Review: Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 Warlords of New York DLC (Uplay/PC)

by Jim Smale · March 10, 2020

In the Warlords of New York expansion, hunt down your nemesis, Aaron Keener, a former Division Agent who has taken control of New York. Trained by The Division but disavowing its ideals, he is now the highest authority in town.

Pros:

Level 30 booster option.
Can create a new character and choose to do the base game or DLC.
Level cap increased to level 40.
New achievements.
Fog of war- Map is covered in fog until you walk it/explore, even caches and safe house positions don’t show until you find the general area of them.
Huge map to explore.
Better AI in placement and tactics.
All new collectibles/lore in the way of tapes and echos.
Clever boss fights.
Storm weather-low visibility.
Crossplay with Stadia players. (can be turned off)
Manhunt-You hunt down each gang member (4 of them) and then unlock the Intel for the main boss.
Boss/manhunt takes place over several locations and events.
New toys-sticky bomb launcher, shock grenade, decoy grenades.
Play how you want and do the gang members in any order.
New projects and rewards.
More buildings to enter and explore.
A lot more engagement within the world from little hiding places to loot placement.
Feels new yet familiar.
Loot drops feel more balanced and regular.
Interesting set pieces.
More enemy types and a lot more focus on aerial threats.

Cons:

Slow respawn.
Long loading times.
Slow matchmaking times.
Constant difficulty spikes.
Had a long stretch of large loot drops but all low level and no good.

9/10

Graphics - 9/10
7.5/10

Sound - 7.5/10
9/10

Accessibility - 9/10
9/10

Length - 9/10
9/10

Fun Factor - 9/10

8.7/10

Summary

It’s time to go back to where it all began. The first major dlc for Division 2 allow us to go back and see what has happened in New York. I couldn’t wait to get back into the world. Instantly it felt familiar yet it also felt new with more devastation littered about, more places to discover. Aside from the location you get a level 30 boost and some cosmetic bundles. Back to it and they introduce the fog of war mechanic whereby the map is all dark and doesn’t reveal icons or locations until you have physically explored the area, even if you hit a safe house and connect to the network, no icons will show unless you have the map cleared. This alone makes perfect sense and also adds a lot more to the game as it adds more tension, more sense of discovery and adventure. The main bad guy this time has a team that you must hunt down and take out before you can take him on. Sounds kinda simple and tired. It’s not as each target is played out over several missions, those said missions are a lot more varied and have more interaction and puzzle type elements to them instead of go here and kill target move on. The set pieces and locations of story fights are much more vertical and open allowing much more randomised approaches. I could swear the AI has had a tweak as they flank a lot better, take cover more and generally give you a hard time. As you would expect, a load of new tapes and recordings to find and listen to, a lot of new loot to find and overall its of a higher quality than previous dlc offerings. Had a few graphical and performance issues but I couldn’t be happier. I instantly got hooked on the story then the gotta collect em all gene kicked in and the hours just fell off as I went all over and saw everything. The amount of content is well worth the time and money especially with the level cap rise and new events. The dlc is a must play for all Division 2 fans.