Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 34
  2. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. May 2, 2019
    60
    For all the deafening noise and fury of its street battles and set-pieces, The Division 2 is, at heart, a game of co-operative tidying up with incrementally better guns.
  2. 60
    An improvement over its predecessor, with visuals that wow. Occasionally repetitive combat and an unengaging story are the main flaws that might deter budget-conscious gamers from buying at full price.
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  1. Mar 18, 2019
    The Division 2 manages to improve upon the original formula in almost every way, but its tale and tone are frequently awful.
  2. Mar 15, 2019
    All of that said, even though I’m having a great time, my early first impression is that this is more Division.
  3. Suffice to say, I’m enjoying it more than its predecessor. It is chunky, it is moreish, and every time I come back to it in the evening it is like taking a big bite out of one of those mega Snickers you can only find in the cinema. All this praise might seem out of place moments after critiquing the game’s toothless practice of political commentary by obfuscation. But honestly, don’t worry about that. We humans are idiot creatures of contradiction, and we can thoroughly enjoy a rock solid shooter even as we recognise it as being vapid hogwash.
User Score
4.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 1687 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Feb 21, 2020
    6
    Year 1 Review. Had to go back and change my previous review.

    Pros: - Core gameplay and gunplay loop is very satisfiying - Great
    Year 1 Review. Had to go back and change my previous review.

    Pros:
    - Core gameplay and gunplay loop is very satisfiying
    - Great weapon/gear/skill builds variety (even off-meta builds are viable)
    - Huge map with tons of content
    - Beautiful, handcrafted environments that reward exploration
    - Some quality of life improvements (bigger stash/more crafting materials)

    Cons:
    - Atmosphere was way better in Division 1 (winter ftw)
    - Many annoying bugs remain
    - Timegated skins with high prices
    - Balance still a bit of a mess
    - Grind is real
    - PVP and Darkzones is a big fat meh
    - Not enough End-game content
    - "THE" most forgettable story and characters on my memory

    So I can't complain too much, I got my value out of this game. It's still a solid 3rd-person looter-shooter and you can have a good time with PVE content. Community is still healthy and finding a group is not a problem. But recent decisions by developers are questionable at best.
    Upcoming expansion "Warlords of New-York" looks promising and will bring a lot of improvements that should've been in the game from day 1. We'll see if it will be any good.

    And, as always. Do NOT preorder. Do NOT buy loot boxes. Or you will get more and more unfinished games with egregious monetization.
    Full Review »
  2. Mar 17, 2019
    0
    Do you like running back to your corpse repeatedly?
    Do you like bullet sponge mobs that waste an entire clip of ammo?
    Do you like difficulty
    Do you like running back to your corpse repeatedly?
    Do you like bullet sponge mobs that waste an entire clip of ammo?
    Do you like difficulty scaled for group encounters everywhere and you're playing solo because your friends didn't pick up the game?
    Do you like mobs spawning all around in you a cover based shooter?

    If your answer to any of these is no, then you should skip this game.
    Full Review »
  3. Mar 18, 2019
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. The game industry today is so bad we have come to expect products to release half broken, in fact, a half broken product is within the margin of error from most consumers point of view. I strongly believe this now especially after I've seen enough of what The Division 2 has to offer.

    It is highly praised for its endgame content, which starts after you hit level 30, which is in fact, just a replay for some of the main missions you have already completed but now with the added twist, gear restrictions and reskinned enemies that you have to progress through to be able to obtain items with higher "gear score" and increase your chances of survival in PVP. I know PVP is not for everybody but Ubisoft uses Dark Zone as a selling point yet it is severely unbalanced and unfair in normal AND normalized modes.

    The main story lacks substance and is easily forgettable, the levels are well designed and vary from one another but the enemy mechanics are all the same. Stay in cover or flank the player. The AI is constantly aware and tries to counter react against the player. The instant the player presses the button to equip the grenade, several enemies will get out of cover ready to shoot, the same happens when player leaves the cover, if the player is not moving for long enough, enemies will use grenades or attempt to flank to lure the player out. This is about as we get out of AI and that is okay. However in the open world, capturing control points or doing random activities will soon become a chore. You will find yourself completely vulnerable in the face of an ambush from a random enemy "patrol" while you're attempting to complete any of those. You are very squishy, the game encourages you to think your actions but quite often, around 2/4 times in my experience you will find out enemies can spawn right behind you and instantly killing you. This aspect of the game is not challenging nor fun, it's just a fake added difficulty that does more bad than good.

    The game fakes projectiles, it plays an effect of a projectile but the actual bullets are hitscan, I found myself trying to aim ahead of running enemies without any success of landing any shots, the only way to actually hit an enemy whether it is a player or an npc is to make sure you actually shot only after the crosshair has turned red, which usually happens only if you're aiming straight at the body, regardless of distance.

    DX12 performance is better than DX11, too bad it crashes the game every hour or so. It is however on DX11 by default so most players probably wouldn't notice.

    It is somewhat reminiscent of Defiance, it does many things right, but for every good aspect of the game there is also a bad one. It may get polished out in time but right now there are too many things that put me off. I've sinked 50 hours into the game and I'll stop here for now.
    Full Review »