On February 2 The Division 2 received its latest update, Title Update 12.1, which added a bunch of Resident Evil-themed items as part of a new apparel event. More importantly, it updated the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions to run at 60 frames per second, allowing console players to experience The Division 2 at a high framerate for the first time. And it’s fantastic.
I’ll get to the Resident Evil part of this update in a moment, but first I want to talk about The Division 2 running at 60 fps at 4K resolution. Since the game first released in 2019, The Division 2 has been a 30 fps game. It worked well enough, and I spent many, many hours playing the game like this. But I’d also seen people playing The Division 2 on PC, running at 60 fps or higher, and it always looked so much better. With new, more powerful consoles, I was excited about the possibility that Ubisoft and Massive would possibly double the framerate, and news of just such an update hit back in December. Now the update is finally live for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and sure enough, it’s a huge improvement.
The moment I started running around I giggled a bit: It felt like a new game. I got into my first firefight with some random enemies outside the White House and nearly died from missing all my shots. It took my brain a few minutes to get adjusted to the new timing and feel of combat now that everything was running at a higher, smoother framerate. But once my brain and hands got synced up with the new performance, I was off to the races. It was time to unlock some Resident Evil gear.
As announced during a recent Resident Evil showcase, this apparel event brings a bunch of new RE-themed clothing and weapon skins into The Division 2. While this sounds cool in theory, in reality it’s boring. Most of the gear is just dull pants, shoes, and vests. You can get Leon’s jacket from RE4, which is great and I love it, but most of the other gear is ultra bland. I reckon most folks won’t even notice your Chris Redfield pants because they look like all the other dark gray and black pants in the game.
All this new gear is unlocked via apparel chests, which you can earn for free by leveling up your SHD watch. You can also buy the chests with keys. As always, apparel event chests don’t spit out dupes, so if you want something it’s fairly easy to grind out some chests. Oh, and if you unlock all the gear, you get a sweet Nemesis mask, which actually does look very unique and cool.
This Resident Evil apparel event is most likely the remnants of the canceled “Codename: Nightmare” event, which was first teased back in September 2020. However, in December, Ubisoft confirmed that due to covid-19, the event would be drastically changed. Instead of featuring new gameplay content at an in-game location, the event would become an apparel only event. Considering the timing, it seems that Codename: Nightmare was going to be some sort of bigger, more involved Resident Evil crossover event.
Sadly, we didn’t get that. But we did get 60 fps support on new consoles, just in time for the last few weeks of the current season. And I prefer smooth gameplay over zombies anyway.