History VideoGame / TheDivision

''The Division'' is a MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame open-world ThirdPersonShooter under the Creator/TomClancy brand (such as ''VideoGame/GhostRecon'' and ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'', though it should be noted that Clancy himself was not involved directly in the game) by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} Massive, announced at [=E3=] 2013. Released on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC on March 8th, 2016.

On March 8, 2018, an announcement for the sequel, ''VideoGame/TheDivision2'', was announced by Ubisoft with a full reveal to be made at E3 2018.

On March 8, 2018, an announcement for the sequel, The Division 2, was announced by Ubisoft with a full reveal to be made at E3 2018.

* TheAllSeeingAI: Played straight in some instances and averted in others. Enemies will not notice you immediately and can take a few seconds to spot you, and even in combat they don't magically know your exact location at all times, and in cover-rich areas it's possible to sneak behind them while they're busy firing at your last known location. At the same time, they can see perfectly fine through obstructions such as fog and smoke which block your own line of sight.

** This troper noticed that this is not the reflection of their scope, but a flashlight attachment. Look into the light too long, and you'll be following the light through the valley.
*** While a weapon-mounted flashlight is no big deal, why an enemy sharpshooter would switch it on to aim at someone fifty yards away is a mystery.
*** It's not a flashlight attachment it's a laser pointer. Those can burn your retinas if you stare directly at its source.

** In a possible fit of irony, one Underground Audio Log tells us that the [=LMB=] felt that one 'visionary' Private's plan to blow up the bridges and collapse the tunnels so the Battalion can ransom travel out of the city off to individuals with the means to pay is a ''little'' too much. If only because they were understandably worried about being cut off/stranded even more than they already were.

* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Strategic Homeland Division. Also CERA or the Catastrophic Emergency Management Agency as the fictional counterpart to FEMA. Also the Joint Task Force, the remnants of the city emergency services, National Guard, and CERA that have banded together.

* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The Strategic Homeland Division. Also CERA or the Catastrophic Emergency Management Agency as the fictional counterpart to FEMA.

* MythologyGag: Inside the Base of Operations, at Faye Lau's desk you can spot [[VideoGame/SplintegrCell Sam Fisher's iconic trifocal lens multi-vision goggles]]. Sam's goggles are also available to wear as a headgear option, to celebrate Ubisoft's 30th anniversary. Sadly, the GogglesDoNothing; they're just cosmetic. No nightvision or infrared sight for you, as handy as it would be Underground...

* MythologyGag: Inside the Base of Operations, at Faye Lau's desk you can spot [[VideoGame/SplinterCell Sam Fisher's iconic trifocal lens multi-vision goggles]]. Sam's goggles are also available to wear as a headgear option, to celebrate Ubisoft's 30th anniversary. Sadly, the GogglesDoNothing; they're just cosmetic. No nightvision or infrared sight for you, as handy as it would be Underground...

* AlwaysABiggerFish: The "Enemy Factions" Trailer presents the four factions of New York this way: the '''[[TheSocialDarwinist Rioters/Looters]]''' preying on the weak unarmed survivors, the '''[[AxCrazy Rikers]]''' (former inmates of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island Rikers Island Correctional Facility]]) indiscriminately killing Looters and law enforcement alike, followed by the '''[[WellIntentionedExtremist Cleaners]]''' cornering a single Riker and [[KillItWithFire buring him alive]], culminating with a '''[[PrivateMilitaryContractors Last Man Battalion]]''' fireteam swiftly wiping out a Cleaner crew with cold precision.... which the trailer ends with a montage of [[BigGood The Division]] themselves ploughing through ''all of the above''.

* CoOpMultiplayer: Present in the "regular" areas of the map where you can progress the campaign, and in the Dark Zones, to an extent.

* CompetitiveMultiplayer: The primary purpose of the Dark Zones, where Agents are free to fight one another.

* CrapSackWorld: Society collapses within the first few days of the outbreak, leaving many cities like New York City post-apocalyptic wastelands.

* DownInTheDumps: In effect, almost the entire game takes place in a trash dump, since it's been weeks at least since any garbage scows left Manhattan. Besides, the sanitation workers have [[KillItWithFire better things to do]]...

* EvilCounterpart: The Last Man Battalion are essentially this to the Joint Task Force, being a trained military force that has essentially the same goals as the [=JTF=], but willing to use much more ruthless means to achieve it. They're by far the most dangerous faction active within quarantined New York, and [[spoiler: even have their own Division Agents.]]

* GenreShift: Unlike previous ''Tom Clancy'' video game titles, ''The Division'' is more of an action shooter rather than a tactical shooter. Enemies generally require several bullets to bring down, compared to just a couple of shots in most other ''Tom Clancy'' games, and headshots generally only do about 50% or so extra damage instead of being an instant kill. The game also has RPG-like elements similar to ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', with the player and enemies having levels, and enemies that are significantly higher-level than your character can require a very large amount of damage to bring down. Like ''Borderlands'', the game even has loot drops and uses the classic ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' white/green/blue/purple/orange color scheme to denote item rarity.

