Not long ago it was quietly announced that The Division 3 was in the works at Ubisoft. I don’t think many fans of the series were surprised, seeing as how The Division 2 has been rehashing old seasons as the wind down supporting it as a live service. The Division 3 will certainly be a welcome inclusion, but with two other The Division titles also on the horizon, the third iteration of the series will need to make some hefty changes, especially if it intends to compete with many of the other looter shooters that have risen in popularity.
1: Let’s Say Goodbye to Bullet Sponges
The Division series has always been a little difficult to balance, because the entire premise behind the property is rooted in some semblance of realism. We’re running down real recreated streets of actual cities in the United States. Agents are using (somewhat) probable weaponry. Yet somehow, Ubisoft has had to find a way to balance RPG style loot, complete with set bonuses, with semi-realistic cover-shooter mechanics. This led to the dreaded “bullet sponge” enemies that players have come to associate with the series.
If you’re a hardcore player of The Division 2 then it’s completely possible to reduce some of that sponginess through maximizing your gear. In a way, there will always be enemies that require some sponge-like qualities, and The Division 2 was able to mitigate some of this through armored opponents where, once their armor was removed, they could be killed much faster. I’d like to see far more of this kind of gameplay, where weaknesses are far more apparent, and focusing abilities that circumvent that protection eliminates those long-drawn-out battles for mundane enemies. I know Ubisoft has it in them to find a solution here!
2: It’s Time for More Iconic Locations
The Division was set in New York, which was obviously an amazing locale to start the series with. In The Division 2 we took a departure to Washington D.C. which seems like a solid conclusion complete with a lot of iconic museums and history. However, when Ubisoft decided that they wanted to expand the locations available for The Division 2, instead of flying us to new and exotic places, they returned us to New York with the Warlords of New York expansion, trading on the excitement of the first game, but severely limiting how broad the outbreak is and the overall impact of the disaster.
We understand that the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) are primarily a United States federal agency. However, this outbreak was labeled as a pandemic, which means that, while SHD Agents might be primarily focused on the homeland, eradicating the bad actors responsible could come down to defeating new threats not just across the United States, but across the globe. Of course, I’d love to see some battles resurface within New York and D.C. but there’s plenty of other cities, parks and monuments out there.
3: The Dark Zone Needs to Change Drastically (Goodbye PvP)
No matter which game in the series you’ve played, you probably became familiar with the Dark Zone (DZ). Equally so, you probably also avoided it like the viral strain that started the outbreak in the first place. There may be a few of you out there that love and swear by the PvPvE nature of the DZ. You are unfortunately in the minority here. In my experience, few people liked the DZ, few people played the DZ, and it’s now time to sunset this PvPvE experiment and move to something that the entire community can get behind.
More importantly, if you really loved the Dark Zone, Ubisoft is already planning an entire game for you with The Division: Heartland. The entire game will be a survival-style PvPvE paradise for those that really enjoy that kind of gameplay, and it’s going to be pretty much all Dark Zone all the time. In The Division 3 we need a PvE game loop that brings players together to cooperate and build a community of SHD agents, against insurmountable odds. I want to see agents grouping together against waves of enemies and extracting gear, where they aren’t forced to get double crossed by rando’s. We need a game loop where players are constantly building each other up by freely assisting them. It’s nearly guaranteed that far more people will take part in a PvE cooperative effort than a PvP lose-your-loot double-cross fest.
4: More Players Equals More Fun
In the Dark Zone, there was a time that they limited the number of agents to around 24 players. PvE players in the open world were limited to the number of group members you could invite to your party (which was a full group of 4). There are certainly reasons why you would want to limit this. There’s an element of realism, that a limited number of agents would travel through desolate virus-riddled cities. In the Dark Zone, having too many players would only further complicate the PvP dynamic, especially due to the limited size of those zones.
However, if the premise of the Dark Zone changes, and we’re pushing The Division 3 to become a true co-operative looter shooter, we can push the boundaries of the Dark Zone, and in turn, push the number of events that can happen at any given time. That means that the population of each server can increase, and larger world events can take place that require multiple coordinated teams. Meeting players out in the world and teaming up for random events would only benefit The Division in ways they were never able to before.
5: Build It for The Long Haul
The Division 1 launched on March 8th of 2016, and its final update released in August of 2018. The Division 2 released March 15th of 2019, and while they are still patching the game here in 2023, the subtle announcement of The Division 3 pretty much spells disaster for any future that The Division 2 might have. That doesn’t even broach the topic that The Division 2 has essentially been in maintenance mode for a while, with some very limited season updates that haven’t exactly placated fans that were expecting more from the live service title.
The Division 3 needs a better content plan. We need consistent updates and an end game that players are excited for. Even if quarterly content updates are outside of Ubisoft’s capabilities, one solid, yearly content update with new masteries, locales, weapons, and game modes are the least we should expect.
Event better, build a system where you can expand the game, instead of rebooting an entire system every 2 – 4 years. In the end, the extra content will be in your favor, and people won’t be so hesitant to put time into something that may not be there in the next few years. We still have quite a while to wait until The Division 3 releases, with both Heartland and The Division Resurgence (mobile) to release ahead of time. But once TD3 does release, I don't want to see it disappear in a couple years.
