The Hunter's Division 3 Wishlist

A Map for Success with Danger Signs

New Year, New Splinter

For the last three years I’ve been running a vending business in addition to my day job, while writing a book, and I haven’t had the time for much else. Well, the vending business has been sold and 2025 is going to be a very different year. Stick around.

The Hunter Himself

If you don't know who I am, I’m Splinter, Splintershield, or just The Hunter Himself. I’ve been in the Division community from the start. I was one of the first 15 people in the world to play The Division four months before release, my face is on Missing posters all over New York, I'm a cosplayer, a streamer, I did the first Hunter cosplay, there is a gun named after me in Division 2, and I've done Survival tournaments on Twitch and streamed countless Survival Saturdays.

I’m a huge fan of the games and the IP, I’ve tried to do some cool stuff for the community, and I’ve gotten a lot of love from Massive. With this wishlist essay, I want to get into what I think has worked, what has not worked, and contribute to the conversation. To all the devs at Massive - I’m not trying to tear down your work. This will be entirely constructive criticism. Hindsight is 20/20, and I think Div2 has been really good, but I also think it could have been a lot better.

Wishlist Overview

There are four main topics I want to delve into:

• 1. Continuing the narrative, themes, & lore

• 2. Immersion and the "Division Formula"

• 3. The Location(s)

• 4. The Finale and DLCs

1. Continuing the Narrative

There’s been some great characters, unforgettable moments and very clever writing in The Division franchise. There have been a few missteps, too. Let’s discuss.

The Division is somewhat unique in that it is not set in a post-apocalyptic world - not yet. The lights are still on, there is still crude oil being shipped, refined and freighted, and there is intact infrastructure for it. But looking around, its very clear that society and our civilization is in a very fragile place and there’s a ways to go to get things back to where they were. We’ve been crippled, but we’re not done yet. Without the Division, everything could be lost and thrown into complete chaos. That is the sweet spot for this IP - putting the player into that space, to be the one to make the difference, save what remains, and pull us back from the brink.

Now, the clear theme of Division 1 was “Save the City.” Likewise, the theme of Division 2 was “Save the Country.” With the discovery of the Langley files at the end of Season 4 and simply the natural progression of the themes from the previous games, it seems more than likely that the theme of Division 3 will be “Save the World.” Despite the Division’s mandate being to restore Rule of Law in the US, the advent of the Black Tusk and Natalya Sokolova has complicated things. We have another faction with nearly unlimited resources and tech on par with our own that wants to step into the space we are meant to occupy, and we’ll have to step up to put this threat down before they put us out of a job.

Furthermore, the Division’s authority coming directly from the President and the murder of that president by Faye Lau, corrupt though he was, has made the future of the Division very murky. On top of this, we also have Calvin McManus and the hunters killing us from within! The stakes have never been higher and the odds are totally stacked against us, and I hope that Massive takes full advantage of this.

Aside from the weight of the world resting on our shoulders, there are some interesting bits of lore concerning our characters’ rogue status and the ISAC and ANNA AIs. If you’ve been following the Descent comms that we get when we defeat the Nemesis in Descent, you know what I’m talking about; if not, check out NGN’s or Kamikaze VonDoom’s videos on these. It really feels like we’re being prepared for ISAC to assign rogue status to all of us - and I’m gleefully curious how that is going to play out!

Now, let’s talk a little bit about Keener.

Keener was such a great villain, viciously intelligent and sympathetic. When he died at the end of the Warlords of New York DLC (spoiler alert) I felt like it was a mistake, so I was somewhat glad to see him return in the recent seasons. But please, for the love of God, let’s be done with bringing characters back from the dead. Despite how this was set this up by bringing Hornet back prior to Keener, any more characters coming back from the dead makes killing ANY characters meaningless at this point, because we’re just holding our breaths for when they’re going to come back again. I’m aware that Massive had to put together the WONY expansion on a shoestring budget and, credit where credit is due - they did a great job. But could some foresight have made Keener’s return better? Would it have been too corny to have an explosion where Keener’s watch was blown off his wrist, but his body landed in the Hudson and couldn’t be found? I don’t know, but I hope that better writing can avoid stretching credibility like this, going forward.

