The Division 2 Warlords of New York

Before the announcement of The Division 2 Warlords of New York, it had been several months since I had set down and played a hearty amount of my favorite “living world” “games as a service” open-world looter shooter. Unfortunately, my large group of friends who bought the game at launch and played semi-religiously had dwindled away. We all did. Time and the allure of countless other games pulled me and others away. Despite that, The Division 2 was one of my most played games of 2019 (thanks PlayStation stat tracking doohickey), hovering at over 200 hours of playtime.

For games like this, that number isn’t too impressive. I know friends who’ve put a thousand hours into Destiny 2 in 2019. It’s what we do. Hours on end we run the same encounters and the same quests to endlessly chase a carrot on a stick that may or may not be fulfilling. We’ve all hunted guns or armor that may offer a small advantage in PvE or PvP but don’t drastically enhance inherent skill. Dozens of raids can go by without that fateful exotic drop. Often it feels punishing but we still do it. For some unknown, hard to explain reason, The Division franchise has frustrated me the least with this treadmill of unpredictable random rewards. I’m not sure if it’s the combination of third-person action, difficulty levels, or gun and skill usage that draw me in. But because of that, even when I take any kind of break from The Division, I’m glad to come back and be sucked in again.

I knew that Warlords of New York would be the content injection The Division 2 needed to not only remain relevant, but to breathe new life into itself and draw in players both new and old. In the weeks since release, Massive Entertainment has given players reason to both dive back into The Division 2 and stay for awhile.

Massive’s vision of New York City is one of the more iconic video game worlds in recent memory. The oppressive, bitter cold was tangible as players trekked their Division agents through crumbling infrastructure in gunfights with warring factions. Often the screen would be blanketed with white, obscuring vision and making enemies hard to see. The snow-blind wreckage of one of the world’s busiest cities was incredible. And while The Division 2‘s 1:1 recreation of Washington, D.C. remains shockingly relevant given current events, it’s fair to argue that a change in scenery was necessary after a year of fighting back Black Tusk, True Sons, Hyenas, and Outcasts among the ruins of American democracy.

Warlords of New York does not bring players back to New York City. Instead, Lower Manhattan is painted with that same 1:1 accuracy as D.C., where The Division 1 surgically removed some of the less interesting parts of the city. The difference, however, is that Lower Manhattan is not a freezing deathtrap. Warlords of New York is set shortly after the events of The Division 2 main campaign and kicking off almost right after the events of Episode 3, where players intercepted Vitaly Tchernenko, who had been captured by longtime antagonist Aaron Keener to create a more potent version of the Green Poison, the virus that threw the world into chaos.

Players fly into Lower Manhattan in the late summer/early fall. The snow has melted. Without the interference of humans, nature has wrestled back some control. Animals run loose in the streets and skyscrapers are covered in greenery. Decaying Christmas decorations remind players that life stopped on Black Friday as the world geared up for presents and festivities. Whole city blocks are soaked with trash and body bags, a grim look at the rapid decline of society.

The brilliant team of environmental artists at Massive are yet again at the top of their game. There is new joy to behold in exploring a metropolis in warmer weather. The places where society either has abandoned hope or has clawed back from the brink have a stunning amount of detail. In this timeline, a hurricane ripped through the East Coast, hitting New York especially hard. Without humans there to buffer the impact, bridges snapped and foundations began to crumble. To further give Lower Manhattan its own vibrancy, the area had also acted as a former Dark Zone, the places where the Green Poison was particularly virulent and the government stepped in to contain it. Where New York City in The Division 1 was rough, Warlords of New York portrays its setting as a near post-apocalyptic war zone. The tallest buildings are covered with the ripped remains of black contamination tarps. Whether a scorched room or a blasted-out window, there are few places where devastation hasn’t taken over.

I can’t imagine how thrilling it is for the team at Massive to not only recreate Lower Manhattan but then tear that vision down. The places that were chosen to depict as the most derelict and ruined make sense. At the southwestern corner of the map, a control point sits half submerged with garbage shifting around in the waves. A crashed oil rig or a courthouse or Lady Liberty herself are made more exciting because the player may not know what to expect. We know what these places look like when not destroyed or pierced with bullet holes, so it’s both shocking and fascinating to see how they’ve been constructed into playable levels. As a cover-based third-person shooter, Massive had to think these spaces out to best provide vantage points for multiple players where enemies would flood in and cover needed to be found. I do think The Division 1 mission flow had a lack of variety but better footing was found in the sequel. Yes, it’s difficult to do much in this real-world setting but Massive managed to get creative in D.C.’s museums and landmarks. With Lower Manhattan, there are obvious landmarks but I found the length and variety of missions on par or a step above several Division 2 rumbles. I think most players will especially love a crashed oil rig that starts on the shoreline, snakes through the ship’s skeleton, and ends up at the top deck.

