‘The Division Heartland’ Details Leak, Draw ‘Tarkov’ Comparisons

Games ‘The Division Heartland’ Details Leak, Draw ‘Tarkov’ Comparisons Paul Tassi Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Sep 6, 2022, 08:49am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Division Red Storm Ubisoft cannot seem to keep anything under wraps ahead of its showcase this week, and one title that should be there is The Division Heartland, where new details have leaked on the Ubisoft store itself. Here’s what we know about the game based on the info that’s gotten out , much of it verified by those who have already been testing the game. Massive PvEvP in Storm Operations – Fight together in 45-player PvEvP Storm Operations against a group of dangerous Rogue agents, an aggressive faction known as the Vultures, all while surviving a lethal virus.

Prep the Battlefield in PvE Excursion Operations – Complete PvE missions, gather gear, activate alerts, and prep the battlefield in Excursion Operations. Progress and Adapt to Survive – Play as one of six agents and select between three classes each match, all with their own perks and skills. Now, some are saying this reminds them of Escape from Tarkov, and that Ubisoft is trying to ape that game and genre, which seems to be growing in popularity as of late.

Dr. Disrespect’s upcoming DEADROP is being fashioned as a Tarkov-like PvEvP “extraction” shooter as well, for instance. MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry And yet to me this sounds like…The Division.

Maybe a blend of The Dark Zone and Survival, the D1 mode that never made it into The Division 2, presumably because Heartland was being made. Add in some more traditional PvE stuff to placate “normal” Division fans, and there you go, there’s Heartland. As for whether or not this will be a success, that’s anyone’s guess.

It’s free-to-play, and we don’t know what its monetization details will look like yet. Ubisoft has not had a great record of chasing trends lately, though they’ve mostly focused on trying, and failing, to break into the battle royale genre. Tarkov-like games are in the same wheelhouse, but I will give The Division credit that it was doing most of this stuff before a lot of the current most popular games in the scene were.

That doesn’t mean Heartland will go anywhere necessarily, as it will really have to deliver something compelling and unique in the space. And compelling and unique has not exactly been Ubisoft’s strong suit lately. Though I did like much of what Massive did with The Division 2 itself over the years.

Ubisoft does need a win with one of these f2p offerings, and they could be drawing on worse IP than The Division. But even if The Division was doing a lot of these things first, catching up to current competitors is a tall order. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes.

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