Division 2 Deserves More [10/19/23]
Once again I'm dumbfounded by the lack of attention on Division 2 as it trudges on through 5th year of consistently doing what other games can't. I've been playing on and off for the past year after first starting during the run year, but at this point I'm invested enough that I'm creating new builds and beginning to play on world difficulty Challenging (3/4). Pairing my recent experiences with the imminent arrival of Division Resurgence and recent confirmation of Division 3, I think I'm in it for the long haul.
All this year, the looter shooter / arpg / mmo lite genre has been on fire with the releases of Diablo 4 and Remnant 2 along the announcement of PoE2. As much as I love it, Destiny 2 has had a pretty rough year, mostly acting as a headline magnet as it recovers from the release of Lightfall.
Diablo 4 has had a whirlwind of activity since launch, already well into their second season. I think they have the most interesting place in this industry only because Diablo as an IP has such an interesting and inconsistent legacy when it comes to post launch support. I did personally love the base game and the first season was very interesting, but like Remnant 2 I have yet to check out the second season because what I see on social media tells me to wait a season or two before dedicating real time.
Despite the roller coasters spiraling around them, Division 2 devs have had their heads down cultivating one of the most dedicated micro communities of all the gaming industry. Personally I'm really impressed and I'm happy to say that they have held their own through a constant silence from Ubisoft of the future of the franchise until recently. Now we have a confirmation on the production of Division 3 as well as the soon release of Division Resurgence on mobile and I think this is a great example of slow but steady wins the race. Division 2 lives on as the IP starts to expand more than ever.
I think one of things that's helped Division survive at a smaller scale than it's competition is that it has re used its own content BETTER than everyone else. Even now as I sometimes feel like I don't always have time to do relevant content I know it's just me ignoring other parts of the game and that excites me to just get more into it enjoy more types of content. I also really appreciate the more standard weekly rotation of invaded missions that keep players going into harder content with the opportunity to LFG their way into more fine tuned loot outside of the raids.
Now that I’m committing to a longer interest in this game over at least the next year or two, I’ll go ahead and lay out my immediate goals. Raids of Course! Right now I am working on putting together a build that I think will lend itself better to group play as my current build is very solo based. I’m sure that for a normal raid through LFG I might even end up over equipping but given how drastically different raid experiences can be, I’m just having fun min maxing and learning and grinding. For now as I gear up; I’m having a blast just following the seasonal story that unlocks every few weeks. I could talk about Division 2’s release cadence for days, but I’ll leave that for another day.
It’s hard to describe just how good The Division 2’s overall experience is to someone who’s never played a game like this before, but also the game reuses it’s content so well that’s it’s almost always guaranteed a good reason to explore more content is around the corner. The current season will play through winter I believe until the release of Division Resurgence, but I think as the year’s content continues and the IP expands; I hope more people get into this game and realize how undervalued it is.
