INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Tom Clancy’s The Division’ Special Report/Update: Survival DLC 1.5 PTS Servers Go Live Today – Review Of Gameplay Premise For Surviving Agents

By Tony Smejek
Published on: 04:21 PST, Nov 7, 2016

Tom Clancy’s The Division PTS Survival DLC comes out today, so here is the review over the gameplay premise. There is no news available for console owners, but this overview provides important information for the Tom Clancy game anyhow, according to VG 24/7.

The Survival DLC PTS premise entails the community preparing for and hunkering down in a blizzard and the mission is for Division agents to acquire antiviral serums in the Dark Zone that can lead to the cure of the green flu virus.

The Division Survival gameplay for the PTS 1.5 update is a multiplayer battle royal in either a PvE or PvP environment, but don’t worry, you don’t go in with the gear you acquired with your regularly leveled agent, but everyone goes into this area on a level playing field. You start off with the basics because your helicopter crash lands leaving you without your team nor gear, just the basics. For example, a pistol for a weapon and green apparel.

Game Mechanics For Survival

You start off as a Division agent that’s dehydrated, sick, hungry, and cold. Now they aren’t sick with the green virus, but some other kind of illness. It’s now up to you to manage these mechanics for the purpose of survival. You may be reminded of a similar mechanic that was added to Fallout 4 which offered a more challenging option of keeping tabs on your own player as well as engaging in combat.

Such is the evolution of these wonderful open world game formats.

There is a time limit for your survival because if you’re sick and don’t keep on par with anti-virals, you could die. Medicine and pain-killers slow down the disease’s progress. Hunger will impact your regeneration and thirst will impact your vision. This goes for exposure to the cold weather, too, and thus the need for climate managing apparel.

Remember those vanity items which were basically clothing? Well, now they serve a purpose in Tom Clancy’s The Division Survival DLC. They have what is called a “cold protection rating.” If you’re an outdoors person, just think of a similar temperature rating given to sleeping bags in cold weather.

Craft For The Division Survival Gameplay

When you first start off, you have very little, and you’d need to acquire crafting skills before crafting your items. This can be done at the crafting benches located throughout the open world.

There are certain pieces of survival equipment you can put together that correspond to whatever skill you have in The Division. This is where it’ll enable you to make certain items essential for your existence. This can include a viral mask to med kits.

You go into it via the matchmaking process, and it supports 24 players in this multiplayer mode. Matches last two hours. The objective is to survive long enough to find the antivirals and loot to then have it all extracted. About a month ago, it was rumored that the entire Dark Zone would be the map for Survival, but to clarify the playing field actually takes up The Division’s entire world map, with you starting off at the outer fringes. A nice bonus here is whatever you acquire in Survival mode can contribute to your regular character.

The Division Survival DLC lives up to its name because according to a live Twitch feed via Arekkz channel, he mentioned that you could freeze to death in this environment and it’s essential to keep warm by obvious means you would in the real world. For instance, you can light a flare to make fire barrel or find a place indoors away from exposure and increase your temperature via the indicators in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

There is also available a bullet list on Reddit giving the particulars for the PTS which is currently live now.

  • 2 game modes PvP Survival OR PvE Survival – Groups can meet on the map and help each other but not kill each other in PvE mode
  • 24 players on the LZ map
  • WHEN YOU DIE ==> GAME OVER! (you can be revived from the downed state)
  • hunger, cold mechanics
  • you are sick and need to extract yourself
  • you start with a pistol only and with no / bad gear
  • clothings have a ‘cold’ rating that protect from the blizzard
  • crafting plays an important role
  • there are ‘hideouts’ – like apartments (those are not safe house)
  • there are crafting benches in the hideouts
  • you need to build a new mask / virus filter when you want to enter the DZ / contaminated zones
  • on the borders of the map the enemies are weaker and get stronger when you move closer to the center of the map
  • No need to be L30 to play Survival – Just need access to the BoO
  • No link to World Tier – every player plays as the same difficulty level (you start with a simple green pistol) and work your way up

Tom Clancy’s The Division 1.5 Survival DLC release date is still not known, but watching some of these PC players take part in the game play on the PTS servers can enlighten those what to expect with all platforms when the update/patch is released.

[Featured Image by Ubisoft]

Share this article: ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division’ Special Report/Update: Survival DLC 1.5 PTS Servers Go Live Today – Review Of Gameplay Premise For Surviving Agents
ubisoft PC Games
More from Inquisitr