The Division 2 Endgame Is an 'Extension' of the Campaign: Ubisoft

The Division 2 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows PC release date is March 15 and in the run up to this, Ubisoft has been talking up one specific aspect of its shared world shooter — its endgame. Reason being, when you were done with The Division 1's campaign, there was little reason to continue playing. With The Division 2 however, the company has stressed that its pulling out all the stops to ensure the hardcore and casual players have a reason to come back to the game long after its campaign. According to Ubisoft Associate Creative Director Chadi El-Zibaoui‏, The Division 2 endgame is an "extension" to the campaign.

"First thing is, we have a huge endgame offering – it's not just PvP [player versus player]," he said in conversation with Gadgets 360. "[T]he endgame is going to open an extension to the campaign – there is a narrative twist, with the Black Tusks invading Washington DC, there are a lot of narrative reveals around that. This will cater to players who want more narrative content, and play more solo or PvE [player versus enemy]."

In addition to this, El-Zibaoui explained that this would tie-in with The Division 2's Dark Zones — areas where players can take on others for the best loot. The game has three Dark Zones. Two of them would feature normalisation, which gives advanced and newbie players the same damage output for their weapons. The third Dark Zone however, won't have normalisation and would be invited by the game's Black Tusks faction.

"If you have an AR rifle, the base stats will be the same for beginners and those who have more advanced stats," he said.

"But to cater to the hardcore players who don't want normalisation, each week we will have one of the three Dark Zones invaded by the Black Tusks, and this has old rules from the first game with no normalisation. We are trying to have pieces of content for everyone, rather than funnel everyone into the same content. We have a full year of post-launch content with three major episodes, and all of these episodes extends on the narrative, and the map, so you have new areas to explore, and also game modes. We cater to people who want more story, more areas, and new PvP."

Our time with The Division 2 beta showed off a fantastic looking albeit somewhat uneven opening hours of play. It would be interesting to see how The Division 2 endgame plays out in practice given El-Zibaoui's comments.

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