* IncrediblyDurableEnemies: In the beginning of the game, regular enemies take about 5-7 torso shots to kill, which is consistent with most other action shooters such as the ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' or ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}}'' series. After around level 10, though, even basic enemies will require over half a full magazine of assault rifle fire to kill, with EliteMooks requiring a full mag or two, bosses taking several dozen bullets to kill, and GiantMook bosses withstanding up to 200 rounds of assault rifle fire before dropping. And that's on ''normal'' difficulty. By Level 25-30, basic [=LMB=] soldiers can take up to a full 30 round mag of assault rifle fire from a green gun to bring down.

** Unlike ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', which are totally honest about copying ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''[=/=]''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' to the point of openly using the same gameplay terminology, ''The Division'' insists on using its own terminology for well-known loot-game elements. Rares are now "Superiors", Legendaries are now "High-End" (though they still use the same color scheme as every other loot game), and now Raids are "Incursions".

* KillItWithFire: The Cleaners, who believe in containing the virus by burning people with flamethrowers. You can do the same thing with fire grenades and the Dragonbreath Turret mod.

** Also the FireCrest Gear Set, which grants the user better damage to enemies that have been lit on fire.

* MythologyGag: Inside the Base of Operations, at Faye Lau's desk you can spot [[VideoGame/SplinterCell Sam Fisher's iconic trifocal lens multi-vision goggles]].

* SentryGun: One of the many gadgets at an agent's disposal, a small foldable sub-machinegun that tracks and fires on enemies within its line of sight. It can be upgraded for different situations. Certain enemies, such as LMB engineers also deploy sentry guns to use against you and the LMB on the whole tend to fortify their bases with up-scaled cannon-caliber versions that act as obstacles for the player.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: It's unclear ''exactly'' when the game is taking place; no dates are given. The guns in the game are all modern weapons, but the Division's "special" tech (which largely makes up your abilities) is somewhat more advanced that current cutting-edge military technology (with highly miniaturized drone weaponry and projected holography for the maps being the big super-tech points).

* VirtualPaperDoll: There's an incredibly large wardrobe of surprisingly fashionable attire that you can equip your Agent with, most of which is purely cosmetic.

''The Division'' involves an interesting gameplay mix of ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' (user interface), ''Ghost Recon'' (tactical, squad-based mechanics and cover playing a significant role in gameplay), and ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' (RPGElements, SkillScoresAndPerks and IncrediblyDurableEnemies). The game also introduces "Snowdrop", a new proprietary engine that Ubisoft will use for TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames. Ubisoft revealed the game through a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJgMl3BahWY seven-minute trailer]], consisting of nothing but gameplay and improvised dialogue from demonstrators.

* KillItWithFire: The Cleaners, who believe in containing the virus by burning people with flamethrowers. You can do the same thing with fire grenades.

* IncrediblyDurableEnemies: In the beginning of the game, regular enemies take about 5-7 torso shots to kill, which is consistent with most other action shooters such as the ''[[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' or ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}}'' series. After around level 10, though, even basic enemies will require over half a full magazine of assault rifle fire to kill, with EliteMooks requiring a full mag or two, bosses taking several dozen bullets to kill, and GiantMook bosses withstanding up to 200 rounds of assault rifle fire before dropping. And that's on ''normal'' difficulty. By Level 25-30, basic [=LMB=] soldiers can take up to a full 30 round mag of assault rifle fire from a green gun to bring down.

** Elite medics and Legendary difficulty medics have Stations that can heal [=NPCs=] faster than your ability to kill them, meaning it is necessary to destroy the Station itself or lure enemies out of the Support Station's healing radius and then shoot them.

* ShootTheMedicFirst: Applies to the LMB faction, who are the only group to field medics. Their Support Stations can heal NPCs and (for Elite medics) even replenish their armour bar.
** Elite medics and Legendary difficulty medics have Stations that can heal NPCs faster than your ability to kill them, meaning it is necessary to destroy the Station itself or lure enemies out of the Support Station's healing radius and then shoot them.

* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: Unique enemies which respawn once every four hours in pre-set locations around the city. These enemies will never be below the level of the player and will always drop the highest-quality equipment which can be dropped by enemies at that level (blues for most of the game; purples after level 21; unique and set items at level 30+). There is one such enemy per zone, and a number spawn fairly close to safe houses, making it easy to reach them and kill them. While they are ostensibly very dangerous opponents, if you have reasonably good equipment and engage them from a range, all of them are easily dispatched. Moreover, after killing a few of them, it becomes much easier to farm the rest of them due to the gear they drop. The local intel-collecting missions are somewhat similar, being infinitely repeatable and also giving high-level rewards.

* CostumePorn: There's an incredibly large wardrobe of surprisingly fashionable attire that you can equip your Agent with, most of which is purely cosmetic.