Developer Red Storm Entertainment, a Ubisoft first-party studio, has finally unveiled additional information about the long-awaited free-to-play third-person survival shooter game The Division Heartland. Officially announced in May 2021, players have received very few updates about the game since, other than a small bit of gameplay footage and the info blurb that appears on The Division Heartland’s Ubisoft store page.
April 20 was Division Day, and Ubisoft provided updates about three of the games in the franchise. The Division 2’s Year 5 roadmap was revealed and a new testing phase for The Division Resurgence mobile game was announced. Fans of the world of The Division will also have action figures and an upcoming webtoon to look forward to. Those still attached to the first title in the franchise, however, were left a little disappointed at the lack of any mention of the game that started it all.
However, some exciting details were finally shared about The Division Heartland, which got its first cinematic trailer along with a developer deep dive video. Heartland takes place at the same time as the events of The Division and shows what happened in small-town America when the Dollar Flu began to spread, as these were places that didn’t necessarily receive the organized disaster relief from agencies like CERA that New York City and Washington DC did.
Much like what happened in the first game, a Division agent, First Commander Killian Tower, went rogue and turned on his fellow soldiers. Another agent named Mackenzie Reed tracks him down to The Division Heartland‘s setting of Silver Creek, a generic small town in middle America. During the trailer, it’s revealed that the Dollar Flu behaves differently in the region than it does in other places, but as happened elsewhere, warring factions have arisen in the chaos to wreak havoc and sow fear.
The Division Heartland will offer PvPvE gameplay, but will also feature many of the same tasks as the other games like establishing a base of operations, gathering supplies, completing missions, and making the area safe for civilians. When night falls, the PvP aspect of the game goes into effect. Much like the Dark Zone, there will be both rogue players and roaming AI factions to deal with, but the rewards will also be more enticing. There seems to be a thirst mechanic to contend with as well, which will be familiar to those who played The Division’s Survival DLC.
Unlike the two mainline Division games, Heartland will introduce three classes: Weapons Expert, Medic, and Survivalist. These provide the expected perks, such as a UAV drone for the Survivalist and an assault turret for the Weapons Expert. The developer deep dive goes into further detail about what players can expect from The Division Heartland, including that there will be a closed beta test later this year. Unfortunately, there was no hint about an expected release date for the game.
The Division Heartland is currently in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.