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Make some friends: The Division’s Incursions are not for loners

Tom Clancy's The Division - Operation ISAC Teaser Trailer [US]
Tom Clancy’s The Division has been out for just over a month, and as players hit the level cap and begin looking for endgame content to complete. They might be a little disappointed by the slim offerings currently available. Fortunately, that changes this Tuesday with the launch of the first Incursion, and game director Petter Mannerfelt recently
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sat down with Ubisoft to give more information about the new mode.

While Mannerfelt clarifies very early in his chat with the UbiBlog that Tuesday’s update will include content for a variety of players, the Incursion “Falcon Lost” is the star of the show. It sees groups of Division agents battling “Last Man Battalion” soldiers, who play a central role in the game’s later story missions.

Unlike those story missions, however, Falcon Lost was not designed with solo players in mind. It’s technically possible to play the Incursion by yourself, but the difficulty does not scale based on how many people are in your group. Mannerfelt is still hesitant to call Incursions “raids,” however.

“Raids are composed of multiple groups, so Incursions are not a raid in the MMO sense. Their difficulty, however, is comparable,” Mannerfelt says.

The focus on near-mandatory multiplayer for The Division‘s endgame marks a noticeable change from the rest of the game’s missions. Virtually everything in the game can be completed with a group of four, but it’s also relatively easy to play through both main missions and side objectives by yourself; in my 20 or so hours with the game thus far, I’ve grouped up for only one mission (I don’t recommend this — I just enjoy playing main missions by myself), and aside from one particular boss, I never felt the urge to find a group. If you want to become a gun-toting social butterfly, perhaps Incursions are for you.

Falcon Lost hits The Division on April 12.

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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