Echoes of Central Park - Getting Back into The Division - Preview
I have a bit of a story for you. When the lovely people at Ubisoft reached out to me about trying out the latest expansion for The Division, I thought to myself, “Sure, I used to love that game, let’s dive back in and see what’s up.” So I readily agreed and began to look forward to getting some hands-on time back in this post-outbreak world. But, as these things often play out, there were a few tech difficulties in getting the preview code up and running. Not abnormal for this sort of thing, but because of it, my time to play about 2 hours of the Echoes of Central Park shrank from a couple of days down to one Friday evening. I wasn’t too fazed that was, until my wife reminded me we had friends coming for dinner.
Once again, I didn’t think it would be a worry, these friends tend to leave about 9-30 so I would still have heaps of time to play this two-hour chunk. What I didn’t count on was what they would bring to have with dinner. You see, this particular friend of mine shares my passion for craft beer, so he managed to rustle up some to enjoy together. Not usually an issue, but in this case, all of them were over 7%, with the final one at 10.5%. All of a sudden, things got a lot more difficult. So when my friends left and I finally sat down at 10 pm to play this expansion, it was with the healthy glow of someone who had enjoyed a few too many strong beers and, well, it made for an interesting preview.
The first thing I want to say is that, despite my slightly intoxicated state, that I had an absolute blast jumping back in. Back in the day, I used to play a lot of The Division with a regular group of P2 contributors, and while I didn’t play The Division 2 as much, I still managed to put a healthy number of hours in. It had been a long time, though, so there was an adjustment period to get back into the groove, an adjustment period made tougher by the expansion being aimed at long-time players and my current, possibly drunk, state.
This was a tough little stretch of gameplay. The setting is back in New York, and as the name suggests, in Central Park to be exact, and it certainly gives off a creepier vibe than The Division has previously. The park has become overgrown, and it really creates this spooky forest vibe, giving slight horror tones to the experience. I also have to say that it looks stunning. This is a pretty old game at this point, but the devs are really flexing within the confines of that old game for this expansion. So much detail in the park that it was impossible not to stop and stare on occasion.
As for the gameplay, well, it was The Division 2 at its finest. I certainly found it quite hard, and I am confident in saying that it wasn’t only the beer doing that. This is endgame stuff for players who have conquered all that comes before it, so there is a serious challenge here. Hitting enemy weak points, especially on elite units, wasn’t optional, it was required and dodging through some really well-designed set-pieces, as I used all of the tools and gadgets at my disposal, was a must. But despite the difficulty, I was having a great time, it really reminded me that despite some of the things that Ubisoft got wrong with the franchise, the core is an absolute blast.
I had such fun that I promptly reinstalled The Division 2 and jumped back in from where I left off all those years ago. I am starting to feel like The Division 2 may just be the best version of this looter-shooter style game out there, especially with Destiny shutting down. In this era of new, new, new, it felt really nice to dive back into something and rediscover why you enjoyed it in the first place. The fact that I am about to get a hefty new chunk of expansion content is only the cherry on top.
So Echoes of Central Park, for all intents and purposes, is just more of The Division 2. But it is also a shining example of what The Division 2 does best: tight combat, cool gadgets and a pretty engaging military-style story. It has reignited my love for the franchise, and if nothing else, that is a pretty cool achievement. I know I will be playing right up to Echoes of Central Park’s November 3 release date, so I am ready to go, and hopefully it won’t be such a challenge this time, with or without the 10% beers.
