Sadly I can't remember a whole lot about Division 1, and I apparently never even wrote a review for it - but I remember having a good time with it, being impressed at the graphics and tactical gameplay. The winter setting was comfy too. Now, years later, I finally got Division 2 because it got released on Steam.
The setting this time isn't in some apocalyptic winter New York but instead Summery, washed over, trashed Washington DC. It's a completely different setting, I think I actually prefer the winter landscapes of the first game but it makes sense they did something different. Well, to be more precise, I think I prefer the outdoors sections of the first game, but the Indoors sections of Divsiion 2 are probably way better. That's because the level design on display here is frequently just amazing with tons of highly detailed interiors and interesting locations like Museums, all sorts of iconic historical DC buildings, labs, etc. Frequently while going through the main mission interiors I would stop and just admire all the details and just be blown away at especially the lighting and graphics. The actual pacing of the missions is just great too, theres no "Where the fuck do I go?" moments, and all the levels and interiors just mesh together to keep you on a consistent train of action and seeing new interesting sights and locations and encounters.
The Division 2 is a very 'thick' game. I mean its very mechanically dense, complex, and packed full of features. It would probably take hundreds of hours to see everything it has to offer, even though you can be finished with the main campaign in around 35 hours. It's a looter shooter/action RPG lite/gears of war style cover shooter. It has 30 character levels, you get experience just by killing enemies and looting and completing missions, and each one of these level ups you feel the difference. The game has tons of loot, you will constantly be picking up new guns, which have about a dozen different categories each from Assault rifles (full auto), Rifles (single shot/3 round burst style), Snipers (usually bolt action), Shotguns, Submachine guns, and so on. Ontop of juggling all these gun pickups, you also have armor pickups from Backpacks, Knee pads, Masks, Chest pieces, Holsters and so on. Not only is there all these different pieces of loot, but like Diablo, they all have different tiers, signified by color. So it starts off at like Grey color then goes up to brown, green, blue, purple, yellow being best etc.
Now, one complaint I will say is that the UI overall is pretty much a clusterfuck and is really overwhelming. The entire UI design, the Map system, I don't really like it all that much. It doesnt look too awful visually, but the way its laid out and its just a clusterfuck of information and even 30 hours into the game I still didnt quite get used to it and still is hard to figure out. Like for example on the top right it will say Armor, but then on the bottom left theres your actual Total armor value, but equipping a item with higher armor value than what you have, soemtimes doesnt even increase your overall armor value so its like multiple pieces of gear can have multiple armor values and it isnt even shown on the top right number. It can be a bit of a mess.
It's really fun and satisfying constantly getting all this new loot though, youll kill enemies and frequently, but not often, youll see a big glow fall out of them and it can be a random piece of gear. It was almost always fun to pick this stuff up and then go take cover somewhere and see what kinda thing you got. Theres a lot of excitement in constantly switching up guns, seeing how all the different categories handle, and equipping all sorts of different armors, it keeps the game really fresh and picking up loot is meaningful because you actually care because the guns are so well done and fun to use.
That's another thing, the actual gunplay feels really refined and complex. The crosshair for each gun category is different and it even shows you a little dot in the middle bouncing around emulating where your bullets are going, its just fun to control and play with the guns. Assault rifles mechnically work differently than SMG's, theres a different crosshair, and the way the gun feedback and crosshair bounces around works different for each category so its a lot of fun experimenting and constantly swapping out weapons finding what works at the current time. Not only that, but theres also a wide variety of weapon attachments you can unlock which further increases the stats and abilities of your guns. It doesnt increase the base damage, but it increases things like Accuracy, recoil, magazine sizes etc. To get these attachments, you mainly complete side missions, or visit these different encampments around the map and do 'Projects' which is a series of side missions you complete, as well as donating random materials you collect around the map, then it usually gives you a Blueprint you can use back at the main games base, which is the Whitehouse amazingly enough. So you can spend a lot of time going back and forth to the Whitehouse main base, unlocking all sorts of attachments and getting new equipment.
This is where you can unlock your Skills and Perks. So theres two different menus here, you have Skills which is like 8 different abilities you can equip two of. These are largely uninteresting and feels like shoehorned into the game. Stuff like Drones, a pulse ability that highlights enemies, a turret you can drop, a toxic grenade launcher thing, a Hive which is this device you lay down that heals you within a certain radius, stuff like that. These are pretty dull and dont really add much to the game, usually in gunfights you kinda just press Q and E and you use your abilites and then just reuse them whenever it goes away.
