Yeah it's insane how well the player character is integrated in the world. Like most SP RPG's could learn a lesson here tbh.
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So far, The Division 2's free roam exploration is on another level
- Thread starter astro
- Start date
Yeah it's insane how well the player character is integrated in the world. Like most SP RPG's could learn a lesson here tbh.
Ive seen it and again I'm not convinced especially since that's where the division 1 failed hard at and when with the changes they did wasn't compelling enough to keep me after coming back.
The info isn't there. They're calling something a "raid," but we don't know what that actually means as far as gameplay is concerned. There is potential of course but we really don't know how any of it will work. I'm extremely cautious after the first game.
The borderlands type.
Where a random pile of trash can drop a legendary.
Makes digging through everything worth jt
Where a random pile of trash can drop a legendary.
Makes digging through everything worth jt
You could fast travel in Division one though? I assume it will be the same in this game.
Hey andy rooney you got a brontoburger to go with this staleass take
I'm sure this has been gone over several times in prior threads, so forgive me for asking, but do we have a word on the bullet-sponginess of enemies? I'd so heavily prefer this move closer to shooter than RPG with enemies that don't take a full clip of ammunition to kill. I'd admit that The Division did the best it could with that setup, and i love the game for what it was, BUT I hope they took the opportunity a new game grants to change things to a slightly more reasonable shooting model.
Yep sponginess has been turned way down. TTK is much faster overall. Enemies with armor you have to shoot off their armor pieces to get to the juicy HP underneath.
You should definitely try the Open Beta to see for yourself!
I haven't played the first one yet, it's in my queue.
The demo had some tanks. And I expect they're to be some sponging. But overall my impression is not too bad.
The demo had some tanks. And I expect they're to be some sponging. But overall my impression is not too bad.
It's not accessible. I wanted to go laugh at my husband's building, but Virginia Avenue isn't accessible either. Gotta wait until launch day.
nah, fuck that garbage. It should literally never play like a straight shooter. People who are very 'concerned' about bullet sponges should go play shooters and stop fucking around trying to ruin an rpg.
UBI has been good at reducing unnecessary stuff and making gameplay faster and more comfortable lately (in most of their games).
Want to ride faster in Assassins Creed? No need to hammer or press additional buttons, just push your stick
Want to climb and move in a straight line to your target? You can climb everywhere, no stamina bar or other limitations.
Teleportation to a previously discovered area? No problem.
Want to sit back and let your car/horse auto follow the road to a waypoint? Press a button, relax and look at the nice environment.
Want to try out different skills? Sure, it's part of the design
All those (and other) quality of life changes made world exploration and resource gathering less cumbersome and more fun. You also get extra rewards for leaving the proposed route. Rewarding your players for engaging with the game and not making gameplay more annoying in unimportant areas is such an easy to understand, but apparently novel concept in this industry.
They introduced some stuff that I'm rather critical about too. Story telling is going downhill: FC5, Origins and New Dawn are okay at best. Odyssey was better, but still not as exciting as the first assassins creed games. Selling ingame resources also leaves a bitter aftertaste. Their SP games play fine there is no need to buy resources for real money, but Odyssey felt like it was flying very close to the sun.
If they start selling resources in Division 2: I'm out. Skins I can accept.
Want to ride faster in Assassins Creed? No need to hammer or press additional buttons, just push your stick
Want to climb and move in a straight line to your target? You can climb everywhere, no stamina bar or other limitations.
Teleportation to a previously discovered area? No problem.
Want to sit back and let your car/horse auto follow the road to a waypoint? Press a button, relax and look at the nice environment.
Want to try out different skills? Sure, it's part of the design
All those (and other) quality of life changes made world exploration and resource gathering less cumbersome and more fun. You also get extra rewards for leaving the proposed route. Rewarding your players for engaging with the game and not making gameplay more annoying in unimportant areas is such an easy to understand, but apparently novel concept in this industry.
They introduced some stuff that I'm rather critical about too. Story telling is going downhill: FC5, Origins and New Dawn are okay at best. Odyssey was better, but still not as exciting as the first assassins creed games. Selling ingame resources also leaves a bitter aftertaste. Their SP games play fine there is no need to buy resources for real money, but Odyssey felt like it was flying very close to the sun.
If they start selling resources in Division 2: I'm out. Skins I can accept.
In the Division 1 PVP, if you were playing it that way you were playing it wrong.
