Tom Clancy's The Division finally arrives in March, and with that release comes a lot of new promotion by Ubisoft, including new information about the game.
Now, Ubisoft has put together a four-episode live-action Web series that starts at the beginning of the game's story as a pandemic spreads, bringing chaos to New York City.
In The Division, someone plants smallpox on money in the U.S., creating a pandemic that eventually results in the collapse of the government, plunging the country into total anarchy. Players take on the roles of Division agents tasked with restoring order to New York while searching for the origin of the virus. In order to do that, they team up with other players also playing agents.
"To put it in the bleakest terms, it's a city on the verge of complete collapse," writes Ubisoft on its website. "Its surviving population's last and only hope is a group of highly trained agents that have been living amongst them in secret, waiting for the call to activate and save New York City from itself."
The Web series goes to the beginning of the game's story, when New York begins to fall.
The Division is an open-world third-person shooter RPG that allows players to earn experience points that can go toward customizing their skills and gear. Players earn points by completing missions, although the game's dynamic weather system and day-night cycling could make certain tasks more complicated.
The Division also features regions called Dark Zones, quarantine areas where players go up against other players. The Dark Zones are separate from the game's main campaign. Although dangerous, players who dare go into a Dark Zone can discover valuable loot.
"Wandering through the Dark Zone is an incredibly intense experience," writes Ubisoft. "When you come across another squad of agents, there's a moment where you wonder if they're going to turn on you, or if you should turn on them before they get the chance to steal from you. On top of that, even the normal enemies we came across seemed much stronger than those outside the Dark Zone, making the decision to engage or avoid much more important."
The Division releases on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 8.
