The Division 2 open beta comes to a close today and overall it’s certainly been a pretty wild weekend. The beta gave us a few different slices of the game from a glimpse into the open world and story missions, to the dreaded Dark Zone and even some 4v4 PVP in the form of Conflict. It hasn’t been a completely smooth experience but on the whole, the beta was very impressive and has left me very excited for the launch of the full game.
Technical Difficulties
We’ll start with the issues I faced during the beta which thankfully were few and far between. I played on a PS4 Pro and experienced no major crashes or disconnects, although these have been major problems over on PC. I did experience some small frame rate drops and some slight rubber-banding when trying to vault over multiple obstacles quickly in free roam, likely due to the game struggling to render my surroundings. There was also an occasion in which the texture for a wall failed to pop in meaning I could see straight through the map. Whilst this wasn’t enough to break my immersion too hard it should be noted this is not a one-off problem with it also occurring on PC. Apart from a couple of small issues mentioned the beta, for me at least was on the whole excellent. PC players, on the other hand, have had a much rougher time with stability and connection issues which will hopefully be resolved or at least improved for the game’s launch.
A Beautiful and Dangerous World
Gone is the dark and lifeless world of New York from the first game, and in its place is now a bright and vibrant, yet still decaying and decrepit Washington DC. There are towering whitewashed buildings, glowing green vegetation and, subtle reminders of life before the outbreak scattered around for you to look at. There are also more people to interact within DC, with groups of civilians and enemies patrolling, guarding, or searching for supplies and the choice is there if you want to help out the innocent or eliminate the threat. Open world events similar to Destiny, such as control point capturing or propaganda broadcast sabotage actually made me feel like I was making a difference to the world and helping innocent people live a little easier. Traveling to each new mission felt in its self like its own little task and really sold how dangerous the world has become.
There’s plenty to do too, with a handful of story missions and side mission to chew through as well as a fairly short but sweet introducing to the Base of Operations and Settlements mechanic. The story itself didn’t suck me in a great deal, although It would be harsh to judge the full game’s narrative off a short beta, but the side missions were impressive. Dynamic environments which had been shooting across huge gaps in buildings or trying to avoid fire from enemies above kept me on my toes. Similar to the open world activities they did make me feel I was making a difference in the world.
As for the gameplay itself, this game is definitely focused on team gameplay and even though I did complete every mission solo it was at times grueling. Each encounter became a strategic challenge with me planning my turret placements ever so carefully and picking the right moment to use my healing drone. The enemies AI is annoyingly intelligent too in the best kind of way, with brutes charging and destroying turrets or regular soldiers constantly trying to flank you, forcing you to keep your head on a swivel. If you’re looking for an added challenge, by all means, attempt these missions solo but for a little extra fun assembling a team is vital. Especially for end game and Dark Zone Content.
The Dark Zone
Speaking of, The Dark Zone is pretty much how I remembered from the first Division. All bets are off with fellow players aiding you one minute and turning on you the next, much harder enemies and higher tier loot, and the classic “Helicopter Extraction” to get your contaminated loot out of the DZ and into your inventory. My experience went as expected; teamed up with a few players, got absolutely steamed rolled by some rogue groups, got some pretty cool loot out of it. The DZ was more fun than I anticipated and with The Division 2’s matchmaking system finding fellow agents to team up with shouldn’t be a problem for solo players.
Conflict – Team Deathmatch in The Division?
I don’t remember anything like this in the first Divison although admittedly I didn’t play it for long so Conflict, the 4V4 PVP mode had me intrigued. Using all the gear you’ve collected in the world but put on a standard level to give each player a fighting chance was much better than pre-set loadouts or a different character altogether for multiplayer. Once again, it was just simple fun. Intense CQB combat with abilities being a game changer was cool and a nice change of pace from the regular free-roam world. Again playing with a team is preferable but a bunch of randoms with their heads screwed on still have a good chance and its still a fun time.
Endgame
The beta gives you a small snippet of endgame in the form of 3 ready-built characters, one each for the games main specialists and one endgame mission to try out. Those characters are of course equipped with some pretty heavy firepower. The beta obviously doesn’t give a massive insight into the games actual endgame and limits you quite a bit, which is to be expected, but trying out some high tier guns and giving each specialist a run was really fun. It’s going to have to be the Crossbow for me, what about you?
The Division 2 beta has left a pretty damn good lasting impression on me. The content was fun, the gameplay smooth and, the world beautiful. Don’t get me wrong I’m still a little skeptical for the games technical problems at launch and its overarching story which have never been The Divison’s strongest point but in general, The Division 2 Open Beta is a really fun time which I thoroughly enjoyed.