Thursday Media Review: The Division 2: Warlords of New York

Media Review Wednesday, Uncategorized 7 Minutes
Written by TheChoujinVirus
Note: The review contains spoilers for the game, so if you don’t want to get spoiled, skip this article.

Happy Thursday everyone, it’s your boy Choujin here.

March is a good day for gaming. With Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons coming in 2 weeks, it’s something everyone’s anticipating. However, other games, too, have anticipated releases in March as well. One of which is the expansion to Ubisoft’s game Division 2 that was released yesterday (though was released on the 2nd of March). The expansion is known as The Division 2: Warlords of New York (I know an odd title that makes me feel like it’s something from a bad World of Warcraft expansion). However, the game has some aspects of it that make it charming and brings us back to the location of the first Division game: New York City. So how does the expansion bring to the month of March? Here’s my review of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Warlords of New York.

Summary of the Plot (Spoiler alert for The Division and parts of The Division 2)

The story takes place in an alternate 2015/2016 in which an eco-terrorist attack on Black Friday brings the U.S. to its knees is unleashed. This virus known as the Green Virus (or Dollar Flu) causes a massive Pandemic all over the United States. The U.S. Government not only sets up their offices to maintain order the best they can, but they also activate their sleeper agent group called The Division. They serve as the last line of defense in dire situations in a collapsed society. In the Division 2, you play as a Division agent nicknamed “The Sherriff” as he/she heads to Washington D.C. when the SHD Network goes down (The network vital for powering the Division’s arsenal of equipment and communication with other agents). Throughout the game, the Sherriff is tasked with returning the SHD network online as well as dealing with several factions within D.C. Such as the sadistic Hyenas, the vengeful Outcasts, The militaristic True Sons and the high-tech militaristic Black Tusks. Warlords of New York has the Sheriff being sent to New York City after they discover that the Division’s main enemy (and the original antagonist in the first game) Arron Keener has unleashed his attack on The Division in New York, undoing a lot of the work from the first game. It’s now up to the Sherriff to find Keener and stop him before he unleashes a new viral strain worse than the Dollar Flu as well as uncover a deep plot involving Rogue Division Agents that go as far as with some older guards.

Gameplay

Warlords of New York is similar gameplay-wise to vanilla Division 2 though it does add some unique gameplay mechanics to the game. One such change is introducing a Fog of War to New York. As you explore the districts of New York City, parts of the map become exposed that show new areas, events, control points, and SHD Caches. Another change is the mission Progression system, which adds an interesting change. Unlike the Division 2, in which you progress through specific areas and leading up to the fight at an enemy stronghold, Warlords of New York have you going on a manhunt against Keener and to do that you must hunt down Keener’s guards: Four major Rogue Division Agents who have managed to manipulate the original factions of the first game: The Cleaners and the Rikers. For those unaware, the Cleaners and Rikers were two factions from the First Division game. To find the rogue agents, you have to head to specific areas on the map that are hinted as big yellow circles, thanks to the Fog-of-War. Solving each progresses the story against one of the four Rogue agents, and by completing it increases your progress in finding Keener.  After going through several areas and defeating Keener’s four agents, you now get your chance at fighting Agent Keener on Liberty Island and a strong presence of Black Tusk. Though throughout the game, there are mini-events like rescuing hostages, territory control, and breaking propaganda machines. To make the game easier, besides acquiring loot like guns and armor, your agent has access to several “specializations” that give them new tools to use besides their usual arsenal of portable gun turrets, drones, and roller bombs. Classes like the Gunner lets you wield a Minigun to mow enemies down to the Survivalist that lets you use a crossbow to shoot them with explosive arrows and fire. Though the game does introduce a new class (The last being the Technician class) called the Firewall. This class lets you use a flamethrower to set fire to enemies directly.

SHD’s Strength: What makes Warlords of New York Good

Warlords of New York brings some new faces (or old returns for those who have played the first Division) as you fight the factions like the Rikers, Cleaners, and Rioters that do have their own unique quirks compared to Vanilla Division 2’s Hyenas, Outcasts and True Patriots. Another positive thing the expansion adds is some interesting boss fights that do add some unique fights that add to their lore. One such fight I liked was against Theo Parnell, one of Keener’s rogue agents. His boss fight’s a digital version of whack-a-mole where he uses holograms to hide while you have to figure out which is the real Parnell. Another I liked was the fight against Javier Kajika and having to deal with his shock traps and having to move from one spot to another as steam starts to obstruct your vision. The last fight I liked was the final battle between you and Arron Keener. In the final battle, you’re not fighting Keener and an army of troops: It’s just you and him, agent vs. agent with just your tech against Arron’s. It makes it feel like a final battle. The Fog of War aspect of the Division 2 does encourage exploring the area for every nook and cranny. The last thing I like about the Division 2 is always the lore and how It references back to the First Division game with some character callbacks, areas, factions and such. It does have you wonder a bit more about the lore of the first game while playing Warlords of New York. Lastly, the detail of New York is stunning as they show what it looks like after a societal collapse would look like. Seeing streets turned into swamps, crumbled main buildings and areas become enemy strongholds, and even seeing Liberty Island become the spot of a final battle is stunning.

 Agent Needs Assistance: what Warlords of New York lack

The game does have some good things in the game, there are some problems I found while playing the game. One example is how, after defeating the rogue agents, you only get information on Keemer and nothing much besides that. Sure they give a hint about taking over the Oil Tanker after killing Vivian Conley or destroying a giant drill when fighting Kajika. One annoyance was that besides those two, you barely saw any changes besides that. Like after killing Theo Parnell, enemies I fought still used some drones. I felt that killing a guy who was a drone specialist would somehow deliver a blow against the enemy, but it didn’t feel like I took out that threat. Another thing I did like was the challenge, but I felt that some of the enemies were annoying as hell. It’s true that The Division 2 does require some strategy to fight enemies, but some of the new enemies can feel less of a challenge and a bit annoying. One such is the Cleaners faction, which loves to use flamethrowers (particularly their default attack units and Tank class). It can be hairpulling having to avoid getting a flamethrower facial or getting your eyes blasted by the Riker shield tanks. Unfortunately, the mini-events in New York don’t seem to be any different than before the expansion. It’s a shame as it would be nice to see something new other than opening caches from enemy territories, saving hostages or taking control points. Perhaps it would be nice to see something different, but that feels like a nitpick on my half.

Hidden SHD Cache: Cool little secret

One little thing I noticed when playing Warlords of New York was that in Haven, there’s an area where I found an NPC puppy there. I found out that I could actually have my character pet this puppy. I found out this was a callback to some Division 2 fans who wanted to pet the NPC feral dogs seen wandering around D.C. (as the sad part is you can shoot them but not pet them). It’s a nice thing to add and something cute in between fighting ex-Convicts, rogue agents, and Sanitation workers with flamethrowers.

Do you trust The Division? (My conclusion)

In conclusion to my review of the game, It’s a great game that gives fans of the first Division game some memories of their first foray into New York and gives us a stunning story. I forgot to mention that after beating the game and finding that the Rogue Agents continue beyond Keener, there’s a new endgame in seasons in which you have a new cast of Rogue Division agents to fight (though they won’t be live until the 9th of March). If you want my opinion, your boy would say that Warlords of New York adds some new content into The Division 2 and gives a stunning closure to one of the major villains in the series.

References

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