Tom Clancy's The Division is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Ubisoft, with assistance from Red Storm Entertainment, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was announced during Ubisoft's E3 2013 press conference, and was released worldwide on 8 March 2016. The Division is set in a dystopian version of New York City in the aftermath of a smallpox pandemic; the player, who is an agent of the titular Strategic Homeland Division, is tasked with helping to rebuild the Division's operations in Manhattan, combating criminal activity in the wake of the outbreak, and investigating the nature of the outbreak. The Division is structured with elements of role-playing games, as well as collaborative and player versus player online multiplayer.
Gameplay:
The Division takes place in mid-crisis Manhattan, an open world with destructive environments that are free for players to explore. The player's mission is to restore order by investigating the source of a virus. The gameplay is similar to other third-person-shooters, in which player character can carry three weapons, and explosives like sticky bombs and smart mines to fight against enemies. Players may take cover behind objects during firefights to avoid taking damage from enemies, and to give them a tactical advantage when attacking. As the game is set in a third-person perspective, the character model is visible.As players progress, they earn experience points and currency. They can use this currency, to buy weapons and gear, and use the points to learn new talents and skills. Players have to complete missions to learn active talents such as the ability to throw healing grenades, deploy automated gun turrets or use radar pulse, which can tag enemies. The game features a dynamic, time based weather system which may bring benefits or disadvantages to players. For instance, storms can hinder player's visibility and make aiming difficult. The game also features a day-night cycle which will change the behaviors of enemies in the game.
The Dark Zone is the player-versus-player competitive multiplayer mode featured in The Division, where a lot of high-end weapons are left behind when the military retreats in the game. It is separated from the main campaign and has its own progression system. Higher-quality items can be found within the Dark Zone, but are considered "contaminated"; contaminated loot can be stolen by other players, and must be flown out via helicopter in order for them to be avaliable to the player after they leave the Dark Zone. Players can be accompanied by several co-operative partners and other neutral, player-controlled agents. These people, however, can turn against the player at any moment, going rogue. Players' level and ranking may drop if they die too often in the zone. Unlike the previous E3 Demo, Brooklyn, Long Island, and Staten Island will not be in the final game at launch.
Plot:
On Black Friday, a smallpox pandemic, transmitted by a virus planted onto banknotes, sweeps through New York City. The disease, called "Green Poison" and "The Dollar Flu", causes widespread chaos, and Manhattan is placed under quarantine. The U.S. Government activates sleeper agents in the population who operate for the Strategic Homeland Division, or Division, to assist emergency responders, now called the Joint Task Force (JTF), in restoring order. In Brooklyn, the protagonist, a Division agent, assists the JTF before planning to depart for the Quarantine zone with fellow agent Faye Lau. However, the VTOL meant to take them there is destroyed in an explosion, killing the Division Commander and wounding Lau. Arriving in a JTF helicopter instead, the Division agents reclaim the James A. Farley Post Office Building as their base of operations. From there, the agents undertake assignments to rescue important personnel and combat criminal groups, such as the Rikers, escapees from Rikers Island, and the Cleaners, insane New York Sanitation workers who burn anyone they suspect is infected. The agents also recover a sample of Green Poison. Studying the sample reveals the virus was manufactured by a controversial biologist named Gordon Amherst.
Eventually, the agents find footage of Division agent Aaron Keeler going rogue and killing other agents. It is also discovered Keeler and other agents who went rogue along with him are assisting the "Last Man Battalion" (LMB), a traitorous private military company that is hostile to the U.S. Government. Working together, these two groups destroyed the VTOL and killed the Commander to weaken Division operations in New York. Intercepting a signal from the Russian consulate, the agents attempt to rescue Vitaly Tchernenko, a Russian virologist who claims to have information on the Green Poison. However, he is kidnapped by Keeler and the LMB before the Division can reach him. After helping the JTF secure supplies and weapons, the JTF and Division agents launch an attack on the LMB's base, the evacuated United Nations headquarters. The agent finds footage of Keeler and his fellow rogue agents abandoning the LMB, with Tcherneko as their prisoner. The leader of the LMB, Charles Bliss, attempts to escape in a helicopter, but the agent destroys the vehicle, killing Bliss. Lau informs the agent that with most threats destroyed or weakened, New York is approaching stability, but an unknown signal leads the agent to a secluded laboratory. There, they find Dr. Amherst's remains, having discovered that he has died from exposure to his own virus. They also find a message from Keeler, showing he has the technology to manufacture a new strain of Green Poison and intends to do so, and mysteriously tells the agent to explore the center of Manhattan, called the “Dark Zone”. The agent is informed that the information in the lab will further the development of a vaccine and is shown a recovered message from Amherst. In the message, Amherst reveals he engineered Green Poison as part of his eco-terrorist plan to decimate the human race and preserve the planet.
