The Division 2 First Look | Hands-on Preview

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​We went hands-on with Tom Clancy's The Division 2 during this past weekend's private beta; following safe extraction, here are our thoughts.

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​by​ James
Michael
​Parry

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@James_Parry

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It's been three years since The Division's fictional take on New York City was ravaged by a virus, spread on paper money during the annual Black Friday fracas, and the world has started to move on.

While the cities of America are far from recovered, the infrastructure in this somewhat post-apocalyptic setting has begun to find its feet. As you explore, there are volunteers carrying out runs for fuel and supplies, making the situation feel a little less desolate.

​There's still plenty of work to do however, as the setting has shifted from The Big Apple to the nation's capital - Washington D.C. - though anyone not from the land of the free would be forgiven for neglecting to spot the difference straight away, besides a little more foliage and the occasional roaming deer.

It's telling that we’ve taken this long to talk about much besides the game's setting, as relatively little is new over the original in terms of gameplay. Fortunately this is thanks to the mechanics from part one still holding up.

A simple new map screen replaces the style-over-substance futuristic projection at your feet, helping to locate a dizzying array of item pick-ups, ranging from gun holsters to knee pads, which reveal that health and armour are handled a bit differently this time around.

Separate health and armour meters (the latter of which is generously buffed for challenging Dark Zone excursions) deplete independently as you take damage, leaving you a sitting duck once your armour is kaput. While the pair do (eventually) regenerate, it’s wise to dart between cover in order to maintain the tactical advantage.

You'll need it too, with enemies shouting and running at you from all sides at times. They get noticeably chunkier in terms of both physical bulk and health pools, scaling alongside your Division agent as you progress, to an extent depending on the difficulty of any given area.

Enemies make a lot more use of gadgets this time around, too - we’ve already fended off what amounts to a convoy of RC cars!

Despite its familiarity, The Division 2 has launched a decent opening salvo, but it’ll need to build upon that in order to differentiate between being just a fun outing and a “live service” with real staying power. Perhaps most crucially though, you can still casually close car doors as you sneak by them in cover...

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Have you played The Division 2 yet? What are you looking forward to based on what you've seen so far? Let us know in the comments and keep your eyes peeled for our review next month.