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March 28, 2024, 06:31:45 PM

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The Division 2

Started by Barry Admin, March 15, 2019, 10:35:52 PM

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Barry Admin

Anyone playing this or planning to get it? The first game was a bit scant at launch, but got brilliant as it went on - Ubisoft seem to specialise at that, although they've also apparently added a lot more content initially to Divison 2.

I'm on the fence about their open world games, but initial reports about this seem very favourable indeed. I'd love to see the excellent survival mode returning.

Paul Calf

I've been wavering on this. Is it worth a look?

Paul Calf

I think I was put off by the £85 price tag for the 'Ultimate Edition' and the fact that in-game currency is available on top of that.

Barry Admin

Well I got it and I'm not sure Paul! The disc contained a 350mb file that downloads the 42gb game, ffs. Developers have got very lazy with console patches.

The game seems alright, but I'm actually slightly underwhelmed so far, to be honest. It's early days, but I just don't know. It seems like much the same game, and I've only been playing solo. I suppose I really need to rank up more, and do actual missions - I've been fannying around with the free roam stuff, some of which is quite challenging as a solo player.

So yeah, reserving judgment.

Main things that are bothering me are that the framerate gets very bad, really needs fixed, it's atrocious at times, full on hitching that's getting me killed during tense moments.

Also, it's so fucking DARK! I've turned the brightness right up and hopefully that will sort it, but adding some torches to guns would really help, as well as improving the atmosphere. I was having to shoot just to search corners with the muzzle flash last night, it was crazy.

AI seems good, when I rushed to get a better position, the enemies would also switch.

It's a grind, of course. I expect I'll really get into it, for a while. Massive were responsive to the community last time round, so I do think the game will get a lot better, and they'll definitely be following the "live service" model, so there should be a lot of free content over the next few years.

Mobius

I'm enjoying it, basically just playing it as a single player game really as I did with Division 1.

Bloody hard! Keep getting flanked and killed by basic enemies :(

Graphics and world are great and there's loads to explore and do. I was so bored of Destiny 2, so glad this came out.


biggytitbo

Can you play it as a single player offline game?

Thursday

There's single player, but it's always online.

Barry Admin

Wew, just done the third mission, as I finally figured out that's what I have to do to open the Dark Zone. Lost my group and ran around for ages trying to find my way through the level. Stuff like that and the UI in general isn't great. For instance, I'm usually listening to YouTube videos, and miss the greande notifications now, and don't hear the rushers screaming and charging at me. Might have to try all the accessibility sound stuff on again for more expansive subtitles.

Anyway, that mission was TOUGH! I love that the game is actually challenging, and cover is a must now, you can't just run out and tank shit.

Barry Admin

#8
Seriously, this game can be brutal, I love it! If they nerf the AI and difficulty, it will be a great shame.

The reviver is a must for solo play, picks you up without even being deployed first, although doesn't seem to work in the Dark Zone. I teamed up with a guy last night and, although I prefer solo, we had a lot of fun just clearing landmarks and extracting gear. It's weird to have a daytime dark zone though, I haven't got used to that yet!  I loved the Xmas snow setting, and the DZ being nighttime, now you're running about in bright summer days. Hopefully one of those other dark zone areas will be more traditionally brooding.

Barry Admin

Yeah, this is fucking brilliant. I definitely have issues with things like the presentation and storytelling, but the core gunplay is awesome.

I can't wair until I'm a high enough level for strongholds, they were really bastard hard in the first game. And there's mention of 8-man raids or some such coming soon!

Barry Admin

I'm gonna keep on talking to myself, I don't even care.

That must be the first hard mode mission I've done, we must have been stuck on the final part for an hour. I'm not usually a huge fan of cover shooters, but I did love the first game, and I'd more accurately call it a tactical shooter, I think. The AI is amazing, you can't just stand in a certain spot and cheese the mission. You have to be totally aware of what they're doing, and watch out for little exploding drones trundling towards you etc. Takes me back to my Quake days too, as range and such is very important. Got to be thinking and reacting at all times, switching guns or quickly weighing up whether it's better to sit out a reload instead.

There's that lovely moment where you move to the next phase of the mission, before the enemy spot you, and everyone quietly gets into place, the calm before the storm. Shots are lined up, grenades are readied... then boom, someone takes the first shot, and you're off.

