‘The Division’ Map Limited To Manhattan, Player Trading And End-Game Activities Discussed

Details for Tom Clancy’s The Division continue to pour in following a Ubisoft-hosted reveal event this past week. The question of if the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC game will take place in any of the Manhattan boroughs was finally answered along with gameplay details such as player trading and more.

The first glimpse Ubisoft gave of The Division in the 2013 debut trailer showed player’s shooting it out with bad guys in Brooklyn. A more recent look at the role-playing aspects of the game showed the player hanging out by the Brooklyn Bridge. Alas, that appears to be more of a starting point to the story as four of New York City’s five boroughs – The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island – will not be represented in the game at launch.

“For Tom Clancy’s The Division we are going with Midtown Manhattan. It is because of the 1 to 1 re-creation and the way the pandemic has [happened]. Basically, everything has been hit and there are no more resources because everyone tried to get out. There is no more gasoline in the cars, there is no traffic, you’re on foot,” Creative Director Mangus Jansen told Examiner.com in an interview.

“With the level of detail we have, doing Midtown Manhattan is a huge open-world experience and more than enough to sink your teeth into. It is a very sizable open-world game.”

Mangus confirmed the entire map will be available in the beta planned at the end of January for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC in a separate interview with YouTube Channel Open World Games(h/t: Polygon). The map shown in the video and elsewhere clearly shows midtown Manhattan divided into several districts with the Dark Zone PVP area carving a huge chunk out of the middle.

There’s still the chance one or more of the other four New York City boroughs could be featured in add-on content for The Division. Ubisoft does have DLC plans for the open-world shooter and has obviously worked on Brooklyn to some extent before cutting the game down to its current size. Whether the future content simply expands on midtown remains to be seen.

In the same Open World Games interview, Mangus also confirmed the ability to trade weapons and items with other players is not present and there are currently no plans to support it in the future. This is the same tact taken by Destiny and just one of the many similarities that have continued to crop up between the two games.

Bungie prevented player trading in Destiny because it wanted players to feel as if they earned every weapon and piece of armor in their arsenal. The Division Creative Director had much the same message as to why there’s no trading in the third-person shooter.

Ubisoft wants players focused on the gear they earn, especially the loot received from the Dark Zone. Mangus wants to keep the ambiguity, or risk/reward, of trying to bring items out of the PVP area where there are no rules. Allowing players to trade to get high-level gear will lessen the rewarding nature of diving into The Division‘s most dangerous area.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft isn’t ready to talk about the end-game activities in The Division yet. The maximum level is 30 and there are activities to take on such as bounties and missions. Whether there are any raid-style events elsewhere in the game is currently unknown. Mangus avoided the subject with the Open World Games interviewers and chose only to mention how missions will have normal and hard difficulties.

The Division is set for a March 8 release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Microsoft’s console will receive the closed beta first on January 28 followed by the other two platforms a day later. Entry can be gained either through taking a chance by signing up on the game’s website or guaranteeing entry by pre-ordering the game from major retailers.

[Image via The Division]