Running With Strangers

I like playing solo. I mean, I like playing the co-op stuff with the guys, and I'll even do PvP if I'm playing with my friends, but what I really like is playing solo. Solo in an open world. With deep play. Not asking for much.

I don't want to play a story. If I want a story, I can go read a book or watch a movie. I liked both Nier: Automata and Horizon Zero Dawn, so much so that I'm sure that I'll pick them up again someday, but I really enjoy games like Destiny, GTA, and right now, The Division. I like being able to go anywhere, and to call my own shoots on what I'm going to do, as opposed to stepping through chapters in a story.

The problem is, it's really hard to create content for that environment, and for most open world games, multiplayer is added to keep things interesting. So wanting to play it solo makes it more complicated.

Right now in The Division, if I want to play solo, I can: do the Named Boss loop; do Search and Destroy missions; do HVT missions; and I can mess around on the West Side Piers. Oh, and I could play Survival, which I haven't even tried. I'm not sure why. There's something about those "Don't starve" modes that puts me off, but it might just be fear of the unknown.

I could try the Underground, but it sounds like it might be a little dicey to solo. Mynbruje thought you could, RegularX seemed to think that was a bad idea. What's interesting is that Regular used to routinely solo the Dark Zone, which both Mynbruje and I feel to be a bad idea. And you're not really soloing the Dark Zone, as you've set foot into one of the game's few PvP modes, and one of its most contentious.

There are also Daily combat and crafting challenges, and weekly challenges, though some of them might force me out of my comfort zone, might even have to run with randos. And in The Division, I've got my same old fear of running with strangers when I don't know the mission, and what I'm supposed to do. Same thing I had all the way back in World of Warcraft, and that kept me from running a lot of the content.

You could play Warcraft solo; I did for years. As I got more comfortable with the game, I eventually started running dungeons with randos, and it was always a mixed bag. Sometimes it would be a blast, and sometimes, it would really suck. It's the same with the strikes in Destiny, though for some reason, I'm less concerned with knowing the mechanics of a strike.

The Division is really hitting a sweet spot with me, with it's open world, and multiple things to do. The part where it's going to fall apart, I'm afraid, is the deep play. How much longer am I going to find it interesting to collect armor sets when I just seem to be running one and enjoying it. There are exotic weapons that I could collect, as well. And I do have a small crew forming. Like I said, I enjoy co-op with people I know and trust, so hopefully soon, we'll be able to do some of the co-op stuff in The Division.