The sequel maintains the essence of the original, polishes its strengths, increases the content of the game and elevates it as one of the best cooperative looter shooters of the year.
Washington DC is barely surviving a pandemic that has devastated the population. Amidst the chaos, three enemy organizations take advantage of the situation: Hyenas, True Sons, and Outcasts. A series of individuals, secretly trained for years by La División , organize and rise up against them to regain control of the city.
The Division 2, developed and published by Ubisoft for PC, Xbox and PS4 , is a sequel that moves from the city, and in which there are few other significant changes from the main idea. The essence of the game – the one that led him to success – remains untainted.
It is still a much improved version of the first installment, offering hours and hours of fun in a game focused above all on playing with friends . The big difference is found in the content: this offers much more and gives the feeling that, once the main story is over, there is still juice to be made.
strategy and gameplay
The list of enemies and weapons has been noticeably increased, with the novelty that the level of customization is much higher : different sights, chargers with more capacity, new barrels and handles. Now there is a greater variety with which you can build a better team based on your preferences and favorite strategies.
On the way to fulfill a mission , the map, very alive, invites you to complete other more secondary objectives beforehand that, although it seems otherwise, encourage you to do so without the usual feeling of heaviness that concerns them.
Each walk through the stage will force us to take refuge in barracks and face enemies. The main essence of the gameplay lies in the need to know how to use cover and take advantage of heights to successfully overcome firefights.
It is not a shoot-for-shoot game. If you don’t have good synergy with your teammates or you don’t know how to position yourself, death will be more than just a possibility. The NPCs ( Non playable character) are not vases: they dodge your attacks, counter-program your strategies and are so offensive that your shelter zone can be your grave in a heartbeat.
On more than one occasion they will take advantage of the fact that you focus on the group’s tank —a soldier with protections down to his teeth and who receives attacks from everyone— to find your weak point and eliminate you . In short, the enemies are, in general, a challenge that will drive you crazy on occasion.
Washington, a recognizable setting
The first installment of The Division was set in New York, a city that had been perfectly recreated even for those who have never set foot in the North American metropolis. With Washington it may not be so easy , but it is true that there are landmarks that facilitate recreation. And, in addition, a detail that is necessary to know: the city is designed on a 1:1 scale.
Moving around different areas of the city, coming face to face with a group of enemies, attending public executions, propaganda acts… Although they are not an invaluable requirement to make the game fulfill its mission, the skyline embellishes the scenarios you go through . Both the climatic effects —which have increased their variety— and the light of day or night manage to get the player involved in the environment because the level of detail is spectacular.
Not only do we feel in a post-apocalyptic world because the narrative describes it that way, but because wherever you look you will see elements that make you think that you live in a world that has gone to ruin : completely empty streets and with a grove that invades highways, buildings falling apart… even the destroyed presidential plane in front of the Capitol! The main groundbreaking element in visual matters with respect to the first title is in the end of the monotony: no more walking through a New York constantly full of snow.
Ubisoft mejora a The Division 1
Settlements and Control Points have been changed slightly to enhance their uses. Once you fulfill the main objective of reaching level 30 and storming the capitol to save the city, the game ends… Or not.
The endgame is practically another new story . At this point, you will be able to choose between three new specialties (demolition expert, sniper and survivor) that will give the character specific skills and weapons.
Unlike in the first title, the game after the end does not disappoint, it does not leave that feeling of having fully exploited it and here it comes to life. When you manage to free the city from the yoke of these three criminal gangs , another one arrives to put you in trouble again: Black Fangs, with much improved weapons and that make it necessary to rethink attack strategies because the difficulty increases.
And then a new story begins. You will have to repeat missions that you will surely have completed, but with varieties that make it different. Characters will now have a new skill upgrade tree that expands the range of attacks.
Dark Zone: PvP in Action
The Division 2 takes the concept of a dark zone—a hybrid place of PvP and PvE—from the first game and polishes it up. There are now three scenarios , completely different in style and gameplay. In all of them you will have to reach a place where there is contaminated looting (in fact, you will have to wear a mask to protect yourself from it), move it to another area, launch a flare to call a helicopter and defend yourself from enemies.
As for the gameplay , you can play the traditional one, in which you team up with other players to liberate the area and distribute the loot ; or by the renegade, where if you steal part of the loot you will be marked and you will have to flee to a control point to free yourself from the tracking of the rest of the users.
As an option more oriented to play in teams and that seems less assimilated to the style of The Division 2 is the conflict mode: a lifelong PvP in which two teams of four fight to conquer a territory.
In general, The Division 2 more than meets what is expected of an online looter shooter , well above others that have come out this year like Anthem . If the first one was a pleasant surprise, this one comes to improve the experience of that one even more, with the promise of Ubisoft in addition to adding new updates every month.
The game requires a powerful computer to fully enjoy all its scenarios and features. If you have just renewed your equipment, make sure that any accident that the PC may suffer does not prevent you from enjoying one of the best games of the year.
