Intro:

So let’s talk about a game and setting that is near and dear to my heart…Massive Entertainment’s The Division series. These games have been a series that I have revisited time and time again over the last eight or nine years. I still remember playing the beta test and just being blown away not just with the awesome looter shooter gameplay utilizing real world weapons and tactical gear, but honestly more so at the amount of detail in the open world sandbox style New York City that we were given. The story seemed so dark and realistic, the fact that some terrorist organization infected currency at the Federal Reserve with a new strain of the flu right before Black Friday was such a believable and scary way to start a contagion/outbreak story in a grounded way. Playing as wet works off the books style “Division” agents that operate as some shadow corporation coming directly from the government with executive orders just seems to add to this larger than life narrative grounded in a real world apocalypse situation in a faithful recreation of NYC. The whole vibe of being this lone agent going street to street trying to help those in need had such a cool feel, like you were up against impossible odds but there was no one else to do it, so it was up to you. Teaming up with other players to form small fire teams of agents that were just dropped in the city to try to reestablish some form of control Was just such a cool new fresh take on instanced content and explained the narrative other than just “you're now with friends” like other looter games. The systems of the game played into the lore and setting seamlessly. The fact that it was a looter shooter at first had me kind of had me worried, but it never really felt like enemies other than pinnacle style content/highly armored boss enemies were “bullet spongy”, like a Diablo or like a Warframe or any of those games.

The Division felt, even if it was still a looter shooter, more like a realistic game and more grounded in reality than the others and more than just the setting in the world. The ambience of the snow falling on the abandoned streets of New York and just blocks and blocks of quarantine fencing set up by the federal government in attempt to stop the spread of the “Dollar flu”, trapping countless citizens in their homes or wherever they may have been. As you move through areas like this, your time there is littered with a backdrop of your AI companion ISAAC, which is a Division tech similar to Tony Starks Jarvis, highlighting environmental hazards and feeding you info as you move through, then you hear the sound of looters breaking and entering, cracking off rounds, screaming and people crying for help, some of which you can save, most of which you’ll stumble upon later in your travels who weren’t so lucky. You’ll run into NPCs that are a mixed bag of escaped Rikers Island convicts capitalizing on the chaos, stealing and attacking civilians, JTF officers patrolling the streets and protecting caravans on their way to safe zones and supply points. Stray animals like dogs, deer and raccoons skittering through the streets that used to be littered with cars and food carts adds to this cool dystopian feel that is often missed in other open world games that mistake crisis situations and post apocalyptic scenarios as an excuse for their maps to be empty.

The open world in addition to the instanced missions being inside of the derelict malls, department stores and recognizable real world landmarks in NYC (D1) and DC (D2) is just such a cool way to blend a WROL* setting to fit into a looter shooter mold but also maintain the real setting, and utilize real world gear and weapons depicted in The Division series. An added perk of this setting is also being able to see a lot of the locations and items shown in game with your own eyes, which in my opinion, as far as looter shooters go, places The Division series is easily positioned (in my opinion) to be the most immersive loot based action game setting to date. But, to have a very interesting setting on its own isn't usually enough. I can think of tons of games that nail the setting, background, music and all, but what needs to also hit home is what every game needs…good gameplay, and a reason to keep engaging with said gameplay. In my opinion, The Division does this well, and their choice to have engaging gameplay with gearing/progression that's not so deep that it seems imposing, but deep enough that there’s a lot of room for player expression in all of the content in the series. That, plus the ability to target farm gear in D2, and the previously mentioned very well crafted open world rich with amazing environmental storytelling, collectibles, and agent loadouts that all make sinking hundreds of hours into the game and the replayability really helps set The Division series apart from other loot based games to this day. They still do a lot of things better than other games in the genre, or even out of the genre, even though D2 right now is relatively old. What I'm excited about, and what spurred me to make this post, is the new update that just dropped for D2 with a bunch of content I think they’ve had brewing for a while. It doesn’t revolutionize the game or change a lot but it’s good to see The Division series still getting updates. I think not that long ago they re-enabled the hardcore survival mode in D1, and tons of players flocked back to it, which is a testament to the cult following these games have even to this day.

