The Division PS4 PlayStation 4 Interview 1

Ubisoft sure knows how to make a splash. Tom Clancy’s The Division, much like Watch Dogs before it, dropped jaws at E3 2013, when it was announced for the PlayStation 4. The game – an open world third-person shooter with strong role-playing influences – not only promised to drag the industry into the next generation with some frankly mind-blowing visuals, but also pledged a futuristic gameplay experience, borne out of its unprecedented online connectivity aspects. A good 18 or so months removed from that initial unveiling, we caught up with senior brand art director Rodrigo Cortes to ask, after a couple of delays, whether the macabre military escapade will actually deliver. Well, someone had to...

The Division PS4 PlayStation 4 Interview 2

Push Square: You made a massive splash at E3 last year. What impact has that positive response had on production? Are you feeling energised, or has it put pressure on you?

Rodrigo Cortes: It’s been a very exciting project for us. With it being the first year of next-gen, we were aiming very high to be able to be one of the bigger games, and I think that the bar that we set was very, very high. People [that saw it] could say that this is a true next-gen experience; it’s not just something that we’ve seen before but at a higher resolution or higher textures – there are so many layers and so many things that make it a true next-gen experience.

So, for us, the response was amazing – both in the community, and on PR, and everything. The gamers are really excited, and we already have a very lively community; before we’re releasing the game, people are already making fan movies, concept art, and cosplay on this whole world that is not even playable yet.

You said that you’re aiming “very high”. Are you going to hit that target on the PS4?

Yes, most definitely. We were very, very ambitious, but we have a lot of experience working with all of the platforms from all of the vendors before, and we have, to me, one of the most skilled teams in the world, with people from all over.

The key to us [hitting that target] is the new engine – the Snowdrop engine. We’ve developed this concurrently with the new game, and it’s been built to take specific advantage of all of the next-gen platforms; instead of having to bring older [technology] to new [hardware], it’s brand new specifically for this [game].

So, we were able to take advantage of the new hardware better than most, so that’s a great advantage. And also we have a lot of good relationships with the hardware vendors, so we’re talking all of the time. In short: yes, we’re very confident that we’ll hit [the target].

The Division PS4 PlayStation 4 Interview 3

Good stuff, that’s what everyone wants to hear. Talk a little bit about how development’s progressing, then. We saw a little bit more at E3 2014 – how’s it going? Is the project coming along as expected?

It’s going very well. Working on an open world game, with the fidelity that we have, is a massive undertaking. When you build an open world game, you make a lot of things at the same time, so it builds in steps. One of the good things is that we have playtests all of the time – every week we have playtests. And so, every time that we go [to play], there are new areas, new activities, new missions, new gear, new guns – and it’s just great to see the world growing organically.

So, I think that it’s going well. And just the fact that we’ve been playing every week for a couple of years now – since the E3 showing – [has allowed us] to adapt the feeling, the controls, the graphics, the look... For example, even between the 2013 and 2014 showings, we changed the renderer throughout. Despite being one of the most beautiful games, we were like, “Actually, we want to have real-time reflections.” So, we adapted the renderer, so that we can have full dynamic reflections in real-time for everything in the scene. That’s pretty cool.

The big thing that you’ve been selling on this game is the connectivity aspect. Why do you think that so many titles are adopting this constantly connected format?

I don’t want to talk about the other games. For our game, though, we wanted to make a social experience, because... We play a lot of social games, and many times there is frustration: you see people dancing in front of you, or destroying your experience, or there are several steps to get to the gameplay, or there are a lot of technical or gameplay barriers. We love shared experiences; personally, the best experiences that I have are co-op experiences – whether it’s a split-screen or an online game. It’s the water cooler moment – you can talk about it, and say, “Did you see what I did there?”

So, we were very excited about making an online, shared experience that is seamless and immersive – which is the hard part. That has been a huge challenge for us, but it’s a good challenge that we want to tackle, and something that we want to do.

How much can you say about the game’s structure? For example, is there a single player campaign in there?

Within this huge open world, there’s a storyline that you can follow – like, a main story that you can obviously complete. But then there is so much development outside of that: there’s the character development, the skills... So, you can do a lot of other things. But, you can decide if you want to do it alone, or with friends, or with people that you meet. The game is better with more people, but, yes, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. You can complete the full game without playing with anyone else.

