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The Division 2

jmotivator

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Playing the open beta and quite liking it.

It is no mistaking that it is mostly just more of The Division, it isn't making huge changes to the game mechanics that I have seen so far. A few notable changes:

1) Attributes are gone other than skill. This makes it more of a conventional shooter. Instead of boosting tank and DPS attributes, the gear has tanky and DPS-y bonuses.

2) Set items exist across the various levels of gear drops. I've only gotten green and blue drops so far, but they drop in standard and various build-type set flavors.

3) As someone who has worked for years around the White House, the resemblance is eerily accurate.. with a post-apocalyptic flair. I found myself ducking into areas that I frequented and getting a weird chill seeing places I know intimately so accurately displayed in a game. It's just weird to jump into a game cold and just know when I look at the map how to get where I need to go, and occasionally forgetting the setting and thinking I am experiencing deja vu when, in fact, I have actually been there many times.

That does pose some interesting nit picks, though. So far I have seen no metro stops that weren't boarded up. The DC Metro is one of the more beautiful settings in the whole city, and full of potential, but so far they seem to have left it out.

Long story short: If you liked The Division it's more of the same, if you hate The Division it's more of the same. If you work or have worked in or around the White House you'll be pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of the map... other than the lack of Metro (so far)
 
Played for a few more hours last night... I just can't stop comparing the virtual DC to the real one.

I've been everywhere I have worked in real life in the zones I am high enough level to visit... but looking forward to my future trips to the Foggy Bottom area and exploring the GWU campus.

When I hit level 8 or so I will make the trip the the Mall... I'm guessing most of the museums are either boarded up or major story instances though.
 
Just started a couple days ago on pre order release.

Unfortunately work picked way up and I haven't played much yet but I'm liking it ao far.

Played D1 quite a bit and its a bit annoying that they changed some basic stuff like main menus so much but I'll get over it. Crafting is more "legit" than D1 apparently. Gear sets from the gate is cool. With my nomad set, flamethrower turret and the ballistic shield that heals over time I was virtually unkillable. Which would have been helpful earlier on.

I'll comment more when I've had more time with it.
 
Just started a couple days ago on pre order release.

Unfortunately work picked way up and I haven't played much yet but I'm liking it ao far.

Played D1 quite a bit and its a bit annoying that they changed some basic stuff like main menus so much but I'll get over it. Crafting is more "legit" than D1 apparently. Gear sets from the gate is cool. With my nomad set, flamethrower turret and the ballistic shield that heals over time I was virtually unkillable. Which would have been helpful earlier on.

I'll comment more when I've had more time with it.

Yeah, but I do like that they got rid of power and stamina stats, it never felt right in a game that should be more gear focused. I know that a lot of that comes back, sort of, in the late game... but for now I like that the gear system is more like an FPS than an RPG, it works better.

I'm also finding the PVE map a lot more challenging than the D1 map. Group fights seemed deigned for more than 1 player as there is a lot more happening in fights now. Granted, I think most fights I struggle with early would be easy if I just had someone along to play CIWS to incoming mortar fire.

Some early observations (pros/cons):

1) Pro - The elite forces are less bullet sponges this go around.

2) Pro - All enemies do considerably more damage than before, requiring cover

3) Pro - As previously stated, the DC map is amazingly accurate.

4) Con - Way too many mortar snipers.. even just two in a large group is enough to make soloing same-level mob groups nearly impossible (for me*)

5) (*) Con - Cover system is still too sticky for my tastes. This is complicated by the un-stick being "S" which gets disorienting when it doesn't change keys with camera angle. Until I relearn the muscle memory, I keep hitting "A", "W" and "D" because, depending on the direction my camera is, those keys represent walking back from the cover, but since the keys don't change, they instead rotate me left, do nothing or rotate right, respectively. It gets me killed more often than I care to admit, especially when dodging mortar snipers.

