Ubisoft recently confirmed an upcoming free-to-play The Division game called The Division: Heartland, and some gameplay footage has officially leaked ahead of release.
Ubisoft has set out to turn The Division: Heartland into a successful open-world survival action shooter with a heavier focus on rural America than previous titles in the series, according to these leaks. Despite The Division: Heartland not having an official release date, the information reportedly comes from a closed beta and gives a glimpse into the setting, time, and gameplay people can expect.
As a free-to-play game, The Division: Heartland takes the series from densely populated cities to a small American town called Silver Creek. The Division: Heartland features a co-op PvE mode called Expedition, which introduces players to Silver Creek, before dropping them into a 45 player PvPvE mode known as Storm. Both modes task players with scavenging and exploring the town of Silver Creek to loot and fight. The Division: Heartland includes the most aggressive and unpredictable virus contamination in The Division franchise to date, which closes some areas of Silver Creek off to the players.
The leaked gameplay footage shows Agents in both interior and exterior gunfights, and displays a walled-off area of the map that's likely the contamination zone which keeps players from exploring certain parts of the map - similar to the storm in Fortnite or the gas in Call of Duty: Warzone. This closed beta also has a forum where players can keep up with any updates for The Division: Heartland, and provides beta testers another opportunity to discuss their likes and dislikes with the The Division's upcoming free-to-play third-person shooter.
The user interface of The Division: Heartland appears as though it's a mix of The Division 2 and Far Cry, both popular Ubisoft franchises. Looting in The Division: Heartland appears similar to previous titles in the series, with weapon crates scattered around the Silver Creek map for players to discover and improve their stats. Based on the leaked footage, these weapon crates are found inside and outside. There are NPC enemies to fight off in The Division: Heartland's Expedition and Storm, providing more enemies to encounter akin to the Scavs in Escape From Tarkov. The leaked footage also confirms a Battle Pass and Store, which will provide players with cosmetics to spice their Agents up.
Since The Division: Heartland is expected to have survival elements based on these leaks, players can expect more variety from gameplay mechanics than previous titles in the series. The limited group of The Division: Heartland closed beta testers has reportedly been given a non-disclosure agreement to sign, so the leaker of this footage may be punished for revealing so many details before an official Ubisoft reveal.
Tom Clancy’s The Division: Heartland is in development with a planned release sometime in 2021-2022.
Source: Reddit