The Division PS4 PlayStation 4 Interview 4

Is it really difficult to design around all of these different variables?

One of the best things that we have [in this game is] a system in which we don’t lock players into a specific playstyle. The whole skill system is dynamic and you can change it on the fly. So, for example, there are other RPG games where you choose some kind of healer, tank, or whatever – and then you’re stuck with that.

In our game, we built a system that is dynamic, so, for example, let’s say that the four [people present in the interview] are playing, and in that situation, I’m the healer. Now, I’m in a situation with another group of friends, and there are already one or two healer types [present]. I could then adapt my skills on the fly, so that I could become another role – a more aggressive role, a more supporting role, or a more technical role, for instance. The game adapts to the way that you want to play.

So, that’s a way of tackling [the different variables]. Then, obviously, there are a lot of [other] parameters since [the game is] open world... It’s very difficult to do, but it’s very rewarding when you have the choice – and you made the choice – to go to an area [...] without anybody ever sending you on that path.

Probably a little more up your alley this question: why did you choose New York?

We have this question many times. There are a lot of people saying that this is a cliché to use a city like New York; it's been in all of the disaster movies, whenever something goes bad it's always in New York — but there's a reason for that. For starters, it’s one of the most iconic cities in the world – everybody recognises it, whereas that’s maybe not the case for [other locations].

So, when you have a pandemic, and – in our [game’s] case – society is collapsing, when you see, for example, Time's Square, and you see all of those billboards shut down, you know directly that something is wrong. There’s an eerie feeling of seeing a very recognisable area, different. So, the reason that we chose [New York] is because you can see directly the effects.

Also, our game is based around Christmas, so there are a lot of Christmas lights, and they're [set against] contagion signs and quarantine zones next to all of those cool things [which is] perfect for showing our scenario.

The game’s set after Black Friday, is that correct?

Yes, the virus is spread at Black Friday, which is a time when a lot of people are out.

The Division PS4 PlayStation 4 Interview 5

Is there a metaphor here relating to American culture and the materialistic way in which people conduct their business on this particular day of the year? Was that ever considered, or are we just looking too deeply into it?

No, you're not – it’s actually correct. The whole concept – and this is not something that we normally talk about – is that we build these societies that are completely connected. You’re 100 per cent dependent on electricity and the Internet; I can't do anything without my phone these days. And we're getting used to that. At the same time, we have the consumerism — you're happy when you have things. That's where also the choice of Black Friday comes in: the connection to the virus is that it's perfect [that it should spread] while people are swarming on things — almost acting as a virus themselves. That's when people are most vulnerable.

Ubisoft’s famed for its enormous teams, and outsourcing to all different studios within the empire. How do these projects get managed?

Even I wonder sometimes, because it’s pretty amazing. I think, yes, Ubisoft has become experts at this; our CEO Yves Guillemot always had this dream of having game development that pulls [together] different talents from all over the world, and he actually achieved this.
In our case, we’re not as big as some of the other brands, though. We do collaborate with Reflections, here in the UK, and Red Storm in the US – and then there are some other supporting studios. So, we haven’t really gone into the big machinery that it can be, but it’s an amazing thing to see. And even though [it can be difficult] – just having people come together for a meeting when there are all the different time zones is hard – the good is that you get input from different cultures, different people, and different angles, all contributing to the whole project.

There’s a growing sentiment that Ubisoft games are all blending into one: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, The Crew... They all have a very similar structure. What would you say to that?

Again, I don’t want to talk about the other games – even the internal ones. For us, yes we are an open world game, and there is some strength within Ubisoft that we share, obviously. There’s also a lot of transfer between the studios, so this is the knowledge that we want to evolve. And, yes, I think that Ubisoft has become the experts at open world games. The way that the studios are setup, with the sharing of ideas, I think that it’s just natural [that this] has happened. It’s not like a plan – it just happens naturally.

Our thanks go out to Rodrigo Cortes and Ubisoft for sharing a room with us during the course of this interrogation. Are you looking forward to The Division? Do you think that it will be able to deliver? Try not to catch anything in the comments section below.