Eventually, games stop surprising you. That’s just how it goes. You put enough hours into a game, and eventually you’ve seen all there is to see. I thought I had reached that point with The Division 2. Yet, after 220 hours of playing, last night I encountered a battle bot that was the leader of an enemy gang. That was something new.
Currently, The Division 2 is in the middle of Season 4. During these seasons, manhunts become active. There are checklists of in-game activities and missions that need to be completed. Completing a checklist will unlock a boss fight against a rogue lieutenant and that will get you one step closer to taking on the main boss of the season. My robot leader encounter happened while I was in the middle of wrapping up the latest checklist, which involved capturing some control points currently being held by enemies.
Specifically, I assaulted the Toxic Alley control point. Things were going smoothly and, as I expected, enemies rushed me. I shot them, took cover, shot some more enemies, dodged a few molotovs. You know standard Division 2 gameplay. Eventually, I killed enough enemies and the base’s leader spawned on a skybridge over the alley. So I made my way up some stairs to take them out. That’s when I saw that the enemy leader was a remote-controlled robot with sawblades.
I ended up hesitating and didn’t kill it right away. I figured that I was just confused. That this was a robot that had been spawned by the leader who was probably somewhere in the control point. But then, I killed the bot and the “eliminate the leader” objective was completed. I ran behind cover, giggled in confusion, and thankfully remembered to save the video clip of my encounter.
I have so many questions about how a robot drone was the leader of a base. Did the people there choose this? Was it all a prank that got way out of hand? Or was the robot more powerful than I realised?
Looking around online, it seems this is a somewhat rare event that has happened in the game since it launched in 2019. Folks have shared screenshots or stories of it happening on sites like Reddit. Someone even claimed an auto turret was once the leader at a control point they attacked, which seems even weirder!
While an RC death car being the head of an enemy gang is strange, it was a genuine shock in a game that has stopped surprising me. That’s not a knock against The Division 2, either. It’s very hard to make a game that people can play for over 200 hours that continues to surprise them. But when those moments do occur and without warning or a trailer announcing it, it’s wonderful. If this is a bug, and that seems possible, I’m happy that nearly two years after the game was released, Ubisoft and Massive have left it in. It’s harmless and can add a moment of unexpected absurdity to an otherwise serious game.
Oh, and oddly enough, later that night, I ran into another enemy control point being led by another random RC death car. Twice in one night. Another fun surprise from The Division 2.
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[referenced id=”1196041″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/12/recently-teased-division-2-mode-wont-happen-after-all-a-casualty-of-a-tough-year/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/12/04/rucufqfb3o7qiuz3kvmq-300×169.png” title=”Recently Teased Division 2 Mode Won’t Happen After All, ‘A Casualty Of A Tough Year.’” excerpt=”Yesterday, Ubisoft confirmed that an upcoming gameplay event in The Division 2, Codename Nightmare, has been cancelled and will not be released as planned this year, Yannick Banchereau, the Associate Creative Director on the game, explained the situation in the latest State of The Game livestream.”]
[referenced id=”1189594″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/10/the-division-2s-summit-mode-is-now-easier-to-actually-finish/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/10/24/onk7mmclvwzncdiitovn-300×169.jpg” title=”The Division 2’s Summit Mode Is Now Easier To Actually Finish” excerpt=”Last month, The Division 2 received a new action-focused mode called The Summit. It was good, but some bugs and other issues soured the experience. Ubisoft made some changes to the mode in a recent update, and now it’s a much better experience, especially for casual Division players like me.”]
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