The Division 2 is an open world third person shooter. I was a big fan of the first Division so I had high expectations going into the sequel. Reviewed on Google Stadia.

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When The Divison 2 was announced my excitement levels were through the roof. I played hundreds of hours of the first Division game so a sequel was definitely something I wanted. The first game hit a little harder for me since the setting was in my hometown of New York. Running around the familiar streets definitely added an extra layer of enjoyment to an already great game.

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The Division 2 takes us to Washington DC, not my hometown but somewhere I am very familiar with so I was hoping the familiarity would hit similar to the first game. I played the game at launch and quickly fell off. For some reason, the game just didn’t get its hooks in me and I was left disappointed.

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Something in me always wanted to go back and try again, but there was always something else that took up my time. Finally, towards the end of 2021, I decided now is the time, and I jumped in. What helped me this time was the platform I played it on. Being able to grind out some gear and levels on the go made it so much easier of a commitment for me.

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The Division 2 was the perfect type of game for me and my life. I love playing games for Story and there is a halfway decent story here, with well acted cutscenes and plenty of audio logs to find and listen to. I also love games that I can play while doing something else like watching TV or listening to a podcast. This game satisfied both of those playstyles.

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I can pay full attention to the game do some story missions and absorb all the story I can take, or I could run around the open world and complete side activities and just grind out some kills to level up. I love when a game gives me options like this.

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The gameplay in Division 2 is strong. It’s a cover based third person shooter. Diving to different areas of cover and taking down enemies is a mechanic that has had me hooked since the PlayStation 2 title Kill Switch. Cover is important, the enemies you encounter take a lot of hits to go down and you can go down rather easily. Running and gunning is not a great option here. You need to be tactical and make good use of cover and your gadgets.

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Gadgets were in the last game and make a return and were more useful than ever. The Division feels like it’s meant to be played with other players, however, that’s not the type of gamer I am. I like to play solo. Gadgets were my teammates for the majority of my playthrough, my go to was the drone and the turret. I would set up behind cover, post up my turret and just watch it take down everyone in front of it. Enemies also take advantage of cover, that’s when I would send my drone in. I would watch it fly right behind their cover and take them down.

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I said most of my playthrough was solo but for the sake of the review, I did do some matchmaking to see how it played. The Stadia version is crossplay with the PC version so I didn’t have too many issues finding other players. Playing with people was far less enjoyable for someone like me but it always worked great. I never felt the need to be tactical since we had more firepower, and being tactical is one of the main reasons I come to a game like this.

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Like most games that have you grinding out loot, it can get a little repetitive. Most of the story missions and side missions had the same structure. You navigate through a linear path and then clear a room of bad guys, rinse and repeat. This is not typically an issue to me since clearing out waves of enemies was always fun but if that’s not for you, this game can get repetitive quickly.

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The loot system works well but the loot itself is not all that interesting. It’s a realistic grounded world, so there is nothing flashy about the gear. It’s just modern military equipment. Getting gear upgrades was always a great feeling but the magic of it wore off quickly since my appearance never really changed.

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The same could be said for guns but stockpiling an arsenal of different weapons held my attention a lot more than the gear. The weapons have different feels and speak to different playstyles so this was fun to mix up and find what was working for me.

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Verdict

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The Division 2 is a fun well made looter shooter. It can be repetitive and has some uninteresting gear but I had fun the whole way through. It fit my mood for whatever I needed. There is an expansion that brings us back to New York and n after completing the base game, it left me excited to go back for more and head back to New York.

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Final Score 7.5/10

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