Same. Well, he sold me on this open beta at least. I burnt out on the first Division quickly, and this environment doesn't appeal as much, but I'll give it a shot.
If everything dies quickly while in shit gear then gear can only be meaningless. No builds, no farming, no theorizing, no "oh shit that's cool", no challenge, no fucking nothing. That 'immersion' of having people die in a few bullets would literally ruin the entire game. If that's what they're looking for they should go play Far Cry or something.
i realize this is just a small slice of the world. But i certainly haven't found any way to get on top of buildings or apartments. And i've looked. In Div 1 it seemed like there was a store/apartment/roof u could get into/onto every other block. Not a lot of residential area in the demo. Might be the problem. But that doesn't account for the lack of stores u can go in. The games def lifeless. When ur surrounded by NPCs and the most u hear is a cough. Luckily they try to play music to distract from that. And the desolate streets. U can walk for seemingly 4 mins and not see a soul. It just feels emptier.
i wouldnt say im a big anthem fan. i like it. I also like division and put dozens of hours into the first game. And played this beta nonstop for hours last nite. I like it. I think i like it more than Div1. Mainly because the game feels more arcadey now that i can drop everyone with 2-3 shots. Though another part of me feels like completely removing the bullet spongy-ness makes the RPG element feel less necessary. And maybe muddies up the identity of what Division is.
A loot-based RPG. It's not purely a shooter, it's an loot RPG where you shoot, so gear and levels need to matter rather than all enemies dropping like it's a regular shooter.
That said, the sponginess is much decreased compared to the first game
Yeah, it's impressive that you can simply walk around in free roam and get meaningful upgrades from the chests like you run a mission.
It's not lifeless though, but I don't think I'm going to convince you otherwise. The NPCs do way more then just coughing, especially in the settlements. I joined a group of NPCs taking water back to the settlement yesterday, and they were commenting on how thankful they were to be receiving much needed help; and thanked me again when they made it safely back.
Cross-post from the beta OT from carlsojo:
There is verticality to the game, and moreso compared to the first game. They aren't just going to get rid of that aspect, and they improved on it.
Also the wildlife, detail in the world, and setting adds a lot of life to the game.
- This is the top post on the subreddit right now (past day): https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/awigbf/during_a_firefight_a_stray_dog_came_and_took/
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachme...TUIpEoocHdzrjfwpMzuROFzfUAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC.png
To call it lifeless is just plain wrong. And you can't 2-3 shot end game enemies, you can right now on the story difficulty which is essentially easy. Stuff like this will change though, it changed from the private to open beta, and will probably change again from now until launch.
Na Im just not a fan of cover shooting in general, the pve in division was a bore
Agreed, so many aspects of this games design are on a whole other level. This really feels like Ubi taking what they do best and improving on it in every possible way. It's. It just smartly designed, but also full of content
Woah I can enter this building too, oh wait the interior is another corridor with basic crafting materials in a box.
The stuff I've seen of the Dark Zone, where your power is normalised to end-game levels, seems that it's fairly reasonable. Basic enemies go down quickly with the major type enemies taking a bit more. There might be spongy patches on the road to endgame, but when you get there it looks like it should be reasonable.
I mean, no? Every schlooter that has gotten too spongy has been criticised by players, for good reason. It just doesn't feel good to play a game like this when basic enemies take ages to kill when all you're trying to do is farm.
We must be playing completely different games... There is FAR more vertically in this game than there was the first, they even said so in one of their development videos and you can see it in this beta.
As for the lifeless NPC's and streets ... Yea, I don't know what you're doing, but you're doing it wrong.
Does anyone know if you can change the fire mode on guns? I swear I got a smg and it changed from full auto to single shot.
The thing is there's a difference between balancing the game and making it play "like a shooter". The former is fine, NPCs CAN be too tanky, but the implication in making it like a shooter, the implication in 'muh immersion', is that human enemies need to die quickly regardless of difficulty, status, or gear. That just because you have a gun, any gun, you ought to be able mow down human enemies in a few bullets because it's 'more immersive'.
This latter position is both ridiculous and game breaking.
Right, but I think the criticism of the original Division is that everything was too spongy, regardless of how powerful you got. The same was true for launch D2. In both cases it seems the dev have moved away from that. I'm not a Division player, so I'm not sure. I know it's true in D2.
I'm guessing we probably agree that there should be progression, such that you start out weak and have to be super careful with your shots, but when you're fully geared and max level you're basically a murder machine and only the pinnacle content should still be hard. Right?
