Tom Clancy's The Division, for many, was the surprise of this year's E3. It was hilariously ambitious and filled amazing ideas. What the game's overarching goal was, and how it will pertain to this large MMO-like world had yet to be explained, luckily Massive COO and The Division producer Fredrik Rundqvist as well as production director Petter Mannerfelt shared some light on the subject.
“There are a couple of different layers,” Rundqvist explained. “There is an overarching story line that, as one of the last functioning agencies, you need to set out to solve the mysteries behind the man-made virus. Who was behind it? Who distributed it? How can we cure it? All that stuff. And of course, to do so, you need to first of all survive in this chaos where everyone is fighting for the same resources that’s still out there. And you have all the government services shutting down one by one, because people simply don’t show up for work anymore, right? It’s both helping who is left out there and of course going after the big bad guy, you know, the mystery behind the virus.”
"The structure that we built for the game so far is that there is a story, but it’s not a linear story,” said Rundqvist. “So you need to explore the world and pick out pieces and bricks of the story everywhere. And on the way, doing that, you will also encounter other content and other dynamic encounters and missions. Obviously, if you play with other real players, that’s dynamic in itself. You never know how that will play out."
“We designed the game to be endless gameplay. It’s hundreds, if not thousands of hours of gameplay that we hope people will enjoy.”
Rundqvist also hinted at DLC for the game and how the game can keep expanding. When asked about how similar it was to a MMO and the recent Defiance game, they avoided the MMO part by stating, “This game, at its core, is a multiplayer online game,” said Mannerfelt. “It’s based on online and grouping. You can play with your friends and play with a lot of other people. You can, of course, play by yourself and play all the story stuff by yourself and as I said, seamlessly with your friends and seamlessly into PvP if you feel like playing PvP. In the PvP areas you will meet many, many other players.”
As for the way "classes" go, it's taking the more simple streamlined approach to draw in more players, rather than making them stick to a learn their respectful class. “When you start the game you’re actually asked to pick a background,” said Rundqvist. “The Division is an agency that’s a combination of disciplines that would be useful in this scenario – engineer, military, law enforcement, intel, medical… stuff like that. As you progress into the game world, you define your own play style so it’s not a typical class-based game. You upgrade your skills and talents and you customize your weapons, the looks of your character. And you can respect right away in the middle of the game. You can continue to develop your play style. Whatever fantasy you want to pursue, it’s up to you.”
So now that some light has been shed on the latest Tom Clancy title, are you more excited for the release of The Division, or less? Let us know in the comments below.
