If you're on the fence, this one has been a blast so far. I've lived here in Washington DC now since the end of 2006, and I loved Fallout 3 as a result- it was a blast to wander around Metro stations and monuments and such that I recognized from earlier in the day- in particular, having lunch on a warm spring day near Dupont Circle, then stumbling across the fountain in the middle of it a few hours later during a fight with raiders was just surreal. But... Fallout's Washington wasn't really DC as we know it. It was multiple small urban sections chained together via Metro tunnels, with no ground-level access between them usually due to conveniently-placed debris piles. Metro lines weren't accurate to the real system, entire neighborhoods were in the wrong place... hell, there were office buildings on the south side of the reflecting pool, where in reality you'll find the Korean War Memorial and such. It was a fantastic game, still a favorite of mine, but with an eye towards exploring the real city at the time it came out it rang a little sad in that regard.
Welcome to The Division 2, then. Where I wasn't a huge fan of the original (I'd just been burned on a bad experience with a similar-setup game in Destiny), I decided to give this one a chance because... well, home. And no disappointment to be found as a result, for sure. The city isn't just accurate- it's eerie. My level isn't high enough yet to travel through Georgetown, where my office is these days, but wandering the areas of town I do have unlocked is full of familiar sights. I've taken cover in the doorway of the coffee shop my fiancee and I had a date night at last summer, I've gone touristing around an area of Federal Triangle with friends visiting from out of town last fall only to find that same place now has civilians being prepped for an execution... they can't use actual business names of course, to avoid paying licensing fees to Starbucks or any of that, but it's remarkable just how accurate they got a lot of the city so far.
The gameplay... it's a little awkward at times, but a lot of that is just needing to reorient myself on how to go about this sort of thing. Having spent only a little time with the first game, I approached this one wrong early on- you get so used to games like Halo, Call of Duty, etc. being the superhero that can go toe-to-toe with any problem, etc., so taking cover constantly is a little bit of an adjustment (to say nothing of being in the third person, for me at least!). The cover system is very good, but leaving cover sometimes gives me a little trouble- operator error most likely, but it'll be a bit still I suspect before I'm really comfortable with it.
Enemies are SMART with a capital 'S' in this one. They don't just stay in one place and pop up to shoot at you once in a while- they'll flank you, they'll lay down suppressing fire to cover their buddies' movements, they'll use cover, grenades, and all kinds of other tricks. It's some of the best AI I've seen in a game like this, and it's a delightful challenge- particular in open areas.
If you play Destiny or any number of similar games, the loot will feel familiar. Armor bits like kneepads, gloves, etc., compare those to what you currently have, upgrade yourself as needed. Ditto for your guns- you start carrying one main gun and a sidearm, and if you unlock abilities you can upgrade to things like a second main gun slot (a must), things like more grenades, more ammo, automated gun turrets, etc.- and of course your guns. Most are real-world weapons, and some are better than others depending on your personal tastes. I'm a fan of semi-automatic rifles in games like this (Halo: Reach's DMR is still my great gaming love), so I try to keep something like that on me at all times with a close-range weapon of some sort as a Plan B option- shotguns are good, the M60 LMG has been brutal but reloads a bit slow for tough fights... oddly the one I've enjoyed most so far in this role is a gansta-style 9mm spray-and-pray SMG with a long clip. Nothing tells a drugged-up weirdo with a police baton to go away like emptying a clip into their helmet at two meters' distance.
A lot of this genre have had rough starts that they've either prevailed through (Division 1, Destiny) or have crippled them as they've moved forward (Destiny 2, Fallout 76, Anthem). This feels very, very good on day-one of release, and as patches come in the few rough spots will likely be sanded away. Nothing but impressed so far, and I hope to see some of you wandering about town sometime. (I'm on Xbox under the same name I use here)
