During E3 2015, we saw a trailer for the Dark Zone in Ubisoft’s upcoming title, Tom Clancy’s The Division. The Dark Zone is an in-game player-vs-player realm where players can undertake a variety of missions solo, as a team, or as a rogue agent with the aim of securing loot drops.
Over on PlayStation Blog, Executive Producer Fred Rundqvist said that the Dark Zone is a “lawless area” where you can not only do all of the above, but also “potentially betray your own teammates.” He also said that players won’t feel too overwhelmed if they choose to go solo as enemy challenge is adjusted depending on whether you’re playing solo or as part of a larger group.
You can play on your own, absolutely, or as part of a team. If you want to play alongside others, you can hook up with people inside the game world and form a group, or go through matchmaking and start as part of a team. If you’re playing solo you won’t get totally overwhelmed — enemies scale to give a challenge to just one person or to a larger team.
Since The Division is all about loot and progression, the main motivation behind going against other players in the Dark Zone is to secure their loot. But going rogue doesn’t come without its own challenge as players will be flagged to agents in the area who are on the hunt for bounties.
By doing that, you’re taking a fairly large risk. As soon as you’re openly hostile to another player, you’ve gone rogue and you’ll be flagged to all the other agents in the area. If they take you out, they’ll gain an extra bounty that’s placed on rogue agents, earn extra XP, and can pick up whatever it was that you stole.
Rundqvist said that it’s entirely up to players how they want to play, and no one will be restricted by classes, loadouts or specialties.
We like to think of The Division as a ‘classless’ game — you’ll unlock skills and talents as you level up and then you can specialize in a specific path. Or you can try to follow them all and level up that way and switch between them.
Most people have a preferred playing style, whether you’re the supporting medic, the long range sniper, or if you want to go in aggressively and deal a lot of damage. To me, that’s the beauty of The Division — it’s an evolution of traditional RPGs.
For more on The Division, check out our previous coverage. And if you haven’t already, make sure to read our E3 2015 preview of the game.
[Source: PlayStation]