Development:
Tom Clancy's The Division was originally being developed as an eighth generation consoles exclusive. Shortly after the game's unveiling, Ubisoft stated that other platforms were not ruled out. Ubisoft asked PC gamers to show interest in the game by signing petitions, and then they would decide. The new IP and tech has been in development for several years although development on the actual game began in the summer of 2012.
During E3 2013, the game was officially announced, with a trailer explaining the results of Operation Dark Winter and the purpose of Directive 51. During the Expo, Ubisoft announced a companion app that allows players to play the game on tablets. Players are able to join in the game as a drone to offer tactical support for players playing on PC and consoles. On 20 August 2013, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released for PC on Microsoft Windows as a result of the "vocal and passionate PC community." On 7 February 2014, Ubisoft announced that Ubisoft Reflections was co-developing the game and was responsible for developing the map-design, character-design and the online components of the game. Red Storm Entertainment, a subsidiary of Ubisoft that was co-founded by Tom Clancy, was also working on the weapon-design of the game. Ubisoft Annecy was also announced to be one of the co-developers of the game on 8 May 2015.
On 15 May 2014, it was announced that The Division would be delayed until 2015, according to an anonymous source inside Ubisoft Massive studio. "The game engine works well, it's not done, but works well. The actual game development has barely started, however," said the anonymous insider. The Division uses Ubisoft's new proprietary engine known as Snowdrop, which is made exclusively for next-gen consoles and PC, excluding the Wii U. On 9 June 2014, The Division was showcased at E3 2014 with an anticipated release for late 2015. Ubisoft also announced that all DLC for The Division will be timed exclusives for Xbox One.
However, on 12 May 2015, Ubisoft announced that the game had yet again been delayed until the following year. The Division released on 8 March 2016, two years after its initially planned release.
During E3 2015, the game's final release date and a player versus player area known as the Dark Zone were revealed. Its companion app was cancelled, as the company considered that the addition of drones will bring unfairness to the competitive multiplayer mode of the game. The beta was then set to be released for the Xbox One in December 2015 and for Windows and PlayStation 4 in 2016. On 7 December 2015, Ubisoft announced that The Division's beta would be moved to "early 2016" and that an Xbox One exclusive alpha would begin on 9 December 2015.
On 26 January 2016, it was confirmed that the closed Beta would begin on 28 January 2016 for Xbox One and 29 January 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, and end, for all platforms, on 1 February 2016. On 31 January 2016, Ubisoft announced that they had extended the beta, and that it would end on 2 February 2016.
On 9 February 2016, Ubisoft announced that The Division's open beta would begin for Xbox One on 18 February 2016, and for PC and PlayStation 4 on 19 February 2016, and would end for all platforms on 22 February 2016. Over 6.4 million players, across all platforms, participated in the open Beta. On 27 February 2016, Ubisoft confirmed that there would be no microtransactions at launch.
Reception:
Tom Clancy's The Division received positive reviews. Ars Technica drew comparisons between The Division and Destiny, a first-person shooter with similar overall mechanics regarding items, crafting, and "shared world" mechanics. The game was compared to "modern" MMORPGs, explaining that "structurally, it all feels like it could have been ripped from Guild Wars 2 or a latter-day World of Warcraft", including "that old MMO staple of being stuck in a server queue before diving into a game" on-launch, in combination with the "quintessential Ubisoft design style" of varying types of collectible and upgrade systems. The Division was criticized for lacking variety in its activities and missions, explaining that it "does little to break from or advance what is fast becoming the general form of the 'loot shooter' genre. In fact, it takes very few risks at all, particularly with its enemies and encounter design." The Dark Zone was described as being "harrowing", but was panned for sharing characteristics with the post-game content of Destiny (particularly, raids), as being the only means of obtaining higher-level gear that is, ultimately, only theoretically needed for further play in the Dark Zone, and for not introducing any major differences in gameplay mechanics like the raids of Destiny.
The retail version of The Division was the best selling game in its week of release in the UK and Ireland, debuting at No. 1 in the UK retail software sales chart. The game had the biggest first day sales in Ubisoft history, breaking the record previously held by Watch Dogs in 2014. The game's launch also marked the biggest video game debut in the first quarter of the year in the UK, breaking the record previously held by Sony's Gran Turismo 4. It was the third biggest launch of a Ubisoft game in the UK, only behind Assassin's Creed III and Watch Dogs. The game also has the highest week one sales for a new intellectual property, breaking the record held by Destiny. The game was also No.1 in Japan, selling over 80,000 units in it's first week.
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