Lore and Setting:

As I’ve touched on a bit in the intro, the setting, lore, backstory and just kind of the overall narrative of The Division series is just so intriguing and honestly what makes it so scary is how realistic it fits into our modern world. Other games have awesome narratives of these larger than life fantasy settings with antagonist that are supremely powerful and all of that’s really well and fun, however in a game where the antagonist could your neighbor in the apartment next-door that just ran out of food to feed his children, or rogue agent you thought you knew with all the gear and training you have (with some of the best AI i've seen in games), or maybe roving bands of madmen called “The Cleaners” who believe the only way to beat the dollar flu is to burn the infected, alive if they have to…or in some cases, the very sickness itself is your enemy in game. This alters the landscape of an otherwise ordinary near to scale New York City to a chaotic wasteland with glimmers of hope and humanity banding together to create an overarching narrative that hits much closer to home than something make-believe.

Part of what makes the delivery of this game's background stories and characters so fun is how it allows you to go looking for it, but only if you want to. It doesn’t shove it down your throat like most games do with un-skippable cutscenes and borderline unbearable exposition dumps. This game's lore is as deep as you care to dive, which is a nice change of pace from the norm. Most of the lore is found inside of optional collectibles like EHCHOs that show augmented AI recreations of events that happened in the past, or cell phones you can recover that may help you track POIs or just random audio logs that flesh out a certain area you happen to be in and tell a story about it that makes the sandbox feel more like a lived in and struggling ecosystem and less like a man made artificial playground most games feel like.

When I’m running out of other games to play or I’ve kind of burned out, I usually find myself wandering the streets of The Division 2 over and over again. I turn the UI off in the game (which for the record, is EXPERTLY designed in its minimalism already) and just kind of walk up and down the road like I am the agent that I’m in the game. Usually I have a pump action shotgun or a bolt action rifle like (Ekim’s long stick for life!), kind of portraying weapons I may have scavenged along the way from a hunting shop or someone's basement. I like to think I would have the courage to patrol the streets and try to help those who need it. I would spend hours walking up and down the roads, back alleys, vaulting over broken windows into stores to come out of the weather that rolled in and hunker down in safe rooms as night rolled in. Every time I would hear JTF and/or armed civilians fighting hostiles I would swing in like a superhero and help them clean up the street and get to their destination. The random encounters and very active friendly, neutral and hostile AI wandering this world is part of what makes a sandbox/open world game feel alive, and as I said, this world is definitely one of the best ones to play in. I love how interactive environment and the fact that you can go into a lot of the buildings in the the map is, the search for things like downed drones or as I mentioned above, the ECHO devices is rewarding because you can replay events in the past and kind of catch yourself up to something that’s happened here. The game blends these moments seamlessly into an alive world where sometimes you feel like you're part of a very large organization trying to restore order, and other times you feel like the last person on earth watching recordings of people who used to be here. My mind has been blown multiple times when I go into an apartment building, back alleyway or something like an abandoned convenience store just for fun and happen to find an ECHO and I get to play and see a story about what happened to the people that worked there, or other survivors that have been walking through the area and were jumped at that store. Maybe even an ECHO that goes back before the outbreak of the dollar flu that might show normal life. Seeing New York, or Washington DC if you're playing D2, before the chaos in a snapshot ECHO as you are in a dilapidated apartment complex, or what used to be a museum is just so surreal and acts as such an interesting catalyst for a still underrated story.

