQ in Washington DC; so it’s off you go to see what’s gone horribly wrong and how you can salvage it.
Ubisoft insists the game is not post-apocalyptic and is instead about a world on the knife-edge, but I must disagree. Any world in which there’s no emergency services or medical care, no electricity or internet, most people have died, and there are armed gangs roaming the streets saying “Ni!” at will to old ladies has definitely crossed over into post-apocalyptic territory.
The Washington DC setting is much more attractive than New York — it’s a visually distinctive and interesting place, and feels like a real-world location rather than a generic snowed-in city.
The game is still a loot shooter but there have been several improvements made over its predecessor, notably that enemies don’t feel like bullet-sponges anymore. They still take multiple rounds to go down, but they’re now shown wearing armour and the like, and go down faster than they did in The Division. It’s much more rewarding and satisfying, and a lot less frustrating too.
What I find impressive is The Division 2 feels like a finished game “out of the box” — the developers have promised more content including additional missions and specialisations, but there wasn’t anything significant I encountered during my play sessions that made me think: “Why isn’t this feature here?” Which is a good sign, especially nowadays.
The world is beautifully realised but not very interactive, unfortunately. You might find yourself in an office building, for example, and it looks amazing but basically represents an area to shoot through to reach an objective; you generally can’t wander off into individual rooms or read newspapers on desks or turn radios on and off or fossick for supplies or any of those little touches that would have added more depth to the world.
This is in stark contrast to Fallout 3 — also set in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC — where pretty much everywhere is full of things to explore, random stuff to investigate and knick-knacks to pick up. There are, however, considerably fewer ghouls and super mutants in The Division 2.
The loot system in The Division 2 is a bit underwhelming though. Quite a bit of the gear I found was pretty unremarkable and I rarely had the sensation I got in The Division of finding a high-tier gun and thinking: “Nice! Can’t wait to use this on some bandits!”
The game isn’t one to play in long stretches, as most of the missions are pretty much the same — go to location, take cover behind something, shoot bad guys, shoot more bad guys, activate something, shoot bad guys including a high-level enemy, collect loot, and scene.
It’s great in short bursts, though; a mission here or a mission there, for example.
The story is quite good, and runs on a couple of levels — you’re helping The Division re-establish control over Washington DC while assisting civilian settlements by completing missions to expand their capabilities (which upgrades the settlements). There’s also some stuff about exactly what happened to the government in there too, just to make things even more interesting.
I did get a little tired of constantly having characters in the world telling me how great I was, though. Instead of being a morale-boosting reward it made me wonder how anyone in the city had gotten anything done at all before I turned up.
The game is playable solo but you really need to team up with people to get the most out of it. As a single-player enthusiast this was a bit disappointing but it’s a lot of fun shooting your way through the well-realised locations with friends, especially at higher levels when your skill sets and tactics can complement each other.
The Dark Zones (player vs player) areas from The Division return, but this time there are more than one and you have to recon them first before you can undertake missions in them — a handy way of providing a sort of tutorial to new players.
Some of the gadgets available are a lot of fun, too — the addition of a gun-equipped drone can make for some interesting firefights, and tossing an automated turret into the middle of a room full of baddies never fails to be effective.
The developers have said they’re in it for the long haul and have focused on the endgame, meaning when players get to level 30 there will be additional content and challenges to keep them occupied — including an entirely new faction that shows up in the city and takes over the previously cleared-out locations from earlier missions.
Your character can also pick a specialisation at level 30 such as an explosive-tipped crossbow, grenade launcher, or .50BMG sniper rifle; there are more promised.
The specialist weapons are a lot more powerful than regular weapons but ammo for them is harder to find, presumably to stop players from sitting on top of a virtual building somewhere in West Virginia with an anti-materiel rifle and shouting “Boom! Headshot!” as they leisurely pick off enemies while out of harm’s way.
Ubisoft has promised a year’s worth of free content for The Division 2, including three major story updates and new specialisations for agents, so the game will continue to evolve long past launch.
The Division 2 expands on everything that was good about The Division and makes for a better, more polished experience. If you like loot shooters, you’re going to love it.
Are you playing The Division 2? Continue the conversation on Twitter @RoyceWilsonAU
Originally published as To get the best out of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, bring some mates