The Division 2: Echoes of Central Park is out now. It’s the first time the franchise has let agents into New York’s Upper West Side and Central Park itself. Ubisoft calls it the biggest experience in The Division 2 since Warlords of New York, with a map much larger than Battle for Brooklyn’s.
The story takes place in the summer after Warlords of New York. Ubisoft is going for a horror tone this time. Upper West Side residents are paranoid about an unseen threat, people are turning up dead or missing, and there are rumors of a new virus variant. The campaign is told as a flashback, with a narrator walking agents through her version of events.
You can play solo or in co-op. Characters under level 40 get a boost so they can start right away at an appropriate level.
Upper West Side, then the park
The campaign opens in the Upper West Side, between Lincoln Square and the Dakota District, with missions at landmarks such as the Natural History Museum. From there it moves into Central Park. The park served as a mass burial ground during the original outbreak and is now home to a new apex threat, along with some familiar factions.
Before heading in, agents can earn the trust of three companions by uncovering their backstories. Only one can join your party at a time:
- Brayleigh Callahan: a Sniper, MIT graduate and Olympic medalist in shooting
- Elwood Franklin: a Protector, a former mall cop who wants to join the NYPD
- Morse Feeney: an Assault, a veteran first-wave Division agent with a murky past
When you replay missions, you can bring a different companion. Each one has their own dialogue and combat approach. The Deluxe Edition adds outfits based on the companions and a skin for the new Exotic weapon.
Endgame and rewards
Your first trips into the park are about survival. There’s no GPS assistance, and enemies keep coming in waves. As you learn more about the threat and gather gear, the balance shifts until you’re the one doing the hunting. How each encounter goes changes what happens next: strong performances earn exclusive rewards, while poor ones leave you with a disadvantage. Combined with companion buffs, this is meant to make each run play out differently.
The rewards include six new skill variants, among them the Corrosive Trap and The Gas Bomber, plus a new Gear Set and the Ratel, a new Exotic weapon.
Players running Prototype Gear should know it’s normalized inside Echoes of Central Park at launch to keep the DLC tense and challenging. The developers plan to unlock its full strength there at a later date, matching how it works in the rest of The Division 2.
Source: The Division 2 official news.