6) Con - While there are a bazillion weapons modeled for the game, some are just so bad that they feel like "why bother". For instance, the "fire speed" of an automatic sniper rifle is not very useful a stat given that recoil and drift limits your rate of fire pretty handily, and limits your rate of fire already, but the weapon system in The Division is slave to raw DPS, so there are auto-snipers with twice the fire rate and half the damage.. which is worthless since effective rate of fire of a auto-sniper is pretty standard across the line. In theory a faster ROF on those rifles make them better up close, but if you are using them up close instead of switching to a more effective close weapon then you are playing wrong.
 
Yeah, but I do like that they got rid of power and stamina stats, it never felt right in a game that should be more gear focused. I know that a lot of that comes back, sort of, in the late game... but for now I like that the gear system is more like an FPS than an RPG, it works better.

I'm also finding the PVE map a lot more challenging than the D1 map. Group fights seemed deigned for more than 1 player as there is a lot more happening in fights now. Granted, I think most fights I struggle with early would be easy if I just had someone along to play CIWS to incoming mortar fire.

Some early observations (pros/cons):

1) Pro - The elite forces are less bullet sponges this go around.

2) Pro - All enemies do considerably more damage than before, requiring cover

3) Pro - As previously stated, the DC map is amazingly accurate.

4) Con - Way too many mortar snipers.. even just two in a large group is enough to make soloing same-level mob groups nearly impossible (for me*)

5) (*) Con - Cover system is still too sticky for my tastes. This is complicated by the un-stick being "S" which gets disorienting when it doesn't change keys with camera angle. Until I relearn the muscle memory, I keep hitting "A", "W" and "D" because, depending on the direction my camera is, those keys represent walking back from the cover, but since the keys don't change, they instead rotate me left, do nothing or rotate right, respectively. It gets me killed more often than I care to admit, especially when dodging mortar snipers.

6) Con - While there are a bazillion weapons modeled for the game, some are just so bad that they feel like "why bother". For instance, the "fire speed" of an automatic sniper rifle is not very useful a stat given that recoil and drift limits your rate of fire pretty handily, and limits your rate of fire already, but the weapon system in The Division is slave to raw DPS, so there are auto-snipers with twice the fire rate and half the damage.. which is worthless since effective rate of fire of a auto-sniper is pretty standard across the line. In theory a faster ROF on those rifles make them better up close, but if you are using them up close instead of switching to a more effective close weapon then you are playing wrong.

I'm around level five or six and I still haven't gotten whole of a scoped rifle. And as a sniper-turned run and gunner that makes me feel naked. I'm playing on Xbox because I have a bunch of friends on that platform but the PC version is in my future as I recently went bcak to PC. And damned if Im not a better shot with my thumb ball mouse.

I do like the new crafting/project system so far. In TD1 money started to just pile up long before level 30.

And yes, the AI is much "smarter" this time around. They ARE flanking you, both sides. AND reinforcements are incoming. Count on it. It is much more challenging solo. I'm kinda sad the flame turret doesn't auto track as far as I can tell without " buying" is and finding out. The drone is fun. "Bug that guy for me!"
 
I'm around level five or six and I still haven't gotten whole of a scoped rifle. And as a sniper-turned run and gunner that makes me feel naked. I'm playing on Xbox because I have a bunch of friends on that platform but the PC version is in my future as I recently went bcak to PC. And damned if Im not a better shot with my thumb ball mouse.

I do like the new crafting/project system so far. In TD1 money started to just pile up long before level 30.

And yes, the AI is much "smarter" this time around. They ARE flanking you, both sides. AND reinforcements are incoming. Count on it. It is much more challenging solo. I'm kinda sad the flame turret doesn't auto track as far as I can tell without " buying" is and finding out. The drone is fun. "Bug that guy for me!"

Yeah, there is one fight specifically that I can't get through, and I think the drone would help a lot. Bu they need to fix the bug that has special ability items that disappear right after spawn first.
 
Yeah, there is one fight specifically that I can't get through, and I think the drone would help a lot. Bu they need to fix the bug that has special ability items that disappear right after spawn first.

So that IS a bug... about 20% of the time it just goes back into inventory with a ten second cooldown. I thought I was deploying it at too long a range or something. I have the "any weapon" shield variant too and more than once no shots fired were hitting anybody at short range.
 
