The Division 2 Review

"Gorgeous Apocalypse"

Multiplayer

March 22, 2019 at 2:32am

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 delivers a comprehensive and expanded experience over the first title. It's a multiplayer game that delivers countless hours of gameplay while moving through the core content. There's even more to it if you explore the side activities and then that gets even more wild once you reach the end game. Perhaps my biggest complaint, is that there's too much excellent content to witness across your journeys.

The entire game features a seamless multiplayer setup allowing you to always be playing with others, whether that's with friends or randoms online. You can call for back-up at any point, or just matchmake. You can even select the type of objective you'd like to search for to play with others. This is great, I would have liked some more support for the side missions though.

Activities include battling for control points, taking out patrols and collecting caches that are hidden throughout the world. There are bounties to complete, enemies to eliminate and towards the end you'll tackle some massive Strongholds. With these missions, you also get a sense of a realistic build-up, settlements expand as you complete goals and you'll see people.

During certain missions, you can even call in NPC support and they'll come battle. The missions are well structured, large in scale and varied. You're never faced with a repetitive location, and that makes every single objective feel fresh. The areas are typically expansive, offering levels of verticality as well as places to flank.

The missions promote team work, and cover based combat as you face off against varying factions. These factions could have used more distinction however, I felt the original handled that a bit better. There are many enemy types, I just didn't notice much of a difference during general combat in terms of style. I felt like it was just one faction of enemies I was fighting the entire time.

Dark Zones and Competitive PVP
The PVP elements fall under competitive options and one where you fight for weapons. The latter is titled the Dark Zone, there are three in this game. You visit these large locations that have been lost in one way or another, to battle for special loot items. The competitive side of things has you working to eliminate enemies in a couple ways. I didn't think it was anything special, but a nice extra option for gameplay.

Gameplay

The Division 2 Xbox One X enhancement is gorgeous, it brings a native 4k resolution with HDR support at 30fps. For the most part it looks beautiful, I will mention that at times the textures take a second to load in. This causes a blurry moment, but it's minimal and brief. The world of Washington, DC is vast and rather expansive. You get an authentic selection of locations to battle within and many hidden secrets to uncover.

There's an underground to a degree, and many settlements. The combat feels great, and the cover based shooting brings a distinct style of gameplay. The cooperative elements are excellent, you feel the need to work together and it's fair for loot collection. The level scaling is better than in the first game and it's just a great experience when you're playing with others.

You get a wide range of weapons as you continue to progress, and this aspect of collecting a pile of loot is carried into the gear as well. There's something for everyone and a decent character customizer as well to create the type of Agent you want. There are cosmetic apparel microtransactions present as well, these don't alter gameplay at this point however. Being a RPG experience, you'll gain skills and improve you character over time. There are many types of support items with the drone being my best new pal in this one.

The Conclusion

The Division 2 expands every element of the original and provides an absolutely massive world that's filled with content. There's almost too much to do within this game, and then after that there's the end game with even more. This is a blast to play whether you're working through main missions, completing side quests or tackling the deadly Strongholds.

You're able to experience everything with others if you'd like, through seamless and fast paced matchmaking. You can play alone, but this game is at its best when you're working with others. Aside from the PVE elements, there are also expanded PVP options whether you're battling within the Dark Zone or heading out to fight others in the competitive multiplayer.

The content just doesn't seem to end, and it's a blast the entire time through. Each area feels distinct, dynamic and you're always given a new challenge. Battle alone, or fight with others as Agents of The Division. Try to save the Washington, DC and prevent the dangerous factions from rising up to divide what's left.

Read our Anthem Review
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The Division 2 Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Ubisoft

Rating Overall: 9.2