Playing this with the 8 hr trial. Seems pretty fun so far. Never played Division 1 or any other genre similar.
What makes this game shit? Is it all end-game?
I'm personally still enjoying the game, even despite it's limitations.
Graphically, I think it's really good for an open world type game. I'm always blown away by the small details. You can wander around the streets for hours and find little details that really immerse you into the game. I like the setting as well. I used to play Destiny quite a bit, but I never got Destiny 2. It was good, but the sci-fi and story was so disjointed. I feel like the story-line in Division 2 is more realistic and relatable, especially given current circumstances.
When you first play the game, there is a shit-ton to do, and you will easily get 40+ hours of entertainment out of it imo. Especially with the new recalibration system, and having to track down items with max stats.
Once you get to the end game though, it gets very repetitive. Probably the worst aspect of the game is itemization. Reminds me of Everquest when you never quite knew what exactly the stats did, or which one was of the greatest benefit, etc. There are 3 main builds: tank, dps, and skill. You can save your loadout so you can switch builds even during misisons, so that gives you some sort of goal, to gear up all 3 builds. I personally don't min/max, which I think keeps me sane in this game. You will reach the point where you rarely ever get an upgrade. I don't have the best build since I don't optimize, but I do fine dps was and I rarely die. Really if you stop focusing on stats and focus instead of shooting things I think the game becomes more enjoyable.
There is a raid, but it is AIDS outside of a set group. Another one is being released soon I believe.
Same with PvP (Dark Zone). They recently changed it so you don't get experience killing NPCs anymore. Now you have to kill others or extract items. So....kinda like raids. If you aren't in a set group you're just asking for frustration. There is also Conflict, which is like group PvP. Again, frustrating. Fortunately you never have to play any of the PvP stuff if you don't want to.
So why play? Because I like killing shit, and this game does a good job challenging you, especially if you solo. Taking over a tier 4 control point solo always feels good. You can adjust the world difficulty level to your liking. It's fun to log in a few hours a day and finish up my dailies. Sometimes I sheperd (which is helping others out). Sometimes I try a new solo challenge. It's there if I want to play, and it doesn't cost me a dime if I don't.