So that IS a bug... about 20% of the time it just goes back into inventory with a ten second cooldown. I thought I was deploying it at too long a range or something. I have the "any weapon" shield variant too and more than once no shots fired were hitting anybody at short range.

Yeah, I think a lot of my problems solo probably stem from me losing my deployed turret or seeker mine and not knowing it. That turret is all but essential for me since I can set it at the top of stairs, for instance, and know that I don't have to worry about that approach for a while.

But probably more deaths are just me stupidly running circles around a potted plant trying to un-stick from cover. :lol:
 
Yeah, I think a lot of my problems solo probably stem from me losing my deployed turret or seeker mine and not knowing it. That turret is all but essential for me since I can set it at the top of stairs, for instance, and know that I don't have to worry about that approach for a while.

But probably more deaths are just me stupidly running circles around a potted plant trying to un-stick from cover. :lol:

Yep. Your little "murder buddy". I never used ballistic shields before this game. Now its my "oh ****!" last resort. The drone has proved super useful to suppress snipers so I can get close enough to get em.

The enemies speaking from the sides does seem more realistic. Co-op or higher level in TD1 and they constantly came out of doors from rooms that had no other doors that I had cleared already, which is super annoying.

And I hate it when you're trying to change direction in cover and it interprets it as "jump out of cover into a hail of death" instead. There is a setting that makes it a button push on Xbox to exit cover.
 
Yep. Your little "murder buddy". I never used ballistic shields before this game. Now its my "oh ****!" last resort. The drone has proved super useful to suppress snipers so I can get close enough to get em.

The enemies speaking from the sides does seem more realistic. Co-op or higher level in TD1 and they constantly came out of doors from rooms that had no other doors that I had cleared already, which is super annoying.

And I hate it when you're trying to change direction in cover and it interprets it as "jump out of cover into a hail of death" instead. There is a setting that makes it a button push on Xbox to exit cover.



As a testament to the game design, I was finally able to complete the one checkpoint by reconnoitering more. It turns out that there were a few abandoned storefronts closer to the action that allowed me to set up my defenses before engaging. Being inside greatly reduced the threat from mortar fire, and the closeness allowed my to use my LMG and AR rather than a sniper. I also had the MIRV seeker mine with allowed my to un-stick multiple targets at a time from their cover and blast them.

After I fired my flair I got the nice cathartic second wave fight while manning a minigun. So satisfying. :lol:
 
As a testament to the game design, I was finally able to complete the one checkpoint by reconnoitering more. It turns out that there were a few abandoned storefronts closer to the action that allowed me to set up my defenses before engaging. Being inside greatly reduced the threat from mortar fire, and the closeness allowed my to use my LMG and AR rather than a sniper. I also had the MIRV seeker mine with allowed my to un-stick multiple targets at a time from their cover and blast them.

After I fired my flair I got the nice cathartic second wave fight while manning a minigun. So satisfying. :lol:

I spent last night getting slaughtered trying to get to a mission area. For close once. Low ammo, no shield kits left.

At least it isn't boring! Every fight is like the "kill the lieutenants, then kill their boss" routine with reinforcements.

Reminds me of the line from terminator 2. "We've got cops! How many? All of 'em, I think."
 
I spent last night getting slaughtered trying to get to a mission area. For close once. Low ammo, no shield kits left.

At least it isn't boring! Every fight is like the "kill the lieutenants, then kill their boss" routine with reinforcements.

Reminds me of the line from terminator 2. "We've got cops! How many? All of 'em, I think."

Yeah, the improved AI punishes camping and rewards situational awareness. I ran a story mission last night where I was ALWAYS on the brink of dead, but was able to do quick crisis management and stay on top of it. When the boss finally fell I realized that I had stopped breathing for probably 30 seconds as I have moved from cover to cover, near death, gathering dropped supplies to stay alive.

It was bitchin' is what I am trying to say.
 
Yeah, the improved AI punishes camping and rewards situational awareness. I ran a story mission last night where I was ALWAYS on the brink of dead, but was able to do quick crisis management and stay on top of it. When the boss finally fell I realized that I had stopped breathing for probably 30 seconds as I have moved from cover to cover, near death, gathering dropped supplies to stay alive.

