The publisher offers new details for its upcoming free-to-play shooter The Division: Heartland as part of its Ubisoft Forward presentation.
Ubisoft unveiled fresh information on its in-development free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland during Saturday's Ubisoft Forward event. Due to some significant delays, it's been some time since The Division Heartland was last presented, with some wondering if Ubisoft's ambitions for The Division franchise going forward had changed. The Division Heartland, developed by Red Storm Entertainment, appears to be on track and may arrive sooner than predicted.
The Division Heartland is still a separate franchise from The Division. It's still designed to be a free-to-play standalone experience, set in the same environment as the other The Division games but taking place around the same time period. The Division Heartland takes place in a fictional rural village, whereas The Division and The Division 2 take place in reality-based major urban regions. The environment will allow The Division Heartland to give a distinct multiplayer experience.
A much more in-depth look at the game's setting is shown in the new trailer for The Division Heartland, called a "Developer Intro" to the game. It's called Silver Creek and appears to be any other American metropolis. There's a main street lined with coffee shops and small stores, a downtown area with a mix of mid-sized company offices, single-family home subdivisions, and even what appear to be nuclear power plant cooling towers, giving The Division Heartland a touch of The Simpsons je ne sais quoi.
The Division Heartland's gameplay, on the other hand, is a complete unknown. Surprisingly, it's billed as a survival game, but it obviously has conventional The Division co-op combat scenarios, crafting, a base of operations, and a familiar story-based mission structure. Given its free-to-play nature, it might be exactly like The Division 2, only heavily monetized and built around live service advancement algorithms.
It's unclear why Ubisoft has been so tight-lipped on The Division Heartland material. With a potential release date of late 2022, it's astonishing how little of the game has been displayed. That is rather concerning, especially given that Division Heartland is a free-to-play game. Some may be concerned that Ubisoft is concealing the game's monetization in order to prevent criticism, however, it is unclear whether this is the case.
The short trailer for The Division Heartland does demonstrate that if The Division fans want more content, the new game will provide it. Based on what little has been revealed, the trailer gives a very familiar The Division feel. That could change when more of The Division Heartland is revealed, but for fans of the franchise, it's a step in the right direction.
Source: @gamerant.com
