Tom Clancy Games
It says something about the game industry when every review I've seen* for The Division 2 starts by giving Ubisoft/Massive basis recognition for releasing an online looter-shooter in a state that is functional and works as a complete game. Consumers in the online/games-as-service market have been getting burned for a while now. Destiny 2 was widely regarded as a large step back from the point Destiny had reached, having to retread a lot of the same development ground to to become a comparable game. Fallout 76 was a technical mess followed by PR disasters one after another for Bethesda. Anthem's recent release was questionable, at best, being much stripped down in detail from previews, having very little endgame content, and suffering from more fundamental design issues around loot. These have been rather disappointing times. The Division 2 doesn't feel like a huge leap over the first game, but it does feel like the developers have been learning rather than starting from scratch.
* Even I'm doing it.
I do wonder if it might be selling better if it had released on Steam. The Epic storefront is a whole other can of worms in the industry that I am (thus far) avoiding like the plague, to the point of buying this game directly from Ubisoft.
I'm only about halfway through the leveling process, so I can't speak to the whole thing, but reports have the endgame holding up decently so far. For my own part, the experience has been much like the first game. The narrative isn't anything truly special, but the gameplay itself is pretty solid. The aesthetics are grounded in a level of realism, but there's a good variety within that, with weapons looking and feeling different even within the same class. Things are probably a little harder solo than with a group, but I haven't run into any serious roadblocks yet (though I have taken a step back from one mission to reconsider after getting stomped a few times). There is a lot of detail in the visuals and scenery. Diverting off the main roads is often rewarded with materials/items or audio/visual logs, making exploration feel rewarding.
I ended up spending a few hundred hours in The Division, even if I came in a little late. This time, I'm getting in at the ground floor and I could see myself playing just as much over the long haul. That seems like a pretty solid money-to-entertainment investment.
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And this after having wrapped up the story missions in Ghost Recon Wildlands. Honestly, it isn't a game I would widely recommend. It scratched an itch for some very technical, tactical gameplay, but I have to acknowledge there didn't feel like much depth to it. Leading a group of AI teammates picking apart a militant cartel didn't offer a whole lot in the way of real story. There's a lot of surveying a camp and slowly picking off pieces of the defenses before going in to assassinate a target/hold a position/destroy something/extract someone. There isn't much else in the way of variety, so it mostly plays out the same. There are occasionally obstacles along the way (scanners that jam your useful-for-spotting drone, etc.), but it's all pretty same-y.
There's some lip service paid to the politics of dropping special forces in a foreign country to disrupt the status quo, but this isn't a deep-dive into the morality of such. There are two endings in which the cartel leader offers up what he knows of his rivals for US government protection. In one, your CIA support person shoots him and goes to prison. In the other, she goes on about how useful his knowledge will be while he's housed in a gilded cage of sorts before eventually being let go - at which point she and the Ghosts will be after him when he tries to gain power again. Neither really feels like a "good" or "bad" ending, per se. The former certainly felt more satisfying in the moment, though. Hmm.
I also tried the Fallen Ghosts DLC, which has the team returning to the area some time later after a mercenary group has moved in to fill the power void. It introduces a few new enemy types which mix things up some. The stealth troops and guys that can only be killed with headshots are a little on the broken side, but they make for an interesting twist. On the down side, the encounter design feels a lot rougher, with some enemies spawning unbelievably close and a couple defense missions being annoying (rather than fun) due simply to overwhelming numbers. So... slightly higher highs and slightly lower lows there, but the game plays roughly the same.
Overall, Wildlands was find to buy at a discount and enjoy for what it is, but I would say its appeal is fairly niche.
* Even I'm doing it.
I do wonder if it might be selling better if it had released on Steam. The Epic storefront is a whole other can of worms in the industry that I am (thus far) avoiding like the plague, to the point of buying this game directly from Ubisoft.
I'm only about halfway through the leveling process, so I can't speak to the whole thing, but reports have the endgame holding up decently so far. For my own part, the experience has been much like the first game. The narrative isn't anything truly special, but the gameplay itself is pretty solid. The aesthetics are grounded in a level of realism, but there's a good variety within that, with weapons looking and feeling different even within the same class. Things are probably a little harder solo than with a group, but I haven't run into any serious roadblocks yet (though I have taken a step back from one mission to reconsider after getting stomped a few times). There is a lot of detail in the visuals and scenery. Diverting off the main roads is often rewarded with materials/items or audio/visual logs, making exploration feel rewarding.
I ended up spending a few hundred hours in The Division, even if I came in a little late. This time, I'm getting in at the ground floor and I could see myself playing just as much over the long haul. That seems like a pretty solid money-to-entertainment investment.
---
And this after having wrapped up the story missions in Ghost Recon Wildlands. Honestly, it isn't a game I would widely recommend. It scratched an itch for some very technical, tactical gameplay, but I have to acknowledge there didn't feel like much depth to it. Leading a group of AI teammates picking apart a militant cartel didn't offer a whole lot in the way of real story. There's a lot of surveying a camp and slowly picking off pieces of the defenses before going in to assassinate a target/hold a position/destroy something/extract someone. There isn't much else in the way of variety, so it mostly plays out the same. There are occasionally obstacles along the way (scanners that jam your useful-for-spotting drone, etc.), but it's all pretty same-y.
There's some lip service paid to the politics of dropping special forces in a foreign country to disrupt the status quo, but this isn't a deep-dive into the morality of such. There are two endings in which the cartel leader offers up what he knows of his rivals for US government protection. In one, your CIA support person shoots him and goes to prison. In the other, she goes on about how useful his knowledge will be while he's housed in a gilded cage of sorts before eventually being let go - at which point she and the Ghosts will be after him when he tries to gain power again. Neither really feels like a "good" or "bad" ending, per se. The former certainly felt more satisfying in the moment, though. Hmm.
I also tried the Fallen Ghosts DLC, which has the team returning to the area some time later after a mercenary group has moved in to fill the power void. It introduces a few new enemy types which mix things up some. The stealth troops and guys that can only be killed with headshots are a little on the broken side, but they make for an interesting twist. On the down side, the encounter design feels a lot rougher, with some enemies spawning unbelievably close and a couple defense missions being annoying (rather than fun) due simply to overwhelming numbers. So... slightly higher highs and slightly lower lows there, but the game plays roughly the same.
Overall, Wildlands was find to buy at a discount and enjoy for what it is, but I would say its appeal is fairly niche.
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