The Division didn’t start life as a third-person cover-based looter shooter. Instead, as explained in a new video from Ubisoft, developer Massive Entertainment’s online tactical shooter was originally planned to be a World of Warcraft-like MMORPG with hotbars and everything. Ubisoft even showed off a bit of this early version, providing an interesting look at what could have been.
In a recent “Devs Playing” video posted on Massive’s official YouTube channel, two developers who worked on the original Division played through one of the game’s missions while talking about the development of the snowy, NYC-based looter shooter. The video is meant to mark the 10-year anniversary of The Division, and during a discussion about the shooter’s gameplay loop, the two devs briefly talked about a very different, earlier version of the game.
“We designed [The Division‘s] combat around…this loop right here,” explained creative director Drew Rechner as he took cover behind some unaware enemies. “Which we called OPE, internally…Observe, plan, execute. So that was kind of the main combat loop, and it actually took us a while to actually reach that, because when we had started working on The Division, it was still an MMO with, like, World of Warcraft-style gameplay. And that skill component wasn’t there. There weren’t those traditional shooter aspects.” At this, the other dev on the couch, Fredrik Thylander, even pointed out that the game included hotbars.
At this point in the video, Ubisoft shows a few seconds of what looks like a never-before-seen, very early version of The Division, featuring more cartoonish visuals and some classic MMORPG-looking gameplay, complete with, yes, a hotbar. Also, a dog companion, which is a feature that I think should be brought back into a future Division game.
Anyway, I’d love to see more footage of The Division back when it was a WoW-like MMO. Sure, I love the game we got. The Division and its sequel are some of the best third-person shooters ever made. But still, I’d get a kick out of looking at that weird MMO version of the game from over a decade ago. In an alternate universe, this is what The Division ended up being, and that’s so strange to me.
