Hi there Devs! Thanks for allowing me to be part of the Private Beta on a PlayStation 4 Pro, I love the Division but I am going to be critical even though this is a beta and not a golden master of the game. The Division 2 itself feels awesome, it's alive and a lot more dynamic, take stopping live executions, for example, it's so much fun and improved on many aspects from The Division 1, it's not just about going to the base of operations and coming back to it like the first game. This evolving world is awesome and I really want to see more!
That being said. Let's start with my opinion. The Division 2 is not yet ready for launch and that I would rather see it being delayed for 6 months or longer than being released on March 15, 2019. Like Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said in 2015 “it is never an easy decision to move a launch date” but I personally think it would be the best thing to do. Will you guys delay the launch of The Division 2? No, I don't think so as It would cost millions. Although you guys did delay The first game because you did not want to compromise on quality so who knows.
The why is simple: To me personally, it looks like [old The Division 1 code] is being reused in the new game. Although I'm not in any way connected to the development of the game and I can't be sure that old code was used it surely looks that way as I have encountered many bugs that within the division community are known as "Legacy Bugs" bugs that haven't been solved 3 years after release of the first game probably because of bad coding. It looks like The game engine works well, it's just not done yet.
Don't get me wrong, I mean a lot of the bugs and issues I experienced in the Alpha were solved by you guys and you are doing a fantastic job trying to give us a unique experience with an unprecedented level of realism and I know that's not easy to do but the use of old code is never good as it compromises the game and will, in the end, be more costly than starting fresh."When fixing 1 bug 2 new bugs appear making the game worse" You can see it like that well-known phrase "Cut off the head of the snake and another will grow in its place"
- The damage took is not always registering
- Damage dealt not registering
- Frame Rate Drops
- Teleporting NPC'S
- Invisible Barriers
- Continuing shooting sounds while all NPC's are dead
- Random Disconnects.
- Trapped NPC's (Behind doors and walls.)
- Players Stuck in Emote, gliding on the floor.
- No Game Sound
I was thrilled to see new content and see a part of the new storyline that you guys have in store for us, The Endgame was great and a tactical approach is definitely needed to complete that baby. I always loved the storyline and can't wait to see what will happen next as big chunks were missing for obvious reasons in this beta.
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None Game Related:
The beta key delivery system was once again a big mess, some people received beta keys for a completely different system then they registered for, others are still wayting for their beta keys, some received 1500 keys and where did all those new shops come from that were selling hundreds maybe even thousands of beta keys. I really think you guys messed up here and I think the community needs answers about how and why things went the way they went with the beta keys. It's a shame to see something like this happen again and again and people are getting sick of it, sure you guys are doing us a favor by even letting us play and test an alpha, beta or PTS but if you are gonna let us test make sure you do it well.
There are way, way too many different versions available of The Division 2, take the Washington DC Edition, for example, most people haven't even heard of that version but it exists and the way this was done is sad, I personally ordered The Division 2 - Dark Zone Edition and recently found out that the year 1 pass was only available in the US version and not for the EU which is insane, This really needs to be addressed and changes,
Game Related:
I hope that in the open beta you guys will provide us with the option to play some Dark Zone, and missions with level 30 characters instead of level 7 characters, I feel that allowing us to only do Dark Zone with a level 7 limits what's available to us and give. Doing some Dark Zone or Skirmish with a level 30 character would give us a more true representation of the game.
Division 1 struggled with server reliability, obviously, consistent server reliability will make for a better and happier playing experience so I really hope this will be looked at very closely as the Private Beta was still experiencing a lot of problems on this topic, I know Ubisoft acquired server company i3D.net so I am really hoping for the best of the best.
The UI needs a complete overhaul, there are way to many buttons to press take sharing an item for example or the fact that scrolling down your friend list is super slow or the deconstruct option for your items, and so much more.
In this beta it was not possible to create your own character, I missed that and would hope you guys give us the option to make our own character the 1st of March 2019 so we can see how that works and give feedback on that.
The Graphics were good but in my opinion not good enough, The difference between the Xbox one x and the PlayStation 4 pro is a little too much, I have seen people say "Well you should choose a PC, or go for the Xbox one x if you are complaining there is nothing the devs can do about this" I'm not sure that is true, it was almost if the light probe system (Volumetric lighting, Dynamic Global Illumination) from the first game is missing in the second.
The overall Procedural Destruction is looking good although I think the car windows are breaking like sugar glass and look kind of fake last part might have to do with the lightning though.
The atmosphere set in The Division 2 is great, Although I'm gonna miss the now it's time for something new and refreshing so I can't wait to activate my agent in Washington D.C. I do think the Dark Zone is missing the scary look it used to have in New York, I feel there are not enough bodies, fires and stuff like that but that might have to do with the storyline, I just wanted to point that out.
Having fog and rain was really nice, yes it's different but it was nicely done for sure! I do think the rain needs to be edited little to make it slightly more realistic.
