Ubisoft have announced a whole range of new stuff for anyone still playing The Division, from gifts and credits to two expansions later in the year. It’s all going to be free! And maybe for a reason.
The full range of content is detailed in this Ubisoft blog post, but the gist is that there’s a “Year One anniversary celebration” from March 9-16 where there’ll be XP bonuses and credits, followed by “two separate expansions planned for release this year”.
It’s stuff, and it’s free, so that’s good, I guess, but it’s also somehow a bit of a disappointment as well.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/10/the-divisions-rocky-road/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/08/ss_a2b95a416686d783a84a9f230f7a20673d84d57d11-410×231.jpg” title=”The Division’s Rocky Road” excerpt=”Ubisoft’s third-person shooter The Division has been one of 2016’s most interesting successes and one of its worst fiascoes. The people who make it now hope it can also be the year’s best comeback story.”]
Destiny, this game’s closest and only real competition, used a big second year expansion to genuinely expand the game, adding a bunch of new content that led to a big spike in player interest.
The Division’s Year 2 announcements, on the other hand, are full of vague, broad statements, and make no mention of significant upgrades/additions like new areas of the map or new factions. You know, the kind of things you’d lead with in an announcement post if they were things that would actually be in the expansions.
Nothing here sounds like it will bring lapsed players back to the game, or even bring new, curious onlookers into the fold. It reads like the grudging fulfilment of a contractual obligation, with everything being given away for free because there’s nothing worth charging for.
Reaction from fans to the news has understandably been… mixed. Talk of properly implementing loadouts, long a sore point among players, is welcome, but the lack of concrete info or promises of anything majorly worthwhile beyond reshuffles of what they’re already playing has people understandably bummed as well.
For the record, The Division‘s first year included three paid expansions, all of which added new areas and gameplay modes to the game, but which also failed to expand the story, something some hardcore players have complained about repeatedly. With talk in The Division community repeatedly turning to whether the first year of DLC was worth the cost, it makes sense that Ubisoft would emphasise that year two is free. And it makes sense that they may hope to finally get the game humming the way they did the initially underwhelming but regularly updated Rainbow Six Siege. From the plans announced today, it’s hard to say if they will.
For the sake of those who have stuck with the game, I hope these expansions give them something (and remember, one of last year’s expansions was pretty good!). For the rest of us, we might be better off waiting for The Division 2.
Comments
13 responses to “The Division’s Year 2 Content Is Free”
Loved the game when it first came out. Got tired of sinking 3 clips into an enemy’s head before they went down in end game. Stopped playing before the DLC came out and now uplay launcher won’t even update properly. Would of been a fantastic single player game with optional multiplayer in the Dark Zone but they went with the always online.
If you haven’t played it since it first came out, you really need to have another look. It’s been rebalanced umpteen times now, and bullet sponges haven’t been a thing for at least 6 months. Completely different game at the moment.
Grain of salt, @simocrates.
I popped back in just after the survival mode expansion. I didn’t play the survival mode, I was only there to try out the underground modes and the re-population of the single-player world and its various tiers of difficulty/rewards.
3-5 clip bullet-sponge standard enemies were absolutely still a thing at that point, even after gearing up with a tonne of rewards from the max tier world instance.
Cody, I have to wonder if this is something you’re only experiencing because you’re using best-in-slot or something. ‘Ten minutes work with a machinegun’ enemies were the norm when I played a few months ago.
I haven’t seen anything in the patch notes post-Survival to indicate they were dropping enemy health and/or increasing damage output, but I’ve only been tuning in to the reddit sub every couple weeks.
it’s mixed in my opinion, I play challenge on World Tier 5 every so often. the introduction of world tiers has made the game more balanced, but spongy mobs still exist especially if you’re in the initial transition between the world tiers (which based on item level)… that said it’s countered by the caches earned from XP and “better” drops earned from completing missions.
again using myself as an example, when world tiers was introduced I was at WT4, it was fairly effortless to advance from WT4 to WT5 but when I was in the initial stages of WT5, I could literally blow through all my LMG ammo killing one or two guy. Nowadays having spent a significant amount of time on WT5, I can normally kill an enemy in half to 2 clips (the bulky shield guys usually requiring the most)
Despite having no interest in multiplayer… or the ‘Dark Zone’, I just can’t bring myself to finish The Division. It’s just gotten too grindy for me.
I think I’m at level 18 or 20, and I know I’m not going to be able to finish the story without putting serious time into grinding my levels up.
For me it was HVTs and Underground, yeah. Regular enemies roaming the overworld died just as fast as they did while levelling, but they also dropped shitty gear so there was no point to killing them. So I guess I’d put it as… normal progression gameplay to increase my power only gave me bullet-sponges?
@ynefel – your comment got eaten? This was a reply to it.
It’s in moderation. *shrugs*
Don’t worry. I’m usually in moderation every second day. People don’t usually agree with me.
I found the news disappointing tbh
sure loadouts is great but The Division still suffers from content drought and bugs… oh the bugs… when the game has been out for a whole year and reviving people still works on and off… that gets old real fast
What’s the point? It’s still riddle with hackers and players with exploited gear. Dark zone is just a game of who can spot the player who earned their own gear through tedious grinding.
Agreed. Why play a multiplayer game were the server trusts everything that it receives from the clients? Teams of gankers teleporting in around you from thin air or shooting through walls, and the server completely allowing it? Nope.
I haven’t touched this game in over a year, but I did notice Uplay it’s currently running a free trail.
I have had a lot of fun with the division. I started after the 1.6 patch and it was a really nice progression from 1-30 as well as tiers 1-5. Bullet sponges weren’t too much of an issue to be honest. Regular mobs drop with a single headshot from a sniper rifle and tougher enemies might need half a clip from an assault rifle. Elites will take some ammo, but if you recalibrate for elite damage and have some armour penetration it is not too bad.
But now I have reached a point where I would really like more story and new missions. Grinding for one better piece of gear is just dull. A shame really because the game looked and played great.