The new online shooter The Division 2 has taken our author Schuhmann by surprise. He says: The game is significantly better than I thought – but the Ubisoft formula is evident with all its pros and cons.
This is how I played The Division 2: I spent 42 hours in The Division 2:
- I played the first 35 almost exclusively solo; until the second to last mission of the campaign, I completed all the main missions alone. I progressed slowly, took on every side mission, and liberated every checkpoint.
- After a traumatic experience on Roosevelt Island, however, I switched to team play. Since then, I’ve been rushing through the new main missions with the Black Tusk, collecting loot at a record pace and within a few hours jumped from World Rank 1 to 2.
This is the big difference: The difference between “solo” and “4-man team in the instance” is significant:
- While I struggled playing solo and had to play cautiously.
- When playing in a group of four, one runs around wildly shooting like a herd of cowboys – it feels a bit like shooting at tin ducks at a fair.
But I’m sure this will be different in the endgame when the NPCs can take more damage and are more dangerous – in the “story mode,” however, the difference seems to be significant to me.
What is the Ubisoft formula? The “Ubisoft” formula refers to a certain design pattern in many of Ubisoft’s games:
- The world is divided into individual “districts”.
- In these districts, you have to capture control points, complete missions, and find collectible items.
- After that, you move into the next area and start over again.
The design team comes up with a quest pattern for one district and multiplies it by 8, thus building a “large world.” In The Division 2, you actually follow this Ubisoft formula throughout.
This is how the Ubisoft formula affects me: For me, the Ubisoft formula always has the effect that I voraciously consume the game in the early-game and mid-game and love the first 4 or 5 zones.
I play much more than in a comparable game and indulge in it like chicken wings in a fast-food restaurant or the individual episodes of a really good series when I binge-watch the episodes.
But usually around two-thirds into a game with the Ubisoft formula, I become a bit impatient.
It was the same for me in The Division 2, and I jumped into the “Groups and Loot” mode.
This is what The Division 2 does better with the Ubisoft formula: The really good idea that The Division 2 has is the “environment storytelling” – you experience the story through the way the world around you is portrayed.
In The Division 2, you rebuild settlements with increasing mission progress and restore comfort to the people living there.
This is the big red thread that The Division 2 follows and does very well.
In addition, The Division 2 rewards you for looking off the beaten path – the world feels alive and rewards you for exploring.
As a result, the world does not feel so sterile and as if it were designed on a drawing board.
These were my expectations for The Division 2: I thought it would be a solid, somewhat uninspired loot shooter that I would enjoy playing now, but that wouldn’t completely blow me away.
I found it particularly interesting that The Division 2 probably wouldn’t have those “problems at launch” – like other online titles.
I enjoyed playing The Division 1 as well, but I never really felt the urge to dive deeper: I played about 30 hours of The Division 1 at launch and then another 40 hours in the following months here and there to see what progress had been made.
And there were indeed progress in The Division 1 – you can only tip your hat to Ubisoft for what they gradually made of the game.
I actually had a wow moment
So it really was: I find The Division 2 significantly better than its predecessor. I have now happily spent the 42 hours with the game.
This is mainly due to three things:
- The Division 2 overwhelms me from the start with loot and gives me interesting decisions about which sets I choose, which weapons I pick up.
- The mid-game with the two museum missions is excellent. The scene with the Mars rover and the planetarium belongs to the best and most surprising gaming experiences I have ever had – it was really very good.
- The fights are exciting and the atmosphere is great – it simply feels good to be under fire, while the enemies are screaming and something is flying in the air. I simply enjoy the gameplay.
Especially the moments in the museums were true “wow” moments for me, where the game was much better than I ever thought it would be.
That The Division 2 surprised me so much is something I really didn’t see coming: planetarium, Mars rover, Vietnam – all truly amazing sequences and battles.
This is my conclusion: I expected little from The Division 2, and these expectations were far exceeded.
The Division 2 is a polished loot shooter with strong atmosphere and in the best moments is hypnotizing.
However, I believe that the impact of the game largely depends on how you play The Division 2 and what tasks you set for yourself: While the solo play completely challenged me, the game in a group has been more of a “turn off the brain and go through”, but maybe that will change as I progress further.
Is one finished after 42 hours? It is also remarkable that I have already spent so much time with the game and have not even started much:
- I haven’t really dealt with the whole “min/maxing” aspect of The Division 2 yet, as this is where the appeal of The Division 2 is supposed to unfold.
- I haven’t been in PvP yet.
- I haven’t actively searched for anything, neither hunter masks nor exotics or the mysterious vendor Cassie Mandoza.
After 42 hours and at World Rank 2, I am technically “somehow in the endgame”, but it doesn’t feel that way at all.
One thing is clear: The Division 2 has a lot to offer – even after more than 40 hours in the game.
