The Division 2 [PRIVATE BETA] played

I was happy to get my eager hands on an invitation to the beta test of the new release in the Tom Clancy The Division Franchise.

After downloading the game and a phase of randomly trying to find a fitting avatar (I was shortly tempted to stick to a “Wolverine” character), I was “welcomed” with a brilliantly done intro-video which left me with an eerie “Apocalypse Now” feeling.

https://youtu.be/1gf57DhPyAc

Directly after this Intro I find myself waking up with a view of the Washington Monument and a distress call from HQ via comms.

Base of Operations aka The White House

The Base of Operations, formerly known as The White House, is under attack by a new faction of bad gals and guys, the “Hyenas”.

And, so I immediately find myself in battle and really enjoy it, attacking the White House campers from behind.

Myself Being an intensive The Division 1 player, the sequel directly makes me feel at home.

Feels good to see effects from shooting

And yes, being an often frustrated lone wolf player in The Division 1, it finally gives me some smiles to see the bad guys doing me the favor of really dropping dead after only one magazine round hit them.

The Division 1 can be quiet … stubborn, when it comes to the bad guy accepting his demise.

The Division 1 relies on real life teams too much

That by the way is one of the big downsides of The Division so far: For “classy” gamers, with job, dog, wife and kids, coming up with some buddies to kick Rikers’ ass exactly when we all have some time is not easy.

And, so I find myself playing alone just to have some fun, and not bother to start to go attend local network events just to find some buddies who have time right now.

And then next week they ask me to help them with their relocation. Do you know that pattern?

I am simply tired of telling the “my back hurts” lie.

The Division is not for gamers with a life

The problem with The Division 1 is that the level of difficulty seems not to adapt to the number of actual players on your team. The Bad guys simply don’t care and treat you like you came in battalion strength.

But mostly it is just yours truly.

And mind you, at the time of this writing I am only at Level 21 … still a long way to reaching the famous “Level 30”. And already I sometimes switch of my PC and go to bed in the middle of the night frustrated and close to tears.

Battalions of enemies.

So does The Division 2 offer poor lone Wolves like me (and you?) some solace? Will it get easier on your own?

The verdict is still out. At least directly on my first mission (to rescue a kid from the Hyenas) I met Kelso, a tough AI team member who really kicked enemy ass… hope she stays at my side during the game (and my wife won’t find out).

Beta Ingame Music

What really kills the fun for me is the ingame music. But since I hope this … “aggressive metal”??? … is played only in beta phase, I will not go into this assuming this will be amended with the final release. If not I will not buy the game.

Note to Ubisoft: I loved the soundtrack if TD1. Please bring it back!

Why this music it used at all is beyond me (especially the Atrium fight). A sound-effects-only beta would have been more to my liking.

Update: It seems now that I only really detest the game music in the Atrium scene. It seems it is not the “beta” music and I will have to stand it, but the rest of the soundtrack seems to be good.

Servers are unstable 02/08/2019 – first day

I drop off the game each time I finish the Hotel scenario. No prob, it’s beta for a reason, but hope this will improve soon.

Agent in Need of Backup

So far I have not found out how to answer (or even open and show) distress calls.

What are your thoughts?