So, to finally touch on that without getting too granular, a terrorist organization sneaks into the Fed., puts a highly contagious strain of the flu onto American currency right before Black Friday, the largest shopping day in the world, is such a compelling narrative and it’s honestly terrifying how realistic it sounds. I remember in D1, playing both the beta and the full release, just walking being mesmerized by the melancholy dichotomy of the abandoned car filled streets of New York, filled with Christmas trees, giant nutcrackers, strands of lights and decorations in windows and in stores, just to turn the corner to a giant pile, stories high, of biohazard trash bags (god only knows whats in them), used up medical equipment, containment fences in the middle of the road you can only assume were used to funnel citizens to points of safety which are long gone. All of the city has this eerie contrast of what should be a happy time right next to one of the largest humanitarian crises ever depicted in video games. I cannot recommend this game series enough if you like looter shooters, but even if they're not your normal cup of tea due to the grind that's associated with them (which I will get you later in the progression and the systems, but these games have far and away the best way of doing this…) you can play the this series kind of like an immersive solo story game.

As I hinted before, most of my hours in the series have been kind of just playing alone with some music on my headphones…walking down the street with my UI off and running into a random civilian that asks for aid. Maybe a dog that’s looking for food and we run into each other and have that uneasy moment of “is one of us going to make a move.” Or that very same dog that’s getting shot at by some Riker or by some bandits in the street and I rush to save them with my bolt action rifle to try and prove that the lawless don't own these streets. Watching racoons scurry under a car and hearing birds fly off in a flock because a giant thunderstorm is coming, only to climb up on top of a high ledge to watch the storm roll and spotting a caravan of supplies trying to make it back to a JTF Safe Zone (or maybe the other way around and seeing hostile supplies you can take for your own…). That storm is going to bring visibility down, and the probability of getting jumped by someone that wants the things you’re carrying on your back, especially in those more hostile zones, goes WAY up so you scramble to help them make it. Those things I'm describing are things I've actually seen and experienced in game, this series invokes actual feelings in you because you can be completely immersed in its world in a way few games ever have with encounters like this, environmental storytelling like this, and a melding of all things that help you feel like, even though this is a “just a game” you're a part of this living breathing world filled with people scraping by to make it, and a brave few trying to venture out and help others.

The gameplay, open world and collectibles aren't the only things flushing out background though. These games do so well continuing the stories and world building through the side quests in the game, or even NPC dialogue that you can hear or overhear from a distance. Not to mention all of the stuff being flushed out in the main campaign, expansion campaigns and in the seasonal content, on the gear that you’re wearing you name it. There’s a huge wealth of knowledge to be had in the game alone, but as you get into the game you find so much more. When the first game was released, there was an Amazon Prime short, “Agent Origins”, that came out. It was about 20 minutes long and I remember watching it after playing the beta before getting the full game and I got so hyped for the game. The opening minutes of it watching civilians seeking help, just to be gunned down and burned by the now infamous “Cleaners” posing as CDC workers, is so dark and sets the grim tone of a lot of the games' setting characters. For every one person who's hopeful and doing good, there's 100 that have devolved to their base instincts, and I love that the Division doesn't shy away from it. In addition to this short, there've been some great books as well that have been released inside of the universe. Speaking of which, one of my unicorn items I’ve always wanted for my collection is the first book “Fall of New York”, which is now basically a holy grail for anyone in the fandom, and is going for 500% what it was going for when it came out. It's kind of like a survival guide, written like it's from someone on the ground in NYC in the game which is SO cool. I also believe I heard there’s gonna be a comic book/graphic novel as well last year. I had my ear a lot closer to the ground with The Division then, and I remember them talking about not only a Division 3 (PLEASE!!) but also an expanding universe of books, comic books, and graphic novels, which I hope happens!

