When the first title of The Divison was announced, no one really knew what to expect from the new Tom Clancy's brand. The first gameplay demos took our breath away from the graphics and suggested a mixture of survival, RPG and third-party driven cooperative action. The final product was on the one hand a great disappointment for players expecting a strong story experience in the ravaged streets of New York, but on the other hand a finished flash of clear sky for fans of the MMORPG genre with which the game has much in common. Almost a day, three years later, The Division 2 is knocking at us, and we have seen in a closed beta test what has changed compared to the first game, and what remains as the "Big Apple" seasoned agents like .
We will not walk around the hot porridge. Division 2 continues the established track of its predecessor, so don't expect the revolution. This does not mean that we do not have any news. Perhaps the biggest change is the environment. The snowy Christmas street of New York is replaced by vegetation overgrown by Washington. At first glance, not as original as in the first part, but as in the first minutes convince, beautiful scenery will not be short.
Beta has given us the opportunity to try a little on the limited part of the game map. In particular, the first two introductory missions, a couple of sidebars, and a tutorial even made the Dark Zone. These are now three new ones, and each should be different in its environment. But in bete we only looked into one. The big news is the so-called normalization of players' equipment in Dark Zones and PvP modes. In practice, this means that the level of all the players' equipment is adapted to the level and level of the game world. This novelty will certainly be welcomed by occasional players who have not even crossed the game against the experienced veterans with the best equipment in the game. So the level and type of equipment will still play a role in PvP, but thanks to normalization, it will create much more fair conditions for all players.
There were no major changes in the gameplay itself. You are still cutting the armor and the lives of tons of bullets with the enemies, and even though the authors mentioned that it should be a little faster this time, in practice it does not feel so much. The character progress system has also not changed a lot and relies mainly on equipment that is constantly changing and improving. However, there will be a greater emphasis on the technology toys available to agents. Their diversity is bigger and you can choose from different variants or upgrade them. For example, you can use an iconic explosive ball to find its own target or replace it with a healing variant that obediently follows you as a robotic darling.
Inventory work is a bit more lucid than the last one, but it still takes a moment to orientate. After the new weapon accessories (sights, silencers, trays) you do not collect as prey, but unlock. Even this change is very welcome, because rummaging in the flood of muzzle brakes you have in the inventory and looking for the best has been quite annoying. There is only one accessory of each kind, and once you unlock it, you can put it on all the weapons. Simplification has also occurred in the game currency, where you pay with the same credits in the PvE world as in the Dark Zones.
Also included in the beta was the ability to try out how end-game gameplay would look like with the highest-level character. After you have been tossed to the maximum, you will be given the choice of one of three specializations: Sharpshooter, Survivalist or Demolitionist. Each specialization has additional equipment options and one special weapon. Sharpshooter focuses on remote shooting, and thus has a large-caliber sniper with huge zoom optics. Survivalist is a survival expert and carries a crossbow with explosive arrows. And the last Demolition, as the name suggests, specializes in explosives, so it got into the garnet launcher. Along with the agent's specialty, the new Black Tusk faction, which is made up of much more dangerous enemies, comes into play. They will then also occupy one of the Dark Zones, where the normalization of equipment will cease to apply, and so will the Dark Zone veterans of the First Division.
We also had the opportunity to try the PvP mode, which already appeared in the unit. But it was nothing light-hearted. On a relatively small map, they played two teams of four players each and won the one who had run out of his opponent's lives. So the right PvP experience will be again the uncertainty in the Dark Zone and the fear of a good prey that anyone can steal from the knife at any moment.
Graphically, the game is at a very high level again. The ravaged streets of Washington overgrown with vegetation seem less monotonous than New York's winter, and you will often stay open-mouthed to see the scenery created by the authors. So far we have only seen about a third of the game area. Add in-game photo mode and take care of virtual tourism in mid-March.
As for the technical condition, beta was not the best. The authors say they are aiming to make the game play smoothly at 60 fps, even on weaker machines, but it doesn't look that way. On a gaming laptop with GTX 1060, 16GB RAM and i7-7700HQ for medium-high settings, shooting at a larger event fell to 45 fps. A much bigger problem, however, was the frequent freezing of the game, where only a hard reset of the computer helped. There is still some full Friday for the full edition, so we hope that the game will run smoothly and without freezing.
Beta Tom Clancy's The Division 2 has introduced us in great detail about what we can expect from a full game coming on March 15th. Fans of the first episode will certainly not be disappointed, as it seems the authors have set themselves the task of removing the gaps from the unit and balancing the gameplay to be fun but also fair. On the other hand, if the gameplay of the first game did not suit you, then in the second part nothing will change in this respect. The Division 2 is still the same online affair where it is worth adding some extra storage. Backpack, vest, jacket, pockets, shoes, teeth ...