Some of the voice actors sound childish and unprofessional. They are in my opinion, way worse then they are in the original division. If we take a look at the original voice actors like Brandon Keener (ISAC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Keener and Melissa O’Neil (Faye Lau) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_O%27Neil they sound perfect, professional, trained and ready for the job, some of the new voices in The Division 2 sound like they were recorded by random Ubisoft employees and not by professionals.
The Idea of this system is awesome but at the moment it looks like the attachments are not balanced which results in making the game less diverse instead of increasing the diversity in the game. As almost everyone will pick the mods that have the least negative effect.
The PVP Combat is very good The gunplay feels way better than in The Division 1. Not many people will agree with me but I also think that the armor system is a big improvement, no instant heals and more tactical gameplay and more cover based fights, I am really looking forward to some more awesome Dark Zone fights, I do have to say that the dark zones feel empty I played on multiple servers and had some awesome fights but mostly the dark zone was feeling abandoned, an increase of the number of people in a Dark Zone might be something to consider.
The Dark Zone Turrets are good but flawed when you die as a rogue/manhunt and respawn while your team is still rogue/manhunt the turrets sometimes kill you instantly when you enter the dark zone, this really needs to be looked at.
As the time to kill is faster I would suggest making the time to respawn after dying as a rogue/manhunt lower. 60 seconds is just too much.
The Thieve's Den is something I would like to see get removed from The Division 2. I personally see no reason to go into it other than to clear my grey Rogue Status, Get some special ammo or some random loot from a dude who is just standing there in an empty sewer, I'd rather stick to the terminal to undo my rogue status by terminal. If this stays in the game id desperately needs a big Haulover Make it have a Dark Zone vendor or heck multiple vendors like a Dark Zone market and make it a building or something instead of a 4 by 4 sewer.
Bugs that I encountered during my playtest of The Division 2 Private Beta
I could hear other groups talk to each other in the Dark Zone although this function should be disabled in the game.
The Bomber drone often doesn't respond to commands and just keeps floating around the agent, sometimes it randomly flies above enemies and just doesn't do anything even when ordering it to attack an area.
The Airburst Seeker Mine gets stuck behind walls, cars and more and doesn't always go to the target, sometimes it just doesn't respond just like the bomber drone.
The Sniper Turret: The Sniper turret doesn't always respond to the agent when he or she wants to destroy it. For some reason, this turret would only deconstruct when all 5 bullets were used.
Open World:
The Character keeps moving and trying to turn around, which is annoying.
When running towards a rope to climb down the game will drop you on a lower roof of the settlement, you will be out of bounds for 2 seconds but won't respawn you will stay stuck on that secondary roof and the only thing you can do there is watch2 NPC's sitting next to each other until you log off or reboot,
For some reason he sometimes requires you to unlock a skill, you can't exit the menu as it throws you in a constant loop. When You close the game and reboot you come back still being in the menu and you are forced to unlock a skill.
On the left side of the press room, entrance are a bunch of crates, they disappear now and then when you go back and forward to the White House.
She Glitches out and sometimes even multiplies the character when you are close to her.
Some cars in the world are floating, just as they used
to do in "Westside pier" when this area was unpublished.
When you collect an audio recording and die a few minutes later and respawn, It reloads the recording but when you try to pick it up again nothing happens.
- Many of the NPC's stand in a T-Pose, or look to the sky when talking to them
- Enemy NPC'S seem to forget about you when you stay in cover long enough
- Some NPC'S have white mannequin faces or have a text in their face saying texture missing
- Some Enemy NPC patrols disappear when approached
- Some Enemy NPC's fight among each other even though they are from the same faction.
- The World Bosses unleash drones that should try to kill the agents but the drones attack the boss and not the agents
When jumping from hight ISAC will sometimes say that "Serious trauma is detected" or "Your health is critical" I had this mostly in The Dark Zone.
Multiple weapons only reload 19 bullets instead of 20. This forces the player to reload twice to get a full magazine. (Example: SBR 9MM Tactical Vector)
…wee stuff
-no delays please, based on the beta it’s ready play.
-old code doesn’t always have to be re-written.
-lots of bugs, a never ending battle.
-they send out allot of beta keys, mess ups will naturally happen.
-just buy a version, nothing game breaking here.
-level 1-30 characters in the DZ is scaled now, right?
-server stability seemed fine for me.
-user interface looks just fine, I play on PC.
-loved the random character generator, surprise me.
-graphics on PC looked amazing.
-weather effects are nice but I don’t like how the rain makes me hunch, it’s just rain.
-the voice actors seem just fine for me.
-weapon attachments will most likely be tweaked.
…pvp stuff
-I got murdered in the DZ.
-I hear the battle maps are fun.
-DZ needs work, 60 second re-spawn for real?
-Thieves den? You really played allot.
…world stuff
-opening your inventory does turn your character, doesn’t bother me.
-never had a problem with the ropes or being out of bounds, consul issue maybe?
-skill vendor was fine, no bugs on my side.
-crafting room was fine, no bugs here.
-no floating cars for me, I once saw a floating body though.
-Plenty of audio issues, easily fixed by resetting the game.
-didn’t notice many NPC bugs.
-weapon reloads work for the most part, In real life guns actually jam.. pretend?
Thanks for sharing, great read btw.