“When a few of us made a small team to resurrect TD2 I had zero interest in adding a year or two, just to sunset the game again,” wrote Hoffstein. “The goal, what we believed we could do, was to build something bigger and lasting. This is fun to see but there’s still so much more we want to do.”

He then went into some of the challenges behind working on the more recent content in The Division 2 as has been described in the franchise’s roadmap for 2025 and beyond, as well as the upcoming release of The Division 2: Survivors. Hoffstein noted that one of the main reasons he took on the job was because it was “interesting”.

“Launching a game is hard and I had the chance to help a couple other games do that. But this seemed even harder to do and with less of a roadmap as to how to even do it,” he explained. “In other words interesting. I have a hard time turning down interesting.”

Continuing the posts, Hoffstein also wrote about his experience in turning around games that might have believed to have been left behind by Ubisoft, including Rainbow Six Siege. Ultimately, with all the challenges associated with staffing the studio up for work on The Division 2, he noted that the studio has been quite successful despite only having started out with five people.

“I figured the biggest challenge would be staffing and yeah,” he wrote. “Studios plan staffing years in advance to keep everyone allocated and busy. We created a problem of being a team that needed positions filled that weren’t on anyone’s spreadsheet. We weren’t supposed to exist.”

“I’ve been part of two big turnarounds with Rainbow Six Siege and The Division 2. Amazing to be part of both. But we had 5 people to restart Division 2. Five! What were we thinking? Ah that was fun.”

Earlier this year, Massive Entertainment had launched the Battle for Brooklyn DLC for The Division 2. Priced at $14.99, the DLC takes players back to the first location from the original The Division all the way back in 2016 – Brooklyn – where they have to deal with enemies like a more powerful iteration of the Cleaners faction. When it comes to gameplay, the DLC brought with it new locations and activities, as well as new Hunter Riddles and Bounty Locations.

The Division 2 was also recently announced as getting its own Survivors mode. Much like the version for The Division, development on Survivors in The Division 2 is being headed up by Magnus Jansén. There is no release date yet for the mode, with Massive confirming that it is still in its early stages.

For more details about the current state of The Division 2, check out our review of Battle for Brooklyn.

Relatively Newbie-Friendly

Ongoing live-service games can be intimidating to start up for the first time, but games like The Division 2 make an effort to ease fresh players into its systems. This DLC is one such example with its immediate access to the new zone and content right out of the gate. And for Gold Edition buyers, there’s an instant level 40 boost to get into the content with a better advantage.

Coincides With the Start of Year 7

Aside from the story DLC from 2020, 2023’s ‘The Descent’ was the the latest large-scale expansion the game has had. As usual, large DLCs coincide with the start of a new yearly rollout of seasons. In this case, players can get a headstart on Season 1, Year 7 with the recent beta update that went live on April 25^th. The update features a prototype build of the new season, minus the new zone and campaign, for a limited time. As revealed by the patch notes, Y7, S1 introduces a new global modifier that streamlines builds with set bonuses for the Firearms, Stamina, and Electronics Attribute Tiers. There’s also new active and passive modifiers that reward smart team play. Lastly, this season introduces one new Exotic Weapon and two new Exotic Gear pieces. Yeah, modifiers and a handful of new weapons don’t seem too exciting for casual players, but the DLC itself is where the meaty content lives.

Revisiting Brooklyn

Ah, Brooklyn. Old-school Division fans yearned to return to the snowy city streets that started it all, and now they can – except, this time without the snow. The original Brooklyn stage only took place within a fast-paced linear story prologue, so expanding it into a freely explorable open-world zone is a nostalgia bomb for fans well worth downloading the game again for.

Two Large Districts

The new Brooklyn map is divided into two districts. Brooklyn Heights is situated to the southwest of the player’s main settlement, while the district of Dumbo is to the northeast. The Deep Dive video gives us a good look at the in-game map, cluing us into the face that each district has two World Missions each. Brooklyn Bridge is the most notable landmark throughout the DLC, as it neatly separates the two districts with its monolithic presence. Detailing historic environments tends to be Ubisoft’s strong suit, so it’ll be neat to visit real-life landmarks like the Manhattan skyline and the Dumbo-Manhattan Bridge Waterfront – and, of course, Brooklyn Bridge itself.

