The Division 2 released its first eight-player raid three days ago, which was then completed on PC within five hours of its launch. Three days later, the raid has now been completed on both PS4 and Xbox One.
This comes as a relief to players on consoles who were expressing frustration at the seemingly unconquerable content. For their part, there can be no denying that there is some tuning needed to account for such a significant discrepancy between the two ways to play, otherwise, the message appears to be that playing on PC is the superior choice if one wishes to advance in the content of the game.
The raid, named “Operation Dark Hours,” is showing on PC leaderboards as being completed in about half an hour, with the current completion record set at 23 minutes and 40 seconds. In contrast, the first completion of the PS4 raid was recorded at over 36 hours, the second at almost 20, and the Xbox One clear coming in at 17 hours.
There are a few reasons why the two seem to have such different times to complete. For one, controller inputs are not as precise or as fast using a PS4 or Xbox One controller when compared to a keyboard. In parts of the raid where speed and precision are key, the advantage goes to PC players.
An interview with Zach Caraway, a player involved in the first completion of the content on the PS4, does not believe that technical limitations are what prevents players from succeeding. For Caraway, teamwork is essential to victory, and focusing on body shots over headshots because the latter are not as reliable.
As Caraway speaks to the necessity of teamwork over nearly all else, we may be seeing now why the implied promise by the developer to include matchmaking for the raids was excluded close to the launch of the content. If pre-made groups have had this much difficulty on consoles, matchmaking with strangers may have been too frustrating with almost no chance of success.
With this in mind, it would not be surprising if the console version of the raid received some tuning in the weeks to come, especially if the overwhelming majority of players who clear the content are doing so from their PCs. This will likely be affected by two points: the number of console players who manage to eventually complete the raid, and how quickly it can be repeated from that point onward.
Either way, hats off to those console players who put in the time and were able to finish the raid.