Since I played the whole game co-op, I had two abilities, and my buddy had another 2 abilities, so between both of us we experienced atleast half of what they had to offer. You can get skill points which allow you to slightly change how these things work, for example instead of the Drone shooting at enemies ,it instead heals your team mates, little stuff like that. I found these 'upgrades' largely insignificant because its not even upgrades its more like sidegrades.
Then, you have another menu for Perks. These are like passive boosts, and theyre even more marginal and barely noticable. Small stuff like unlocking a few attachments, letting you carry more inventory, getting more experience on headshots, small things like that. So I guess another complaint I can make about the game is the whole skill/perks system seems really uninteresting and dull and not that exciting to engage with. You even unlock so many perk points that by halfway through the game you've already unlocked everything useful from the menu so the rest of the game its just sitting there doing nothing while you have dozens of points left, weird.
The way the main campaign works is you look at the Map and look for Main Missions, then you can see a corresponding reccomended level for each mission. Usually if youre anything more than 2 levels under the mission level, you'll get annihilated. You can even roam to certain areas of the map where the enemies are much higher level than you, and you will just constantly get one shot, so yeah its definitely a stat based RPG kind of game.
So what ends up happening is if you have a bunch of Main missions where you're under levelled, you'll frequently go around doing all sorts of Side missons. They arent really side missions, because you basically have to do a lot of them to have the intended smooth progression without slamming your head against a wall cause youre so weak all the time. Luckily, the side missions are pretty good. Theres a variety of different kinds of side missions that get repeated, Hsotage rescue, territory where it involves going into a territory , you can see on the map all sorts of different zones that are owned by rival factions, you go into these zones and capture them back. Its pretty simple, you just defeat a wave then defend as they counter attack. The open world is pretty organic in the way that you can just randomly walk around the map and youll constantly run into little encounters that work as side missions. But also you have these more unique side missions that almost feel like main missions because they have you going into unique locations with their own plots and unique objectives and theyre almost as good as the main missions because of the variety of locations and encounters you find yourself in. Frequently when you finish these side missions it will unlock a supply room for you to go into and open up a crate which grants random loot which is usually better than what you have so its just satisfying completing these and finding cool new gears.
The HUD does a good job showing you where your objectives are, in the top left of the screen you can see a list of nearby activities even if you have nothing selected, and if you select a mission on the map it even gives you a line to follow to get there.
So yeah thats the general progression of the game, theres 30 character levels, once you reach level 20 or so you do a series of these Strongholds which are basically just giant main missions that take a lot longer than regular ones where you invande giant fortresses killing dozens of enemies and bosses, then at level 30 theres a final stronghold (which was actually really easy) and then the main campaign is over. After this, it starts to unlock all sorts of extra end game content, pvp stuff, and even more missions and entire new territory system, but thats endgame stuff, it's really cool this game is so packed full of content but I'm just here to play the main campaign.
The enemies arent all that varied, you basically have generic soldeir type guys, then you have these guys with purple healthbars that are even stronger, then you have Yellow guys that are bosses, theyre usually wearing big suits of armor and having miniguns and stuff, I think thats basically it for the enemies. I'm fine with it being minimal like that, and the way the different tiers work, and their AI, it seemed just right and the overall balance of the game seemed perfect. You can die real quick if you play stupid, or dont properly upgrade your gear, but also you can stomp the enemies if youre well coordinated with your co-op partner too.
My overall thoughts of the game is the graphics are incredible and add so much to the experience, often I would just turn off the lights in my room and be immersed in the games lighting and atmosphere, I love the tactical vibe with all the gear and equipment and the loot is really satisfying constantly finding new things to equip and play with, the main missions have you going into interesting unique locations, the overall story and plot largely escaped me, something about the world being into disarray after a pandemic and rival factions fighting eachother, thats about all I got. but thats all I need, the premise its self is really good and the fact that its kinda realistic is also immersive too. None of the actual characters or NPC's stood out at all, so I guess that coulda been better, though. Also, while the open world main streets is packed with detail and immersion, I still prefer the feeling of the wintery New York in the first game, its just a more interesting setting I think.
So yeah its basically a perfect co-op shooter if youre into that third person gears of war type cover shooter with slight rpg mechancis and loot. Probably the best lootershooter i've played thus far, this shows Borderlands how its done. The game also reminds me of a continuation of Rainbow Six Vegas series, which I really wanted more of. The game is so dense mechanically and packed with content its hard to stop writing about it but this will have to do.
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment