I have been enjoying the division 2 lately but it took me quite some time to really grasp everything and to understand the different aspects of the game (e.g. minimap, gears etc...)
All in all, the game is very fun and the micro loops (inputs/actions = gunfights) feel very good, hitting enemies and accomplishing objectives gives you this feeling of empowerment that makes you want to grind a bit more... and a bit more...
(FYI: I played it on PC)
One of the first thing I noticed is that the game has a quite some long pressing here and there. For example, in the video below: To disable your tech you need to keep pressing the key for a pretty long time. Sure, it is not something you do often and that the long pressing prevent the player from miss clicking it in the middle of a fight and to end up with no tech available, but the pressing could be slightly shorter and smoother (same for upgrading tech or skills)
Information visualization:
While playing I noticed some details in the information displayed that could impact player's information processing:
Few things here in the inventory:
- the Damage Drop Off on the bottom right corner : displaying the meters where the drop starts (the two red lines) or showing an extra "50m" in the middle could help the players visualization and get more quickly what's going on and the impact it would have in gunfights (since you rarely shoot someone from 100m away, displaying the 30m or 50m mark could help transfer this information to real situations)
- the DMG and RPM on the right are showing the stat of the gun you are looking at and it compares it to your equipped gun. Now, I haven't run any test with users here but I feel that it is a bit easier to have a feeling for the comparison if you see the actual stat (240 here) contrasted with the stat of the other gun (900 here) instead of basically seeing one stat and the difference between the two stats. Also showing the information this way would let the player know which gun it is compared to (because it is compared to the first in the list "CTAR-21 and not the firstly equipped "Military Mk17)
- Something that took me some time to understand is the different types of guns. You can see that the type of ammo is showed with the bullet icon and it is a great way to see if two guns are using the same type of bullets. But it gets trickier when it comes to the "type" of gun and the gears that you can equip on it. I'm still not sure how it works after playing it close to 8, 9 hours but as far I know, you need to go on the gun itself and check its gear to have more info on what can be equipped on it.
- the Accuracy and stability bars are a good way to get a quick visual without having to read anything. The only thing would be that the texts are too close to the bars from both sides (e.g. the first bar goes with accuracy but its distance from the text below and above is the same, hence it doesn't create a clear link). The law of proximity (c.f Gestalt laws) states that elements that are close to each tend to be perceived as a unified one. Here it is not possible because stability is too close to the first bar. Worst, the player could perceive the bar as being connected to "stability", wrongly
- Another thing is the "RPM": rounds per minute. To see if a gun is better you basically can check its damage and the firing speed. The problem is that RPM doesn't translate into damage per minute because it doesn't consider the reload time. So, you might thing that the CTAR-21 with an RPM of 900 is very fast and therefore deals a high amount of damage but in comparison to another gun with more damage but less RPM it could be weaker. So, the player must calculate the real damage per minute by himself if he wants to make sure he is picking the best option
Here a small detail: when you scroll down in the gears, the alignment is broken, the magazines row is below the actual magazines you have available.
Something else related to information displayed is the icons used for loots : In the image below you notice the green and white color difference, but the icons are very similar on the minimap. They both (ammo and guns/loot) are represented by a small round shape with a pattern inside. The only difference is the inner pattern. Now, maybe it's because I play on my laptop and not on a big screen, but I found it very hard to notice the difference without leaning forward (after i finally noticed there was a difference).
To improve the differentiation between the two, different shapes could be used.
Same problem goes for the missions on the map:
The light blue/turquoise colored icons are either the main missions or the side missions. the differences between the two are the size and the shape (6 Vs 5 corners). Maybe using different colors could help the players notice the difference in a quick glance without having to check the size or click on it to see the details. But the downside of it could be that it adds too many colors and picking the right ones for everyone (color blind people included) gets harder the more you use.
Learning:
I was facing this thing in my inventory and I found it pretty hard to understand what it really meant. You can sort of get it from the 3 icons but, still I found that extra information's would have been welcome for someone who hasn't played the first game or has played it ages ago.
A simple move over pop-up window that appears when you go over one of the 3 icons to give you extra information's could be used to inform more on the subjects. Even more because I couldn't find anything on it in the tutorials
Something else I struggled with is the purpose of foods. You get to scavenge different resources in the game but it never tells you what it is used for, even when you pick them up.
In the resources menu the description is brief and doesn't tell you what to do with it (neither does the tutorials).
I found that the game was not always giving me all the information i wanted and that it could be a bit more generous in this regard. Worst case scenario if the advanced players are annoyed by that, they can deactivate it.
That's it. This post was not at all to bash out the game (because i really enjoy it), but more to share some thoughts on the game and my personal experience. :)
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