With the future of gaming slowly turning into a massively connected open-world, it seems like titles such as Grand Theft Auto 5, the upcoming Watch Dogs, and others like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Destiny are all on the right path to gain that eternal glory among fans – especially with the introduction of the next generation, and Ubisoft's upcoming The Division is certainly no different.
The Division is currently scheduled to arrive on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 next year, and with the game’s massive open world making use of the built-in powers of the next-gen consoles, the expectations are high on both the fronts – the company and the fans.
Recently, in an interview with Edge Online, game director Ryan Barnard confirmed that his enthusiasm and excitement are on an all time high with the game almost set to take the coming year by storm.
During the interview, asked whether or not The Division will be an open-world from the start of the game, Barnard stated: “Yes, and I think that’s important in an open-world game. But it’s also an RPG, so there’s a level progression. If you go somewhere right at the start of the game, you’ll most likely die horribly.”
“There will be a progression that you want to follow in some way. I think it’s far more interesting, especially for a group-focused multiplayer game, to have relatively fixed enemy strength. If everything scales with you, it’s all somewhat the same.”
While Ubisoft already revealed in the past that although the game is class-based, players can still switch skills on the move, but the company never stated as to how that actually works out – until now.
“The word we use internally is ‘playstyles’ – we don’t really talk about classes. Really what it comes down to is a role. All we want is for you to feel like you serve a purpose in the group. There are definite skill and talent directions that fit together but none of them are locked in trees. You will be limited by how many you can actually purchase, and how many you can have loaded at any one time, but you can swap them out at any time [out of combat].”
“Having that trinity of someone who’s doing a lot of damage, someone who can take a lot of damage and someone who can support the group is a very good trinity for RPGs in general, and we want to keep that going. But by not forcing you to pick a class at the start, you get to figure out how you like to play and you don’t have to re-roll,” he said.
Finally, on the most rewarding aspect of working on a next-gen game, Barnard stated that the job at hand here is comparatively less when compared to working on current generation consoles.
“When you start to picture games in your head, you always end up having to make sacrifices when it comes to the end of the project. You have to settle at some point. With what we can do for this coming generation, it just means you have to do less of that. You don’t have to compromise as much on what you do in your head versus what you can actually build,” he concluded.
The Division is currently scheduled to arrive in 2014 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.