The Division 2 has been revamped with the release of the “Warlords of New York” DLC. Not only are agents able to revisit New York, the location of the first game, but with it comes a variety of changes to gear stats, leveling systems, and future content.
While Division agents have been working to secure Washington, D.C., a new, but old threat emerges in New York. A familiar face has brought new conflict to New York City and he goes by the name of Aaron Keener. Keener is one of the original antagonists from the first game and one of the first Division agents to go rogue. With him, he brings new factions to New York but also four other rogue agents along with a new viral strain to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting city. In The Division 2 “Warlords of New York”, agents have now turned their eyes to New York City and their newest mission is to hunt down Keener’s four rogue associates and even Keener himself.
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Beyond the expansion to the story, The Division 2 “Warlords of New York” brings some changes to the leveling system. The max level has been increased to 40. However, once reaching this cap, the end-game grind starts. There is now a new Legendary difficulty to try out along with Seasons and SHD Levels to work with.
Every 12 weeks, a new season will start. Each season brings with it new targets to hunt down which will earn you unique rewards such as new skill mods and seasonal gear and cosmetics. SHD Levels also provide an infinite progression system that allows you to invest points in core attribute categories (such as defense) every time you reach a new SHD level.
Given these many changes and the fact that The Division 2 is ultimately best as a co-op experience, a few of us decided to review the DLC together. Check out our thoughts below.
1. What were your first impressions of Warlords of New York? What did you enjoy most about this DLC?
Rashaad: Upon entering the DLC I was excited. I enjoyed the cinematics and also liked that Agent Kelso wasn’t just another useless NPC. I enjoyed the most was hunting for the SHD Caches as they required out-of-the-box thinking to get to some of them.
Derrick: Starting the DLC I was very impressed with the opening cinematic. aside from gameplay I really enjoyed exploring downtown New York. As a native New Yorker, it was great pointing out places that I visited.
Quinn: The beginning was exciting; the first cutscene was beautiful and, honestly, I was just really hyped to get back into New York. It brought back great memories of the first game and playing with friends. I really enjoyed to hunting aspect of it; working to locate and defeat four main antagonists with different backgrounds, personalities, and fighting techniques all to get to the final boss was such a good experience. It bred adaptability in the players along with giving us a great story on how each of these four people came to be associated with the big baddie: Aaron Keener.
2. How do you like the changes to the game’s gear?
Rashaad: I enjoy the new changes to the gear system as it doesn’t feel like you can be a “jack of all trades” anymore. You have to decide what you want to specialize in and work towards that by hunting down gear, mods, and attributes.
Derrick: Gear is amazing! The only thing you need to worry about is making sure you’re the correct level to use whatever item you’re trying to use. No more needing a stat to be a specific unreasonable/unattainable number.
Quinn: The changes made equipping the best gear much easier due to changes in how stats for gear are listed. There are now “god-roll” items that you can hunt down and can be assured you’ll get specific stats on. This really gives players more of a reason to hunt for specific weapons in-game now, something entirely different from the way of play from before the DLC. The new skill tier system has also made things so much easier.
3. Were there any elements to Warlords of New York that were particularly challenging?
Rashaad: The A.I. in “Warlords of New York” was definitely a major difference made in the game and had made the encounters of both mobs and bosses feel a lot different. This means that you have to adapt to the environment and your enemies if you want to succeed.
Derrick: The A.I. difficulty feels beefed up. Enemies are smarter and not afraid to apply pressure, making you think fast and adapt. I definitely died a lot in the DLC Campaign! Aside from combat, they make you work for getting most collectibles. They are placed on and in buildings you need to find access to. I thought this was brilliant because it allows you to take in the environments built.
Quinn: Having to change up fighting style depending on which boss you’re fighting. I’m sure that you could go into all these fights with the same setup but changing up your weapons, gear, and even combat tactics make these fights much easier so it was really all about adapting to the battle.
4. Who was your favorite baddy?
Rashaad: My favorite baddy would have to be Parnell. Though he would probably be the easiest of the four Rogues to beat, I enjoyed his fight. It reminded me of playing something out of Metal Gear Solid.
Derrick: Favorite Rogue would be Javier Kajika. His fight sequence was unique, having to long-range fight and maneuver around environmental hazards. When playing with Rashaad I saw kajika dropped his gun and started swinging with a machete. This was my he had a small amount of health left. You could definitely feel the enemy’s desperation.
Quinn: Personally, Parnell had the most interesting battle out of the four Rogues with his hologram technology. But I had the hardest time-fighting Dragov because he was such a tank and it took me the longest time to realize that I needed to use the miniguns to do the most damage. But, of course, the big baddy behind them all, Aaron Kener, is still my favorite.
5. Is there anything you would improve? What do you hope for future DLC and season content?
Rashaad: The one thing that I would improve would have to be the stuttering that can be had on PC at times. It could be a machine issue, but there are times where enemies have “teleported” and thus put me in a very precarious situation.
Derrick: Honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing. As a person who loves this franchise and its story, Warlords of New York feels perfect. Players have been asking for this and other fixes and Massive Entertainment delivered. As far as future DLC and season content, I definitely hope for more and would not mind dropping money for its continuation!
Quinn: The few things I would improve would have nothing to do with the actual story or technical aspects, but everything to do with the small glitches that frequent the game. I’m not sure if this is a viable problem on PC, but on the PS4 there are too many audio glitches. NPCs will start talking but no sound can be heard or the audio will suddenly cut out while people are still talking. People sometimes talk on top of each other (while this may not be a glitch, it is super annoying). Enemies also tend to clip through objects often enough to be annoying. And, of course, the huge glitch at the beginning of release where many people couldn’t progress past a certain stage because they were unable to talk to NPCs. Although this was fixed, it’s a game-breaking glitch that really shouldn’t have happened in the first place. I hope that future DLC content will be better at attending to these glitches, but will also continue to be entertaining with loot acquisition and story at the forefront. Depth can sometimes be lost with successive DLCs so Ubisoft will have to be careful in order to continue capturing gamers’ attention.
Overall, we recommend giving The Divison 2 “Warlords of New York” a play, especially if you’ve played the first game. Getting back to New York City is a sight for sore eyes. Although there are a few glitches that disrupt gameplay here and there, the story missions are fun while the enemies not only have significant depth to their personalities and backgrounds, but they will also make you think on your toes. If future seasons play out similar to this DLC, there’s hope yet for the future of The Division.
The Division 2 “Warlords of New York” is available now on all platforms.
