Well, I am not really sure what this topic is meant to be. (hence the off-topic). It is part my personal review of the game as nowhere for me to post via Uplay and also part for anyone to ask questions and I will try to respond as best as I can. There may be some giveaway(s) added later (!!), I don't know - so check back if you want I will probably add here to the description.

So, first things first: I logged close to 28 hours over the course of about 5 days. For me, this really says something. I honestly cannot remember the last time I blew through a game like this. I DID NOT PLAY DIVISION 1, so please take this into consideration. Ultimately, earlier this evening I reached the final mission and all the endgame fun stuff. In a nutshell, I liked what I played but I did find some negatives. Some people I played with online said it was just a re-skin with some bug fixes (!).

I really do like the whole cover-shooter mechanic (maybe thanks to Gears of War, I don't know), but it can get frustrating at times. There are enemies that will rush you, throw explosives or try to flank you - all of which are frustrating since you will just die to a couple enemies. But thankfully, there is a TON of loot for you to find! You can get resources (food, water, metal scraps) to help supply certain districts you control, you can find resources for crafting or obviously weapons/gear. I never found any enemies to be "bullet sponges", which is a negative if I recall from the 1st Division. Most gear you find will increase in level with your rank and there are I believe 4 tiers of weapons with gold being the highest. You can equip mods to weapons and you also have tech you can use such as a remote turret, seeker mine, or gun that erodes armor. There are perks too (extra armor packs, larger inventory, etc.).

You can really do anything you want with a group of 4, whether that is free roam or main mission or dark zone activities. Main missions are really heavy on the Washington DC landmarks; you will visit many museums (space, natural history, media, water, etc.) and it did kind of get stale. Side missions are plentiful, but these only last maybe 10-15 minutes/each. This is another of my complaints. There is a certain formula to missions: you will be bombarded with "swarm" enemies, occasionally one may have more health, and then at the end there is an extra special enemy with a lot of armor (denoted with gold health). This is true in the early missions all the way through the end game. You do meet different "factions" that may have a little personality, but really I did not notice enough to make an impression.

Overall, I did like the whole loot system and always trying to find the perfect combination. I also like just exploring and trying to find new areas. There are I guess "random events" such as public executions or propaganda radios you can choose to engage with. There are safe houses (really just fast travel points) and settlements. Settlements are more in depth, you can recruit certain characters and donate supplies and gear, or complete misssions to help these settlements. If you do enough you will see some benefits so it is worth you while.

The dark zone, which I mentioned earlier is more or less PvP (but doesn't have to be) where you can find the best loot but have to extract it safely before you can use it. I did run into a bug in the "south" DZ where a mission was bugged but that did not stop me from progressing in the main story. Dark Zone level and main level are different but you share the same equipment/weapons.

In summary, I would highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys a good challenge, whether solo or co-op, or someone that enjoys third-person shooter games. I did not run into any crashes, network issues, or game-breaking bugs (worth noting, but shouldn't be). There are three difficulties to missions and there is end game content so I will definitely be coming back for at least another few days. I know there has been mention of free DLC and an 8-person squad update so I do look forward to these as well. If you made it to the end, congratulations!

Update March 20th: may not be much but here are two giveaways for anyone that made it thus far /xKDjq/ and /Fksoe/. Both are from new Fanatical Vengeance Bundle.

5 years ago*

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Solo play wont be worth it but if you have a squad to go with there is fun to be had.

5 years ago
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Yeah, it really does shine with a full team where everyone has microphones and cooperates and knows each other's playstyle/role

5 years ago
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Its a good game & I'm saddened that Ubisoft and similar publishers / developers have no sense.
The cash they got upfront from Epic will not make up for the loss in sales from pulling their games off steam
This game even had an issue on launch where it could not be played on the Epic store.

Played the beta and its not much different from Division 1 which I have so I'll wait...let's see what it drops down to on the next sale.

5 years ago
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" There are enemies that will rush you, throw explosives or try to flank you - all of which are frustrating since you will just die to a couple enemies."
That is part of the game and smart(er) AI enemies. You can't just hide behind cover and wait for your armour to heal or be repaired. In Div 1 you would apply a medkit. If you let yourself get flanked that's on you. Some mission sections may need a few retries until you've figured them out. Obviously if you're in a team (either friends or randoms) it will be easier as you can revive each other, cover the flanks or do flanking maneuvers yourself while someone lays down suppressing fire.
Concerning formulaic missions: This is the bread and butter of MMO games, especially looter shooters. There's only so much story content a Dev can make up and people also want to read through or watch cutscenes of. In the end it's all about finding that next loot for slightly better numbers or trying out different builds and making your own fun.
I played Div1 a lot and will eventually get Div 2. But when the bundles/sales start.

5 years ago
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" There are enemies that will rush you, throw explosives or try to flank you - all of which are frustrating since you will just die to a couple enemies."

Looks like a good AI. It makes game much better as it would be stupid for 10 guys to stay behind cover and wait for 1 guy to kill them one by one when they pop out from cover and to never use granedas or flanking.

Granades and flanking made F.E.A.R. great.

5 years ago
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I recently have been playing/replaying the F.E.A.R. trilogy - still need to play the third however. I really do remember at the time how advanced the AI is and don't get me wrong I did like how this was implemented in the game. Most missions were easy, there were only a couple checkpoints that got to the point of having to retry 10+ times for my groups.

5 years ago
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Glad that you liked The Division 2 - I had a couple of hours of playtime logged during its closed beta and I had a blast :) Will probably wait until I can get larger discount before buying the game.

By the way, if you like the sequel, I would recommend getting the first game as well. The story is pretty fantastic there and I think it can help you understand the story in the sequel better.

But don't buy it at its full price though! I've seen the stores (almost every one of them) selling the game at a really low price (in relation to the entertainment value provided) for the past few months so it's best to wait for a sale.

5 years ago
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Ha! I did get the hamble bandle with Divsion 1 and DLC. I thought with D2 releasing so soon I would try it first. Can always come back to Division 1.

5 years ago
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Closed 5 years ago by ChessPie.