How Division 2 Brings A New Standard To Sequels

Many have tried, many have failed, a small fraction of the games made will perform well, only a handful of them will continue and some will grow to legendary status! Trying to re-create an amazing experience is like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks, you need determination, conviction, and a little bit of beginner's luck. Video game developers everywhere are constantly reaching for this elusive goal, but for those who are able to catch it and hold on, there are many rewards.

How Division 2 Brings A New Standard To Sequels
There are some tropes in the gaming community which occur almost a little too often. I'd like to talk about one in particular that every franchise will eventually come to know. The passage of time catches up with us all, and so too for video games. I've been playing video games in one form or another since the Nintendo 64; I have seen my fair share of successes and inevitably a Steam library amount of failures. The point which I would like to focus on for this article, is when even a veteran gamer like myself is taken-a-back by how a game that looked so promising, could let us down so much.

What's Changed

When I jumped into The Division 2 Private Beta, I was expecting The Division with improvements and maybe some new features which could make general progression and the end-game more interesting. Guess what? That's exactly what happened! I was so surprised that my simple expectations for a sequel were met with open arms. I just could not get enough of the smooth combat mechanics, even the new armor/med-pack system was super easy to get used to.

Obviously, those aren't the only differences between the two games, some major changes to the world have made the base of operations somewhere I actually want to go back to instead of the alternative of just not having a choice. Settlements are another great way The Division 2 makes the open-world more exciting to be in. Side Missions and recruitable allies litter the Settlements, giving these areas a community atmosphere which is so far unprecedented with The Division's NPCs. I'm sure anyone who played the first Division remembers (or already forgot) the very forgettable characters you meet throughout the story. Proving once again that Ubisoft has listened to its player base, the devs have added a feature called "Recruiting." This feature allows you to take personnel from the various settlements throughout the game and bring them to the White House. By giving us the ability to actually recruit instead of having to save everybody who joins us, allows the player to get to know the various NPCs a little better.

How Division 2 Brings A New Standard To Sequels
Even the features which people were happy with were upgraded, such as the perk system. In The Division players upgrade the Base of Operations which would give them access to different perks, depending on the which of the 3 skill trees, Tech, Security, or Medical they were upgrading. This worked in its own way giving players more advantages the more they upgraded their base, but it didn't stick out in its own right. In The Division 2 Private Beta players must use SHD Tech gathered from doing missions, leveling up, or finding a SHD Cache, to unlock the 60 perks available in the game. The real impressive part of the games new perk system is the amount of tier unlocks that some of the perks have. Some can have up to 5 unlockable tiers that keep giving you better benefits as they get upgraded to the next level.

The Others

All of the aforementioned changes to The Division 2 ranged from quality-of-life improvements to full-blown revolutionary changes. Some could be considered a bit risky by changing some mechanics that were previously set in stone, but not every game is so lucky. Games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II may have brought back the iconic characters, some of the same mechanics and the Star Wars name, but it failed to deliver a full experience. Whether it was the lack of improvements or the unsatisfactory ending, The Force Unleashed II killed a potential franchise by rushing in a sequel which didn't live up to its predecessors' standards.

Another example of a huge franchise being undermined by its own incompetence was Mass Effect: Andromeda. To say this game didn't do well would be an understatement, by the fact that the biggest gaming news of 2017 was the failure that was Andromeda. A classic case of being too comfortable with what works instead of re-inventing the wheel; some say it was the first in the series not to build on the plot and character personalities like what the rest of the franchise was famous for.  

How Division 2 Brings A New Standard To Sequels
There are countless series to have suffered the same fate as the ones mentioned above. This is why I was positively amazed at how much the devs over at Ubisoft listened and applied the players' opinions. From making sure the campaign is fully playable solo, to adding in specialists for extra end-game excitement. Excluding the few bugs that I'm sure will be addressed before the final release, I only have good things to say about this simple, yet effective step forward.

Conclusion

These type of touch-ups show the community surrounding the game,, that the devs listened to their feedback and are taking it all into account. It shows a certain classy response to the haters of the past game by simply keeping what worked and upgrading what didn't. I couldn't have asked for a better post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. experience. Thank you Ubisoft.

The Division 2 will be available for purchase on March 15th on The Epic Store (for PC), XB1, and PS4

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