Setting:

I've talked a lot about the setting in the intro and lore, but want to touch on it a bit more. I have a soft spot for the first game’s setting. It was such an interesting and different setting for the admittedly overdone “end of the world” setting in games. Open world games are usually just packed with monotony and copy and paste assets to fill up the map, but normally just feel so soulless because they miss the mark on filling it up with NPCs and systems that make it seem alive on its own, like it exists even without you logged in (Forever Winter comes to mind…read my mock up on that too if so inclined!). The Division games tackled the large open world sandbox format and in my opinion crushed it like very few have (Red Dead Redemption anyone!). A lot of people rushed to the idea of an open world, but it is something that’s hard to do well, and really hard to nail in terms of making the world feel alive and giving the audience a reason to interact with it. Division 1, especially for its time, absolutely crushed this formula. I still remember walking up and down the streets of New York seeing Christmas lights still on and houses that have long since been abandoned, going through the subway systems playing the Underground endgame mode, running into super tough enemies called “Rogues” which were like these incredibly powerful hunter/killer style defected agents that were super strong, and usually players would run in the other direction of. In contrast, the D2 had a much different style setting, however pulled some of the same design cues from the first game. Division 2 took place in Washington DC a little time after the first game in the summertime. When I first heard that was going to be the setting I was kind of hesitant. I didn’t know if I loved The same kind of game in a hot climate. It just didn’t seem to fit well for me, then I played it.

The overflowed rivers and swampy style parks in the dead of summer just see an overturned plastic Santa Claus floating in it, or a light up reindeer in the middle of the street. This team really does nail the environment. Seeing Christmas stuff up in the dead of summer and having the time pass since the first game adds another layer of flavor to the aesthetic. It was just a kind of setting that I had never really played before and in terms of the two I still think D1 for me will always hold a special place, but D2 did a lot of work to make it’s setting equally as fun, but both games ooze This special setting of realism and post apocalyptic wasteland that I’ve never really been able to find in other games. Massive’s ability to use the environment to tell a story of trying to find what happened to a person or to a place just by going to those places and finding context clues, dead people on the ground, overturned cars, broken windows, is just superb. In my opinion, they may be the only studio to ever do environmental storytelling as well as someone like Valve (Half Life/Left 4 Dead Series). Massive does about as well as household name studios which says something. I cannot overstate how good The Division series is not just in the game format but as a fandom, book series, or just in general in terms of ambience, aesthetic, setting, story, the lore, all of it. Also, if you're a guy like me who has a lot of interest in gear, survival, urban evasion and tactical stuff, these games are an absolute amusement park for you.

Content/Activities/Gameplay

I'll reference all the stuff in D2 because it's the flagship game and has an absolute flood of content. You obviously start with the campaigns. Beat the original, then on to the Warlords of New York campaign which is great and introduces some twists and turns, then the NEW Battle for Brooklyn (that I have not played, but can't wait to!). Once all that's done, you get to what's considered the endgame, which will then start the next journey. Here you will face hard challenges like Raids and Incursions which is where you band together with multiple agents to complete tough missions. Legendary missions, which are missions from the base game/DLCs that have been scaled WAY up in difficulty and changes to the gameplay to challenge an agent even with a solid build. The Summit, which is similar to the Underground I mentioned earlier, except in D2 it's a 100 floor complex that gets harder and changes the enemies each floor. The Dark zone, which admittedly i didnt spend alot of time in, is a PVP zone with loot that you drop if you go down, and players can “go rogue” and you can track them down for a bounty, all with AI NPCS and different mechanics. You have a limited storage capacity that you have to extract at LZs, which are always hot zones. This all adds to a very intense and fun experience, even for me, and I'm not normally a PVP guy. Also of note, D1 had this mode in 2016, before any of the BRs and EFT clones that are out now were even in Alpha.