You have to be thinking about positioning all the time, constantly. We were switching between pushing and retreating, trying to flank, trying to stop ourselves getting flanked, watching for melee rushers... it was like a tug of war, we were trapped at the back of the map, and could only make occasionally forays out, gingerly pushing forwards, then dashing back to cover.

It's so fucking glorious, I love the third person view for a change too, it feels great, really immersive in a different way, as you hop over things and slide across bonnets. Such great moments of synergy when playing with randoms too, you HAVE to look after your teammates, or you'll all get fucked sideways. You constantly have to take the risk of picking them up, likely in dodgy areas.

Brilliant! Shooter of the year, perhaps! Tactical AF!

Mobius

It is hard but not in a frustrating way. I've died a few times but it's almost always because I'm running ahead too far, not scouting properly and then get jumped.

I like how if you try and run the enemy will flank and close in and rush forward. None of that 'just move x distance away so the encounter resets' business.

I love the atmosphere and location and there's so much to loot.

Getting some decent blue weapons now and even the odd purple (about level 15) so starting to tweak a little more and play with mods.

I love sneaking up on a group of 3 enemies and killing them all with a single well placed grenade

Really enjoying it, love how you can essentially play as a Single Player game.

Having friendly NPCs around is nice too, and watching 2 enemy factions fight in the street is cool.

The detail in the missions is great as well, like the museums and places dotted around Washington DC are very cool


QDRPHNC

You've convinced me on this one,  Barry, I will pick it up when I'm back from vacation.

I loved the original, but my one big concern here is around how much the snowy, winter atmos will be missed. It played a big part in how much I enjoyed it, I think.

Barry Admin

Quote from: QDRPHNC on March 20, 2019, 09:48:38 AM
You've convinced me on this one,  Barry, I will pick it up when I'm back from vacation.

I loved the original, but my one big concern here is around how much the snowy, winter atmos will be missed. It played a big part in how much I enjoyed it, I think.

Apparently the Washington setting is super realistic/faithful and such. But yeah, I miss the snowy Xmas too mate.

I do have some issues as I said, and it took a few days, but now I am just obsessed with it.

As Mobius says, it never feels unfair, and the AI is absolutely groundbreaking. The engagements are just phenomenal, hard mode missions were taking me the guts of an hour each time last night. No one was on mic, and no one rage quit. Everyone kind of knew what to do, and when we wiped we'd just get straight back to it, but I never get frustrated at stuff like that anyway. When you finally get past those points where you've been stuck, it just feels so good. And I have sat with no YouTube on in the background for a change, just concentrating, listening for certain sound cues etc.

Only now am I starting to really understand some of the systems, it can be pretty oblique! Like it doesn't explain stuff like accuracy or stability. You've got to put some thought and effort into this game.

Mobius, I'm level 16 now and finally got my first high-ends last night! I haven't been farming them or anything, just playing naturally. First one was a SVD semi-automatic sniper, yeooo. Also got gloves but I'm leaving them off for now as I have a set bonus for my purples.

QDR, I think I perhaps remember you moaning about "boring min maxing" in the first game? While that will always be a certain part of these looter shooters, I think they've taken great strides to level the playing field. A lot of sweaty tryhard youtubers are currently very upset that gear is now normalised, as it mean they can no longer eg solo gank 4-man squads in the Dark Zone! Skill is now far more important than the amount of time sprint grinding.

Barry Admin

I did a mission in the Lincoln Memorial last night! I'm en route to another location that I'm excited about.

Washington does look fucking great, how overgrown and unkempt it is particularly so. It's like a tramps bush.

A guy from the clan I joined came into my session and he's level 30, while I'm level 19 - I went up three levels very fast because of the extra XP, and the difficulty scaling worked great, it effectively made me ten levels stronger. Then he dropped me tons of level 28 - level 30 yellows and purples, and I shoved them all in my stash with glee.

Barry Admin

#15
Control Points explained... how to rank them up! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rJPF3-wID_A&feature=youtu.be

Edit: a week on, it's now becoming apparent that the world map is dynamic. Cor.

Barry Admin

Bounties unlocked now finally, level 22. The game fired 3 people in with me, and we just went round grinding them for a bit for loot, good times. I'm getting a bit better at navigating the map - this game just doesn't hold your hand much at all, if ever. You really need to explore and search, look for alternate access routes and such. The increased loot to pick up as you go around is a great reward for exploration anyway.

