Apparently, The Division 2 isn’t solely a matter of shooting and looting bags. At least, so I thought. In a recent podcast episode, narrative director Lauren Stone revealed a few enlightening facts regarding how the game teaches real survival skills while one is pretending to save the collapsing Washigton D.C.
When was the last time a game made you think about resource management, situational assessment, and other such basic first-aid skills, but in ways that totally didn’t feel like yawn-fest tutorials? The Division 2 cleverly sits that little lesson in the middle of real firefights and combat-g. At least that’s what Stone basically said the team did with real-life survival skills relevant to this game’s world. So while you’re racking up those bodies, you might just pick up a few skills that could, hypothetically speaking, keep you alive in case the world ever decided to scrap itself into chaos.
And you know what? Smart. I mean, most games just give you a “press x to not die” prompt and move on; but this one delves into some serious apocalypse feels-yeah, you’re a super-agent with high-tech gadgets, but you still gotta ration medkits and watch your six because the world doesn’t give a lick about your headshot streak.
This podcast (attached in the tweet) goes a little more into detail on how storytelling and gameplay mechanics combine to accentuate those lessons. One of those things is that environmental storytelling-abandoned camps, makeshift hospitals-lets players study triage and supply scarcity without ever showing them a textbook.
This is not to say you should go throw out your survival training and just hop on The Division 2 from now on. But it is refreshing to see such advanced AAA game-making skills turn their attention to a subject matter that is not simply about dopamine drips of loot and explosions. Although, let’s be real; still 90 percent of us are here simply to listen to the perfectly rolled shotgun click.
But if they’re really interested in testing our survival skills, they could implement a game mechanic wherein the main character starves and has to scavenge for loose cans of beans all while avoiding rogue agents. That’s just a suggestion.
If you’re interested though, that full podcast is out. You might want to listen to it while grinding through fields for that legendary exotic drop. Knowledge is power or something.
Wait-what am I talking about? Oh, yes. Guns. And survival. And podcasts. Go check it out.
