TOM CLANCY'S THE DIVISION 2.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: VIDEO GAME - Brief article - Product/service evaluation

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is set in a startlingly accurate replica of downtown Washington, D.C. You're given an under-explained, overlong, mostly irrelevant list of tasks and forced to fend off waves of crude thugs and power-mad gang leaders who want to rule the town. Surprisingly, it's not a game about being a congressional intern.

There's a premise--the U.S. has suffered a chemical attack and now the cities have become overrun with violent gangs--but there's not much story. The game is built around three core activities: hiding behind stuff, shooting people, and collecting "loot," the game's catch-all term for powerful weapons and gear that will allow you to hide behind more stuff, shoot more people, and so on and so forth, in an endless loop.

The game is best experienced as a form of virtual tourism, in which the principal pleasure is tramping through a D.C. that has been recreated almost perfectly, down to the street signs. Although many specific...