There’s another thing that I think Massive should be careful with: having big events happening off-stage, off-screen, and especially if they never give us a cinematic or cutscene after. Now, its in the nature of both games that our player-characters are coming into areas where a lot has been going on prior to us getting there, and there’s a lot of fun to be had exploring and uncovering these mysteries. This is a huge part of the non-linear storytelling of both games, actually, and this is not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is how, once we are in the area, we should be in the loop and on the front line when anything is happening!

At the end of the Hudson Refugee Camp, we drop a big tanker from a crane and make a huge boom. That was awesome. Later, we’re there, on the scene, when they are holding the power plant for ransom and all hell is breaking loose in there, and we’re opening valves like crazy and bleeding off the pressure, taking out the Rikers, and we keep the lights on in Midtown! That was awesome.

When we find Air Force One, crashed in front of the Capitol, all we got are some audio files about it. There was a commercial for the game where they showed Air Force One going down in flames in the reflection of a super slo-mo bullet, and that was the most we got. I understand that there was a mystery to investigate here, and perhaps it was outside of the limitations of the game to actually have Air Force One get hit and start to crash while we’re looking up outside, but it felt like such a let-down and a huge missed opportunity that we never got to see any part of this event!

If Massive can take advantage of the crazy drama of the narrative they’ve set up, and avoid narrative pitfalls, we’ll be in for a treat.

2. Immersion and the “Division Formula”

One of the promises of that 2013 trailer was immersion. This trailer was something that hooked so many of us from the beginning. This game wasn’t taking place in a far-flung dystopian future, or in a medieval, magical fantasy past - it was our present-day. There were real weapons, every-day people, walking the streets of a real city. Civilians call out to us from windows, argue in the streets, come up to us to beg for food. Animals are foraging around, and the lighting and weather effects are so dang beautiful.

The immersion of the games is a huge hallmark of the Division franchise - making us feel like we’re really there, in this post-pandemic city. There is a formula, a recipe, and these games deliver on the promises of this formula (for the most part).

So what is the Division formula? Or what is the formula according to my wishlist? I think we’ve already outlined some of it:

• A city in need of help, on the brink of chaos.

• Enemy factions that make sense for the location.

• Strategic missions that make sense for restoring and protecting infrastructure.

• Landmarks used in a way that makes sense for the story and atmosphere.

• Non-linear, environmental storytelling that permeates everywhere, not just inside mission locations.

• More storytelling through ECHOs and audio files.

• Mysteries to uncover. Twists and turns in the story.

• Realistic player characters with real guns and advanced-but-grounded tech augmenting their abilities.

• Death and destruction on a Massive scale (pun intended).

• Realistic, interactive NPCs filling the city, both friendly and hostile.

• Lots of car doors to close.

• Player-character progression, with gear brands/gear sets and weapons that encourage different play styles.

• Big explosions!

• WINTER.

• One big Dark Zone (pls).

• Polished game modes.

I got halfway through this list and I realized I was thinking of increasingly smaller details the longer I went. The truth is, the full formula is probably much bigger than this, but its not a bad place to start.

We could talk about some of the changes made between Div1 & Div2 that… were not popular. My personal opinion is that Division 2 deviated from the formula established in Div1 abit too much (or a lot too much) for some of the Div1 playerbase, and definitely didn’t feel as well put-together.

• We were changing cities, and DC has a much different vibe than New York.

• Changing to summer, when The Division feels like it belongs in the winter.

• Changing the movement, possibly to minimize or eliminate the ability to “chicken dance” exploit.

• Changing the way we healed - less burst heals and more realistic armor plate changeouts.

• Changing the Dark Zones entirely with the number of players, how we go rogue… A lot of the players that had enjoyed the Dark Zone (and kept the game in the public eye by constantly streaming it) decided that this iteration was not for them.

