It feels as though an eternity has elapsed since the launch of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, the grim shooter-looter set in a battered Washington D.C. In reality, it has only been seven years. While that is indeed a substantial amount of time, it also encompasses a significant amount of turmoil – the Covid crisis, Trump’s re-election, the surge in popularity of generative AI, the rise of chronic live service fatigue, the persistent stagnation of NFTs, and the actual incursion of Washington D.C. by the National Guard.
Both The Division 2’s initial looting mechanics and its entirely neutral regime change narrative now seem to me like artifacts from another reality, despite Ubisoft continuously updating the game and rolling out new content for it. Their most recent addition is a Realism Mode, solely accessible through the current Warlords of New York expansion, which will be made freely available to all players until April 2nd.