What bugs me about Anthem aside from the segregated world separated by load screens and canyons clocking your way (effectively making it more like a wide and tall corridor than open world), is that the map is utter trash ! You can't even put a custom marker and the radar is garbage too !
I definitely appreciate the seamless world design vs the heavy menu driven stuff that you see in Anthem/Destiny. I was just exploring/doing side stuff, stumbled on a main mission, finished it and exited back into the world all without ever seeing a single load screen.
I have really enjoyed what I have played of the beta so far. Giving us more of what the first game did, but better, is not a bad thing at all. My only gripes so far would be that the shooting doesn't feel as good as I thought it did, or maybe it's just me trying to get used to it after playing a lot of Destiny 2 lately, and the menus seem a bit clunky to me on pc.
I love searching every area for loot because you can actually find decent gear in there along with some cosmetics. It was a lot of fun looking everywhere in the first game trying to find the cell phones, and other collectibles.
This game is night and day from my experience playing the Anthem beta, and it's tempting me to pick it up on day one.
I love searching every area for loot because you can actually find decent gear in there along with some cosmetics. It was a lot of fun looking everywhere in the first game trying to find the cell phones, and other collectibles.
This game is night and day from my experience playing the Anthem beta, and it's tempting me to pick it up on day one.
An rpg is as much about story and immersion. The division really doesn't feel like an immersive role playing experience. It's a loot shooter. Nothing more and nothing less. And in a game where everything is about loot it's fine, like you said, that shit doesn't make sense. The issue arises when people start trying to sell division as an rpg.
Depends on the kind of RPG. Not all RPG subgenres are about story and immersion
True enough but I still think people need to be more specific. It's the same if people just call Anthem an rpg. People are bound to get disappointed by the lack of stat screen etc
Oh liking the sound of this! Big fan of the frst but didnt want to jump in on the beta...Wanted to experience all nice n fresh at launch.
Great post OP.
I was ready to pass on the Division 2. I played a lot of the first one and was afraid this version would be even more MP driven than the original. Meaning, it wouldn't be a game you would enjoy solo or for exploration... and then, I played the Beta today. I am sold. I had so much fun playing solo. I was not expecting it. Day one.
I was ready to pass on the Division 2. I played a lot of the first one and was afraid this version would be even more MP driven than the original. Meaning, it wouldn't be a game you would enjoy solo or for exploration... and then, I played the Beta today. I am sold. I had so much fun playing solo. I was not expecting it. Day one.
https://old.reddit.com/r/thedivisio..._are_these_helpful_npcs_doing_in_my_division/
This story from reddit is amazing.
This story from reddit is amazing.
Immersion in an RPG in terms of "realistic weapon damage" doesn't exist. Basic bandits in Skyrim soak up arrow after arrow with their face and keep on advancing on you. Any kind of stat based RPG does away with the realistic lethality of weapons. There's no reason why a bronze sword would be less effective at cutting through flesh than an iron sword, or a level 1 pistol would do less damage than a level 30 pistol. If you want instant headshot kills go play a shooter like Ghost Recon Wildlands.
It does a ton right, and it does a ton right that its competitors are doing wrong in that regard. The seamlessness is definitely a great thing.
But with all the freedom that aspect of the game affords you, the gameplay equally taketh away. The shooting itself feels okay, but the gameplay loop as a whole feels scattered, tedious, and janky. Cover-based combat/movement is hard to get right, I'm sure, but they've barely made any improvements after the first game as far as fluidity is concerned. Maybe a soft-cover system like GR: Wildlands would be a better fit. When enemies are running at you from different directions, things need to be snappier than they are. Jumping from a 4 foot object shouldn't trigger a 3 second landing animation while I get peppered with gunfire.
But with all the freedom that aspect of the game affords you, the gameplay equally taketh away. The shooting itself feels okay, but the gameplay loop as a whole feels scattered, tedious, and janky. Cover-based combat/movement is hard to get right, I'm sure, but they've barely made any improvements after the first game as far as fluidity is concerned. Maybe a soft-cover system like GR: Wildlands would be a better fit. When enemies are running at you from different directions, things need to be snappier than they are. Jumping from a 4 foot object shouldn't trigger a 3 second landing animation while I get peppered with gunfire.
There is a huge difference between someone surviving a whirling sword hit on the arm and someone surviving 3 shots from an ak47 to the face