Datamining reveals some new information about Ubisoft's highly anticipated online RPG, including the number of missions expected to make up its campaign.

Between years of gameplay previews and more recent playable betas, anyone looking forward to The Division has had plenty of opportunities to take a sneak peek at the game. Now that there's only a matter of days until the game releases, its very source code is being picked apart for last-minute details.

A Reddit user going under the name itsgamerdoc spent the weekend datamining The Division, and found plenty of tantalizing information. For one, it seems to be all but confirmed that the game's opening sequence allows players to dip into Brooklyn before the action relocates to Manhattan.

There's also confirmation that weapons like the R700 sniper rifle popular among Call of Duty 4 players and the AK74 will be available in-game. However, the most intriguing bit of information relates to the amount of content that's set to be offered up at launch.

According to the data to hand, there are 26 missions set to be included in The Division at launch. Given that the game has repeatedly compared to Destiny throughout its development, it seems clear that this number is set to be a new frame of reference for fans eager to pit the two titles against one another.

Destiny has been criticized extensively for a perceived lack of content, which Bungie managed to address to an extent with post-launch DLC. Ubisoft will no doubt be hoping that The Division can avoid the backlash that still lingers around Bungie's ambitious shooter.

For comparison, Destiny contained 22 missions at launch, compared to the 26 that have been discovered via datamining The Division. Of course, this doesn't take in the length of each individual mission, or side content and other gameplay that's more difficult to quantify.

The question of whether 26 missions will be enough to satisfy players will depend on two major factors; the quality and replayability of that content, and the pricing and schedule being implemented for subsequent DLC. A game like this is looking to build an audience that's invested for years — and that's a complex task that's subject to a huge number of variables.

Ahead of release, 26 missions sounds like a solid amount of content to flesh out the main campaign of The Division. However, it'll be interesting to see how many of those 26 are still engaging when they've been experienced several times over in an effort to secure new equipment or flesh out a character's skills.

The Division is set to be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on March 8, 2016.

Source: Reddit