14 DAY TRIAL // Some more details about The Division, the upcoming online action adventure role-playing game from Ubisoft, have appeared, this time concerning its story and how the whole structure of the plot is designed to be dynamic.
The Division was one of the most impressive games that were revealed to the world at E3 2013 earlier this month, with Ubisoft sharing a cinematic trailer, a gameplay video, and quite a few details about the online experience.
Now, The Division producer Fredrik Rundqvist has talked with VG247 about the game's actual story. The plot follows the agents of a mysterious Division, which enter action while New York City is ravaged by a virus.
"There are a couple of different layers," Rundqvist said. "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."
While that's the big plot, players will engage in all sorts of smaller sub-stories that focus simply on surviving the virus and trying to bring justice to New York.
"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."
Given the hectic gameplay of an online title, Ubisoft designed the story from the get-go to be told in a dynamic fashion so that players can actually feel like they're learning more no matter the things they're doing in the game.
"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."
The Division is out for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2014.