This was incredibly forward thinking and always exciting. On top of this, you have the newer mode called Countdown, which i didn't play much but is a roguelike mode where you work your way up to perks and better weapons and was super fun from what i played, and last on my list was the seasonal content like man hunts and seasonal completionist content, but again, ALL of this was off the top of my head, and all of which is repeatable and because the modifiers change, and targeted loot on certain kinds of content change this game has near infinite replayability, best of which is the Summit, which features all forms of content on its floors, AND you can select your targeted loot by the Set name or Weapon type. Getting together a late game build in this game has outright ruined me to other loot based games other than maybe Diablo 4 since they finally adopted a similar method, but Divisions method is STILL KING. Now, for the other form of content/progression, lateral progression! If you don't want to play pinnacle, there's still plenty to do! Collectibles are plenty between ECHOs and phones like I stated, but tons of other open world challenges and completion style rewards for maintaining order and exploration. Skill trees/specs can be switched and min maxed all on one main character so you can fully spec out your character on your party comp/content your playing which is awesome.

Also, you can play any content to level your SHD level, which is basically an unlimited level up mechanic with no real cap giving you incremental upgrades throughout your entire career in D2. Also to tie into the Summit info above, the Target farming makes equipping Loadouts with bis gear, and the crafting you can do to make it the best it can be is addicting. This game's system of attribute library is reminiscent of Diablo 4s codex and enchantments BUT there's no RNG. you can assign an attribute to any non unique/exotic item, along with the EXACT stat you want, making gearing extremely streamlined and forgiving.

Sequels & Ubisoft’s future:

No to maybe the most negative I'll be in this write up…the future. Recently The Division : Heartland was canceled. This was a BR style spin off, basically going all in on the Dark Zone that was expected this year but was recently officially canceled. I got into the beta of the game, and it was a huge forward movement of the IP, not really, BUT it was on an improved engine, at least from the looks of it, and kept a lot of what made the Division series feel SO good to play. They shifted to a more PVP based extraction shooter formula, which wasn’t my preference, but it was still well done and the gameplay was there. The game was actually hard, you couldn't soak bullets up like we were accustomed to and enemies, especially the ones with armor, or the elite purple/gold health bar enemies were SCARY. You need to drink and eat, and could get sick from an advanced strain of the dollar flu that moved along the map. The maps were time based and towards night time EXTREMELY hard enemies would spawn and players could turn on each other, so it kind of leaves it up to you if you want to chance it and go for the PVP, or get out before and only interact with friendly players which was at least a nice touch. I did hear that D3 was coming, at least eventually and hopefully we get more info this year. With Ubisoft's current state I think a lot of what's happening on their side of the fence is up in the air. Think they're going to be bought or sold for parts before long, but sources from Massive say D3 is definitely happening, and I believe D2 content is only confirmed throughout the year.

Impact:

The impact of these games is pretty wild. From tie-ins to other games, but more so the brands that were licensed for the game. The only reason I know what 5.11 is was because of D1. I bought my first handgun because of D1s Smith and Wesson 686, LOVED that gun in game, and got my first pack, a 5.11 RUSH72 bag because of the game too. I've also taken trips to DC since D2 came out and made sure to try and notice POIs from the game, and that connection to real world places, gear, and culture just make this such a fun fandom to explore over more fantasy settings. The impact on me personally has been immense. The Division series is easily my favorite loot based game and has made it hard to play other games in the same genre because if they don't have the target farming system or features of the Division, i get annoyed. I still have and love a lot of the gear I associate with the game (the division watch face on my smart watch, not to mention a Casio that looks like it), not to mention my love of the combo of gray and orange solely from a lot of the visuals and concepts from the game. If it wasn't obvious by now I LOVE these games, and I think the fact they are tied to Ubisoft has tarnished how truly remarkable they are, there aren’t a lot of games I recommend to EVERYONE looking for a game, but how deep the game is with regards to the gameplay, the features, the systems, the lore, the setting, the real life literature and material tie-ins make this game an absolute no brainer….now I’m going to go watch Agent Origins again on Prime, and probably re-download D2 to play the new DLC. See you soon agent!

THE DIVISION - UBISOFT STRUCK GOLD (And why I’ve been obsessed with it)