The Division 2 is a great game. Just like it’s predecessor it’s beautifully done with detailed scenery, great story, a multitude of weapons, armor and open area to explore. If you’ve played this game and been playing this game then you know how easy it is to get sucked in for hours trying to level up and make the perfect build for your character and be as strong as can be.
It’s what you love about the Division, but the problem is, after you do everything you can and you level up as far as you can go and you reach endgame. What’s next? This was exactly the problem that the Division had to deal with and while they did deal with it eventually it was too little too late. Division players had moved on to other games or if they’re like me went back to a previous game like Destiny and picked up there.
Division 2 was starting to suffer from the same fate. No new content for an extended period of time and as a result, the game began to drop off the radar. Then, BOOM!. Ubisoft comes through with the save and announced that they had a new expansion for The Division 2, I was locked in. Ready to see what’s next. Now it’s here, I’ve been playing it. I’ve been having a lot of fun doing so and it’s the shot in the arm that The Division 2 needed but is it too late? Maybe, but it’s still a pretty good expansion as I see it.
Having played this expansion a little on the late side (forgive me) I didn’t feel the need to rush through the game to try and pick apart every detail quickly. That gave me the ability to check out what was new with the expansion. After all it cost me $30 bucks. With that said, I can honestly say, there’s some new stuff yes, but it wasn’t mind blowing. This expansion was mostly about refinements and the overall story. So? What’s new about the expansion?
CHANGES MADE IN WARLORDS OF NEW YORK
There are four new rogue agent underbosses in this game to contend with plus the big boss Aaron Keener. Five rogue Division agents each with a unique skill set, gang and a vengeance. Theo Parnell is a master of technology and uses deadly drones and surveillance tactics to control his sector of NY. Javier Kajika is a former Black Ops hitman and he uses all sorts of assassins weapons and tactics to lure and kill his targets. Vivian Conley is scientist and chemical engineer. She uses gases and biochemical warfare to exert her influence. James Dragov is the tank and in my opinion the most dangerous. A weapons specialist that uses heavy guns and armor to exact a particular brand of fear. They’re once again lead by Aaron Keener and of course the goal is to usurp the Divisions’ influence in NY while carrying out their twisted narrative of what they believe to be justice. Makes for an interesting standoff in NY.
Aside from the the most obvious addition to the game being the new bosses, there are a lot of changes within the structure of the game that affect how you get to bosses. Instead of going through all the side missions and main missions and essentially clearing out an entire area prior to fighting the main boss, now, you have to gather intel on the 4 underbosses, find and defeat them based on that intel, rinse and repeat. Beat one of them and not only do you get a loot drop and XP but you also get to take whatever skill they used against you in your battle with them Mega Man style. You’ll still have the ability to do side and main missions but this time they’re more optional than anything else and not essential to finding and ultimately defeating Aaron Keener. That’s one change.
Your level cap is now 40. Of course this is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s always good to be able to level up and get stronger and get more powerful weapons to adjust for the new element of the game. The bad part? Having to create a new build that’s suitable for the new environment after you spent so much time gathering weapons and grinding for specifically difficult exotics and certain gear. For instance, I spent a shitload of time grinding for the Chatterbox SMG which was a great weapon and now it’s a level 30 weapon that I now have to grind for all over again only to have to find it as a drop up to level. The new level cap creates a new grind that could be fun or mundane. It just depends on how you look at it.
Leveling isn’t at all different from what you already know. You go through the game in NY and take down bosses, control points, main and side missions and you’ll gradually level up until you reach the level 40 cap. The endgame part of the leveling is where it gets a little funky and I’ll admit it was hard to understand at first. When you finally get to level 40 everything levels up including when you go back to Washington D.C. If you have more than one character that happens to be on level 30, you can’t participate in any level 40 events and if you plan on doing the raid, there will be two versions. One at level 30 and one at 40. SHD levels totally replace the field proficiency levels so you can level up well past 40 so to speak but it won’t mean anything in events. You’ll still be characterized as a level 40 character but you’ll have more skills available to you which will be much more helpful in missions and the raid if you choose to re-run it.
GUNS, ARMOR, SKILLS and the DZ
With The Division 2 you know there will be no shortage of weapons, armor, skills and tech available to you throughout the open world. That hasn’t changed and it’s still the best part of the game as a whole if you’re willing to put in the work to get the “best” weapons and create the best build that works for your play style. Not much to elaborate on here.
The Dark Zone is still the Dark Zone. Hard AF, intense but a loot cavern if you can navigate it right and you have a good strategy and hopefully a good team to fight off other rogue agents that are coming for your stash. The DZ plays like PvP only you have much more to lose if you get killed in the DZ so get in and get out unless you’re a boss and can take on all comers.
WARLORDS OF NEW YORK MAKES DIVISION 2 BETTER
The Warlords of New York expansion doesn’t make The Division 2 a new game. It makes it a better game. A complete game. It’s an expansion that does what we as players of the game would all like to see in our updates, especially when they cost $30. What did we get for our money? A welcome trip down memory lane in NYC with 5 new bad ass bosses, a new leveling mechanic and skill system, more guns, more armor, more everything and the new hope of a NY raid in the future. That’s what you want to see in an expansion. There was also a recent update to the game that cleaned up a lot of issues within the game itself so Ubisoft is on top of things and making sure that Division 2 doesn’t suffer the same fate as it’s predecessor.
This expansion can get a little frustrating as you get into the heroic and legendary missions because the enemies become insufferable bullet sponges with the ability to kill you in one shot but even still I’m enjoying the expansion right now as a Division player so I felt like I got my money’s worth, so that being said, if anyone out there ever wants to join me and shoot some shit up my PSN is GeekLifeMike. Enjoy Warlords of New York.