Barry Admin

One thing I'm really looking forward to doing is starting an alt. I've got a good chunk of stuff done now, in terms of progressing the world map and such, and see how it has all changed through my actions. It'll be fascinating to go back to the start, and see all the areas like the White House before those upgrades and whatnot were implemented.

I saw a YouTube video in my recommendations last night, stating this game had bombed sales-wise in the shops :-( I'm sure people will come to it through word of mouth though, and as the free content begins getting rolled out. It really is something special, I mean, the actual skill it takes as a shooter is rare these days, it really puts you to the test. You can fail stuff, you can fuck up free roam events... people will die, supply drops will be lost.

Barry Admin

Hit the level cap last night and finished the story/World Tour 1. Managed to solo 2 of the strongholds, but things should get much tougher from here. I like the specialisation thing you get in endgame, I've chosen Sharpshooter, but you can swap on the fly. That's neat, I was going set up two alts like in Destiny...!

Gonna be busy playing Ingress all weekend, but the endgame looks decent, and I've still not bothered with Conflict (4v4 multiplayer it seems) or been in the Dark Zone much. I've got some cracking high end guns now, but the grind for a better gear score begins. Started using mostly sniper and shotgun, and was having a ball with that loadout.

BeardFaceMan

Really enjoyed the beta of the first game, really wished I jumped on at the beginning, that put me off jumping in when they started making it even better. If you don't play this when it first comes out and wait a bit are you going to be going up against a load of overpowered players when you try and play?

Barry Admin

Doesn't seem like it, they're using normalisation this time around.

As I mentioned upthread:

QuoteQDR, I think I perhaps remember you moaning about "boring min maxing" in the first game? While that will always be a certain part of these looter shooters, I think they've taken great strides to level the playing field. A lot of sweaty tryhard youtubers are currently very upset that gear is now normalised, as it mean they can no longer eg solo gank 4-man squads in the Dark Zone! Skill is now far more important than the amount of time sprint grinding.

Saw an interesting post from a guy who was top 1% in Division 1 who said it's a great change, and that the first game took over his life, and just a few days away from grinding would mean that he couldn't keep up in the Dark Zone. Sounds like they've done a great job at tackling this.

Barry Admin

Still haven't had much chance to endgame, but like what I've seen so far, a lot. World Tier 1 is nails as fuck, for starters. Some cool stuff happens too, no spoilers.

It does have that Destiny thing though where it's all about gear score, so you're now swimming in high end dropa, and end up junking most of it and just using whatever is highest gear score, rather than what looks or feels or works best.

Haven't done any WT1 missions yet! Been too busy doing the new/different free roam activities, which is a good sign.

QDRPHNC

Right, just started getting into this. Gameplay feels more satisfying than the original, you feel like your bullets are doing some damage. Very smart and aggressive enemy AI, which is fun. Feels like a truly tactical shooter, more than the the first one.

The UX / UI is a bit of a nightmare (close window A, close window A, close window A, close window A... oh no wait that last window needed X to close...), and the amount of information I'm required to remember - about the different game types, about the different things to be done at different locations, perks / skills, the way it seems you have to unlock tiers of weapon accessories now, it's all a bit overwhelming. I felt that about the first one too, but this seems even worse (not worse-bad, worse-complicated). Is that the case, Barry, or am I just being flooding with too much information to process?

Anyway, I do miss the snow, but I also had a cracking time last night on freeroam with 3 other agents, pitch black in the rain with a thunderstorm going overhead, which was lovely.

Mobius

I'm level 30 now. Should I stay in Tier 1 (I assume this is the Tier you start in?) to finish off my main/side missions, contaminated zones and SHD tech collection?

Bit overwhelmed and not sure what happens when you reach max level.

Barry Admin

QDR: sounds like PC UI issues? I find it fine, just struggles at first to find locations in the world, but once you get that you might have to take alternate routes, it's all good. The highlighter can be hard to see though, and I turned back on the onscreen pointer that was on by default in the first game. Well worth going through the options as there's some great stuff in there, and it only clicked for me when I turned camera speed up but sensitivity down, seeing as I mostly snipe.

I think all the systems will come back to you as you play, as they did with me. Mostly you don't worry about it until you're endgame really. You will find gear sets in your first run through, and it's good to equip those for the bonuses, but remember that some of them have skill requirements, and if your skill is low (shown in red) the talents won't activate. I find it pretty intuitive, but I played a good bit of D1 last year, when I finally picked up the season pass very cheap. Please ask if there's anything I can help with.