• Lackluster game modes (Kenly College, Summit).

I’m not saying that nothing should have changed. In fact, there were changes made that probably, definitely needed to be made. The movement in Division 1 enabled the “chicken dancing” exploit that was never properly dealt with due to limitations of the Snowdrop engine. The players that were skilled enough to pull it off were the ones that could take on tons of other players in the DZ, and changing the movement to minimize or eliminate this going forward definitely leveled the playing field. The new armor-plate-insertion healing mechanic felt so much more realistic and immersive to me and I like that. But having PVPed for many hours in both games’ Dark Zones, I can admit that the burst healing was more fun.

Ultimately, whatever changes are made to the game mechanics, if its not too big of a change, if it adds to the immersion and its fun, I think we’ll be okay.

Also, Massive? If you wanted to give us a “super immersion mode” so we could toggle on the really cool smart watch interface shown in the 2013 trailer? Yeah, that would be pretty cool.

3. The Correct Location(s)

This is going to be my harshest criticism: I think that they wussed out on the Washington DC location. In fact, I’m not sure that DC was even the best choice for Division 2’s location.

Maybe that sounds dumb - I’ve already said that the theme of Division 2 is “save the country;” Washington DC is the seat of government, why wouldn’t it be the best choice? I have a few reasons.

1. Washington DC was a downgrade from New York. I don’t think there’s any denying that New York, as a setting, is fully epic. The history and gravitas on practically every street, the verticality of the buildings - it’s just hard to find any angle that isn’t visually rich. Washington DC is… grand, but not even on the 4th of July is it epic; not in the way that New York is. Washington DC’s vibe is so stolid and old; it’s very hard for it to compete with most major cities without fully committing to the strengths of its setting.

2. Washington DC, as a location, was not properly used. Hear me out: DC is symbolicly important, but its basically a city of offices, with a lot of monuments, memorials, and museums stuffed in all around them.

   What do you remember about the missions and their locations in midtown New York? There were three categories of missions and they were all strategic. We went to Abel’s, but it was because it was groud zero for the outbreak and we were collecting virus samples. We went to Times Square, but it was because we were repairing the electrical infrastructure. We have a mission outside of Grand Central, again, to take that strategic location from the LMB. We went to landmark locations, and there were solid reasons for it, and I loved that. And there were plenty of non-landmark locations that we had strategic reasons for going to - Amherst’s Apartment, the Rooftop Relay, and more.

   Do you even remember why we went to the American History museum? The Air & Space museum? I do remember why we went to the JFK Center because of “The Strategist” and how great the finale of that mission was. But why are the bad guys setting up in museums? Most of them are hard to defend and there’s nothing there unless they just want to deface exhibits and, no offense to the museums, but we have bigger fish to fry.

   One more thing: with the FBI headquarters here, the Pentagon across the Potomac, and all the puffed-up government officials that might still be in the area, shouldn’t there have been some great power struggles with the survivors? People feeling like they should have a bigger say in what’s going on? This might be nitpicky but I think this could have added some humor and some very quotable lines to Division 2.

3. The Division’s horror factor was minimized. This is a continuation of the previous point, but also includes how, in my opinion, they wussed out on Washington DC. The Division has an aspect of horror running through it; there is death and destruction and it makes you feel something, viscerally, to see it (or it should). This was so exquisitely done in Division 1; walking around New York, you could feel that the city had been gutted. When you went to major landmarks, you could see neglect and damage (and sometimes crazy-cool graffiti, too). You could see the Dark Zone, cutting through the middle of Manhattan, swallowing up the Empire State Building and the heart of New York. And when you went into the Dark Zone, you saw massive death and the mechanics of the massive operation to try to contain it.

   

   Washington Monument, DZ South

   I remember the Washington Monument having a chunk torn out of the corner and the Lincoln Memorial being scorched up. I remember the Mall being dug up to bury CERA coffins. My belief is that the destruction should have been taken much further, as part of the environmental storytelling - to convey how much has been lost of the country, it could be shown in how badly scarred or destroyed the monuments of the country are.

