With the launch of the much anticipated Division 2 from Ubisoft today, initial feedback from trusted review sites online is trending pretty positive. Being essentially an online RPG, all we’re getting at this stage is first impressions. We’ll have to wait a until people have more time with the game and start reaching some of the deeper buried content until we start to get a full sense of everything it has to offer.
But is it better than the first game?
With out a doubt, yes. But does that mean it’s a good game overall? Well that’s were we need to go in to more detail. In almost every way, The Division 2 is an improvement over its predecessor. The world feels more full and interesting, the gun play and visuals are improved, enemy variance is better. Everything just feels like it’s had an extra layer of polish that the first game didn’t get. This all of course was to be expected, but in the world of gaming, it’s not something that can be taken for granted. Happily this time around the developers have delivered on those expectations.
How does it fare as a stand-alone game?
Being a stat and loot driven RPG shooter, the game really needs to success in delivering a meaningful progression system to the player. This means weapon and armour upgrades that actually have a real impact to gameplay. It also means unlocking player attributes that are more than just cosmetic or tiny imperceptible tweaks to an underlying stat system.
The Division 2 does this well, at least in the early hours of the game. To give you an idea, with the level cap at 30, we’re writing this article only having reached level 17 so far. There is still plenty of post ‘end-game’ content after the main story but in terms of meaningful progression you wouldn’t expect it to extend far past the level cap. New items are spaced well throughout the game, level progression actually means something, perks give you noticeable boosts.
Most importantly however (this being a third person shooter after all) is the weapons. This is a game where damage hit points come flying out of enemies when you hit them. Where armour actually makes a difference and hitting an enemy in the head will deal a lot more damage than blasting them in a toe. Damage, fire rate and accuracy of your weapon are probably the most important stats in the game. This makes upgrading your arsenal not only necessary but satisfying and a key driver to keep you playing.
The Good
Well as previously mentioned, the all important progression system is a big plus, the visuals are great and the game world is interesting. On top of all that, the gun-play (which is pretty crappy in the first game) is much improved with the audio and animations being punchier and enemy animations actually responsive and timely when getting hit.
Another positive addition to the game, and one we mentioned in the opening paragraph, is a much more varied range of enemies. The combination of size, speed, armour and weapons means you always have to be on your toes. Giant chainsaw wielding melee enemies lurk in narrow corridors while snipers may patrol big open areas. Different factions don’t only look different, but will have different critical hit areas, movement behaviours and weapons. This goes a long way in keeping the game-play feel fresh and less predicable.
The Bad
The game isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s far from bad. That being said, if you’re after a great immersive Tom Clancy worthy story, you might be a little disappointed. The characters are good but not great and the overarching plot is fairly predictable. There isn’t much in the way of side compelling stories to explore in the world beyond the main mission either. On the flip side, there is some pretty well done small segments of the game that stand out. These mostly centred around some fairly compelling and interesting villains.
Another issue we’ve encountered is the shotgun. It’s a simple game mechanic that hearkens as far back as the original Doom. Devastating at close range, useless and long range. That’s all it needs to be. Somehow in this particular game, it’s only one of those two things. At range the Shotgun is as you would expect, pretty useless. However, close up it’s somewhat effective but it barely deals any more damage that a regular rifle. This makes it essentially useless. A fairly small grievance and one that could easily be fixed in a patch, so at this point we’ll just wait and see.
To Summarise
In conclusion, we were presently surprised. The game is fun, it’s a big step up over the original and the down sides were only minor. This of course won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. For instance, if you’re a WoW player and not a fan of run and gun action shooters, it’s probably not for you. Likewise, if you’re a Call of Duty fan that likes twitch shooters with sub 1 second time to kill, this won’t be for you either. To summarise, if you like this genre blending style of game then you’ll probably enjoy the Division 2. Just don’t shell out $70 expecting it to be something that it isn’t.
Get a bit more of the picture with the official launch trailer
The Hardware Requirements
Being a very PC-centric game and being built for native 4K support this game can really put a strain on your gaming rig. Especially if you really want to max it out. Ubisoft’s own official hardware recommendations to play at 4K require an RTX2080 TI. Paired ideally with a high end i7-i9 current gen CPU and 16GB of RAM. You can take this with a grain of salt. The publishers recommendations are not always based on actual raw performance. That being said, in this case, they don’t appear to be far from the truth either.
If like most gamers, you’ll be playing at 1080P or 1440P you can get away with a GTX1070 or RTX2060 GPU. Paired with a high end i5 or Ryzen 7 CPU and 16GB of RAM to keep up. Bare in mind this is for high graphics pre-sets at 60FPS. Remember to keep a little headroom if you’re trying to reach higher frame rates on a high-refresh rate gaming monitor.
For you budget gamers out there, the minimum officially supported hardware specs are a GTX670 + i5-2500K with 8GB of RAM. This roughly equities to an i3-8100 and a GTX1050 TI. Expect to need to dial both the in game graphics settings and resolution down low to achieve a smooth frame rate.
Here is the full official list direct from Ubisoft for reference
The Division 2: Minimum system requirements – 1080p | 30 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD FX-6350 | Intel Core I5-2500K
- RAM: 8 GM
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 670
- VRAM: 2 GB
The Division 2: Recommended system requirements – 1080p | 60 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X | Intel Core I7-4790
- RAM: 8 GB
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 970
- VRAM: 4 GB
The Division 2: High system requirements – 1440p | 60 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 | Intel Core I7-6700K
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070
- VRAM: 8 GB
The Division 2: Elite system requirements – 4K | 60 FPS
- OS: Windows 7 | 8 | 10
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X | Intel Core I9-7900X
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 TI
- VRAM: 11 GB
Where to buy the Division 2 on PC in Australia
So how do you get your hands on a copy of the Division 2 for PC? Well in Australia it starts at $64.00 on Amazon or JB-Hi Fi. If you have a JB locally you can walk in and grab a copy on the spot. Not in a rush? If you have Amazon prime you get free delivery. Don’t want to leave the house? It’s just a few bucks more on the Epic Games store. Just don’t get ripped off at EB!
- Amazon – $64
- JB Hi-Fi – $64
- Epic Games Store – $69.95
- Ubisoft Store – $89.95
- EB Games – $89.95
Customising a gaming PC for the Division 2
Don’t have a gaming PC up to the challenge? Well now you know what sort of hardware you’ll need to hit your desired gameplay experience, the next part is easy. Visit www.evatech.com.au and customise your next dream ‘Division 2’ ready gaming PC today. Australian built, high quality, latest gen gaming PCs built to order and delivered nation wide. Above all, it’s easy, powerful, amazing value and has great built in error checking and performance indicators.
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