E3 2018: Building the World of The Division 2 With Game Director Matthias Karlson
The squad-focused loot shooter is moving from a frozen New York City to the mild streets of the nation’s capital. We speak with the game's director about what the move will mean for fans of The Division.
Tom Clancy’s The Division was a real head turner back when it debuted at E3 2013. Arriving with the new generation of consoles, The Division was seen as the benchmark against which all other games would be judged graphically. By the time it finally released in early 2016, it had lost some of its luster with the gaming public due to its lack of endgame content and balance issues that plagued its PvP modes. Over the course of the following eighteen months, developer Ubisoft Massive whipped the title into shape and left players with a great-playing title that is still quite the looker. Five years after the franchise was introduced to the world, its sequel, The Division 2, made its grand entrance during E3 2018. We got a chance to chat with Game Director Matthias Karlson about what the sequel has in store for us.
Karlson talks about how excited the team at Ubisoft Massive to show off their work on The Division 2 after spending years refining the gameplay experience. He also emphasized the team’s focus on ensuring that the game will launch with meaningful endgame content for players who reach the end of the story and are left wanting more. The new endgame class system promises to add depth to the proceedings and offer new levels of build diversity that weren’t possible in the original game. Karlson also touches on the newly announced 8-man raids.
Also discussed is the move to Washington D.C. and the opportunities that will arise from the inclusion of multiple biomes. Based on the early footage of the game, it appears that the nation’s capital has experienced a bit of vegetation overgrowth in the absence of a normal functioning society. You can get a taste of the new environment yourself when the game launches on March 15, 2019 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