   Furthermore, in the heat of the summer, the unburied bodies should be decomposing and disgusting. Can you imagine an alley in the Dark Zone with piles of bodies stashed in it? The summer heat beating down, clouds of flies buzzing, fluids leaking out from under the tarps, scavenging creatures fleeing away… It makes my nose wrinkle just thinking about it! Instead, we have rooms in the DZ with pockmarks on the walls where someone lined people up and shot them, but the bodies are slumped on the ground like they’re sleeping.
   I realize that this could have been decided against for sales or even narrative reasons - if the environment is telling the player that so much is lost, then why fight? My reply would be that as we play, monuments could be restored, as the BOO and settlements are improved as we accomplish missions and tasks.
   Making the DZs and the decomposition too grisly and gruesome might have kept the game from selling in some markets, but… I feel like this was a promise that was not kept. If you can’t show, or hint at, bodies decomposing in the summer heat, just set the game in the winter when everything can be cold and frozen again.

So where SHOULD Division 2 have been?
I think I might have done one of two things: either expanded the map in New York, moved the season to summer and just have a few mission maps in Washington DC, OR go to Chicago, keep the season as winter, and have a few mission maps in Washington DC.

New York has strategic value: docks, financial centers, people and infrastructure for getting things done, getting the economy of the surrounding area and the nation moving again. Chicago is the same, lots of strategic value and it moves us off of the Eastern seaboard. But if I went to Chicago, I would have gone forward a year and kept things in winter for Division 2 - trying to stick to the Division formula by either staying in New York and changing seasons, or leaving New York but staying in Winter.

Think about it. Much of what we did in DC could have be done in New York or Chicago. Air Force One crash site in Battery Park? Or on Northerly Island? Settlement in SOHO, or in Merchandise Mart? Ann Arbor isn’t too far from Chicago - we could have had a side mission going over there, instead of Kenly College.

Okay, I’m getting off-topic. What about Division 3?

First, it needs to be winter, we need to be in a highly urbanized area, and there needs to be one big Dark Zone, please and thank you. The Division, for me and most who I’ve talked to, just feels right in the winter. The breakdown of the systems in a city feel more extreme in the cold and snow. Likewise, a major city with blocks and blocks of skyscrapers should feel busy with lots and lots of system running concurrently on every street - which highlights the tragedy of death and the breakdown of those systems as we wander through.

But this next part is less wishlist, and more prediction. My opinion is that if Division 3 is going to be about saving the world, Massive will start us out in a city that will set the stage for the seasons and content that will fill the years to come. Depending on their strategy, I see two possibilities.

1. I think this will be a US city and that it will be on the west coast, A) because everything has been in the east so far and maybe we just need to change things up and B) so that we can strike out at Black Tusk bases over in Russia from there. To my mind, that really leaves only two possibilities: Seattle and San Francisco. LA and San Diego are too far south, but San Francisco does get snow from time to time, so lets bring on a bitter snowy winter! Portland’s layout is problematic, but Seattle is another solid choice. Personally, I think San Francisco offers the most interesting possibilities, but I’m a bit biased because I used to live near there. Golden Gate Park would be a mass grave and there is a great central area for a Dark Zone…

   

2. There are a couple of major cities in the east that have interesting possibilities, probably Boston or Philadelphia. After taking these back, instead of striking out at Black Tusk from there, maybe we go to some European cities in some DLCs first, before striking out for Black Tusk bases in Russia? You know there are a lot of European fans that would love to take back the streets of their major cities…

   This would mean Ubisoft wanted to play the long game and feels less likely to me, but there are some exciting possibilities to consider, and probably a lot of money to be made, if Ubisoft played their cards right.

Wherever Division 3 starts, if they fully utilize the unique aspects of the city and lean into the horror of the death and destruction where its appropriate, it will be memorable and keep us coming back again and again.

4. The Finale and DLCs

Okay, look. If you know me, you already know:

We need a new version of Survival!