It was bitchin' is what I am trying to say.

I've got more time in the game now.

Slogging my way through the first level of the Black tusk invasion. Spent quite a while trying to retake what I had lost until I realized you can't.

Also screwed up my stats somehow and am kinda oitmatched by the AI.

But I'm still enjoying it. Right now I just need 17 more titanium to upgrade my upgrade bench so I can craft my police m4 at an appropriate level so I can get back to dominating.

I also have adopted high stability rifles with high power Scopes instead of marksman rifles. I can chase guys around with it and take a quarter or so guys out before they get close enough to hit me.

The specialization sniper is very satisfying (once you get some ammo. Sucks to quit with 9 rounds and have zero when you restart, but oh well.)
 
I've got more time in the game now.

Slogging my way through the first level of the Black tusk invasion. Spent quite a while trying to retake what I had lost until I realized you can't.

Also screwed up my stats somehow and am kinda oitmatched by the AI.

But I'm still enjoying it. Right now I just need 17 more titanium to upgrade my upgrade bench so I can craft my police m4 at an appropriate level so I can get back to dominating.

I also have adopted high stability rifles with high power Scopes instead of marksman rifles. I can chase guys around with it and take a quarter or so guys out before they get close enough to hit me.

The specialization sniper is very satisfying (once you get some ammo. Sucks to quit with 9 rounds and have zero when you restart, but oh well.)

I am using the Explosives specialization and hate the special weapon so I never use it. I am just an LMG spec so it has the LMG skills.

I am toying with building a Skill based build with maximum cool down and then spamming seeker mines... because why not?

I have found that crafting has been more of a headache than it's worth. You should just farm new gear by burning down control points and rerunning missions and doable difficulty levels. In theory, there are a TON of weapons and armor crates all over the map that refill every 24 hours, and you can create circuits to run every day collecting gear even while avoiding fights.
 
I am using the Explosives specialization and hate the special weapon so I never use it. I am just an LMG spec so it has the LMG skills.

I am toying with building a Skill based build with maximum cool down and then spamming seeker mines... because why not?

I have found that crafting has been more of a headache than it's worth. You should just farm new gear by burning down control points and rerunning missions and doable difficulty levels. In theory, there are a TON of weapons and armor crates all over the map that refill every 24 hours, and you can create circuits to run every day collecting gear even while avoiding fights.

I'm.just glad I finally got my Patience kneepads. That freed up a skill slot as I don't need the armor repair drone anymore. Now I have the ballistic shield again. Too bad it doesn't let you "holster on cover" like it did before. This has killed me more than once. I've run the shield that bounces bullets back and that's really interesting. They stop shooting at you if they're close and you can just chase them down. In larger groups or at longer range they still gun you down.

Right now I'm just harvesting gear so I can rework my stats. I really blew it on my last rework.

The Marksman specialization is pretty good. Buffs for headshots, a rifle damage buff and a damage output buff for the marksman rifle which equates to a satisfying "**** you!" to most elites.

Overall I'm pretty impressed. They did a real good job keeping what worked in and fixing what didn't in The Division.

And I absolutely despise the damn drone pilots. Dealing with them has changed my whole playstyle.

I usually keep.my distance with multiple fallback positions chosen before I engage.

Now I go after them as soon as I clear a path and to hell with the consequences. Them and medics. I violate the Geneva conventions and drop them as soon as I see them. Nothing worse than them reviving that elite you just finally knocked down!
 
I'm.just glad I finally got my Patience kneepads. That freed up a skill slot as I don't need the armor repair drone anymore. Now I have the ballistic shield again. Too bad it doesn't let you "holster on cover" like it did before. This has killed me more than once. I've run the shield that bounces bullets back and that's really interesting. They stop shooting at you if they're close and you can just chase them down. In larger groups or at longer range they still gun you down.

Right now I'm just harvesting gear so I can rework my stats. I really blew it on my last rework.

