What happens when Rainbow Six fails, when the Ghosts aren’t enough, or when the Splinter Cells are gone? Tom Clancy's The Division, announced at Ubisoft’s E3 2013 press conference, is an online, open-world action-RPG that approaches the Clancyverse in a new way -- one where a dissolved government, anarchistic society, and rampant pandemic play into your story as an American sleeper agent.
In development at Ubisoft Massive, a studio using its own Snowdrop engine, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 third-person multiplayer shooter aims to serve two genres: the single-player action game, the massively multiplayer online RPG.
David Polfeldt, managing director at Massive, says “We wanted a lighter game than [World of Warcraft]. I’m not calling [The Division] an MMO,” although he’s aware of the similarities. The Division will not, however, feature classes. “We allow you to progress through the skill tree as you refer,” Polfeldt explains. In addition, you can respec your skills at any time, or on the fly. You’ll be able to jump between custom-built classes on the fly with the touch of a button.
Though it’s a role-playing game first and foremost, The Division also draws from the hardcore survivalism of Day Z or The Last of Us -- when your sleeper agent awakens, their belongings include just three days of food, water, and supplies. After that, you’re on your own for ammo and weapons, scouring logical locations for the right things. Need ammo? Check the police station -- but odds are its occupied by gangs that run rampant throughout the city. Maybe they’re thugs, desperate scavengers, or the KKK.
Amid the failing of government and rising societal chaos, The Division introduces another element to make matters worse for you and whatever crew you decide to roll with: a man-made pandemic that has “very, very sinister” ramifications on the underlying (and unspecified) story of you trying to restore order. The methods of how you do that vary -- mainline quests will take you to specific places, but in the open New York City, you can opt to help citizens in need, or under attack by those nasty gangs.
On the action side of things, Polfeldt calls The Division a “light shooter,” an RPG that makes you “work for it” without the inconvenience of under-the-hood die rolls shattering the trademark Clancy realism. The Division is also deliberately unforgiving in its difficulty -- skilled players can come out of tough scenarios unscathed, but it won’t scale to accommodate someone silly enough to brave a bad situation by themselves. This being Ubisoft, of course, The Division has a companion app -- but like Watch Dogs’, it isn’t just a wasteful gimmick. Players using their mobile devices can control drones to spot enemies and assess a combat situation. That drone has its own distinct upgrade progression, too.
Polfeldt, a recent victim of a Skyrim obsession, aims to drive players to explore, discover, and take in a different kind of shooter in ways console gamers aren’t used to. Gadgets, stealth, upgrades, and a persistent multiplayer world should bring the Tom Clancy universe to life in ways the good-but-predictable Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and long-absent Rainbow 6: Patriots never could.
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