The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn review: Come for the expansion, rediscover the game

Stills from Battle for Brooklyn
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Destiny and Division were the two scions that ushered in a golden age of the live service looter shooter genre. I remember countless hours spent in The Division’s missions to net better gear in the Dark Zone, the very first “extraction” shooter.

A sequel was launched in 2019, taking the fight for survival after a deadly outbreak, from New York to Washington. For years, players have been clamouring for a return to its original setting, and Ubisoft has listened. Almost six years later, Division 2 gets its second expansion, also set in New York. So gather all ye Division agents, and take up the battle to rid Brooklyn from an incendiary cult. 

The Division’s setting takes place after a chemical attack, a poison that was distributed on dollar notes during Black Friday. It resulted in widespread chaos, as those that survived either lived in fear or took to the streets to cause it. You play an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division, who is only activated after the fall of all police, armed and defence forces.

The Battle of Brooklyn drops you straight back into the Big Apple, overrun by a cult known as The Cleaners, who believe that fire is the only way this disease can be cleansed. 

Division players will remember The Cleaners as one of the best parts of the original game. Solely because popping those gas tanks they carry results in some really explosive fun. Massive Entertainment understands this, and has amped up the revellery, by adding a new supercharged accelerant — just aim for a small red satchel on the side of some cleaner grunts to flood the area with noxious purple gas and any shot ignites the air in a satisfying boom.

Battle of Brooklyn combines everything that made Division 1 great, with the evolved mechanics and skills of Division 2 into one small, but powerful package. 

Battle for Brooklynbrings two new large areas to explore, complete with missions and encounters with bad guys. While it does not bring a Dark Zone with it, it does bring along some new skills, specifically Smart Cover which lets you reinforce the cover system for better defence. It also brings new weapons and a level-40 boost for new players.

With over six years in active service, The Division 2 has amassed a bulky inventory system. As a Division veteran, it was easy for me to jump in, but a newcomer can get overwhelmed with its dense damage numbers and currencies.

While it is not as bad as Destiny’s, I credit Division for single handedly igniting a love for data, which led to me getting a Data Analytics certification. The numbers are exciting without getting overwhelming. 

The gameplay look is extremely tight — you kill enemies, gather loot and then dismantle or equip the same loot. You then spin more loot out of that, to customise weapons to give you more chances of survival. One of the things that put me off The Division 2 earlier, was how high-level enemies were bullet sponges, while you were made of glass. That seems to be rectified, and I did not need to pour out a 1,000 bullets just to kill a single grunt. 

One thing that stood out is how good The Division looks, and it is hard to believe the first Division is almost a decade old. The detail in every screen of damaged New York looks incredible. From debris and abandoned cars, to destroyed buildings and trash everywhere. The Division 2 will put the majority of today’s games to absolute shame. That said, it did have a bunch of bugs, such as disappearing floors and a few other glitches. It is still a gritty but pretty looking game. 

Play Battle for Brooklyn and one cannot help feel that this is Ubisoft’s way of reminding the world Division 2 still exists, and it is an invitation to go back. It also feels like this is Ubisoft getting back to what made this game incredible in the first place as a test, for what possibly could be a next version in the world.

That said, it has got back into Division 2 and while the story of this expansion is largely noise, I found myself going back into the Dark Zone for its loot and extraction mechanics, letting the world know that it did extraction even before Escape from Tarkov. There could be more Division games in the works, we hope.