The Marksman specialization is pretty good. Buffs for headshots, a rifle damage buff and a damage output buff for the marksman rifle which equates to a satisfying "**** you!" to most elites.

Overall I'm pretty impressed. They did a real good job keeping what worked in and fixing what didn't in The Division.

And I absolutely despise the damn drone pilots. Dealing with them has changed my whole playstyle.

I usually keep.my distance with multiple fallback positions chosen before I engage.

Now I go after them as soon as I clear a path and to hell with the consequences. Them and medics. I violate the Geneva conventions and drop them as soon as I see them. Nothing worse than them reviving that elite you just finally knocked down!

I've grown to love the drone pilots. When you get used to the explosive drones you can force them to fly over enemy positions and detonate them yourself. And once you know where they are they can be taken out pretty easy by detonating their drones over their own heads.
 
I've grown to love the drone pilots. When you get used to the explosive drones you can force them to fly over enemy positions and detonate them yourself. And once you know where they are they can be taken out pretty easy by detonating their drones over their own heads.

I play solo though and when it gets hairy they're too easy to miss. I do try to hit them on launch though.

It is more satisfying to roll up on them in cover and then mow them down as they try to scramble away!

I'm still trying to figure out how they carry a couple dozen drones with those outfits they wear though.
 
I'm going to be picking up the Gangs of New York expansion this week. Looking forward to what will likely be a fun, but short, return visit to The Division 2.

When I burn out on a game it usually sticks, so we will see how long I make it before the game starts feeling like a chore.

THat isn't to say that The Division 2 is a bad game. It's really one of my favorite of the last few years. I just tend to play a game until it feels like a job, then I quit.
 
I just started the new content. They have changed a lot in this game since I played last.

Combat is still the kind barely controlled chaos when it is at its best, and there has been an expansion of available gear.

Gear power ramps up quickly in the new zones with blue gear easily outpacing most of the gold gear you might have collected in Washington DC. It feels kind of like starting over without actually starting over... pretty standard in MMORPGs, I suppose. You get to bring with you everything you gathered... but it's mostly obsolete.

I don't mind that, really, because building and min-maxing is why I play these action RPGs anyway.

The new map appears to be maybe a quarter the size of the DC map, so it will probably be 30 hours of gameplay to finish everything and complete my character build. Whether that is worth $30 to you is a personal choice. It's still one of the more economical sources of entertainment. at $1/hour.
 
I've completed the DLC up to, but not including, the final mission. Judging by the rest of the DLC, I'll need to set aside a lot of time to run the last mission, and maybe wait for the house to be empty so I can swear at my leisure.

My overall impression is that I like it. It adds a lot of new gear, which is great, and new missions, which I like. I won't go into the specifics of the gear and the min/max considerations because I'm the only one playing the game here, so I'll just mention what I didn't like.

My big knock against the game is the formulaic way some (most) story missions inject difficulty. At key transitions in missions you are usually confronted with one to three elite troops and their underlings that you need to defeat to progress. The issue here is that most of the enemy classes are predictable and easy to counter regardless of their eliteness... except one. There is a tanky elite with a flame thrower that is just plain difficult. He will continue to approach your position and then drown you in a stream of flaming liquid, and can run rather fast when he needs to so it can be hard to outpace him. He has some weak spots that you can shoot to cause extra damage, but they are on his back and sides... which makes him easy in group play, I suppose, but playing solo means he is almost never distracted. I am sure there is some build that is better at distraction, but I use a deployable turret that he just runs up to and stomps it immediately as a counter.

I would say that he's just hard because of my build, but I think the dev team knows this elite is a PIA for everyone because almost all mission transitions have one of these guys.

On some missions I can cheese these fights by throwing the turret somewhere that he can't path to, breaking his AI as he tries to path to the turret as I empty 3 clips of 7.62 into his back... but when I don't have that option I struggle.

He feels like a "Are you SURE you want to play solo?" mechanism.
 
Huh.. turns out I am only half done when I finished that mission. This is a pretty big DLC.

Granted, I am feeling like I might have reached my satiation point now. Total play time was about 30 hours... maybe I just subconsciously decided that 30 hours would be enough.
 
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