Main Missions Are Separate From the Open-World

One thing players won’t be doing is running through these Brooklyn districts within tightly crafted story missions much like The Division 1’s prologue briefly did. Instead, the devs opted to keep the main campaign missions outside of the Brooklyn map instead cordoned off within bespoke mission-specific locations. It’s interesting that they decided to do a 180 reversal of The Division 1’s prologue in this regard. Players will do all of their open-ended exploration within the Brooklyn map and the DLC’s campaign outside of it.

Story

The story picks off mostly where the last story expansion left off: with Division agents cleaning up the mess that the NYC hurricane caused. Unfortunately, the Bridge Settlement folk don’t just have natural disasters to worry about; the Cleaner and Riker gangs have mass produced a devastating new weapon aimed right at them called the Purple Flame. Much of the campaign involves stopping these gangs and presumably snuffing the Purple Flame out of existence.

Returning Characters

Longtime Division fans can expect plenty of familiar faces from previous games and DLC. Dr Kandel hasn’t been seen since her role developing the cure for the Green Poison in The Division 1, and now acts as an essential ally for the Brooklyn Bridge Settlement. We’ve already seen screenshots of Keener’s old crew in the new DLC such as Theo Parnell and Agent Hoskins, to name a few.

6-10 hour run-time

During the DLC Deep Dive, the creative director noted that the campaign will take between 6 to 10 hours to complete. Since the map is open-ended and filled with side activities, it’s likely to take 10 or more hours to squeeze every last ounce of content out of it with the main story path averaging around the 6 hours.

Open-World Activities

Speaking of content, we already have the full list of activities dotting the new map. Battle for Brooklyn will consist of three main campaign missions. This seems may seem dainty at first blush, but campaign missions typically range between two to three hours each if past campaign missions are anything to go by. There are four world missions with two in each district and four control points. The amount of living world activities is 12, while there are 16 world bosses to take out. If you like bounties, you’re in luck because the DLC features 10 of them along with 8 hunter riddles scattered about the Brooklyn map.

Most Vivid Environments Yet

It’s a delight to see the Brooklyn map looking so beautiful considering the amount of activities players will be engaging with here. The snowy winterscape from Division 1’s prologue is replaced with a vibrant Autumn landscape this time around. I’m surprised just how colorful and contrasting the outdoor environments look; it’s not exactly the kind of ambience that comes to mind when thinking of a Tom Clancy game. The foliage in particular looks highly detailed and full of warm Fall vibrancy.

World Missions Are Now Replayable

Finally, a highly requested feature makes its debut in Battle for Brooklyn: replayable World Missions. World Missions are basically the side missions of The Division 2. They take roughly half as long as main campaign missions and take place within the open world areas of the game map. As stated, the DLC includes four World Missions.

New Corrosive Ailment

Your primary antagonistic force in the DLC is the Cleaner gang. Though, the only cleaning they do is the corrosive destructive kind. They’ve somehow managed to mass-produce a corrosive Purple Flame Flamethrower which dishes out devastating ailments out to players. Corrosion reduces max armor over a duration of time, whittling down players’ max defense as long as they stay in range of the Cleaner’s attacks. There’s a special brand of stress seeing your health bar shrink before your very eyes, and it looks like The Division equivalent to that is about to be a reality with the Purple Flame corrosion ailment.

Smart Cover is Back

Division 1 players will be delighted to know that the Smart Cover skill returns in all its glory with the new DLC. It’s not exactly the same here though. Players will be rewarded for using cover points with their choice of an offensive or defensive buff reward. Specifically, the Precision Smart Cover variant enhances weapon handling and damage and provides auto-reloading of rounds. While Fortified Smart Cover gives extra armor (perfect against the Purple Flame), various resistances, including an OP stagger resistance.

