The Division (1)
What is The Division as a game? The post-apocalyptic MMO shooter comes from Ubisoft and is primarily developed by Massive Entertainment. A virus breaks out in the USA, causing severe illness among people. Many do not survive the disease.
Power struggles and looting occur, chaos spreads, and civilization as we know it ceases to exist.
Players try to control this chaos in the role of an agent. As a tactical cover shooter in third-person perspective, as a loot shooter, and as a shared-world shooter with RPG elements, The Division 2 appeals to many shooter fans.
On March 15, 2019, The Division 2 was released and is the direct successor to the first part.
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Year of Change: 2016 (October)
What was the problem with The Division?
Initially, everything looked good after the release in 2016. The Division sparked the interest of players during the beta. Upon release, sales records followed. The Division became a massive success for Ubisoft. However, this success and positive sentiment only lasted for a short time.
Players discovered severe bugs early on that plagued The Division for weeks. The “backpack” bug, which excluded players completely from the game, is legendary:
Additionally, there were issues with motivation and content supply: The original plan for the endgame of The Division was far too thin.
Also, the previously planned DLCs and updates to entertain the agents in New York failed and worsened the problems even further.
In 2016, the first free update “Incursions” was released. This was the first update of the “Year 1” plan, which was supposed to include two free and three paid DLCs. However, “Incursions” began to pose major problems:
- “Incursions” were not the hoped-for raids, but rather smaller PvE activities, which disappointed many agents.
- Gear sets, the equipment sets, were introduced, which some viewed as the cause of all problems. They significantly disrupted the balance.
- The Conflict Update (Clear Sky, DZ features) and the Underground DLC (Underground, Dragon’s Den) provided further gear sets, which completely ruined the balance. Each new update seemed to deepen the problems rather than fix them.
- Particularly the endgame causes frustration, bad moods, and ultimately boredom due to the questionable loot system and numerous bugs.
By the end of 2016, players found The Division unplayable, and even the developers themselves agreed with them.
How did The Division solve its problem?
How does The Division stand today?
On March 15, 2019, The Division 2 was released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The story takes place 7 months after part 1 in summer Washington D.C., where the help of the Division agents is needed to maintain law and order.
The Division 2 is currently doing quite well with players and the press. (As of March 31, 2019). The shared-world shooter is doing very well on Metacritic. On all platforms, it has a score of 80 (out of 100) or higher.
Players feel that the developers have fixed all the mistakes that the first part had in The Division 2. The setting and the intelligent AI enemies in PvE are particularly praised. The gameplay itself and the loot are also commended.
The only criticism is the somewhat thin story. However, many can cope with that.
Whether The Division 2 can convince in the endgame, when the honeymoon phase after release is over, remains to be seen.
