NBC comedy variety show Saturday Night Live is no stranger to poking fun at video games. Last year, host Tiffany Haddish played a violence-averse character in Mortal Kombat and the show has also made jokes about squadding up with random players in Fortnite.

On Saturday's episode (April 6, 2019, Season 44, episode 17), it was Ubisoft's turn to get a grilling from the show's comedians. The skit starred Pete Davidson as a gamer who had gone to his local GameStop to play (what appeared to be) a virtual reality version of open-world shooter, The Division 2.

Davidson's character just wants to leave the safe house and blast zombies to pieces but the NPCs played by (episode host and Game of Thrones star) Kit Harington and Mikey Day won't stop talking. Day and Harington's characters have a bit of feud going on and they want Davidson to pick a side. They corner him at every turn and won't let him do what he came there to do - get a gun and play the game properly.

In the Saturday Night Live skit, this version of The Division 2 is called Earthwar 3. The enemies in the Ubisoft game are rogue factions, not zombies. However, the incessant talking of the skit's NPCs will ring a bell to anyone who has played the new open world game.

So many players seem to have complained about the NPCs and their chatty nature that Ubisoft changed it in the game's Invasion update. That patch also balances various aspects of The Division 2 gameplay, such as sniper turrets, FireFly, and chem launchers. However, it will be the changes to NPCs that most players will appreciate.

Those who don't play The Division 2 will still be familiar with unskippable cutscenes of useless dialogue and exposition. While the 50 cutscenes in Destiny 2 were appreciated, as developer Bungie beefed up the series' story compared to the first game, in others it can feel like a waste of time. In games where players just don't care about the narrative, where they just want to fight, the cutscene skip button can feel like a real gift.

Some games have also taken it further. Developer Naughty Dog added real-time cutscenes to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, meaning that the story scenes wouldn't take away from the action. If it means that they'll avoid getting blazed by Saturday Night Live, many other game developers may think about adding that too.

Source: YouTube - Saturday Night Live