Pricing and Editions

Considering the DLC’s healthy 10-hour campaign, the price here isn’t as eye watering as we’ve been accustomed to over the months. For The Division 2 players, Battle for Brooklyn can be purchased as a stand-alone expansion for $14.99. New players will have to purchase the game and DLC separate or as a bundle with the Gold or Ultimate Editions. Besides including the new DLC, Gold Edition adds on the level 40 boost and Warlords of New York DLC. While the Ultimate Edition adds on a year 1 pass, Ultimate Pack, and 1,000 credits on top of those perks.

Release Date and Platforms

Battle for Brooklyn launches worldwide on May 27^th for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Amazon Luna, and PC. A Ubisoft Connect account is required to play the game regardless of platform. A small silver lining is players don’t have to play exclusively through Ubisoft’s launcher and can play through Steam or Epic.

Returning to Brooklyn, where players began their journey in The Division 1, you’ll explore familiar locations and new areas like Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights during the Autumn. The DLC is touted to last six to ten hours and includes four Control Points (with each faction having a unique gimmick for guarding them).

You can also look forward to 12 Living World Activities, ten Bounty Locations, eight Hunter Riddles, and a new collectable Bounties set. The Cleaners and Rikers are the main enemies, though they’ll harness the Purple Flame to more devastating effect, and Smart Cover returns with two variants: Precision and Fortified.

You can also look forward to the new Catalyst Exotic Mask, which provides buffs when dealing and receiving status damage. As for future seasons, Massive promised more events, end-game depth, and an improved onboarding process for newcomers. Stay tuned for more updates.

“Six years ago, The Division 2 launched, inviting players into a meticulously crafted vision of post-pandemic Washington, D.C.,” said Banchereau. “Today, we celebrate the incredible journey, honoring the community, the game’s growth, and the people shaping its evolution.”

Kicking things off, players can get in on the sixth-anniversary celebration through a special celebratory backpack. Dubbed the Anniversary Backpack, the item features a unique dynamic display that shows off the player’s SHD level.

“From the 2019 launch to the recent Year 6 Season 3: Burden of Truth, we’ve come a long way,” said Hoffstein. “84 Title Updates, including 13 Seasons, game modes like The Summit, Countdown, Descent, and the Paradise Lost Incursion, as well as more than 200 gear pieces have kept the game thriving for veterans and newcomers.”

There will also be a Twitch drop event, where players watching partnered Twitch streamers playing The Division 2 will be able to get their hands on special rewards. The drops are divided into two sets spread out over a week. The first step will reward players with two Named Item Caches for watching for 30 minutes, a Celebration Arm Patch for watching for an hour, an Exotic Cache for 2 hours, and the Celebration weapon skin for 3 hours.

The second week of Twitch drops will again kick things off with two Named Item Caches for 30 minutes, an Anniversary Arm Patch for an hour, an Exotic Cache for 2 hours, and the Anniversary weapon skin for 3 hours. The Twitch Drops can be earned now until March 17.

“And we wouldn’t be here without all of you Agents,” said Ilyina. “Thank you for your continued support, feedback, passion, creativity, and never-yielding interest in the game.”

The Division 2 also has currently-ongoing events to celebrate the anniversary. Things are kicking off with an EXP Bonus event; until March 18, players will be able to earn five times more than the normal amount of exp as they play the game. Various activities will also have their own related Exp event, including Dark Zone.

April will also see a new event, kicking things off with a new April Fools’ event. Later in the month, The Division 2 will also get an event to celebrate Spring, featuring a unique reward in the form of the Rabbit Season Outfit.

The studio has also announced a new podcast series, Tenacity. It will feature PhD geographer, urban explorer and survivalism movement specialist Bradley Garrett. The podcast will showcase real-world technologies and concepts that help people to adapt to “shifting circumstances.” It was inspired by the idea of the civilians of The Division trying to adapt and survive the games’ gruelling events.

To cap off the video, the developers also revealed a small video for the upcoming The Division 2 DLC Battle for Brooklyn. The video showcased gives us a glimpse at some of the new enemies players can take on in Battle for Brooklyn, complete with close-quarters combat scenarios. While no details are available, keen-eyed players will also notice new weapons used by the agents.