Unfortunately, the new map has also been underutilized in a few key ways. As an expansion, Warlords of New York adds more to The Division 2 experience besides a new map and a new story. But I think Massive could have done a lot more with this space. As an important note, I began Warlords of New York with my main character on PS4 that had already gone through gear score adjustments post level 30. Personally, I feel like it would be strange to begin this new content without playing through the D.C. campaign first but I get it. However, Lower Manhattan does not hold the same amount of sheer content as D.C. currently has. In the hunt for former Rogue Agent Aaron Keener, players must first investigate and hunt down four other Rogue Agents who hold the key to Keener’s ultimate location and plans. Each of these four Rogue Agent “Manhunts” starts with heading out into one of four named sections of Lower Manhattan, unlocking a safe zone, doing a couple small missions or tasks, and then completing a final extended mission to take out the Rogue Agent.

Structurally, the narrative of Warlords of New York is easy to understand and quick to enact. The four “main missions” are of similar length to the Strongholds in The Division 2. As a combination of difficult, fun, and inventive, playing through these missions is no problem at all, though I lament that there is no ability to go back and play the investigation missions that led up to them. There are no new Classified Assignments, no apparent Contaminated Zones, and only a handful of side missions.

Aaron Keener is the most endearing character The Division series has seen and I’m happy that he serves as the primary antagonist of the expansion. As a former Division Agent, Keener was a part of the First Wave who went into New York City to try and contain the madness wrought by the Green Poison. As the situation became increasingly dire, the First Wave Agents were left behind, something players don’t find out until the last third of The Division 1‘s campaign. In fact, Keener has never been seen in the flesh and departs the first game with the tools necessary to create something far more dangerous than the Green Poison. Cocky and deadly, Keener has always been in the background of the series, watching events unfold with fascination and the idea that only the strong survive.

Those who rush through the main storyline of Warlords of New York may find Keener’s desire to throw the world into further chaos and destroy the Division to be fairly basic. I enjoyed the way each of his four lieutenants had their own storylines and rationale for taking up Keener’s cause. I even loved the few ways in which Massive played with morality in the game. The familiar faces of New York City were welcome as almost a year of strife had taken its toll. But a few missed opportunities do exist. Multiple characters raise the idea that the Division should not be given the power and freedom that is has and Massive never truly plays on these notions, expect in the final story mission. Too much of the juiciest, enjoyable bits of the narrative (threads that I’ve grown to immensely love over the past few years) are tucked away behind collectible audio logs. Here the characters give massive exposition dumps filled with intrigue and–dare I say it–lore.

One of my frustrations with this genre is that good storytelling is often forced into the background as developers want to create less friction for players just wanting to get into the action. I do feel that The Division has often struggled with this balance because character motivations are often tucked away, begging for someone to find them sitting in a cellphone that rests on a dumpster somewhere in the map. Regardless, I don’t think there was enough time spent in New York. Players are forced to stay there and can’t go back to D.C. until completing their final encounter with Keener–a choice which makes sense. But the campaign and all side missions can be completed in maybe five or six hours if you plow through everything and do little to no exploring. It’s a shame because Lower Manhattan is an insanely well-detailed environment. It’s a great place for players to stock up on crafting materials because every few feet has a backpack or drawer that can be looted. There are even some clever environmental puzzles that require shooting locks or breaker boxes–D.C. had these things but not with such frequency.

Once the story is over, there aren’t many reasons to stay in Lower Manhattan because Massive doesn’t force you to. Having two returning enemy factions from The Division 1 is great but a shame that they aren’t found in D.C. (despite it making sense in the game’s world). The Cleaners were an iconic foe in the cold of New York City, a force of firefighters and sanitation workers attempting to burn away the Green Poison and those suspected of being infected. Using the armor system from The Division 2 allowed for a more creative draft of new Cleaners, especially the brutes that carry around multiple weakpoints. The Rikers, former inmates of Rikers Island, are truly brutal because they use force to flank players with devastating power. Of the four factions from The Division 1, these were the two to bring back. But again, if players don’t want to, they can hop right back into D.C. that has more targeted loot locations and most of the daily and weekly challenges–a decision I assume was made to not split how the player base would tackle them. Right now, the main drive for sticking around is hunting for specific exotic pieces of gear that only drop from Cleaners or Rikers.

