The Division Heartland (opens in new tab) was introduced in 2021 as a free-to-play shooter that “will present an all new perspective on the universe in a brand new setting.” Particulars past that had been mainly non-existent however I speculated on the time that it could be a battle royale of some kind. At present we obtained our first correct have a look at it in a “developer deep dive video,” and it appears that evidently I used to be slightly off the mark.
In contrast to the primary two Division video games, which had been set in New York Metropolis and Washington DC respectively, The Division Heartland takes place in Silver Creek, a small city in center America. You are there as a result of your previous boss in Boston worn out your staff of Division brokers and did a runner in that route. Now he is placing collectively a military of “reapers” for causes that stay unknown.
And regardless of its small dimension, Silver Creek faces plenty of the identical issues as the large cities of the nation, together with “a hostile atmosphere stuffed with lethal contamination, roaming enemy hordes, and the looming menace of illness and dehydration.” There are additionally no good eating places.
However Silver Creek has some substantial variations too, together with the addition of a shared base of operations situated on the city’s deserted curler skating rink. Right here, gamers will come collectively to manufacture provides, prep their “go-bags,” and shoot the breeze, earlier than heading out to assist re-establish regulation and order in Silver Creek by capturing anybody who is not a part of their squad.
Different probably fascinating concepts in Heartland embrace the addition of a day/evening cycle throughout every play session: Within the day you may discover, scavenge for supplies, full numerous aims, and naturally shoot individuals; at evening, the risks and the violence will enhance, as you may face off towards rogue NPCs and “newly hostile gamers.” You may additionally should cope with dehydration and illness, and guarantee you could have ample filters to allow you to enter into constantly-shifting contaminated areas.
The last word objective, apart from imposing the rule of regulation by way of brutal vigilantism, is to get out in a single piece with all of your stuff—to extract, you may say. “Every profitable operation means that you can full extra missions, and unlock distinctive talents, new map areas, and essential features at your base,” the Heartland web site says. “Die earlier than you extract… and are available again empty-handed.”
It actually all sounds greater than slightly like The Division’s ‘Darkish Zone’ tackle PvEvP, which managed to be each extremely tense and massively infuriating, relying on whether or not you had been those rolling noobs and stealing their loot, otherwise you had been the on the receiving finish of the paramilitary cyber-bullying. Using prox chat solely added to the stress/infuriation, and in hindsight was fairly forward of its time. Ubisoft additional iterated on the PvEvP idea with The Division’s ‘Survival’ mode, which additionally targeted on masks filters to create a time restrict earlier than extracting with newfound gear.
Ubisoft says the event staff at its Crimson Storm studio is “taking a test-and-learn method to constructing this sport,” which implies “frequently conducting check phases and gathering participant suggestions earlier than shifting on to the subsequent part.” If you would like to get in on that motion, you possibly can join to participate at thedivisionheartland.com (opens in new tab).