I’ve been somewhat gun-shy with Ubisoft as of late; They have been continuously pushing more generic games designed to capitalize on their existing IP (such as XDefiant) while not giving us any information on the new Assassin’s Creed titles in progress, nor the supposed remake of Splinter Cell (although there are rumors of a thankfully cancelled Splinter Cell Battle Royale, which.. why?) despite fans anxiously wanting to consume anything related to them.
The Division is a title that seems to have lasted through all the weirdness. I played both 1 and 2, and actually enjoyed 2 the most, so when Heartland was leaked a while back showing stealth mechanics, I was cautiously optimistic.
It appears to have been given the same treatment as AC and Splinter Cell in that we haven’t heard much until recently, and it appears to reaffirm my suspicions that The Division Heartland will have at least cursory stealth mechanics (as well as a basic survival system).
Let’s break it down.
Why are the indicators of stealth in The Division Heartland?
Alright, let’s break it down based on the information presented in the Developer Deep Dive for The Division Heartland.
- Noise level indicator: Like my previous discussion, you can see an audio meter that also denotes the direction of the sound. This is going to be useful in the PvP aspect, especially.
- Detection meter with indicator: Slightly above and to the right of the muzzle flash in the above screenshot you can see the standard detection meter common in most stealth titles.
- Crouching: Previous Division games had no crouch control; you auto-crouched behind cover, and that was it. This is actively described in the game, and the Survivalist class in Heartland can detect containers through walls, too.
Ultimately this isn’t enough to really give us a solid indication of how much of a role stealth will play in The Division Heartland, but it at least confirms some things, so it’ll be something to watch.