Fortunately, The Division 2 does not rely on storytelling to keep players constantly entertained and Warlords of New York brings many welcome changes that immensely improve the loot chase. The Division 2 had a somewhat complicated approach to gear that ratcheted up when players finished the campaign and reached level 30. Gear score came into play, acting as a number that indicated strength. Players were constantly weighing the values of dropped gear to see what pieces had the best rolls for the builds they were trying to make. I found the brand system to be a worthy addition to the system; players could equip up to three pieces of a single set and receive specific bonuses. Any piece of gear could roll with a wide range of stats, so it became unwieldy to keep track of everything. Adding another layer was the budgeting system where some gear talents–passive bonuses–wouldn’t be active without investing the right amount of points into damage, armor, or skills. Skills were only really effective with high skill level gear that allowed better mods to be equipped to increase skill haste or damage. Though it was a convoluted system, the hardcore audience that stuck with the game could wrap their heads around it.

Because this new expansion would likely be the jumping off point for many new players, Massive enacted drastic changes aimed at simplifying the loot system, making it easier to understand, and expanding it to enhance build diversity. As one of the more prohibitive parts of the old system, budgeting was taken out. Players don’t have to worry about how many armor or skill points a piece of gear has and whether it will detract from their current loadout. Now, skill build players can equip pieces that increase their skill tier which acts as a universal system for every skill equipped. At the first skill tier, a skill will have minimal efficiency, whether that means a smaller radius of effectiveness or less damage. At skill tier six, players will dole out the most damage or have the most charges for a given skill. Certain talents or pieces of gear allow players to temporarily boost their skill tier, with the potential to temporarily overcharge that skill and exponentially increase its effectiveness.

Much of the new gear system also relies on Massive’s introduction of the Recalibration Library. Both Division games have allowed players to take a stat roll from one piece of gear and slap it onto another. However, once a roll is stripped off that piece of gear, it’s destroyed forever. The hopes of finding perfect pieces and the fear of losing potential fuel meant that players’ stashes would be overflowing with items that might be trash or might not be. In Warlords of New York, when a piece of gear drops, players see the core stat for that piece–either a skill, armor, or damage stat, just like the original system–and one or two additional attributes. These rolls will be given a numerical value but under that number is a bar showing how low or high it is from what is considered to be the “god roll.” Gear could drop and have any number of these bars maxed out or somewhere in between. Previously, players would have kept any item with a high roll in their stash, even if the rest of the rolls were garbage.

That was before the Recalibaration Library. Now, players can take that item to the Recalibration Station, head over to the Library and see a catalog of every kind of weapon and piece of armor that can be found along with each attribute and talent those items can have. Players can then bank that roll into the Library at the cost of destroying the item but save the roll to be used on another weapon. Within a few hours, players can fill out their Library with fairly meager stats but feel accomplished in this incredible feedback loop. Several pieces of gear that I might have considered keeping have been destroyed in the Recalibration Library just so I can see a bar filled to the max. The desire to have the entire Library full is just one of the ways Massive has sneaked in endgame motivators for players. Any gear that is dropped or can be purchased at a vendor will now indicate whether or not its stats are better than what you currently have equipped or what is banked in the Recalibration Library.

Honestly, this is a system every game of this type needs. And while it would have been nice to see it in the core Division 2 experience, the Recalibration Library along with the new gear system reworks improves the overall experience and eliminates so much frustration. I cannot imagine how much more enjoyable inventory management would be in Destiny 2 if Bungie were to allow players to bank a weapon roll and pull it from their collections. Currently, that game’s inventory pool is far too bloated and gets to the point where players are almost forced to delete items that may or may not be amazing.

One of the reasons The Division 2 succeeded on a fundamental level was because Massive took the time to think out the endgame. And while it wasn’t perfect, they seemed to have solved most of those issues with Warlords of New York. With gear score gone, brands reworked, and the ability to truly focus on build diversity, players are allowed to create their most badass Division agents with as little interference as possible. Now players are able to gear up for the game’s ultimate challenges, which include the ability to change the world difficulty of all content from Normal to Heroic. I’ve seen a lot of discussion with difficulty in the game so far and whether or not it’s too hard. Personally, I’ve found the challenges in the upper echelons of The Division 2 to be brutal but satisfying. Players who truly work on maximizing their builds and work in a team as a cohesive unit won’t have a problem working on Legendary difficulty which, sadly, only is available for the three strongholds in D.C. right now. Gameplay modifying directives can also be applied to any mission or encounter that make the game harder but more rewarding.