I still play Survival and I still love it. No match is the same. Its a different experience every time, and its an awesome experience. I’d love to see a new iteration of it in another city. But there’s something else.

With the first Division game, all the game modes felt so logical, polished, and planned out to mesh together and add to the game. We have a Dark Zone in the middle of the map… Why not make a game mode that makes the entire map a PVP zone (Survival)? New York has tons of underground infrastructure and tunnels… Why not make a game mode that sends you all over the Underground? I was so impressed when the equipment chests in Last Stand were added to the Dark Zone maps in a folded-up/inert state; it was a simple, little addition that showed so much commitment to the player experience.

I understand that The Division 2’s life after launch was in question due to unrealistic sales expecations by Ubisoft, but I want to feel like Division 3 has been planned out and thought through, in the way that Div1 was. Maybe that’s idealistic and naive, but this is a wishlist, after all.

Here are a few items that are key to a great Survival successor, and a few things that must NOT be repeated in the next iteration:

• Extreme weather. Originally, the blizzard was included as a workaround for a limitation of the game engine, but it adds so much to the experience and the gameplay. If you run into someone far better geared than yourself, it helps with your escape and makes sure that rounds with lots of players don’t end too quickly. So, whether its a blizzard again, or a hurricane, a rainstorm, thick fog, etc. (or perhaps a different element of weather each time?) please keep this part of the experience! ALSO - please have this carryover into the final stage/Dark Zone. I always find it jarring when I look up in the Dark Zone in Survival and all the weather has cleared up.

• Freedom. Survival predated the battle royale trend that we’ve seen come afterwards, but something that sets it apart is that the player is not getting the constant “Ring closing in two minutes” messages. It’s not rushed. Players can rush to the Dark Zone or take their time. Many of us have enjoyed trying to survive as long as we can, and seeing the sun come up in the Dark Zone.

  Some might say that this is also a weakness, because rounds of Survival can last so long, but I believe this is an irrevocable part of the formula for a few reasons. A) we have a big, very detailed map that we are playing in. Let the other games have smaller, less detailed maps. B) we only move on foot. No portals or vehicles to move more quickly around the map. If this is not embraced, it changes some of the fundamental aspects of the Survival equation.

• Increased randomization of loot. One of the reasons I kept playing Survival was that I had learned the loot placements over the entire map at one point, and then I iterated on many routes from both sides. While this is impressive and takes some skill, I feel like this should not be the case. There should be an element of luck in every round of Survival, and eliminating the establishment of routes by randomizing the placements and types of loot will put veterans and rookies on similar footing each round.

• Elimination of any late-game weapon or gear talents. Signature skills or specialization talents are late game mechanics that cannot be used in Survival, yet these talents still roll onto crafted pieces of gear and weapons. It would be nice to see these set up correctly from the start in the next iteration.

• Spectator mode. For players in the game and for tournament players and hosts! Survival is (and should be) a very unforgiving game mode. The players that keep dying within the first five minutes need to be able to see what the others are doing (or not doing) to learn and improve.

Moving on from Survival: The Division 3 will be the third installment, and if the theme is to be “Save The World,” then the stakes can’t be raised any higher and it should be the final installment (until they relaunch the IP). So, as the final installment, after the final season of content, at the very end, I want to see a cinematic of shops and markets re-opening, people leaving the settlements to return to their homes. I want to see the walls of the dark zones coming down. I want to see the SHD tech nodes being deactivated and the last of the Division agents returning to civilian life, after fighting the good fight and saving what remained.

It’s not over until the Dark Zone walls are dismantled.

The last thing I might add - and I know that this is more Ubisoft’s decision than Massive’s, but I hope that Ubisoft listens to Massive and lets them cook, giving them the time needed to make this a complete and polished game that we’ll keep coming back to.

Thanks for reading my essay. I hope I said some things that made you think, or at least made you laugh. Let me know what you think (come discuss on my Discord).

Stay tuned, more to come. ~Hunter, out.