Originally Posted by
mccallew
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As reference, I have played several thousand hours of The Division 1, from closed beta until last night. At least 2/3 of that has been in the DZ. While I may not be very good, I do alright in both PVE and PVE... solo'd all legendaries, 2-manned Stolen Signal, over 7000 rogue kills. All this to say that I know the game -- its good and bad -- pretty well.
The Division 2 beta (and assuming this will be the game at launch because that's how TD1 was) is a huge let down. Mind you have not played the lvl 30 endgame content, but after 6-7 hours (of deltas, btw) yesterday, I am underwhelmed. Everything about the game is sluggish, but not due to servers. Sure there were massive lags, dropping down to unplayable 2FPS before delta, but it's the mechanics. Running in TD1 was fluid and enjoyable. Running in TD2, with the awkward arm swings too, feels clumsy and slow. Nothing responds quickly or feels crisp, not like in TD1. Player reaction is slow (not the controller's the toons), and cumbersome. The auto navigation is a nightmare, moving you automatically places you didnt intend to go. In PVE this is frustrating, but you can just take cover and pop away. In PVP this movement, combined with no healing on the move, is just terrible...
PVP... in TD2 it it includes most of the bad stuff and nothing new and better. For starters, you fast travel to the DZ East, but not to a checkpoint, 100 yards from the CP. This is going to get annoying AF. You go in and it's beautiful (sort of, will get to that), and start roaming about. Time to kill you is greatly reduced, btw. You wander into a landmark, choose your spot, engage, and are immediately flanked on 2 sides. Run, remember you can't heal, and 50/50 whether you live or die. Where it get's real fun is that the TTK is so low now, an agent comes up and 1-2 taps you with a shotgun before you even know they are there. This is TD1 all over again, except that you have so little armor/health you truly have no time to react. So, so come back out with an LMG and try to take the rogue out... and get rushed by AI again. All I see is LMG at range and shotty in close. That is the DZ right now. Oh, and who came up with agents can try to jack your extraction, but if they stop they are not rogue any longer? It's a fest of people coming up and pretending to jack your extract. I found absolutely nothing enjoyable about being in this DZ. Landmarks were frustrating because of the rushers and slow TTK, and rogues one tapping you and running is everywhere. I will confess, I don't really understand the mechanics of being rogue right now, so I avoided going rogue myself, and will need to bone up on that (maybe).
PVE is fun, as it was in TD1, minus the drunken sailor movement. It's what I would expect. At least in the beta, however, there is no variation. Broadcast events, stop the execution events, and clear the drops events... they are all the same mechanics with a slightly different purpose for happening. They're going to get boring real fast. You just can't make repeatable events fun for long. I know we have not seen all of the content, but everything out in this beta is repurposed from TD1.
Looting... the looting is fine. TD2 beta is like Survival... collecting all sorts of stuff, banging on soda machines. Again, it's just the same stuff. Collect a bunch of junk, hand it off to the settlement or control point officer, and repeat. It really feels like survival without a reason for being.
The menus... oh the menus. I don't know how to put this gently... they are junk. Like the running, they are slow to respond. Everything feels like it takes 4x longer to accomplish compared to TD1. I am sure there are some quality of life tricks, but even breaking stuff down is annoying. better get that hand off the mouse, cause if you move even slightly the break down animation wheel stops. So annoying. I like sharing mods... I wish it wasn't so clumsy to use them.
Chat. The chat is terrible. I don't use a microphone, but have spent thousands of hours communicating with my team using the group chat. Even in PVP is works fine. It's not going to now because you have an extra key stroke. Press return to open chat. Type your message. Press return to send the message... continue fight. Oops... nope. Press ESC to leave chat. Why the extra keystroke. I will probably adapt, but this is super annoying and like a reverse quality of life thing.
Skills.... one the ones available in the beta, most are useless. The bombadier drone... pick your target points, let her go, and the NPC just runs out of the way. Every. Single. Time. I can't figure out how to use the sniper turret. The seekers that you aim are fun. The builder drone works well. I hope the ones that are currently locked are better than these though.
The graphics. We are in a cartoon DC. For all of the greatness that was the graphics in NYC, DC feels plastic and fake. The graphics totally took a step backwards. It gets better when it gets darker, but in broad summer sun, it just looks fake. And I get it's a video game. People cried about TD1 not looking like the E3 trailers, and it still actually looks awesome. TD2 make no attempt to build on top of the great start of TD1, which is a shame, and instead feels like a step backwards graphically.
The graphics, however, seem like they are more taxing on the PC/GPU than TD1, which still being of lesser quality, imo. Mind you, this is the beta, so it could be the janky servers, loads of people, etc. In TD1 I regularly get 120-140 fps. I am struggling to hold 70fps in TD2 beta.
All in all, the beta is a huge let down. Having heard they started work on this before TD1 launched I expected an overhaul, and for things to work better. They may have overhauled it, but for all it's flaws, I'll take TD1 mechanics over this any day. Every day. The 3 of us who ran the beta yesterday, and the TD1 DV last night all said the same thing... it pales in comparison, it wasn't fun to PVP, movement was terrible, it felt cartoonish, etc. One friend even hoped that TD1 stays alive because TD2 in it's current state won't have the staying power that 1 has had. Sure lots of people left TD1. Lots of people leave every game. This feels like a Destiny 2 where the hype train is ripping along but they forgot to attach all the cars. I am debating whether I am going to jump on, and if I do, can I adjust to the lesser game and stay with it. I couldn't with Wildlands. I couldn't with Destiny or ACO. I guess I just hoped for more because of all of the awesome that TD1 was/is.