In the days of modern gaming, betas serve the same purpose of demos from years past. You get a little taste of a game before release to try and tempt you to buy into the game. It is rare that my immediate reaction from playing a beta is to go pre-order a game, but The Division 2 beta changed that.
It’s very easy to look at The Division 2 and dismiss it for one of two reasons: it looks too similar to the first game, and the setting isn’t as interesting. I actually had those same hesitations before getting my hands on the game.
If you just take the game at face value, yes, it looks like another third person loot shooter that is focused on cover-based combat. But the changes in the game make you play The Division 2 completely different from the first Division game. Developers Massive Entertainment has introduced new mechanics to make combat more intense, and more cover-based. The first change is a lower time-to-kill. While the game still features bullet sponge enemies (it is a loot shooter), the time-to-kill has been massively reduced. This applies to both the player and enemies. This change forces the players to look for cover instead of running-and-gunning. In The Division, this became a common tactic later in the game when you have the best weapons.
The second change that forces players to seek cover on a more regular basis is Massive got rid of instant healing. Instead of just pressing a button and healing yourself, you have to get behind cover and hold down the healing button. This will repair your armor. You have two life bars now: health and armor. Once armor is depleted, you’ll start to lose health, and lose it fast. If you can get behind cover, your health will regenerate, but your armor will not regenerate automatically. You’ll need to spend an armor kit to repair your armor. This forces players to get into cover to heal, once again changing up the tactics from being a run-and-gun shooter.
It makes sense that Massive would make these changes to force players to use the cover system more, as The Division 2 is a cover-based third person shooter. That’s how the series has been marketed from day one, but the healing and time-to-kill in The Division allowed players to use run-and-gun as a successful tactic. That is gone now, and The Division 2 plays more like it was proposed back at E3 all those years ago.
My second initial hesitation with The Division 2 was the setting, but within the first few minutes of fighting to get to the White House, I was already so interested in running around this new environment. While the snowy streets of New York City was a fantastic backdrop to the first game, I believe the architecture of Washington D.C. is already more interesting than what we saw in NYC, and there was only a handful of blocks you could run around in during the beta.
Even though the beta was limited to a few blocks, the world felt huge. I really enjoyed walking around your standard city blocks, then finding a government building made out of marble. I think the contrasts in building design will keep me more interested in exploring the world than New York City. Also the summer time weather is really gorgeous, and it includes rainstorms. I’m hoping there a few thunderstorms that pop up every now and then.
The Division 2 has changed up a few things to keep it feeling fresh. In addition to safe houses you unlock around the world, there will also be multiple settlements that act as mini base of operations. These settlements will be upgraded as you complete missions for them, which will then make people available to recruit for your main base of operations. For example, the one settlement available in the beta has the character that unlocks crafting at your base of operations. After completing a few missions for the settlement, you chat with the character, and then she shows up in a wing in the White House. I like the more involved approach to unlocking new mechanics in the game instead of them just existing.
The beta did something really interesting that made it stand out from other loot shooter betas: you got a taste of the endgame content. Like any good loot shooter, the game doesn’t end when you hit the level cap. Once you hit level 30 in the game, you choose between three different specializations that unlock new skills and a new specialization weapon. The idea behind the specialization weapon is that it is a very powerful weapon that has limited ammo, so you’ll want to use it sparingly until you reach the boss of missions. It uses special ammo that doesn’t refill at ammo boxes. You can get more special ammo by going to the base of operations, or it randomly drops from enemies. It can be a risk using your special weapon as you don’t know if you’ll get ammo during a mission, but they are a ton of fun to use.
The game also has changed up the dark zone a little bit. Instead of one large area, there are three smaller dark zones. This is to encourage more interaction between real life players. There is also turrets set up at the entrance of the dark zone to stop griefing of players entering the area. But the same applies from the first game: this is where you can find high end loot if you don’t want to run missions, agents can still turn rogue and take you out.
On top of all that, there is a 4v4 PVP mode that will be in the game at launch, which plays similar to the Last Stand expansion that was released for the first Division game.
There is a lot to be excited about with the release of The Division 2. It is pretty impressive the amount of content the game will have available at launch, which makes it one of the exceptions in the loot shooter genre. Massive has learned a lot from the first Division game, and The Division 2 is shaping up to be one of the better loot shooters on the market. Stay tuned for our full review after the game launches on March 15th!