All of this funnels into the final bits of endgame progression that should keep players coming back to The Division 2 and Warlords of New York in the weeks and months to come. First is the SHD Levels, which players will start earning after they hit level 40 and finish the campaign. Players will begin to rank up their SHD Levels much like a player would earn Paragon points in Diablo 3. Hit an experience threshold, gain a new SHD Level, and earn a point along with a permanent health increase. These points can be put into four core stats (a fifth infinitely rewards crafting materials). Offensive, Defensive, Utility, and Handling are the four core stats and each has four specific stats that the point can be invested in. Offensive relies on weapon damage and critical damage, Defensive on total armor and health, Utility on skill effectiveness, and Handling on reload speed and other weapon stats. When hearing about SHD Levels I assumed players would be able to dump all the points into one stat at once. The reality, however, is not the same. Each new level, players are required to invest a point into a different core stat, meaning that something like weapon damage or total armor (two crucial things) can’t hit the maximum threshold immediately. While it’s a bit annoying, I understand the choice. Regardless, seeing the words “Watch Level Up” constantly during missions is absolutely rewarding because you know that your Agent is getting increasingly and permanently stronger with time. Plus, when you join other players in public sessions, their current SHD Level is seen, so you know who has invested a lot of time into the game.

Gaming historians will likely talk about Fortnite‘s Battle Pass for years to come and the influence its had on gaming at large, especially as a method of pushing players to spend a bit of money on various in-game goodies. Just as influential, though, is how the concept of “seasons” came to be, not just in season passes but as constant streams of content that reward the most invested players. Warlords of New York brings the seasonal model to The Division 2 in a thoughtful, player-friendly way. First off, any player who purchases Warlords of New York gets the typical “premium” track unlocked for free. You know, the 100-level Season Pass that rewards a few items for players who don’t pay money and a lot of items for players that do. It’s a smart move by Ubisoft to get everyone into the loop. The rewards on the seasonal track are diverse, offering both cosmetic and gameplay rewards. It’s a great feeling to finish a level and get the flashy notification that both your watch and season level have gone up.

Massive isn’t just using the seasonal model to dole out small rewards over the next couple months, however. Instead, the studio is adding Seasonal Manhunts to months-long chunk of added gameplay. Almost identical to the structure of the Keener Manhunt, players are tasked with taking down one target every several weeks, to eventually reach the main target. Right now, the Seasonal Manhunt takes place in D.C., which again takes away from the spark of Lower Manhattan. To reach the first target, players need to complete certain missions, control points, and bounties in specific sections of D.C. on specific difficulty levels. These Manhunts will drip feed new story to The Division but also act as yet another piece of content that asks players to come back or keep playing. At the end of the season, Jupiter, the main target and a Rogue Agent, will reward an EMP modification for the Sticky Bomb skill. Just like where the campaign rewarded four new skills (which already boosted build diversity), the expectation is that further seasons will continue to introduce these gameplay additions for players.

Throughout the season, players will also be able to participate in Global Events and Leagues. Global Events work much like they did in The Division 1, where certain gameplay modifiers are introduced that change up how players conduct business. By completing certain tasks, players unlock rewards during the Global Event. While no Global Events have been active yet, I remember how unique they were in The Division 1 and the teases we’ve seen so far leave me excited, especially the second Global Event which implies that enemies will act like zombies and only be downed by headshots. Leagues are a bit different, with the first tasking players to speed through Outcast-themed missions, setting Outcasts on fire, and killing elite Outcasts. Over the course of two weeks, players will rank up in the League in hopes of getting various reward caches and cosmetic items. When all these systems and activities are combined, it means that almost every week players are going to find something new to do. It especially helps that Massive lays out when these new events will arrive in the seasonal tab in the player menu.

The Division 2 Warlords of New York may be slightly flawed in the strictly new content it introduces. The story offered is a bit sparse and the new map of Lower Manhattan could have more content squeezed into it. While those elements may be fulfilled at a later time during a season, it’s still important to note. But the dramatic changes that Massive Entertainment has brought to The Division 2 with Warlords of New York should not be ignored. The studio needed to inject life into The Division 2‘s second year. Though the gameplay loop is fun, it can grow stale without new reasons to dive in. Every move done to the new loot system makes this a healthier game, a more rewarding experience. Those Division devotees will especially be rewarded in the weeks and months to come because of the constant flow of engaging content that offers unique rewards and unique gameplay moments. It may be a lot to take in at first but The Division 2 Warlords of New York is fine with letting you get comfortable, kick your feet back, and stay awhile restoring sanity to a society gone mad.