play station official magazine

050

e reach the extraction

point and there’s tension in the air.

Our group, four Division agents

laden with gear, separate and hunker

down behind makeshift cover. We

choose a burned-out car, partly

covered in vines where nature is

fighting back. It’s not the shrubbery

that’s shooting at us, though, it’s

another squad of Division ‘friends’

gone Rogue. And they want our loot.

At the tip of its paramilitary spear

The Division 2 feels a lot like the first

game. There’s a 40-hour narrative to

play through, either solo or in co-op,

a vast open world to explore (New

York is replaced by a 1:1 recreation of

Washington DC), again on your own

or with friends, and the Dark Zone is

still the best ‘end game’ draw going;

yes, even better than Destiny 2.

“The Dark Zone is, and was, a

beautiful social experiment. You have

this unique player versus environment

and enemies, and versus players,

happening at the same time, but the

whole versus part is completely

optional,” explains game director

Mathias Karlson.

The mode is unique in that it

unlocks our baser instincts; the Dark

Zone is a place that teases us with

opportunities to do bad things: kill, be

greedy, or steal from allies.

“There’s nothing forcing you. It’s

really about ‘what do people do when

no-one’s looking?’, and that’s really

what we’ve continued to build on in

The Division 2,” adds Karlson.

CAPITALIDEA

Relocating the game to Washington

DC has had a major effect on what

Massive Entertainment has been able

to do with the Dark Zone concept.

Developed with the idea of ‘end game

first’, everything about The Division 2

is created around making its unique

atypical PvP mode even better.

First and foremost there are now

three zones to enter, designed to make

this end game mode more accessible

to newcomers. Anyone who found the

original game’s New York-set Dark

Zone too challenging will welcome the

variety. Some players, says Karlson,

never reached the top of Manhattan.

Key to the addition of two more

zones is the idea of ‘normalisation’,

meaning when you enter a Dark Zone

your gear and build will be levelled out

to match other players in the zone.

You can still play how you wish,

whether that’s as a shotgun-wielding

scout or as a sniper, but “the peaks

and valleys of fallibility and

survivability are even. It’s really about

‘my build, my perfect build versus

your perfect build’,” explains Karlson.

If you’re a veteran balking at the

idea of having your stats normalised to

level the playing field, then take note

of that number – there are three Dark

Zones for this very reason. One of the

zones will be what Karlson calls an

Occupied Dark Zone, “a raw Dark

Zone experience which rotates on

THE DIVISION 2

“THE DARK ZONE IS A PLACE THAT

TEASES US WITH OPPORTUNITIES

TO DO BAD THINGS: KILL, OR STEAL.”

Entering one of the new

Dark Zones offers the

same nervous thrill we

loved in the first game.