The Division 2 on Stadia
Stadia has been slowly adding titles to its ground-breaking service, including some new AAA titles such as The Division 2. MMOs like this are what many consider to be the ultimate test for this platform. The ability to have so many players connected online in a fast-paced game, streaming to their homes while playing is quite a challenge. While it would not be the first major challenge faced by Google’s Stadia team, it might be the biggest. So, how is the performance of The Division 2 on Stadia? Let’s take a look!
I have long believed that Stadia has not been given a fair shake. For what is truly a revolutionary gaming platform/technology, it received heavy criticism for what are, in my mind, all of the wrong reasons. Sure, the launch of the service had a few hiccups, but when you step back and think about what you’re doing when you’re playing a game on Stadia, it is really quite impressive.
This remains just as true with The Division 2, a resource-intensive MMO shooter that features fast action and really benefits from high FPS and seamless input. The fact that I was able to forget I was not playing this on my local Xbox or PC but in fact streaming it through Stadia to my TV, my desktop and my Pixel phone, speaks volumes as to how the service is performing.
Additionally, the Stadia controller feels at home in any environment it is thrown into, a truly clever design that, when combined with the claw for mobile devices, creates a familiar and enjoyable handheld console-type experience in a very modern style.
As with anything that requires serious bandwidth, Stadia’s performance is only as good as the internet service you are able to use. While this is an issue for many people in the present, I fully believe (as does Google, clearly) that this gap in service will narrow greatly in the next few years. To this end, Google is positioning itself as the first game streaming service of its kind, and others are quickly following suit.
There are so many upsides to this type of delivery system that are often overlooked by the critics. There are zero download times. Zero. For anyone with a Steam library like mine, you can appreciate how much of your time/bandwidth is used by games keeping themselves updated. With Stadia, you simply make a purchase and then are in-game literally seconds later. The games are also kept saved real time, allowing you to put the game down and pick it up seamlessly.
So please, if you have found yourself on the fence about Stadia, do yourself a favour and try it out. The drawbacks are being quickly sorted out and you will soon find yourself enjoying the same quality experience as always, just with the freedom to play it anywhere, on PCs, TVs and mobile devices alike.
If you are interested in the full review of The Division 2 itself, we have that for you here: https://www.gamesreviews.com/xbox-one/xbox-one-reviews/03/the-division-2/
For more information on the Google Stadia, visit: https://store.google.com/product/stadia