For all those folks that looked at The Division and thought, “Sure, but I ain’t paying for that,” then do I have some good news for you, cheapskate.

The Division 2 is looking to keep players more invested in its world, by dipping into an idea that many a game has used to great effect: Throwing your well-equipped patriotic butt into a tower of escalating challenges.

New expansion, new gameplay and New York City!

The Division 2 has a great selection of enemies, ruffians and soldiers who are designed to keep you moving between cover points as they attempt to flank your position. Amongst the many enemy types, there happen to be Rushers who’ll try and flush you out with shotgun blasts while their comrades provide covering fire. The problem here? Higher difficulty games are currently seeing all enemies adopt an approach to see what lasts longer: Their faces or your bullets.

Is there anything more reliable than a shotgun? It’s the jackhammer of video game weapons, able to carve a path forward with sheer brute force and always satisfying to load another round into its chamber with a satisfying pump of the barrel. In The Division 2, you’ll find plenty of these valuable corrider-cleaners, with the very best shotgun being the Exotic Sweet Dreams.

There’s no shortage of sidearms in The Division 2, but with all manner of SMGs, light machine guns and shotguns available to grab in the ruined streets of Washington DC, these little lifesavers and life-takers are often neglected. The Liberty Desert Eagle on the other hand, is a hell of a gun. With eight rounds and an RPM of 150 it might not sound like much, but it is able to unleash upwards of 30 000 damage in Tier 4 of The Division 2, which is holy smokes a lot for a sidearm.

I’m a big fan of SMGs in The Division 2. They’re nippy, able to offer quick reloads and more than capable of taking down a single enemy before you’ve spent every round in the magazine. Favouring an aggressive playstyle, they’re perfect for the type of player who enjoys closing a gap and getting up close and personal with their prey. One of the more agile SMGs that you can find in The Division 2? Easily the Exotic Chatterbox, which has a staggering 60 bullet magazine and a 700 RPM stat that will absolutely shred anything in front of you.

The cream of the rifle crop in The Division 2, belongs to the Merciless Exotic rifle. With thirty rounds in its clip and an RPM of 260, this beast can easily shoot the wings off of flies. And that's before we even get to its explosive priming and detonating rounds.