I didn't really bother with crafting, just crafted the weapon mods, and used those. I only just realised that you can also eventually upgrade the crafting table while you're at it.

But really, most of this is endgame stuff, so just gradually slide into it and don't worry. Glad you're having fun!

Barry Admin

Quote from: Mobius on March 26, 2019, 12:45:05 AM
I'm level 30 now. Should I stay in Tier 1 (I assume this is the Tier you start in?) to finish off my main/side missions, contaminated zones and SHD tech collection?

Bit overwhelmed and not sure what happens when you reach max level.

I would advocate just taking your time and doing what feels right. I don't have a single exotic yet, while others have been farming them since day one, they're the guys who end up bored and moaning that there's "nothing left to do."

Tier 1 is the one you go to after you finish the three strongholds and all main missions.

Only thing I wish I'd done before progressing is the Dark Zone, I was barely in there at all, and I THINK that I saw it mention that the bracket is T1-T5 on it. But solo DZ is tough anyway, so meh.

Again, do what you fancy mate, all I can tell you is that when you progres to WT1, the game really steps up in difficulty, and you will be continually junking your gear and upgrading, and you will have new tools too (specialist). I think max gearscore might be 300 or 350 - I'm at 300 now, and have only done 1 mission, I've just been running around doing side missions and stuff, and getting killed en route :-D

Let me know what you decide. And make sure to have a good look round the underground area south of the White House, if you haven't already.

Barry Admin

QDR, make sure you pick your passive perks from the guy who gives you skills, I didn't realise about that for the first five or six levels, and there's good ones like "extra XP for headshot or weakpoint kill", plus extra nades and stash space etc. Keep some gear in your stash for now, for projects. Then I dismantle everything that's not high end or purple for mats, as I go along.

QDRPHNC

#27
Thanks, Barry, all good tips. For reference, I'm playing on XB1. Question for you: I'm only level 6, where do I find the hand-stops, silencers, compensators, that kind of gear?

I played a lot of the original, but was never a numbers / gear nerd. I think I'm just finding this overwhelming because it's unfamiliar - I'm sure TD1 was the same way when I first started playing it. It's the sort of game where you can get into the minutia as much or as little as you like. You were right what you said earlier - very little handholding. Which is a good thing, but in the first few hours, you're getting a lot of information and instructions dropped on your head before you've had a chance to adequately process / learn-by-doing the previous info-dump.

One thing that I forgot to mention - like TD1, TD2 really, really benefits from turning the music off. The sound design is so good - the echoey, empty streets, detritus blowing around, bad guys talking in the next room, and especially the sounds of the guns (realistic crack-crack-crack, not like an action movie) - that the music, in my opinion, takes the edge off the tense atmosphere.

And related to that, I adore the absolute chaos when a good gunfight erupts, especially with headphones on. Plodding through the empty streets, through abandoned buildings, and suddenly you're crouched behind a wall with you teammates bullets' zipping over your head every which way, the sound of the doorframe you're behind getting shot to shit fills your ears, people screaming, the room shakes with a fucking massive explosion, and after a few minutes it's all quiet again. Then you hear the last big bastard stomping up the stairs behind you. Just fucking brilliant.

Oh, and yeah, the enemy AI is staggeringly good, best I've ever seen in a game. Just when you think you've got them cornered, they fall back or someone flanks you or they turn crazy aggressive.

Mobius

Quote from: Barry Admin on March 26, 2019, 12:45:58 PM

Cheers mate. I think I have a ways to go before going to Tier 1 then because I haven't done any of the strongholds yet. I've hit 30 with loads of missions left.

Think I'll just enjoy clearing the world and collecting what I've missed before moving into the Tiers and stressing over stats and gear.

Definitely think I need a proper exploration of the entire map, without being distracted by missions and stuff. A really good wander.

Ham Bap

I'm really enjoying this. Never played the first one but this is pretty great.
I'm mainly a solo player and have a few friends on PS4 but we never have/play the same games.
The matchmaking on this is fantastic, you don't need any friends as the game teams you up with similar people. It's great to mooch around with others and have some backup.

The game itself, the enemies and the AI are fantastic. The firefights are great.
I don't think it has sold too well which is a pity as I'd recommend it to anyone.