The new online shooter The Division 2 has been playable since Monday for the first time. Our author Schuhmann has already taken a look and explains how the game feels to him.
I spent the first hours in the PC full version of The Division 2 last night. The first players were able to play during the afternoons.
Even in the beta, I felt like I had spent countless hours with The Division 2 after just a few minutes, even though the game was brand new.
And yesterday my impression was further reinforced: Playing The Division 2 feels like “coming home.”
This is how the finished game differs from the beta:
Right at the beginning, there is a short tutorial with a different starting sequence than in the beta. It explains the “background” of The Division 2, that you follow a distress call and set off for the White House.
The character creation is significantly more extensive than in the first part. The only thing I found a bit strange was that they translated the gender of the character as “Change Body Type.”
I searched for a minute until I could switch from the default female to the male character type.
But you can fine-tune quite a bit. I created a bearded redneck, but removed all neck and arm tattoos – just treated myself to a nice pair of glasses and a beanie.
Otherwise, the actual game starts with the “Storming of the White House,” which you already know from the beta.
I can imagine the developers have revised this area thousands of times to create that strong impression: This is the White House in distress.
You walk across the dirty lawn, past the infamous poisoned fountain, and get a sense of desperation and threat.
This is how I played The Division 2: I completed the first zone last night, that is, I completed the 1st main mission, captured 3 control points, and finished the side missions in the first area.
For that, I tried to choose and test as many different weapons as possible. However, I stuck with a combination of turret and seeker mine skills, which I still know from The Division 1.
My 7 Insights from 5 Hours of The Division 2
What I noticed:
- Even in The Division 2, “storytelling through the environment” is strong again – the audio logs are well done, also nicely translated into German, and the streets tell a story. I liked that a lot in the first part.
- The firefights are like in the first part, they feel exactly the same: You kill 4, 5 opponents – then the next group comes. I already liked the fighting in the first part, here I feel at home immediately
- The weapons significantly change the way you play, a machine gun makes me act differently than a shotgun – players will quickly find favorite weapons. So far I have mostly liked the classic M4. With submachine guns, I feel more like a street gangster just shooting wildly.
- The game is clearly structured, you proceed methodically, gradually recapturing a block – typical Ubisoft format, you save the world piece by piece
- Nice here though: After missions the settlement changes, there is a corner for children, a battery storage – the world gets a little better
- The turret is controlled completely differently than in the first part, I need to work on that. They have changed something significantly: The turret still looks like in the first part, but now it doesn’t work automatically anymore, evidently manually.
- There’s loot in abundance – set bonuses are active early and the new weapons bring variety. The problem I had with Anthem, where I had hardly any loot decisions to make, I won’t have with The Division.
This is my impression: After the first hours in The Division 2, I noticed little that the game really brings something new. The changes will probably only become apparent later.
While I felt at Anthem that I was truly having new experiences, I don’t have that with The Division. But that’s not a bad thing.
At the moment, I have the impression that a city is waiting for me to save it with the campaign. And I am evidently already at home in the world of The Division after 5 hours.
I also already had my first Delta error. When I logged in and saw 4000 people in front of me in the queue, I really felt at home.
But times are changing: The queue dwindled within seconds and I had no further errors that evening.
How did you like the first hours in The Division?
