10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Division

Good news everyone! The embargo has lifted, which means I can finally tell you stuff about The Division, Ubisoft’s new Tom Clancy game. Hooray! Thing is though, it’s probably not what you were expecting. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. So here are 10 things you didn’t know about The Division.

It’s actually an RPG!

Despite what we’d seen of The Division up until now basically implying it’s a standard shooter, it’s not. You might be surprised to learn it’s mostly an RPG, where you gradually restore New York from a near-apocalyptic state after it’s been ravaged by disease.

You can customise your character

The Division has a character creation suite, and while it doesn’t have loads of sliders so you can lovingly craft your agent’s cheekbones into those of a GQ model, it still lets you change your eye colour, and add piercings or a f***k-off massive neck tattoo. Basically the sort of person your parents would be very proud of, just like me! You can also change your appearance with different clothes, right down to your favourite knee pads.

New York city is ‘almost 1 to 1’

The NYC map in The Division is a very detailed rendering of the actual place – the devs claim it’s pretty close to a 1 to 1 build. During my stay there I visited Time Square, the Garment District, and the Lincoln Tunnel. They were full of abandoned cars and stray dogs and feral looters. But let me tell you about what New York’s like in The Division! Hahaha!

You can modify your guns

In Fallout 4 you can modify your gu – I mean, in The Division you can modify your guns, by adding mods to the magazine, underbarrel, muzzle, and optics. There’s also a slot to change the skin, presumably in case ‘functional black’ isn’t a jazzy enough colour for your gun for killing people with.

It’s an RPG

You know why you can do all these little modifications and stuff? Because it’s an RPG, and that’s what you do in RPGs.

It’s based on real life. Sort of

The base concept for The Division’s story comes from Operation Dark Winter, which the US government ran in 2001, and was designed to simulate the effects of a smallpox outbreak in the country. The findings were that stopping the spread of disease would present “significant ethical, political, cultural, operational, and legal challenges”. Or, in other words, they’d be f***ed. I don’t know if anyone in government ever did anything with this information, but 15 years later someone has made a video game about it. All part of life’s rich tapestry.

The team leader can mark everyone else’s maps

We already knew The Division is skewed heavily towards multiplayer, with you working in a team with your mates. If you’re the one leading a group around New York then you can mark an objective on your map (which is a weird futuristic 3D projection, like what Google Maps will be when it grows up), and it’ll ping on the whole team’s map, and the route there will show up on their HUD. Isn’t that cool? I thought it was cool, anyway.

There are loads of collectibles

While parts of the main storyline are revealed from completing missions, I’m told you’ll also be able to flesh it out with stuff like intel and phone logs, and you can find traces of secret agents around the city too. You guys remember phone logs? Everyone loves phone logs in games.

You get a base you can level up and customise

Your Base of Operations, which is originally a disaster area as per NYC being A Bit F***ed, can be gradually cleaned up and made nice again, and has different wings to upgrade with new stuff: the devs say The Division is classless, but this is how you can add more buffs to your abilities down different skill trees (like your medical skills and offensive/defensive capabilities). There are even vendors to buy gear from, and a crafting station. From there you expand out into the city and find safe houses you can use as waypoints, which also gate higher level missions. Sounds a lot like an RPG, right? That’s because…

It is a f***ing RPG!

Did any of those early trailers look like The Division was an RPG? That creepy live action one with a singing child? No, they did not, and neither did that gameplay footage. It was all guns and explosions and flamethrowers, like a Michael Bay film at Christmas. Like, er, s*** Die Hard! And now Ubisoft spring an RPG on me! I really like RPGs! I’m probably going to like this game, and nobody warned me!

I don’t know what to do with myself now.