I put those skills to good use

[Gamerzone]

The original Division handled allies and enemies poorly. Allies were either stumbling civilians desperate for a bottle of water or allied soldiers barely more helpful in a fight than a strong breeze. Enemies seemed pathetically desperate, too, save for the fact that they were bullet sponges who tended to take too long to kill.Allies in The Division 2 Boosting’s beta are green-marked civilians who run supplies down the streets and who will answer a shot in the sky from your flare gun with actually useful assistance. You can call them in when you try to clear enemies out of the new Control Point zones set up in the open world. I had a good time getting these allied pals to help me take over an intersection where massive construction cranes had fallen and also get control of a construction site. The loop for this is odd and could be annoying, as the allies who then run the control points need water and other supplies for the apparent perk of revealing more loot in the game world for a short period of time. It’s hard to tell from the beta if it’ll be worth it.

Enemies simply seem smarter and take fewer shots to kill, both of which make the combat in the beta immediately more fun than what launched in the first game. Even basic enemies that I fought in the beta moved around a combat area, preventing me from camping behind any one spot of cover for too long. Tougher enemies sent drones at me, hurled grenades, and aggressively flanked. If anything, the enemies might be too aggressive as higher-end enemies constantly spam drone and grenade attacks. The developers can tweak that and hopefully will.

The Division 2’s most interesting gambit is a supposed transformation of the game and its missions once the basic storyline campaign is completed. At that point, a new enemy faction called Black Tusk invades. Players who finish the campaign also choose what amounts to a character class, or in the parlance of this sequel, a specialization. All involve the addition of a signature weapon, a special grenade, and some new abilities. A Sharpshooter specialist wields a huge sniper rifle, a demolitionist a grenade launcher. I tried the beta’s endgame mission as a survivalist, which meant that my character was able to carry a crossbow that fires explosive bolts and could use a drone that could heal allies. I wish I could say I put those skills to good use, but I found myself just struggling to fend off Black Tusk with conventional means and wasn’t ready to learn these new skills. Combat against Black Tusk was tough. These guys have healers and jammers and robot dogs.

Compare a battle against regular enemies in a hallway of one of the beta’s missions with the invaded version.The invaded mission was far more difficult than the basic version of the mission. I got trounced a dozen times when trying to solo it, but when I matchmade with three strangers, we chopped our way through it. It reminded me what made the first game’s unexciting main missions much more interesting: the presence of other players in co-op. Real people enhanced the experience in the beta, too. Guess I probably should have enhanced their experience by actually using my healer drone. Next time!

I partially played the first Division for its peripheral story. It’s main story was generic Clancy-branded drama of doomsday weapons, elite soldiers, and the best use of ballistics. In the game’s ample nooks and crannies were audio logs telling multi-part dramatic personal stories of regular New Yorkers before and after the attack. The snowy streets also were a canvas for environmental storytelling written by tire tracks in the snow. Some of those good touches are evident in the Division 2 beta, which includes a smattering of intriguing audio logs that could be set-ups for more serial audio narratives. And even without the snow, the overgrown streets and city blocks of D.C. still wordlessly tell some stories.

A game with this many parts needs two fundamental things: enough interesting stuff to do in it and enough people playing it. It’s hard to tell if Division 2’s loops will keep feeling fresh as they’re repeated, not without being able to play more deeply into the game, without seeing if the second settlement upgrade is as interesting as the first or if the next entire settlement is distinct enough from the first one, and Buy The Division 2 Credits without being able to climb the skill trees. Combat does feel better, but it isn’t without its own risks of monotony. The presence of other players will be a boon, should enough of them show up. Ubisoft is offering so many modes at launch—PvP, Dark Zone, open world and, soon after launch, eight-player raids—that a new standard question must be asked for this latest of Ubisoft games: will it be too big? Will we all have time for this latest mega-game?

[Mieszkaniowy]

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